What's alternative to prayer?

[Someone here]

6 minutes ago, m0hsen said:

If it doesn't exist then why the hell in the world there's nothing like literally nothing like praying to God feels so good and peaceful? 

Start praying and check if you feel different after or in the middle of prayer even if you not sure it exist or not, your feeling will tell you that the prayer works! All the time! 

You make a good point. But it smells like a pragmatism. Just because it feels good doesn't necessarily mean it's true? (I mean it doesn't mean that there is really God). Given that different people from different religions all pray to different gods and they all feel Good about it. 

 

 

 

[Nahm]

26 minutes ago, Someone here said:

The problem is that I'm not sure if such a thing exists. 

 

10 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Just because it feels good doesn't necessarily mean it's true?

(Sorry for butting in)

That is precisely what it ‘means’. Goodness, good feeling if you will, is the Mother F’ing Truth! 

This is why some thoughts, about ourselves, about hate, about manipulation, about death - feel like one big hell no.

Don’t look to ‘know it’ in thought, to “get it” conceptually, to “cognize it” -  feel the goodness that IS. Prior to thoughts, unthinkably simple, Self Evident!

Go ahead and try to ‘take feeling off’, like you would a jacket. Really try… and then check to see if sensation, if feeling, is ‘gone’. 

Check and check again and again until you are more sure (yet cognitively not knowing or grasping anything) of this presence of God than you have been or could ever be of anything.

[TheSelf]

@Someone here

Yes because all deities or Gods are avatars or symbols of God, that's why all works.

It's like gravity, gravity do exist right? We can know for sure that such force exist by the effects of it.but what's gravity itself, or where does it come from? Is there anywhere which we can point to and say we find gravity itself? No.

Same goes for this type of connection with God.

You can know it indirectly the same way you know about gravity.

Edited August 29, 2021 by m0hsen

[Someone here]

@Nahm When you speak about goodness and "good feeling" in relation to truth or God it makes me  confused. Because in my experience Truth is all encompassing. It includes the good AND the bad. Pain and pleasure. Beautiful and ugly etc 

Do you (like Leo) distinguish between goodness with lower case as the opposite of bad, suffering, evil etc.. And Goodness with upper case which is an absolute and all encompassing? 

[TheSelf]

@Someone here

Notice that you badly want that peace and good feelings back but your mind doesn't allow it! Because when you are in that state the mind is no mind! All these thoughts and resistances towards God, are because when tou are connected either by abiding in your self or praying to God, mind dies out or goes back to its source. mind wants to stay, to survive through thought process, something you loose when you are connected!

This is the only reason it's so hard to just ignore the mind and thoughts try as hard to convince you it's a foolish act and to not do it.

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by m0hsen

[Someone here]

@m0hsen I remember the first time I heard my dad praying.. There was a sense of urgency in his voice. What started making me skeptical around my teenage years is.. “I pray and nothing happens. I don’t feel anything. I thought if I prayed I would feel a connection to God.” . The young me died —a struggle of wanting desperately to feel a connection to God. , there was little small talk. I could feel the pain, the anxiety, and the urgency to get to the issue at hand: Why do my prayers leave me feeling more alone and if God is more absent than present? Then I stopped praying. 

This is why it's difficult for me to believe once again. Is that deep down I have doubt whether there is actually some universal force (higher self) that can answer my prayers. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Someone here Why do you want to pray to god?

[Someone here]

7 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Someone here Why do you want to pray to god?

Because I have struggles in my life. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Someone here Can you see that all of your problems and struggles are subjective, and it's possible to alter your perspective so the way you view those problems and your world are completely changed?

I guess i'm trying to guage if you think it's possible to be happy right here right now, despite whatever external conditions are occurring

[Someone here]

Easier said than done. 

[VeganAwake]

@Someone here

No need to try and resist anxious feelings.

Resisting, judging, naming and labeling these feelings gives them more energy.... makes them seem bigger than what they are.

Be with whatever arises without creating a story about it. 

Not ignoring and yet not focusing simultaneously.

Anxious feelings are not good or bad, they are just what's happening.

The resistance to what's happening will always exaggerate the so-called negative experience.

❤

 

 

 

[Raptorsin7]

@Someone here I know that, I'm not even there i'm just trying to gauge how open you are to the possibility.

If you notice right now you probably have some anxious/depressed/etc feelings present. If you can become aware of those feelings in you that's a big first step. 

