Being deep in your ego is the biggest bliss

[Rose]

I look at my religious family, at some of my male acquaintances who say that they’ve never met a “smarter than them woman”, at all the hateful comments on Instagram that men write calling single women over 30 “expired”.. all the conservatives online fear-mongering…  I think they are 20 times more happy than me..

 

They don’t have anxiety, they sleep pretty well, never questioning themselves, thinking that they are great and awesome and have the right answers.. 

 

I remember what it was like, because I used to be like that.. there used to be “good” and “bad” people.. clear cut situations, right answers.. it was great.. I used to have way more friends.. now I can barely stay in the company of these people.. because I either smile and nod and suffer inside or I have to speak up which feels more genuine but takes away a lot of my energy..

 

Now I just don’t feel good in the company of these people, even my mom, for example, I feel HEAVY when I am with her, like the world is a dark dangerous place - HOW is it possible I didn’t feel this way before around her? HOW is it possible I used to be ok spending time with her.. why have I become so sensitive to her now? 

Edited June 4 by Rose

[Phil]

You haven’t become sensitive, Being is sensitive. You’re unfettering yourself, seeing & feeling the discord of limiting beliefs you never have before. 🙂

[Mandy]

9 hours ago, Rose said:

Now I just don’t feel good in the company of these people, even my mom, for example, I feel HEAVY when I am with her, like the world is a dark dangerous place - HOW is it possible I didn’t feel this way before around her? HOW is it possible I used to be ok spending time with her.. why have I become so sensitive to her now? 

What makes you believe that each of these assumptions is true? Isn't it a kind of glossing and summing up of the past and the present in order to tell a story that feels discordant now? 

[Rose]

On 6/4/2024 at 6:26 AM, Mandy said:

What makes you believe that each of these assumptions is true? Isn't it a kind of glossing and summing up of the past and the present in order to tell a story that feels discordant now? 

But what is the alternative? Something feels discordant, and I am trying to understand what it is. I am jealous of people who feel they have life all figured out, because I feel like a mess sometimes 

[Rose]

On 6/4/2024 at 12:04 AM, Phil said:

You haven’t become sensitive, Being is sensitive. You’re unfettering yourself, seeing & feeling the discord of limiting beliefs you never have before. 🙂

Hm, never thought of being as sensitive.. being always felt chill 

[Mandy]

9 hours ago, Rose said:

But what is the alternative? Something feels discordant, and I am trying to understand what it is. I am jealous of people who feel they have life all figured out, because I feel like a mess sometimes 

It's a fiction that people have life all figured out. If they feel love, passion, excitement, enthusiasm, appreciation, you want to feel that too, but none of those depend on having life figured out, far from it. 

[Phil]

@Rose

Peace is definitely chill, but nothing’s as sweet & sacred as the true nature of being. Utterly unsuspected satisfaction. 

 

On 6/3/2024 at 8:34 PM, Rose said:

I look at my religious family, at some of my male acquaintances who say that they’ve never met a “smarter than them woman”, at all the hateful comments on Instagram that men write calling single women over 30 “expired”.. all the conservatives online fear-mongering…  I think they are 20 times more happy than me..

 

They don’t have anxiety, they sleep pretty well, never questioning themselves, thinking that they are great and awesome and have the right answers.. 

 

I remember what it was like, because I used to be like that.. there used to be “good” and “bad” people.. clear cut situations, right answers.. it was great.. I used to have way more friends.. now I can barely stay in the company of these people.. because I either smile and nod and suffer inside or I have to speak up which feels more genuine but takes away a lot of my energy..

 

Now I just don’t feel good in the company of these people, even my mom, for example, I feel HEAVY when I am with her, like the world is a dark dangerous place - HOW is it possible I didn’t feel this way before around her? HOW is it possible I used to be ok spending time with her.. why have I become so sensitive to her now? 

Aversion is the so called mind making it about others. Egocentric mind games. Aversion is a ‘mental movement’ ‘away’ from feeling. Seeking. Contextualization. Every time this activity of being called thinking is brought to rest, wisdom, innocence, truth & reverence are unfettered.  

