Indisguise
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Posts posted by Indisguise
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@Phil Speaking of dreams, a video on dreams would be quite interesting! How they relate to emotions and how they can guide us.
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That's a very difficult question. Psychoanalysts have only developed theories about what purpose dreams serve, and where they come from, and what on earth they are.
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Voluntarily confronting what we are scared of is the only way of discovering that you're actually stronger and more capable than you thought. Then, finding out that you're stronger and tougher than you thought will motivate and encourage you to keep confronting what you're scared of, which will in turn make you even stronger. The key is to not completely throw yourself into the situation, but to gradually, voluntarily expose yourself. That's psychotherapy 101, and it works. At first, psychoanalysts thought it was because of habituation, but that's wrong. It's because we become stronger and realize that we are and were stronger than we thought. Again, the key is to do it volunatrily and gradually. If I'm afraid of elevators, I don't immediately go and ride the elevator in the Burj Khalifa. I first go and only look at an elevator, without going inside. And nothing happens to me, I'm fine. And I realize that I could stand it, I am stronger than I thought I was. And when that's getting to much, I go home. And then, maybe 2 days later, I do it again. And maybe this time, I even dare to step closer. And so forth, and if I keep increasing the exposure gradually, one day I'll suddenly find myself inside the elevator, going up and down the building.
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On 6/10/2022 at 2:20 PM, Blessed2 said:
Is it light or dark?
In what would light shine, if not in darkness?
On 6/10/2022 at 2:20 PM, Blessed2 said:How did it come to being?
No how, for any "how" already is. The true how is no-how. Being just is. Spontaneiety is the true how.
Lao Tsu says: "Dao fa ziran" ( 道法自然).
"The Dao (i.e. the way, the 'how') that is so of itself."
The power of the Yin Yang symbol is the intuitive understanding of "not-two-ness" it is trying to convey. It's a very simple symbol, and that is its power.
White and dark imply each other, they wouldn't exist without one another. That's why there are not only the two monads, but also the dots; there is a white dot in the black monade and a black dot in the white monade; black already contains the seed for white, and white already contains the seed for black. Explicitly it looks like they are opposed to each other, but underneath, secretly, implicitly, they are one.
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@Godishere Your question assumes a certain, specific conception of what "enlightenment" means. And that it's a binary thing. Why would enlightenment (whatever that means) be the end of not accepting - and futhermore, what does "non-accepting" even mean? These questions need to be answered first.
1 hour ago, Phil said:The confusion arises of thought attachment, denial of spiritual ego, and the unwillingness to inspect highly discordant solipsistic justifications, rationalizations and conceptualizations. This is not ‘seeing reality as it is’, but is purporting to ‘know the Truth’. “The mind can not be where it has not yet been”. When one speaks ahead of where one’s been, so to speak of course, rhetoric is created. Rhetoric supports ‘the knower’, ‘the understander’, and therein is not per se the Message, but is an overly ambitious personal ideology. There is not a separate self which avoids the truth, there is a vibrationally apparent experience of thoughts believed & a false identification therein, that there is a separate self which avoids a truth. Proper self-realization is not per se “oneness”, but is (best pointed to as) nonduality. If what’s being said here is in any way taken personally, what’s being said here is not actually yet being heard.
Here, in regard to this forum, there is not denial of beliefs, justifications, rationalizations and conceptualizations, nor of the discord & alignment of that experience therein. This discord is (inevitably) acknowledged & seen as what suffering is, and suffering is not side lined in favor of egoic ambition by categorically classifying this as “your serious emotional problems”, “you’re not conscious enough”, or “you’re just imagining that”, etc.
Here, the discord & alignment are openly inspected and not shunned nor shamed via cunning & discordant deflection & projection. A clarifying distinction might be to refer to this as ‘doing the work’ as compared to bypassing via succumbing to pressure applied to adhere to & support or ‘go along with’ conceptualizations which arise in the first place from the very suppression and stifling of the notion of actually addressing suffering.
