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Originally posted by parvati9

Universe gifts us with the divine awareness which realizes those who suffer are ME. Similarly those who rejoice are ME as well.

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Originally posted by So-Hi
That feeling of alienation is not an easy one.

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Originally posted by parvati9

Good post So-Hi. If agreement is offered, you may wish to point out that I have failed to understand. That is accepted. I probably don't understand. Nevertheless having read your opinion, I can appreciate it and perhaps offer a slightly different point of view.

Just living being present is better than practices. In time practices will lead to simply being present. BUT I see no drawback in continuing enjoyable practices once that is realized. And practices certainly do not necessarily lessen one's ability to live being present. Unless there are feelings of superiority due to one's perceived state of accelerated evolution. One may be happy and satisfied about one's progress without feeling superior. That, however, may be easier said than done. Who are we to judge? As you seem to say, those who live every day to the best of their ability are sometimes doing better than we..... who may judge ourselves superior or happier or more balanced or whatever. The disadvantage of feeling superior is that it emphasizes an imaginary separation, i.e., there is no division and therefore nothing to be superior to.

"Learn to enjoy the perfection in the hideous imperfection and cultivate an inward smile otherwise you will be miserable." For me, this is only half the picture. We all know there are unspeakably horrible things happening (mostly to others), are we to attempt to distance ourselves and be unmoved by their plight? Are we to pretend they don't exist? Are we to say - they don't concern me - therefore my part in all this is to cultivate inner silence and remain unmoved, so it will not upset and disturb my harmony how others are obviously quite vulnerable to hideous imperfection? If we justify or rationalize hideous aspects of reality, don't we sweep it under the carpet where it can never be addressed or helped?

Yes, of course I should be concerned with mitigating my own suffering, and perhaps that peace will have a good enough effect on others. There seems to be a balance in all this. We maintain our own peace yet silently send healing and upliftment to others. That is not to say we are enjoying the perfection, but only that we are perhaps being all that we can be, given the totality of circumstances involved. Nevertheless, I would caution in using the idea of karma for justification of unspeakably corrupt and ruthless protocols.

There are requirements (our physiology demand these) and there are addictions (our physiology and/or psychology likes these but can do without them). "Honestly the very act of drawing breath is spiritual there is nothing about our existence that is not." I do not agree. It is only our awareness which is spiritual. It is our awareness which spiritualizes everything. Our breath is just a common occurrence, nothing special, it is our awareness of it that imparts the spiritualization or sanctification. Our awareness of the suffering of others may serve to spiritualize hideous imperfection - in a way. But only if we separate ourselves out from the equation, which we know is the product of illusion.

"..if you would see the unity you already have, there is no place to look outside of yourself or the outside of others but rather within." This would be a seeming paradox. In looking outside of ourselves or to the exterior of others, are we not also looking at ourselves? There is no separation, so everywhere we gaze we are looking at ourselves. The inside and outside are the same; it is the false dividing perception which fosters illusion. Ultimately it is all one. Nevertheless, it is our awareness of the essential truth which calms, perfects and heals.

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Originally posted by parvati9

More thoughts on learning to cultivate an inward smile. What is called the half-smile here. This is almost mandatory at some point on the spiritual path. It is a gift. Universe gifts us with the divine awareness which realizes those who suffer are ME. Similarly those who rejoice are ME as well. For those who are experiencing troubles, maybe all we can do is allow a stream of divine embrace to flow out, a welcome, and soothing calm connecting all of everything together. Service and sacrifice when the opportunity presents and the divine moves us to respond. We are aware that it is the divine moving in us, and therefore no credit to our individual selves. It is said that good karma attaches to illusion just as readily as bad karma. That is only if we are identifying as the doer of our actions. When we know it is the divine within invigorating our response, we see the whole supporting itSelf. As opposed to an individual acting to perform a good deed. I think Sunyata recently expressed basically the same thing in another topic.

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Originally posted by Charliedog


We are all alone and we are seeking outside for divine love, we want to merge, become that divine love and we seek that in the other. The only place we will ever find this divine love is inside ourselves, and until we are completely united, we will have this deep graved longing, this desire.

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Originally posted by Charliedog

@ Sunyata

Love can only grow and to feel irritable and alienated can also be hormonal

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Oh and do you know how to make a hormone????

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Originally posted by So-Hi

At least I didn't bring up the "m" word again.

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Originally posted by So-Hi



... if you watch without watching you will see new dimensions in those around you unfolding and get caught by surprise wondering hey where did that come from were they always possessed of that knowledge, that heart , that soul or are the things I am bringing back with me somehow being gifted to them?

Here is a bigger question.

Am I changing and now able to perceive what was right in front of me all along am I now seeing the spiritual being my husband, wife, children etc... truly are for the first time. have I been so blind as not to see what was before me and so incapable of true perception that even now I am only getting glimpse as per my ability?

I rather think it is not one way or the other but then again I like the idea of giving and being in control as all givers are and do, which is why those who receive without genuine need often feel uneasy but I rather think that the later rather than the former is more truthful at-least in my case.

But what if the later has another dimension? what if the practices are really not allowing us to see more? What if the practices are actually helping us to forget?

Yes Forget.

Forget to see the same thing in the same way we always have and when the preconceived knowing of another is dropped away like old garments behold a naked beautiful woman stands before you who before was the wife grown old and accustomed to or the husband who is known for his ways oh that's just Dad.

What if we are forgetting to rely on the lazy underpinnings of conditioned perception and in those brief glimpses see the radiant one before us.

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Originally posted by parvati9

More thoughts on learning to cultivate an inward smile. What is called the half-smile here. This is almost mandatory at some point on the spiritual path. It is a gift. Universe gifts us with the divine awareness which realizes those who suffer are ME. Similarly those who rejoice are ME as well. For those who are experiencing troubles, maybe all we can do is allow a stream of divine embrace to flow out, a welcome, and soothing calm connecting all of everything together. Service and sacrifice when the opportunity presents and the divine moves us to respond. We are aware that it is the divine moving in us, and therefore no credit to our individual selves. It is said that good karma attaches to illusion just as readily as bad karma. That is only if we are identifying as the doer of our actions. When we know it is the divine within invigorating our response, we see the whole supporting itSelf. As opposed to an individual acting to perform a good deed. I think Sunyata recently expressed basically the same thing in another topic.

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Originally posted by Charliedog

Hi So-Hi,

About your elongated reply , some new insights bubbled up here about why it is more complicated with the family relations here.

That is what I would like you to know. You shared this, I read it, it gave me insight, and the insights are not in the words you wrote. But they influenced me. This way all is happening here on the forum, we are not the doers, we are sharing and learning at the same time.

We have to listen to the silence between the words, and even in the written language this is happening.

That is the reason why I love poetry....

Namasté

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Originally posted by lalow33

So-Hi,
I enjoyed your long free form post. Seems honest and real. I have an immediate family who isn't into yoga, but they all went with me on a yoga retreat and had a good time with all the other yoga practitioners. My extended family isn't into yoga either, but I could tell them every weird experience I've had, and I'd still be the sane one.

It's not my job to convince other people to do stuff. No one listens to me, just like I don't listen to other people.

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