OrgoneConclusion said:

Quote:

"BUT WHERE DO WE BEGIN? -- The answer is simple: you begin right where you are."

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Is that supposed to be wisdom? It is impossible to start anywhere else.

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c0sm0nautt said:

I just finished reading Ram Dass' Be Here Now and although I find his words of wisdom helpful, my daily routine is now filled with guilt.

When I play a video game I feel like I should be meditating. When I eat the pork dinner my mother makes me it taste almost intolerable. When I am enjoying a hot shower I remember the enjoyment will only reinforce my egos desires. I feel guilty sleeping on my new mattress and not on my floor.

Am I not strong enough to pursue the lifestyle of a Yogi? It's just so hard. Even my meditation which has previously been rewarding is filled with this unsettling feeling, like I am impure.

Does anyone trek down the Yogic path? Has your journey been fruitful or equally dismal?

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WhiskeyClone said:

I haven't read Be Here Now but it seems to me that guilt requires you to lose touch with the present in order to compare what you're doing to a different moment.  Can you just observe the moment you're in without focusing on how it could be more desirable?  Guilt requires a "should," no?  And "should" requires a rejection of the present moment.  Does this make any sense?

I like to take a "feel it all and enjoy what I can" approach to mindfulness.

Does he really tell you to sleep on the floor?  Being fully present with a good mattress is one of the greatest experiences in life

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laserpig said:

JivJan, thanks for a beautiful post.

I do wanna come to the defense of books though. Should anyone life their life based on some text they read? No. However, a book is an amazing opportunity to be shown new ideas, and for a great number of people (myself included) this exposure is indispensable. I'm sure that later in my journey I'll come into my own more and need less spoon-feeding from books, but for the stage I'm at, they're helping me immensely. The trick is just to keep the message in context -- no matter what the subject you're reading about is.

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Quote:

What is the difference between the "mind/ego" and "spirit"? If, perhaps, your spirit shines through your being at a time, someone may say, "your eyes are youthful and sparkling". The "ego" will then look in a mirror and SEE...OBSERVE...the sparkle in the eyes. The insane ego LIKES how it feels in that moment. In an attempt to feel more of it, it attempts "replication". The person/ego will then TRY...ATTEMPT...to MAKE their eyes sparkle with "behavior". Perhaps they will try to "widen" their eyelids...try to induce the sparkle. It is at this point that the "ego" blocks the access of your spirit to you and the sparkle goes away.
Influences: The essence of life itself.


Basically the truth is this. "Radiating" energy is NO different than "doing" anything else. If you send "energy" that is no different than giving a "hug". But, that is NOT "love". It can be the "result" of love. There is only ONE way to love....love.

It requires no more effort than that. So VERY simple that it has eluded almost EVERYONE. All of your cells in your body are unique systems, right? WHAT is animating them? YOU. YOU are EVERY cell in your body. If you know the scalar nature of this reality, there is only one truth. YOU are ME. If that is true, HOW can you "send" me love? Just LOVE ME.

Picture two people in your mind, standing there looking at each other. Now, picture these two being in love with each other. Picture them loving and expressing love to each other. WHO "really" did that? You have two characters in your mind "interacting" with love. But that love was an INTENT. It was YOUR intention. In your mind, you had two people "expressing" your intention.

The beauty of life is that YOU are a CREATION and also the CREATOR. As a creation, you get to express the intent of the creator (the larger part of you) and also be able to "create", so you can observe the manifestation of YOUR intent.

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Quote:

Remember..
Go back and think of yourself before all of this..
Remember how things actually did work out just fine for you when you didnt think so much about everything.

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Wisdom from experience, wisdom from the mushrooms! I must say jivjan, I'm impressed! This is one of the most inspiring speech I heard in a long time, it's all about hempowering ourselves and becoming, each and everyone of us our own brand of Ram Dass, Jesus Christ or Buddha.

Same as art and the modern tendency to consume it instead of making it, can you imagine a world of artists? a world of self made spiritualists?

c0sm0nautt said:

I just finished reading Ram Dass' Be Here Now and although I find his words of wisdom helpful, my daily routine is now filled with guilt.

When I play a video game I feel like I should be meditating. When I eat the pork dinner my mother makes me it taste almost intolerable. When I am enjoying a hot shower I remember the enjoyment will only reinforce my egos desires. I feel guilty sleeping on my new mattress and not on my floor.

Am I not strong enough to pursue the lifestyle of a Yogi? It's just so hard. Even my meditation which has previously been rewarding is filled with this unsettling feeling, like I am impure.