Likewise, ‘reality is one’, or ‘oneness’, is not quite nonduality, or, not two. There is still, inspection wise, much ‘meat on the bone’ there. In the same fashion, there are not actually ‘difficult truths’ (a conceptual plurality of un-conceptualizableTruth), and a separate self the truth / truths are difficult for. There are vibrationally apparent discordant thoughts, and there is thought attachment, or the believing of self referential thoughts, and the discord is felt therein, which again, is what suffering is. When inspected rather than denied, belittled or “addressed” (obscured) with a mentality of exclusion in favor of concepts, bypassing & justifications of exclusion & elitism… there is quite soon no longer the experience of discord / suffering. As above so below - this transpires in the world so to speak, precisely as in does in the lens of.
In seeing through the rhetoric, or seeing it for what it actually is, advice too is vibrationally apparent, and thus is not external. Likewise, there is the rhetoric of enlightenment as obtained, achieved, or as an attainment, in time. This is again ‘the mind can not be where it has not yet been’, or ‘infinite can not know finite’.
In the overlooking of the inherent discord of this, uninspected thought attachment is weaved into a new identity, aka spiritual ego, and this reinforces the believing of thoughts such there there is a separate self which becomes or became enlightened, and thus there is the discord of thoughts of an after enlightenment for the ‘you’ which discovered ‘reality is one’. This again highlights the distinction of reality being one, or oneness, vs not two. Only upon that faulty “foundation”, can it then seem that ‘what follows’ are ‘difficult truths’. Another way to point is conceptualizing, beliving thoughts, isn’t ‘doing the work’, or, the inspection of and alignment of vibrationally apparent thoughts.
@Phil Really nice. Funny, two years ago I would read your posts and be totally confused. Now I read this and it just goes down like oil.
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Death, life, impermanence, change, appearance and disappearance.
All these imply each other, i.e. they always come together. Life implies death, appearance implies disappearance.
Existence is not subject to change, to life, death, appearance and disappearance. All these occur within existence, but existence itself is the fundament, the unchangeable, untouchable ground of everything.
You are existence itself. Existence doesn't die.
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Why aren't you afraid of falling asleep at night? What's so bad about sleeping? And besides, does sleep even happen?
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Death doesn't happen, dude.
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@Phil I would appreciate a guided meditation on existence = love. Today, people celebrated Christopher Street Day in my city and I thought "well if celebrating love isn't the ultimate celebration!" and I was on my way to meditate. Then though of suggesting this to you.
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3 hours ago, Lotus said:
Wow, you seem to know a lot about Daoism. Any book recommendations? German ones are welcome, too!
Yeah I love Daoism and will reply with 100% certainty to any post about Daoism or Chan/Zen😂
I would highly reccommend to you the original books of Daoism. The first book on Daoism that I've ever read was the Daodejing, by the founder of Daoism, Lao Tsu. But don't expect to understand what Lao Tsu writes. Don't read the Daodejing like you would read any other book, aiming to understand and make logical and rational sense of what is written. Read the Daodejing rather like you would look at a painting. In other words, let the intuitive understanding come to you. Don't rush it.
I remember when I first laid hands on a very old version of the Daodejing from my (former) university library, I went and sat under a crooked old willow tree by the water (which I would also reccommend; go read Daoist texts in nature, as Daoism is a philosophy of nature) and sometimes read one chapter a day. and the chapters are very short. Every time we return to the chapters, they will mean something different.
As it is also said in Daoism; "The scholar learns something every day. But the sage unlearns something every day." (chapter 48 Daodejing)
Next to the Daodejing, read "Zhuang Zhou". He has a lot to say about the useless life.
As I said, Chan has been influenced by Daoism and if you're interested further, you can try to look into some of the old Chan classical texts, preferably stories. There's a book called the Bìyán Lù (碧巖錄), which contains many of the great Koan stories and is reminiscent of Daoist mentalities and relating to nature.
I highly recommend Alan Watts book "Tao - The Watercourse Way", he has a great and sophisticated understanding of Daoism.
There are a lot of German and English translations of the Daodejing and it's difficult to get a good one, because many translations actually miss some of the crucial meanings of some of the ideas of the Chinese language.
My favorite translation (habs aus der Uni-Bibliothek von der JLU Gießen, hab da früher studiert😄) isn't in print anymore: "Laudse Daudedsching", by Ernst Schwarz published by the "dtv" (Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag), from 1980. It's a really good translation, the best one I've come across so far, and it has some nice commentary (which is certainly helpful, giving you some context in terms of Chinese culture and language of that time).