[Rose]

On 6/7/2024 at 6:50 AM, Mandy said:

It's a fiction that people have life all figured out. If they feel love, passion, excitement, enthusiasm, appreciation, you want to feel that too, but none of those depend on having life figured out, far from it. 

I know it’s a fiction, but they appear to believe as if they do.. that there is a “proper” way to live a life and they know what it is 

[Rose]

On 6/7/2024 at 8:35 AM, Phil said:

Aversion is a ‘mental movement’ ‘away’ from feeling.

But isn’t thinking creating emotions which are creating the “feelings”? How are “feelings” and “emotions” different?

[Mandy]

4 hours ago, Rose said:

I know it’s a fiction, but they appear to believe as if they do.. that there is a “proper” way to live a life and they know what it is 

 

Have you noticed how by the time it's noticed that there's a trend, or something that's going really successfully it's usually too late to get on the bandwagon? 

[Phil]

11 hours ago, Rose said:

But isn’t thinking creating emotions which are creating the “feelings”?

Thoughts appear.

 

Of appearing thoughts are the thoughts ‘thinker’ and ‘thinking’. 

As thoughts are identified with or by (thought attachment), it seems that ‘I’m the thinker’, and or ‘I’m the one thinking’. 

For that separate self (which exists only in accordance with thoughts), feeling is objectified as separate objects, such as ‘feelings’. 

Therein there seems to be, ‘my feelings’. 

 

Again though, this is only in accordance with thoughts. 

In direct experience, in feeling “itself”, no actual separation is found, such that there is or could be (plural) ‘feelings’, or a ‘thinker thinking’. 

 

11 hours ago, Rose said:

How are “feelings” and “emotions” different?

Feelings is a conceptualization of feeling on behalf of a sep self of thoughts. 

Emotion is how (appearing) thoughts feel (to that which is appearing as thoughts which is nothing, not a thing, no thing, not “some other thing”, not “something else” - at all, whatsoever). 

 

Put another way, awareness & ignorance is ‘there are humans / people’ and ‘I am a human / person’, and I have feelings / there are my feelings. 

As compared to awareness is appearing as thoughts, and emotions describe how thoughts feel, and ‘human’, ‘person’ and ‘feelings’ are, thoughts. 

 

Emotion is therein intrinsic guidance, as emotions describe how apparent thoughts feel, to that which is appearing as (thoughts). The guidance is miraculously simultaneously alignment, self-realization and the attracting of what’s wanted (preferences manifesting). 

[Joseph Maynor]

6 hours ago, Phil said:

Feelings is a conceptualization of feeling on behalf of a sep self of thoughts. 

Emotion is how (appearing) thoughts feel (to that which is appearing as thoughts which is nothing, not a thing, no thing, not “some other thing”, not “something else” - at all, whatsoever). 

 

Put another way, awareness & ignorance is ‘there are humans / people’ and ‘I am a human / person’, and I have feelings / there are my feelings. 

As compared to awareness is appearing as thoughts, and emotions describe how thoughts feel, and ‘human’, ‘person’ and ‘feelings’ are, thoughts. 

 

Emotion is therein intrinsic guidance, as emotions describe how apparent thoughts feel, to that which is appearing as (thoughts). The guidance is miraculously simultaneously alignment, self-realization and the attracting of what’s wanted (preferences manifesting). 

 

👍Very clearly stated.  I see clearly now how we differ in the following way: I see feelings/emotions as Maya just like thoughts.  I see the Self as being the Witness to thoughts and emotions generated by attachment of the Self to the body-mind (said attachment causes ego).  I have more of an Advaita Vedanta perspective which treats feelings/emotions as a form of mind or "manas" generated by ego and serving only ego.

Edited June 12 by Joseph Maynor

[Phil]

1 hour ago, Joseph Maynor said:

 

👍Very clearly stated.  I see clearly now how we differ in the following way: I see feelings/emotions as Maya just like thoughts.  I see the Self as being the Witness to thoughts and emotions generated by attachment of the Self to the body-mind (said attachment causes ego).  I have more of an Advaita Vedanta perspective which treats feelings/emotions as a form of mind or "manas" generated by ego and serving only ego.