Notice there's the feelings, and then there's whatever you're thinking about those sensations that's kinda added on as another layer. If you can find a way to just be with and love those feelings without constant distraction from the mind, you would cease having any problems because the underlying emotional issues would be dealt with.

Best advice I can give is to follow a quick few steps here and see if it resonates. 

1. Become aware of the fact you are having an experience. You are aware right now reading this, just become conscious of that fact briefly.

2. Notice in the moment of being aware, you shift out of thinking and your attention is centered and present. Being aware and noticing it kind of silences the mind. And if you notice, the mind is constantly distracting you from just being aware of what's happening. 

3. Notice that in that space of being aware the mind is quiet, even if it's only for a few moments until you're distracted again. Now from this space notice the feelings in the body, and allow them. You can be flexible here. Maybe breathe into the sensations of the body, maybe just notice them, maybe try feeling into them slightly, but the main point is to be in that space/recognition of being aware and then notice the depressed/anxious/body/etc feelings and sink into them

[roopepa]

3 hours ago, Someone here said:

When you speak about goodness and "good feeling" in relation to truth or God it makes me  confused. Because in my experience Truth is all encompassing. It includes the good AND the bad. Pain and pleasure. Beautiful and ugly etc 

Here's a thought:

You are looking at Nahm's word through thought, whereas Nahm's word is the perspective of feeling.

In thought, there is this and that, good feeling and bad feeling, and a fuckton of confusion.

In feeling, there is really no this and that, good and bad. Don't think it, but feel into it.

3 hours ago, Nahm said:

Don’t look to ‘know it’ in thought, to “get it” conceptually, to “cognize it” -  feel the goodness that IS. Prior to thoughts, unthinkably simple, Self Evident!

That right there, is the key. In feeling, there is only 'directness'. Here Love and God cannot get more direct and simple for you.

Go and read all the books. Go and watch every Leo's video and philosohize day and night. You won't get far thinking. But when it is felt, you open.

[TheSelf]

2 hours ago, Someone here said:

@m0hsen

This is why it's difficult for me to believe once again. Is that deep down I have doubt whether there is actually some universal force (higher self) that can answer my prayers. 

I didn't say all that so you can become a believer in God, I was an atheist in the past also, if you are in the right mental situation then it's not a bad idea to take some psychedelics and experience God, God is to be experienced not to be taken as faith or belief for sure.

Edited August 29, 2021 by m0hsen

[SgtPepper]

I practice praying. To me, it is like praying to your higher self. 

My reality, is I get attached to the material world and when I pray, I humble myself, put away the pride, and it much easier to surrender, give into silence, detach, and fall into Truth of my real self.

 

[Nahm]

@roopepa

You read me like an open book. ?? 

[Someone here]

If you haven’t had depression, anxiety etc .. You also don’t get the idea of will paralysis . ‘Just do it, you’ll feel better!’ It’s true, but when the emptiness descends, the doing of the thing is overwhelming, and then I feel like sh*t for not trying.

It’s easier said than done for people with mental health issues to just accept and let go and be unconditionally comfortable with the uncomfortable and the crap we have to deal with every day.. . Anxiety can set in by just being out in public, feeling exposed or vulnerable while jogging outdoors. It takes a lot of practice and courage to do that.

Anyways thanks everyone for the advice and I hope I will be able to follow up. 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Someone here

[Someone here]

I will give it a shot and try to pray tonight and will see how it goes. 

[The0Self]

Reading and learning about concepts — not only can it “only take you so far,” but it’s really more that it doesn’t take you anywhere. For the transformation into understanding, peace, and beauty it seems to me that one really ought to consider hours of meditation, prayer, contemplation, and/or inquiry.

The understanding, peace, and beauty that comes with systematically or even just diligently training the mind to be relaxed and still is beyond anything that could have possibly been imagined prior. Psychedelics can be a sort of cheat (very worthwhile) in this regard, but the insights aren’t nearly as sturdy as those provided by a diligently trained mind.

If meditation is still even slightly boring even after months of daily sits, there’s a subtle flaw in your technique. Sort it out.

As for finding answers in prayer, it may be more fruitful to sit with an inquiry/question, very still and quiet, patiently for quite some time, and do your best to NOT answer it — this can do something interesting... the answer can come out of the depths, and it’s often not at all what you expected. Your finite mind is so much less powerful than the infinite intelligence that is all that is; that you are.

Edited August 29, 2021 by The0Self

[Someone here]

@The0Self do you practice any kind of 'prayer' aside from meditation practice? If so what techniques do you recommend?