depression

yes they have, thank you. Does this redeem me in your eyes?

 

You were never in need of redemption in my eyes, bluesafire.

Travis

 

thank you

 

i like turtles

 

The mistake is in thinking that you need to feel the "correct" way - and do the "correct" thing. ALL paths lead us eventually back to the source of our being - including yours, whatever it may be, whether it meanders through the depths of depravity or the Elysian fields or both.

I repeat: The way to find our path is to do what we WANT. This is sometimes not so easy - sometimes it's very very hard, if we truly try to do what is in the depths of our hearts, because our deepest desires are placed within us for a reason, by the Universe, to lead us where we need to go to reach...

fulfillment.

Is fulfillment fun? Or is it merely a (ho hum) duty which we must (ho hum) shoulder as our spiritual (ho hum) responsibility, tedious and trying though it may be...

[insert the blood of martyrs here]

My invitation to meet on the other side has so far been spurned. Do I need to extend my invitation to the filthy beggars in the streets who have no conception of the gnats at which we strain in the rarified intellectual atmosphere of this forum?

Whatever. Maybe...maybe I just don't know shit. But I do know that if one truly follows the deepest desires of one's heart, the universe will throw out impediments to test one's spiritual strength and resolve, and this testing results in...

What?

As the math texts say: This is an exercise left to the student.

Or maybe I'm just a stinkin' moron. Could be...who can say? Who WANTS to say...and why?

I AM a stinkin' moron. Certainly there are others who are vastly superior to me...bluesafire, possibly...and certainly my spirit guide Deanna and others of her ilk...

But I have the freedom to prattle on and on about nothing and nobody, nothing and nowhere, nothing and nothing...

And prattling is MY path, right now, for this moment...

I SHOULD be more disciplined, I SHOULD control my ego, I SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD...

But as Popeye the Sailor Man says: I yam what I yam.

Why pretend to be something I'm not? It's only by knowing who I truly am that I can progress beyond that...

So if I am a moron, then why pretend to be a guru who is living in a state of eternal nirvana? What the hell would that accomplish...

Except of course to feed my stinkin' ego...



And what's wrong with that? Feeding our ego is sometimes...

Part of the path we must walk...

And if we try to bypass this path, we might lose some of the lessons the universe has laid out for us, wouldn't we?

Oh, hell with it, it's all just pearls before swine...I should just bow down and acknowledge my "superiors"

LOL

All those who are superior to me must now eat my shorts.

LOL

Jeezus, ya know, ya try to lay it out for them and they just keep falling back on their stinkin' "dignity"...

Here's to "dignity": Extracts Kleenex tissue from box and blows nose, deposits result in circular altar...

 

You're the wisest person on this entire thread.

 

I dislike turtles.

Is there a difference?

 

Zg, that was VERY good for me...ahhhhh )

ROFLMAO gets me every time.

and billyjean, I concur that you are the wisest.

 

I've noticed something about doing what I want. It pretty much involves me trying to fulfill desires. And the funny thing about that is, we ALWAYS get what we want. always. Except, just not right then when we want it, and what I've noticed is that when that wheel comes around, and it's time for my desire to be fulfilled, I'm usually filled with sorrow and shame at it's completion. I don't know what I want that wont end in disgust anymore.

I dunno, you tell me.

 

no
----------------------

I didn't mean to diss you, neo, for I think you are going to become wise. Have you ever considered you can't see the forest because you are standing in the midst of it? :hat:

 

Hahaha! I loved that Zen. Yes, exactly. Who would want to tell us that? And WHY? Is pointing out the ego going to diminish it somehow, or is it more likely to invoke further defensiveness. (It's really a rare and rather defenseless person who can stand in the face of such pointing and allow themselves (the ego) to be thus diminished.)

This is one lesson I've been learning myself, because I used to feel that it was somehow a service to others to point out their egos. But I've since come to reconsider this. In fact now I feel that it's more helpful and peaceful and loving to simply see past the ego altogether.

Some may see more clearly than others (in the short term of course) but I do hope you don't see me or anyone as more superior in the deeper sense of the word. I don't wish to be separate from you.

Self Acceptance. :cheers2:

Thou shalt not should on thyself!

As Byron Katie said, "don't be spiritual, be honest instead". Of course we can look at that statement in different ways. On the one hand we may know that to be truly honest would mean to be devoid of ego distortion. But in the sense that she meant it, it would mean that we don't pretend to have mastered whatever ego distortions may be there. So many people view spiritual enlightenment as a race or heirarchy, employing that competitive drive to get to the finish line before others or to view themselves as superior. And what is that if not SEPARATION, which is the whole foundation of ego! Does it make sense to employ separation in order to be free of it?

It is in surrender to WHAT IS that we RECEIVE insight and transcedence. Enlightenment lands on us like morning dew on thirsty flowers. We can't really chase it down and claim it. We would only be chasing our own tails.

 

Neo, I'd like to suggest to you that if you pay attention to what you want and keep looking and inquiring, that you may notice that what you want changes. You've already recognized the futility and lack of true fulfillment in chasing desires. Stay with that. SEE that superficial desires CANNOT lead to true fulfillment. That doesn't mean that we stop doing what we do and seeking to acquire things of the material world. It simply means that we don't expect those things to fulfill us, nor do we expect them to last. But we can still enjoy them as much as possible.

So in seeing the truth of this you may notice that the SEEING goes deeper. And you start to connect with that desire that is of the heart and soul, for true fulfillment, which can only be discovered NOW, within yourself and independent of all outer sources.

There's nothing to do, nowhere to go, noone to turn to... only to sink deeper within our very own Being... which isn't really "our own" after all.

 

I like turtles too.

 

It was pretty stinkin' funny, wasn't it? I just finished re-reading it for the first time, and I laughed much harder than when I was writing it late last night.

 

It was a rhetorical question.

Sorry - I got a bit carried away and used my answer to you as a forum for responding to other people's posts also.

Also I was stinkin' drunk when I wrote all that drivel. Story of my stinkin' life.

BTW bluesafire did an outstanding job of answering your other remarks, so I have nothing more to add, except this. Your path in life is imprinted on your soul, and in time you'll start to notice it out of the corner of your eye, and then one day you'll suddenly realize you're looking right at it - and all this and everything else you experienced was leading you to it.

 

Are you sure it's not that you just don't want to eat my shorts?

 

you got me. I was just trying to be polite.

 

Your manners are impeccable. I might be willing to go out on a limb and conjecture that you probably avoid farting in mixed company.

 

It's true. As I've said recently in a few other threads... I never fart. Well hardly ever. I'm weird that way. And it's not that I'm repressing it either, my body just doesn't do it. Miss Manners would be so proud. :Angel_anim:

 

It's a sign - of divinity within a mortal body, perhaps.

Or possibly an amazingly efficient digestive system...

And you never, never let an untoward sound escape your mouth when chewing, I would venture to guess...