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Ah yes. Zhuangzi and Yang Zhu had slightly different philosophies - I personally prefer Zhuangzi. To Zhuangzi (who wrote a book with the same title), the useless life, the life of the honorable bum, is the good life. The sage who simply lives day after day and who doesn't worry about the future or about what others might think about him. He lives of the hand in his mouth and doesn't know where his food comes from, he always has money but doesn't know where it comes from either.
Yang Zhu's hedonism isn't quite the same as what we mean by the word "hedonism". It doesn't mean to totally chase plesaure and not care about social norms whatsoever. It means to live the useless life. The carefree life. The light-hearted life. Not the "chase pleasure at all cost hardcore hedonist" life.
But first and foremost, it's the useless life. The purposeless life. The life that has no meaning or sense beyond the here and now, totally.
The old, crooked tree isn't good for anything. You can't make a walking cane of it, neither can you eat its leaves, nor is it of any use to a carpenter. Thus, this honorable tree lives long.
The Daoist bum sage who sits by the side of the road, drunk on rice wine, laughing about the terribly serious looking faces of all the people going by who think they're so busy, who has a big bag full of nonsense things and trash because he collects everything he finds on his way, but who gives it to children and laughs together with them - that's by the way the "fat Buddha", his name is "Budai" (布袋) in Chinese and he is revered as one of the ideal men, although he emerged from Chan Buddhism rather than Daoism. But Daoism influenced Chan Buddhism a great deal before it went to Japan and become Zen.
So you see, this type of hedonism is characterized by a kind of modesty and contentness, unlike classical Western understanding of hedonism where the motto is "the more, the better." Many of these Doaist sages are said to have been mendicants, begging monks.
I personally love Daoism, Zhuang Zhou and Chan Buddhiusm. It's a very playful, unserious way of life and a good counter balance to our Western, busy, serious ways of life.
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To be fair, feeling really is all there is. And what are thoughts? Who knows, but you can feel it😄 can't really make a difference between thought and feeling if the difference is thought😂
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On 5/31/2022 at 9:13 PM, Forza21 said:
It's not about the situation, it's about, how you think, you're going to feel, if it goes wrong... realize that, accept it, and be free.
@Forza21 Yes, you're right. The problem is that as soon as I think about approaching a girl, all my mindfulness goes down the toilet and I totally believe in thoughts. Perhaps I should really cosnciously observe the thoughts as just thoughts and then go ahead.
On 5/31/2022 at 10:05 PM, Phil said:I’d look at the scale and give your best guess as to which emotion arises around this topic
@Phil Guess it's insecurity/unworthiness at the low end and doubt and disappointment at the high end. Next time I'll observe this more carefully and then go back to the scale, I want to see which thoughts arise most strongly. But it's definitely thoughts about myself and about the situation, how either I'm somehow lacking or how the situation will be a failure and this will just prove/demonstrate how the thoughts about myself ("can't approach women, too awkward/shy, don't know what to say, etc.") were true (which would be the doubnt resulting in disappointment - although I'm disappointed whenever I fail to approach a girl, because then my doubt also turns into diappointment ("see? told ya that you couldn't do it")).
On 5/31/2022 at 10:05 PM, Phil said:Maybe someone or some relationship comes to mind. Maybe there’s some hate to be expressed with respect to a past relationship, person or perhaps an incident or event
On 5/31/2022 at 10:05 PM, Phil said:Also, if you’ve had your heart broken, maybe some suffering is arising and being projected onto the situation of potential dates & significant others
Yeah, the very first (semi-)relationship resulted in a catastrophy because when I was younger, I was kind of a dumbass (just less than today😄). It resulted in utter rejection, but deservedly. Because again, I was a total dipshit. Haven't fully worked it out yet, but I'm sure this is part of it. Funny though, because I think this catalyzed my general development
On 6/1/2022 at 12:03 AM, Mandy said:Do you really want to approach women, or do you want to be around more women, get to know them naturally, maybe do online dating, etc...?
@Mandy Both!
