Conscious awareness of mind's machinations

Lopezcabellero: I'm only mildly aware of your background zd, but I find you to be a very likable guy. You rarely show anger, you're kind, and if I had to guess, I'd say your childhood was a relatively good one. However, even relatively good doesn't mean a childhood absent abuse of any form. Millions of people will recall having nice childhoods only to enter therapy to realize things weren't quite as good as they remember. Regardless, I don't think you need therapy.

With that said, I guess what we do on this forum is a therapy in its own way. Most kids are not allowed to get angry. Their parents view anger as insubordination, and as the anger is suppressed, the sadness underneath it is layered that much farther away.

Let's take a little boy as an example. He's 5 years old. He has his first sexual experience with the neighbor girl, who is also 5 years old. The experience in itself is innocent enough, but then let's also say the neighbor's parents find the 2 of them investigating each others parts, and they both get horrified and scold both the kids.

Then the little boy's mother finds out, and she also finds the behavior unacceptable. She tells the boy that what he did was wrong, and already we see shame based projection entering the child's emotional body. When the boy's father gets home, the mother tells him what happened, and she wants the father to give him a scolding. Being as tied into the mother's emotions and demands as he is, he obeys her, and now the boy has a plethora of injuries and emotions all from just one experience.

Factor in what takes place from school, friends, teachers, and the like, we see a collective movement capable of injuring every child to a high degree, all without the child being conscious of what's going on. If you're position is that your childhood is beyond that, that you somehow cured the injuries from the collective engine by shifting your attention away from your thinking and feeling, then we can also see how your position and your teaching is a mirror reflection of unhealed injury, and how you are actually harming other people by promoting a practice to disconnect the person with his or her emotions, which comes with karmic consequence.

As far as psychosis being linked with a lack of vitamin B3. Were any of the people in the study fully conscious? Lack of vitamin B3 or any other essential nutrient may seem like a cause, but I posit anyone who heals their injuries would never be attracted to partake in such a study to begin with. When you factor in the projections of the people implementing the study, not to mention the spirit pool surrounding not just the patients but also the doctors, educational institutions of the doctors, and so on and so forth, I think we would be foolish to conclude causation between a vitamin and psychosis. The cause of psychosis is compartmentalization of the experience opening a gateway to Jung's collective unconscious. Hence, psychosis is a classical expression of the spirit complex. Certainly, lack of nutrition can play into how susceptible one might be to such expression.

But back to you, maybe we should discuss your present day stance. You mentioned you are not any more conscious now than you were when you started your spiritual practice, and yet acknowledge your practice was initiated because your own mind didn't like its own creations (thoughts and feelings). Did your primary caretakers allow you to express anger as a young child? Was there any repercussions for getting mad at Mom or Dad? Were you ever scared of either of your parents?

I don't have a preference with regard to whether you answer these questions here or not, but if you're stance is shifting attention is the cure all, then I suggest we take a deeper look at what's going on.

Read more: spiritualteachers.proboards.com/thread/5348/destroying-mind?page=9#ixzz5s4Yq7KkM

siftingtothetruth:


Short summary: Spiritual seekers find inevitable resistance of various kinds to their self-inquiry and surrender.

These resistances are based in attachments to their personal identity and the associated desires and fears.

I'm usually not a fan of overpowering our desires and fears. Where these are strong, I find that is futile. In particular, ideas of laziness and willpower are almost entirely useless. Resistance must be engaged in dialogue, and our feelings shown into the light of awareness.

That said, the ancient method of dealing with desires and fears was structural -- eliminate the circumstances which caused them. Where the desires and fears are relatively weak compared to the strength of the spiritual desire, this can still be useful.

Zendancer: Someone once asked me why I periodically go to satsangs with other ND teachers since I have no existential questions and am no longer seeking anything. It's really simple; I enjoy hearing the truth expressed in unique ways by different characters. It's also a matter of curiosity. I hear about various teachers and I wonder how clear they are. Some teachers are rather bland, but some are dynamic, unpredictable, and loads of fun. Some are like stand-up comics, and some are extremely creative in their use of language for pointing to THIS. Hedderman is rather wild compared to many teachers. Tolle's sense of humor cracks me up. A few characters who point to THIS are very clear but rather boring, and in those cases I almost never return. Sometimes teachers will say something that is not true, and in those cases I enjoy challenging them. As Tarrant has said, "ND is the best game in town," and I've never met a sage who ever lost interest in it.

Zendancer: Yes. Being stuck in selfhood is bad enough, but not accepting that one is stuck in selfhood is much worse. It's like building a stronger prison while imagining that one is free.