Review Ending unnecessary Suffering by Peter Ralston

[Breakingthewall]

4 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I realize I am creating the suffering.

How did you realize? How are you creating it? Why do you create suffering if your girlfriend have sex with your brother but you don't do if you drink a glass of water?

[Breakingthewall]

24 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Even one page of his Book of Not Knowing can be read, re-read. Over and over. More is received each reading. I particularly adore his passages on meditation / contemplation assignments. 

Could you put an example?

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Just now, Breakingthewall said:

Could you put an example?

Example of one of his contemplation meditations? 

Or book pages? 

[Breakingthewall]

Just now, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Example of one of his contemplation meditations? 

Or book pages? 

Meditation and contemplation, to understand what is exactly his paradigm about suffering and how we are creating it,  also a a page would be interesting 

[OBEler]

@Natasha Tori Maru How can I also have this shift in how I relate to my emotions/feelings/thoughts? I am ,constantly suffering.

update: ah didnt saw your answer, thanks.

Edited 10 hours ago by OBEler

[AION]

@OBEler lmao that you are asking her that question 

Edited 9 hours ago by AION

[Breakingthewall]

1 hour ago, OBEler said:

@Natasha Tori Maru How can I also have this shift in how I relate to my emotions/feelings/thoughts? I am ,constantly suffering.

update: ah didnt saw your answer, thanks.

In my opinion, there's no universal formula, since suffering doesn't stem from a conceptual error but from a chronic misalignment between your psyche and external reality.

Spirituality will tell you that external reality is illusory, that you are everything, but if for years you've yielded to micro-humiliations, chosen paths that didn't align with your natural values. values you weren't even aware of because you'd adopted others' values, surrendering your sovereignty, driven by your need to be reflected in society as valid.

if, ultimately, you've prostituted yourself year after year in exchange for approval, you won't stop suffering without becoming a taliban defender of your own values and waging a small (or perhaps not so small) war to rebalance your life. This is a process parallel to the shift from being sustained by the social psyche to being sustained simply by the absolute fact of being .

[OBEler]

@Breakingthewall Its not about values, I dont need any approval. I lost a partner and with that a whole lifestyle, an exiting feeling, purpose, meaning etc.

[AION]

Ralston says suffering is inevitable. But unnecessary suffering can be reduced to none. If somebody says since I found spirituality I transcended all suffering you can be sure that person is bypassing. And everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. 

Edited 7 hours ago by AION

[Breakingthewall]

51 minutes ago, OBEler said:

@Breakingthewall Its not about values, I dont need any approval. I lost a partner and with that a whole lifestyle, an exiting feeling, purpose, meaning etc.

Yeah sorry I was generalizing thinking in how we humans are today

I think that in any specific case of loss, suffering is inevitable. The key is to accept the situation as soon as possible and restructure your reality based on your new circumstances.

If your operating system functions from within, let's say in emitter mode, this is much easier than if it functions by drawing its energy from the outside, in receiver mode, completely dependent on the environment. There is always some level of dependence; the question is which one predominates.

Edited 6 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[Someone here]

Pain is real . Pain is unpleasant sensation experienced in the body or emotionally . There is no escaping it unless you are fortunate enough.

suffering is just low consciousness and a result of a undisciplined mind. Unless you are in pain then all suffering is imaginary and conceptual and self made and unnecessary. 
I’m not going to try to force people to realize this . It’s a communication problem I hope someone as conscious as Peter Ralston can communicate more effectively in his book . I’m going considering buying the book on Amazon.

[Breakingthewall]

2 hours ago, Someone here said:

Unless you are in pain then all suffering is imaginary and conceptual and self made and unnecessary.

Then if the doctor tell you that your son has cancer, if you suffer it's unnecessary because there is no pain? Seems denial of human nature. Where is the line between necessary and unnecessary suffering?