8 hours ago, WhiteOwl said:It sounds like you have put it on a pedestal, when really its a small thing. Like mandy said, you believe you are in some way and you need to fix yourself before you can approach women. The hinderance is those beliefs.
@WhiteOwl Sounds right. It seems like a big deal to me when in reality, it probably isn't. I even thought about driving to a large city nearby and just approaching women for a whole day, just to kinda get over it and see that it's not a big deal, and that the women won't eat me alive, even if it turns awkward😂
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13 hours ago, Mandy said:
Anyone else become aware, (especially while journaling) that they often say "I feel" when what we really mean is "I think", or therefore "judge this to be"?
Yes!! Not only that, but also vice versa! Feeling something, but saying "I think". Haven't noticed this while journaling, but in general I've noticed this with myself and other people, started to use the words "feeling" and "thinking" more consciously while talking.
On top of that, I have the suspicion that the language itself influences the way we relate to thoughts and feelings. Saying "I feel like..." as more or less synonymous with "I think" would work to some extent in English, but it wouldn't in German . "Ich fühle" would really emphasize the feeling of it, the subjectivity, (I don't know why this is) and people might even notice it and think that it's inappropriate to use the word "feeling", because we all know of course how unreliable feeling is.👍🏼
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This actually sounds like a case for ordinary, normal psychotherapy, I think. Issues in the relationship with ones parents, especially trauma that's related to ones relationship with parents, this is very very common. Abusive parents or parents who never really were parents to us when we were children, that's a major source of trauma.
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Hate it. I see a beautiful girl, I'd like to talk to her and say hello, but I never do it. I'm so god damn shy. And it's just awful, when a girl smiles at me I'm just so perplexed sometimes that I don't even smile back😂 and this seems to be the crucial step in some way because it literally is the first step. Without approaching, absolutely nothing will happen. At least if I could approach a women and then fuck up, even that would be much better.
Just went for an evening ride with my bike through the park, saw a pretty girl who just packed her stuff and prepared to leave the pond she was chilling at, she looks at me, I look at her - and I just keep looking at her like an idiot, sort of frozen, incapable of approaching her. After that I thought "jesus christ man, maybe there's something seriously messed up with you, maybe I should pull out the big guns and face my demons with regards to women during a psychedelic trip" (LSD would probably be the better choice here right?). Honestly, that would be more worth to me right now than some insight into consciousness or the nature of reality.
Today in the lab, my supervisor made a joke and said "[...] but then your girlfriend wouldn't be able to fall asleep [...]", and I steered to joke into another direction because I'm single, and for some reason, this has started to bother me. So... Gotta start approaching women, not in a disgusting PUA sort of way, I'm not interseting in picking up women. But I do want to get to know more women and not only as platonic friends.
Edit: It's even a bit uncomfortable talking about this, because it means facing it (even if it's only facing it a liiiitle bit). But hey, this place is all about expressing and I love you people, so😄
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8 minutes ago, Orb said:
"if your life's in shambles, 5meo dmt will make you happy!
Hmm, tbh I don't think anybody promoted it in that way. 5MeO was only advocated as a kind of ultimate spiritual tool, not as a magic pill to fix your life.
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1 minute ago, Orb said:
One of my arising lessons from the experience is that the thing most important is lifestyle, the daily activities we do that shape our lives [...] are far more worth it to me than taking psychedelics.
That's such a good insight. When the medicine reveals itself to you as medicine, not diet, then the medicine is truly medicinal. Great stuff, man.
Kinda reminded me of this meme😂
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@Orb Really cool report, thanks for sharing!!
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This is really good, wow. Nice, nice. I like it😊 can relate
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@Someone here Welcome to the forum😄🙏🏼
A Spiritual Dilemma
in The Path
Posted
Ahh yes. The good ol' projecting-authority-onto-the-guru-trap. Now you've just exchanged one belief for another.
"After enlightenment", no more desire? Why not? And what is this "after enlightenment" as opposed to whatever comes "before enlightenment"?
What is desire? What is love?
What are desire, selfishness, selflessness and love? What if I love ice cream? What if I love my mother? What if I desire to do good out of love?
Just trying to poke you a little❤️