GLOSSOPHOBIA X MOKSHA

 

##############

stephens 

"Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will." ################ GLOSSOPHOBIA-The fear of public speaking. ############# ################### ################ Red is the ultimate cure for sadness." -- Bill Blass ##################### My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions,but in the fewness of my wants.~ Joseph Brotherton ############## “We’re always course-correcting...learning how to come back to what matters most.” — Eileen Fisher ################## ###################### coldest capital in world Ulaan-Baatar (Mongolia) 29.7°F/-1.3°C Ulaanbaatar is the largest city of Mongolia as well as its capital and is a destination for both business and pleasure trips. It is below zero for five months of the year. January and February are the coldest months with the temperature ranging between -15°C and -40°C. The average annual temperature is -1.3°C. ##################### ################## ################## ################# WTIER   #################### TA Does an enlightened being experience anger? Originally Answered: Do enlightened beings get angry? HELL NO, NOW SOD OFF DAMMIT! Sorry, couldn’t resist :-) Anonymous’ answer (below) to this is the most accurate. Anger is a reaction. Enlightened, we see all reactions (and every other life event) as rising/passing phenomena that are not ‘possessed’ by the individual, nor does it possess them. A wave rises, perhaps builds to a monstrous size, then crashes onto the shore. Unenlightened, you identify with the wave and feel you must respond in some way. Anger uses you. Enlightened, you’re just relaxing on the sand, watching the whole show dispassionately, knowing it’s just one more passing phenomena you are not compelled to engage with. Would I ever choose to ‘use anger?’ There are stories of sages who ‘used anger’ with certain students for whom that approach seemed to be the best or only way to ‘kick them into gear.’ But in true Enlightenment, there’s nowhere to go, no goal and no path needed to ‘get there,’ so I don’t put much stock in those stories or any need to use anger in this way. My wife criticized me harshly for something I didn’t do, yesterday. I saw her big waves coming towards me, rolling onto the shore. Phenomena. But I didn’t want to get my feet wet, so I just walked to her, put my arms around her, and watched the next phenomena rise in the next Now - that of us both falling in love again. Ahhh! If, unenlightened, I thought “I” was still the Doer, I might say “I” always choose Love over anger as the best response. 😇 But, enlightened, I know “I” am not the Doer. So “I” give thanks to the real Doer for granting “me” that (mostly) loving disposition, then watch the next Now rise & fall, and the next one, and the next one… ###################### RM What happens when you lose consciousness? It’s a misnomer. You never lose anything. The record button is on. Everything is recorded. Further, one can access their higher self to ask what happened “that time when I passed out?” The higher self is aware of every moment, every breath, every thought we have. When the play is over, we step off stage, return home, and that file - that performance - goes into our own akashic library of who we are. We pass out, and the robot shuts down - but it’s still plugged in, still recording. Heart is still beating. Heart knows what it’s doing. The lizard mind needs some rest, the other part of our mind does not. My two cents. ##################### JJM  What can I expect from a spiritual awakening? Peace. 1. Some people realize the universe is a figment of their imagination, like a dream. 2. Some see God and know everything is God. 3. Some discover all their concepts are equally true and false. 4. Some recognize there is no time, and nothing ever happened. These are powerful realizations. They’re very hard to articulate. It takes courage to talk about them, because people will think you’re insane. Awakenings tell you everything about the universe but why. That’s the question you’re left with in the end. That’s where peace comes in. Peace was here before you came; it will be here when you’re gone. It doesn’t know you exist. We are the illusion we’re trying to see through. There is no “why” because a non-effect doesn’t have a cause. Peace is real, and all the nonsense isn’t. Don’t try to account for it, just accept how it seems. You don’t run after a mirage and you don’t try to get rid of it, either. People say, “I experience profound peace and stillness now.” What they mean is: I realize I cannot disturb it. ################# SM  What tethers the soul to the body? The soul is the heart of a spiritual being, and it is located in the middle of your chest when your spirit is inhabiting your body, i.e. you are conscious. Your spirit is immortal and does not need to sleep, so it is free to wander, and can go quite far. Raymond Moody has published extensive works on these out-of-body experiences (OBE). The when the spirit leaves the body it is always connected with the silver cord, because without a connection to the spirit, the body will die. And why can it only leave upon death vs at will? Besides leaving in OBE’s, the spirit can leave the body with training. A deep-trance medium can leave their body, giving room for another spirit to speak or write through the medium’s body. Clairvoyants can slightly leave their body to consciously see into the spiritual world. #################### TA Is it OK to think that I am already enlightened? Nisargadatta says that liberation is a matter of courage, to believe that you are already free and act on it. You (The Absolute or Life Itself) are already enlightened; “you” (the I/ego that asked about ‘thinking’ whether or not it is enlightened) can never be. The always-enlightened Self never asks ItSelf, or anyone else, if It is enlightened. Fully ‘awakened,’ enlightened, self-realized, liberated, or what ever term you like, is it’s only possible ‘state,‘ because It is everything, and the nothing behind that everything. The illusion (ego/mind) deals in concepts and thoughts. In your case, it has turned enlightenment, liberation, courage and freedom, all into concepts and is considering if it can ‘think’ itself into enlightenment, or if ‘others’ will think so, too. Belief is also useless in enlightenment. You can ‘believe’ you are free & enlightened all you want - sort of that ‘fake it till you make it’ attitude - or believe that believing it will somehow ‘make it so,’ or at least, accelerate the process. But true enlightenment is not ‘cause-&-effect’ and nothing the ego can do - thinking, studying, practicing, mimicking, acting on it, believing, disbelieving - will ever ‘cause’ enlightenment. Believing something is that poor perennial substitute for actual Reality. You have to be careful to take what NIsargadatta said in context, and not overly-literally. Even though both he and Ramana Maharshi said things like “Believe you are in bondage and you are in bondage, believe you are free and you are free,’ both would immediately admit their enlightenment did not dawn simply as ‘cause-&-effect’ from thinking about it or believing it, really hard :-). The phantom thing (a ‘separate me”) that thinks & believes is the very thing that must disappear in order full enlightenment to be realized. If that dawns for you, you will never identify with or give much credence to anything you believe and most of what you think, ever again #################### TA Can one be spiritually awakened, yet still have an ego, or a sense of arrogance? Can one be spiritually awakened, yet still have terminal cancer? Can one be spiritually awakened, yet still desire & enjoy the cigarettes they’ve smoked all their lives, even as it does harm to their lungs? Can one be spiritually awakened, yet still feel anger and have occasional outbursts. If you said ‘no’ to any of the above, you’ve just disavowed the very complete enlightenments of widely-acknowledged sages like Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadhatta (who had or did all those things.) First, to clarify: Everyone has an ego. Enllightened “persons” don’t lose their ego…because they’re still a “person.” Almost every “spiritually awakened” sage has retained most or all of their original personalities. If they had a very edgy personality with arrogance and anger prior to awakening, they probably seem like an old grouch even after awakening :-) What they’ve lost is not their ego, but their identification with it. They know that they are not that, but rather, “I Am That,” as Sri Nisargadhatta said. They abide in, and as, Pure Consciousness, and they know they are free to “play around” with their ego personalities, while never re-identifying with them or taking them seriously. Even as they are ‘yelling’ at a student, they have massive humor about the whole thing. And if they are truly awake, “they” do not predetermine how they are going to act around those they are guiding. Consciousness acts through them, spontaneously, they are not the Doer. And because of that, whatever seems to be their expression, it’s always exactly what the student needed next. #################### Our everyday experience is a kind of symbolic representation of a deeper reality. #####################