🙏🏼 

 

Yes, Advaita Vedanta has some shortcomings. 

[Rose]

15 hours ago, Mandy said:

 

Have you noticed how by the time it's noticed that there's a trend, or something that's going really successfully it's usually too late to get on the bandwagon? 

 I have not noticed. What is that is something that is going on really successfully? 

 

[Mandy]

7 hours ago, Rose said:

 I have not noticed. What is that is something that is going on really successfully? 

 

Like when everyone is talking about how gold (or whatever else) prices are going up and a great investment, it's very likely the worst time to buy in? But when you're inspired to something and aren't living in a monkey see monkey do reaction mode, that's when you see big returns? If you're looking at others' success and trying to recreate it by following the same steps, rather than enjoying the inspiration from it, you're looking at what is dead and done. There's no proper way. 

[Phil]

On 6/12/2024 at 10:20 PM, Rose said:

What is that is something that is going on really successfully? 

As you are literally the creator of your reality, isn’t it obvious that everything going on without a single exception is going on really successfully? 

Imagine sitting in a cart judging the horse behind the cart for how it’s thinking or acting. 

[Joseph Maynor]

On 6/12/2024 at 11:22 AM, Phil said:

🙏🏼

 

Yes, Advaita Vedanta has some shortcomings. 

 

If we're talking about nonduality, every system expressed in words necessarily has shortcomings.  Anytime words are used that's necessarily just a dualistic pointer (it assumes a subject-object duality).  Advaita Vedanta actually realizes this.  Truth is not stateable in words.  Knowledge is only gotten by direct experience, which doesn't mean through the senses as is regularly understood (see ChatGPT response below).  It means being able to identify Pure Consciousness (Atman).  So the theory in Advaita Vedanta is only a pointer to this direct experience of the Self as Pure Consciousness (Chit) which is identical to Brahman (Sat), or what ultimately Exists, which brings underlying unchanging Peace (Bliss).  But all this "set up" is not the direct experience that is being pointed to.  It's that direct experience that is what is to be had in Advaita Vedanta, and the theory is really just training-wheels or scaffolding to be able to access the direct experience.  Even Sat, Chit, Ananda are just pointers.  "The Self is free from all distinctions that are created by limiting adjuncts . . . Brahman transcends all worldly attributes." -- Adi Shankara

From ChatGPT

 

Q: What is direct experience in Advaita Vedanta? (selections from response)

 

In Advaita Vedanta, direct experience (anubhava) refers to the immediate and intuitive realization of the non-dual nature of reality, where one directly perceives their true self (Atman) as identical with Brahman, the ultimate reality. This experience transcends ordinary perception and intellectual comprehension, leading to a profound and transformative understanding of one's true nature.

 

Nature of Direct Experience: This experience is not sensory but transcendent. It is an immediate, intuitive realization of one's true nature as Atman (Self) and its identity with Brahman (the ultimate reality). This experience is beyond the mind and intellect and is often described as self-evident, unmediated knowledge.

 

Immediate and Intuitive Knowledge: Direct experience is an immediate, non-conceptual, and intuitive understanding of one's true nature. It is not mediated by the senses or the intellect but is a direct apprehension of the self as pure consciousness.

 

Beyond the Mind and Senses: Direct experience transcends the limitations of the mind (manas) and senses (indriyas). It is not something that can be comprehended through thought or sensory perception but is an immediate awareness that arises when the mind is stilled and the ego is transcended.

 

Validation of Scriptural Teachings: While scriptures (shastras) and teachings of the sages (gurus) provide guidance, their ultimate purpose is to lead the seeker to this direct experience. The teachings are validated through this personal realization, as direct experience confirms the truths expounded in the scriptures.

Edited June 14 by Joseph Maynor

[Phil]

@Joseph Maynor

Advaita Vedanta, scripturally / traditionally, in terms of the context, has many shortcomings.