Does anyone trek down the Yogic path? Has your journey been fruitful or equally dismal?

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xFrockx said:

I spent a time with the same "problem" and I gladly have developed the guilt I used to have into a less specific and more useful overall sense of awareness.  You have to realize, a yogi is just another cog in this machine.  The yogi fills a very important role, but it is no more or less important than any other.  Most yogi's are egotistical, in that they only pretend to let go of their selves, which leads their personal glee to be balanced by constant shame, guilt, and exclusion.  If you want to achieve what the yogi achieves, then you must cultivate within yourself the same sort of constant awareness, combined with the assurance that your words mean nothing, and furthermore, that everything is equal.  Once you have that down you can eat your steak without fearing invisible and unreal karmic justice.  Think of karma like this, you reap what you sow, but there are always weeds and drought to foil your ego-centric plans, let go.  Still, you're more likely to grow roses if you plant them then if you didn't at all.

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xFrockx said:

I spent a time with the same "problem" and I gladly have developed the guilt I used to have into a less specific and more useful overall sense of awareness.  You have to realize, a yogi is just another cog in this machine.  The yogi fills a very important role, but it is no more or less important than any other.  Most yogi's are egotistical, in that they only pretend to let go of their selves, which leads their personal glee to be balanced by constant shame, guilt, and exclusion.  If you want to achieve what the yogi achieves, then you must cultivate within yourself the same sort of constant awareness, combined with the assurance that your words mean nothing, and furthermore, that everything is equal.  Once you have that down you can eat your steak without fearing invisible and unreal karmic justice.  Think of karma like this, you reap what you sow, but there are always weeds and drought to foil your ego-centric plans, let go.  Still, you're more likely to grow roses if you plant them then if you didn't at all.

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MarkostheGnostic said:

I feel for you, really. I was given BE HERE NOW during a tough acid trip in a dorm room in college, early in 1973. It changed the course of my life and I have given copies to many people. I slept on the floor for years, practiced celibacy during my early 20s, was vegan for 3 years, practiced Hatha Yoga religiously for years on end, went through seminary, visited yogis, Sufis, swamis, Hasids, Catholic monks, etc.
Know what? Buddha himself gave up austerities to find the Middle Way. Jesus bids people that we celebrate life - not wallow in excess - but discern the difference.

The path is not to untangle all the knots which weave the fabric of our lives and return to the condition that we were before we were born. The path is toward transmutation, rebirth or resurrection - the upward arc. Meanwhile, all we have to do is get sufficiently centered to see the entire view - where we have come from and where we are going, while remaining steadfastly in the Eternal Here and Now where nothing is [ecstatically!] happening at all. Even as we struggle to draw our last inspiration followed by our last expiration - and expire - we Witness the entire drama with "Unbearable Compassion." THAT is all we need to do, Witness life from the Heart Cave with Unbearable Compassion, and all our action will be consecrated because we will be Whole in the midst of fractured existence.

"Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

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c0sm0nautt said:

I feel what your saying Jivvy, and it makes a lot of sense. I guess I am getting caught up too much in the duality of the "right" and "wrong" way to live, when in truth there is just simply "living" in the here and now. My guilt was a manifestation of the ego. I think I'm going to ease my way into this Yogic idea. Today when I had a craving for a Slurpee, I decided I really didn't need it, and drove home for a glass of water instead. I guess this is the idea. Being mindful, but not being guilty for the things you can't prevent. I'm not going to turn my mother's dinner away, I'm going to thank her and the animal which has given its life to supply me with nutrition. If I am making my own food, I may supplement the meat with beans or rice.

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7/11 on 7/11

i heard slurpees were free 2day so i did go and get one

turned out.. that they're not free but only a dollar.. and the cocksuckers only had the one dollar cups anyway

c0sm0nautt said:

I feel what your saying Jivvy, and it makes a lot of sense. I guess I am getting caught up too much in the duality of the "right" and "wrong" way to live, when in truth there is just simply "living" in the here and now. My guilt was a manifestation of the ego. I think I'm going to ease my way into this Yogic idea. Today when I had a craving for a Slurpee, I decided I really didn't need it, and drove home for a glass of water instead. I guess this is the idea. Being mindful, but not being guilty for the things you can't prevent. I'm not going to turn my mother's dinner away, I'm going to thank her and the animal which has given its life to supply me with nutrition. If I am making my own food, I may supplement the meat with beans or rice.

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