[AION]

16 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Then if the doctor tell you that your son has cancer, if you suffer it's unnecessary because there is no pain? Seems denial of human nature. Where is the line between necessary and unnecessary suffering?

The whole book is about that 😭

[Breakingthewall]

27 minutes ago, AION said:

The whole book is about that 😭

Then explain it 😭

[Grateful Dead]

19 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Then explain it 😭

To put it simply, he says that if you are suffering, you should contemplate who is suffering to enter a state of openness (not-knowing), which enables a direct experience that dissolves the suffering.

[Someone here]

1 hour ago, Breakingthewall said:

Then if the doctor tell you that your son has cancer, if you suffer it's unnecessary because there is no pain? Seems denial of human nature. Where is the line between necessary and unnecessary suffering?

Who am I to say that I know my son getting cancer is actually a bad thing in the grand scheme of things? 
yes the emotional system of a healthy person will feel sorrow and agony if his son passed away ..its denial of human nature to not feel anything unless you are able to expand your consciousness into seeing things from a different perspective other than viewing it as a negative to your ego.

you speak a lot about reality being coherent inevitable relationships that occur because of perfect intelligence ..god (or the ultimate self) does things out of infinite wisdom. Nothing is ever a mistake . God sees infinite moves ahead in the chess game before moving a piece..whereas a human being only can see three moves ahead . If you were able to see the full picture you would understand that literally even your son dying of cancer is not a mistake . Grieve All you want ..grieve till the end of time ..it won’t change anything. So why not just accept that your ego doesn’t run the show ..but god does ..and then surrender to god and let him do with you whatever he wants ? 
god doesn’t have bias . But ego has . Your son dying of cancer is somehow bad and wrong but you stepping on ants everyday and killing them is somehow collateral damage for god ? Either both are good or both are bad . 
“Denying the Human nature “? Yup exactly. Transcend the illusion of being just a human who wants to survive and reproduce and not feel pain and not die ..maybe you are something more ?

Edited 2 hours ago by Someone here

[Breakingthewall]

7 minutes ago, Grateful Dead said:

To put it simply, he says that if you are suffering, you should contemplate who is suffering to enter a state of openness (not-knowing), which enables a direct experience that dissolves the suffering.

Who or what is suffering is you as a system that reacts with suffering to that fact. Same than you as a sistem reacts with suffering to the fact of being burned, but don't do to the fact of drinking water. It's the construction that evolution creates. 

For example, maybe Ralston would say that if your son is tortured in front of your it's natural to suffer. Even next day is also natural, but 10 years later it's unnecessary suffering. Then where is the limit? 3 months? 

What I meant is that this paradigm is not logical, it's just an opinion of Ralston.

[Breakingthewall]

9 minutes ago, Someone here said:

you speak a lot about reality being coherent inevitable relationships that occur because of perfect intelligence ..god (or the ultimate self) does things out of infinite wisdom

I never said that. Coherent doesn't mean a plan, means just that what's not coherent can't appear because appearing are relative and relationship are coherent by definition.

There can't be a plan, why would do one? For what purpose? It would be already accomplished infinite times, it would be an absolute limit. Can be plans in a local level but from an absolute perspective there are no differences, existence exist, that's it. Reality flows and possibilities happen when are possible. That's the infinite intelligence. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[Someone here]

@Breakingthewall is the notion of “bad “ or “wrong “ or “evil” subjective or objective ? Relative or absolute ?

[Someone here]

4 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

I never said that. Coherent doesn't mean a plan, means just that what's not coherent can't appear because appearing are relative and relationship are coherent by definition.

There can't be a plan, why would do one? For what purpose? It would be already accomplished infinite times, it would be an absolute limit. Can be plans in a local level but from an absolute perspective there are no differences, existence exist, that's it. Reality flows and possibilities happen when are possible. That's the infinite intelligence. 

You can’t say reality is intelligent  but it doesn’t plan anything out in the same breath.

Edited 2 hours ago by Someone here