Faith

I'm sure you are correct that we aren't alone in this universe. I'm not super excited about a "meet and greet" though. They could think we are super stupid and make us there pets, on leashes, to do all their chores. 😂🤣😂

@ivankiss That's lovely, thank you🙏💙

@fopylo Sounds like a solid plan! I will tell you a little true story. Many years ago (maybe 10) I noticed how my friend would always call me for advice I'd listen intently, ask questions, give advice (spend 45min to an hour on her stuff) and then when she would ask me how I was doing I would get out maybe 1 or 2 sentences before she would abruptly say how she had to go, she's so busy, she's late for an appt, Yada- yada. This happened over and over for months and one day when she called I told her exactly what she had been doing and how she was using me as her personal counselor and not really being a friend to me and that if something didn't change I no longer was interested in the relationship with her. She was floored to say the least. I can't recall her exact words initially, but we got off the phone pretty quick. She called me a week later and asked to come over so we could talk. When she got to my house she proceeded to say that originally she thought I was wrong and that she wasn't a selfish friend that hogged the entire convo, etc....UNTIL she told her mother what happened and her mother said, "thank God someone finally told you".🤣 Long story short, she said it was very eye opening for her and she really wasn't aware that that's what she had started doing with ppl, apparently not just me and then she vowed to not keep doing that. We are still friends. She's actually my best friend. So, ppl can change, however I was willing to throw it away, if change didn't happen. Thats how much it was affecting me. I just had got to that point.

No worries. It's totally understandable that this is upsetting to you. It seems he's been a bit of one to keep ppl at arms length a bit with the whole "ghosting" thing you said he does. Sometimes ppl aren't that sensitive about how they come across to others or how they may be offending someone. Granted sometimes they really just don't care. It's hard to figure out which is the case sometimes. So, giving the benefit of the doubt once, maybe twice might be what one decides, but after that, I agree enough is enough. It just so happened you were stuck with him (eeks) and had to put up with him when you were, over it. Guess my advice normally is to try to come to a decision about what is really happening as soon as you can, if that's possible, but like I said normally seeing if the situation can be rectified or does the other or you "need space", is the friendship truly "over", was what happened abusive in any way, that sorta thing. I find that I'll sleep on something a day, maybe two (if necessary), but then I've processed it and have a pretty clear decision or plan if you will about how I want to move forward, if at all. 💙

Hi, Welcome to the forum 😊. I'll give you my take and its pretty similar to others. I'll just say it in my way. Deep sleep is simply when the mind and body are in an inactive state and therefore there is "only" what we are, awareness, in its purest form there. Yes, of course, the mind wakes up and becomes active, then wants to "claim" that "it" slept well and also has thoughts about how "it" thinks deep sleep is, but truly it only knows that it doesn't know, because there was no experience, since it was inactive. Again, you're talking about when the mind was inactive (deep sleep) and has missing time, so it's trying to fill in the gaps by pretending it knows. Someone asked a master that question and the master said, "I'm a master. I'm not a dead master, ask me when I'm dead and I'll tell you". 😂 But, truly, there are many faiths, schools of thought, philosophies and religions that have all different thoughts about it and now I take the stand that I have my suspicions of certain things, but I'm not positive of any. Your best bet is to come to your own conclusions, instead of believing someone else's. Oh, I could say something clever, like awareness is aware of itself and maybe some can say they experience that with sincerity, but I've yet to come across someone who claims this, so that I can ask them how this is registered in the mind for them to speak about it if the mind was inactive. The closest thing I can think of would be some kind of samadhi where the mind is awake, but not active. If that makes sense.

@Pickle Rick @Rounak Welcome to the forum! 😊💙

@Phil 😊

@Ges Thank you! And, yes, you are correct!!!😊

My thought on this is that if "friends" are triggering you, so they can take advantage, then are they true friends to begin with? Is this realization creating the "shut down"? When I was younger my friends were everything and I had tons of them. I'm an extroverted Gemini, so I'd lose my mind if I had friend issues.😭 My parents would laugh at me. Now I laugh at how I was. I've done an absolute 360 turnaround from my younger days. Now, for many years, I only have one close friend and I've known her for 25 yrs. We get together every few weeks or months. Friends just aren't that important to me now that I'm older. 🤷‍♀️ Although, put me in a social situation and I'll chat your ear off. So, nothings changed with my personality per se. I guess I just don't seek out friendships and if it doesn't happen naturally, I don't force it. That's my 2 cents. For what it worth. 💙

I'm also on a coding journey, but mine is of an ICD-10 code type. 😂 No seriously. I did a little coding years ago with one of my jobs, but this time around I did remote schooling, then sat for the national certification test, but still sometimes I can't remember what code(s) to use, 🤪 but, I'm also using my nursing knowledge and got another certification in chart review, so I'm in QA now (quality assurance dept). Sometimes I feel like I'm an imposter and they will realize I don't know what I'm doing, because I often feel that way. Lol. My point though is that I basically totally revamped my career and I just started my new job 2 weeks ago. It's scary. "Will I fail" type of thoughts arise, but I don't give them tons of attention. If you feel your foundation wasn't strong enough and that's why you're having problems, then I definitely encourage you to go back to that and then you can build upon that more quickly as you recognize perhaps certain things you missed the first time. 😉 Pardon my interruption of your journal. 💙

How you look trying to control things you can't. ^^^

😂🤣😂 I'll be honest, I didn't like the picture either, but the words were good.

The awareness/consciousness that I am, is also you, in that sense we are one. You disagree?

@Erin In the meantime, as a member of this forum I assume you'd like to start sharing/contributing. Forum Orientation Nonduality, self-realization, well being & alignment, sharing of best practices & insights, creating the life you dream of and spreading the Message therein. Thus far, I haven't seen you contributing in a positive way here at all. More so just bringing strife and negativity to a peaceful forum, which is unfortunate. You could probably learn something or pass on some actual advice to others.

@Llurendt Welcome to the forum!😊💙

@Zeroguy Have you ever heard of Meetup.com? Meetup is a service used to organize groups that host in-person and virtual events for people with similar interests. My sister has done several in-person events and several years ago I did one myself. You search the site for local groups that seem interesting to you and see what events they are hosting. It gives details and any costs involved with a host that actually does the coordinating of the event. They have meetup all around the world to my understanding.

It's sister. 😂💙

@Wayne 😂 🧘‍♀️ Ommmm

@Blessed2 Short Self-Inquiry videos- 7:35 min Regarding Self-Inquiry: https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/article/dṛg-dṛsya-viveka-wisdom-of-the-seer-and-the-seen 2:43 min

@Forza21 Seems that spiritual "concepts" are not your friend right now. These thoughts are not doing you any good and are distorted. Since they are distorted they make no sense. My best advice throw these thoughts out, refuse them your attention when they arise. Ground yourself in the present moment. Try practicing mindfulness and focus your attention on the body when very troublesome thoughts arise- focus on breathing. Breathe, in, 123, out, 123, in, 123, ect. this takes attention from the mind to the body. Look up "guided imagery" on youtube. You might find this relaxing and soothing to the mind. I hope you feel better. 💙