Gaia: God Pod or Life, the Universe and Everything - Purpose of this Pod - The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:02:27 GMT

Patty, always great to have you drop in. I could see how this would be a super approach for troubled teens.

Peace,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:55:26 GMT

Opening, I am completely with you, this is more than just escaping (and I am so sorry to hear about your trying childhood). Thank God you had a way out!

Love,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://imagineIt.gaia.com — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:27:25 GMT

just saw this discussion and it made me smile ear to ear! I read the book years ago and LOVED it! In working with troubled teens I often refer to 'I hate myself' exercise - I remember it took me a week to be abel to actually do it myself!

Our 'heads' are so full of trash....that we take so seriously. (at least I do :-)

This book was a god-send and the 'I hate myself' exercise still comes in handy in a myriad of ways. Thanks to all for posting and engaging - and for the big smile!!!! Great way to start this new year!

Bright Blessings ~ Patty

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://opening.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:29:39 GMT

Nicole,

I started "going away" when I was a kid. I used to love to listen to music. Once, when around five, I put my ear to the speakers of one of those old huge radios from the forties. I closed my eyes, listening to the music, and entered a zone where I felt warm and safe. Due to other experiences, I learned that I could go to this place as long as I closed my eyes and sought it. So, I would go off to myself when I was feeling low and go to this place. Sometimes, when really , really low, I would hear the words "Go there, go there" in my head. I knew what was meant by "there". It involved concentrating but not concentrating and slowing my breath. I really didn't think about how to get there, I just would sit down and would focus but not focus. It was like reaching out and opening a door. You don't concentrate to open the door, you just have the intention to reach out and do it and you do it.

What I try to do now is stay there, as I believe we can, at all times. This isn't something I was taught to do, it was just "given" to me as a child. I remembered trying to explain it at times to my father. He thought I just had a wild imagination.

Now, I admit, I had a particularly trying childhood in some ways. Some psychologists would say I was trying to escape and just invented this place to cope. When I became a teenager and read about meditation and started reading Kahlil Gibran, and recognizing what he said as something that was really true and right, I mean really recognizing it as if I had heard it all before, I started thinking that there was more than just "escaping" a difficult situation involved in what I experienced. Reading Riscosoma's posts over time made me think back to these experiences and think that it was quite possible that what he describes is what I was doing. When I say I try to live there all the times, I just now made the connection to doing this then and what I do now.

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:00:06 GMT

Opening, I am fascinated by your childhood experiences of going away. I wonder now, where do we go when we step out of the usual stream in our mind? There seem to be many ways to do it (Alan has described some amazing ones, and others have too) so are we in the same "place"?

Light and joy,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:01:46 GMT

Hi 'I will'

Welcome to Gaia.

When you say you are a mystery do you feel you will always be a mystery or do you think it might be the first step of realising that you really don't know yourself and puts you on the path of self discovery?

The essence of 'The Lazy Mans Guide to Enlightenment' is that you already have the light of love and understanding within you waiting to be released, a type of imprisoned splendour.

The love of God abides in and on all, in Him we live and move and have our being.

It is so simple you need help to misunderstand it.

in love and peace

an eccentric Aussie

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://opening.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:21:51 GMT

I came back to this thread when notified that it had recently received new activity.

Joshua,

I re-read your question to me regarding my statement regarding fundamental characteristics. I think you could be right. The thing is, the characteristics I was refering to was this sense of compassion I have for other people. I have maybe been learning that I can retain that without letting other people walk all over me.

Andrew,

I very much want to read that book "Dance of a Fallen Monk." Amazon lists two versions. I am going to have to get this immediately.

Ricosoma,

I have also been thinking about your many posts regarding the space between thoughts and I think I finally get it. I want to ask you if it is possible to actually enter this space with your mind? I have these memories of when I was a child and finding this "place" where I would "enter" and there would be this golden light and I could be there while still being at school on the playground or in class. My teachers would spot me "going away" and would become quite concerned. But, when I "came from" this place, I would feel smarter and powerful and see them not as teachers but as women with concerned looks on their faces as if I was somehow transformed and I was then, in that moment of "return", older than them. Does this make sense?

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:33:20 GMT

ricosoma, it's true, thinking does make it so. Thank you.

I will, thanks for sharing in our discussion.

Love,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://wayoflife.gaia.com — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:50:35 GMT

Ask yourself, who, what why am I? You are a mystery. The world about you is a mystery. The most difficult thing for any human seems to be to admit being wrong- to confess error of belief and conviction-to unlearn false knowledge as well as to learn true knowledge. Real enlightenment is two fold 1) Reading of the word and believeing without a doubt. 2) through the holy spirit. We must understand that we are of human spirit [ matter] and god is of the holy spirit. When god calls us if we are willing he will infuse us with his very own spiritual holy, righteous and perfect character. This is what will bring us to love for one an all.

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://cloudhidden.gaia.com — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:20:13 GMT

Thinking makes it so

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:12:59 GMT

Alex, thanks for joining our discussion and sharing your blog :)

Andrew, yes, it should be the simplest thing in the world. Why does it often seem so complicated?

Love,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:14:34 GMT

One of the most difficult aspects to accept is the fact that to realise Truth IS our natural state and therefore it should be the simplest thing to grasp.

I think we've been programmed to think that there has to be a lot effort involved to 'earn the right' to be enlightened, when nothing could be further from the truth.

an eccentric Aussie

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://alexgreat.gaia.com — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:42:57 GMT

Pushking said: Sacred laziness the mother of a genius. Truth is usually simple. The problem is it's hard to find :)

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:15:56 GMT

That book by George Fowler looks very interesting, Andrew. I found a review here

It is very true about the mystical streams of faith, how much they overlap than diverge.

Love,

Nicole

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://opening.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:30:02 GMT

The best way to explain would be that when one gets a glimpse of the "other side", what is seen is marvelous beyond words, golden colors, pinks, and greens, that this world has nothing like, the sense of peace and love, the wisdom and knowledge and vision of all that you are, not can be, ARE, then it closes and there you are in your place in the phsyical, remembering how simple it seemed compared to the heaviness of this plane. How can that much serenity be your's and at the same time, the heaviness of this world be your's as well? I am not talking about an individual thing, a heaviness that comes from my circumstances. I am talking about a comparative thing.

Looking into the eyes of so many, even those with smiles on their faces that profess to happiness, you know that the heaviness is with them as well. It is the sense of separation that causes this. We are one with both, the heaviness and the Supreme. Please don't think I am talking about duality here. I am talking about walking in the world while tied to the spiritual. This is our "assignment". Bring the one into the other in your awareness at all times--Remember.

Then, there are the creatures of light and the creatures of darkness. This is where you get into duality. Are there ghosts, demons? If you allow your life to be filled with them, then there probably are on both sides. It is simple in that in remembering, we can get there and remembering seems to be such a simple thing. It is, and then it isn't. If it was as simple as blinking your eyes, we would all be there. To our natures it is in direct opposition to all that we have learned in this plane, which seeks to complicate it. The way it works is what is complicated to our natures, to our way of understanding. The most important thing is that we just Be. Get past the distractions and just Be. If it were easy to fully do this, we all would be walking on water, if we choose to do so. Getting up and going to work in the morning, making it through traffic, putting together a presentation, arguing before a panel of judges in a courtroom, this is far easier than dismissing everything that you see before your eyes in the physical world and acknowledging a tie, melding into that tie, being lifted up into that tie, when the world of senses has told you no such thing exists. Dismiss all you know of this plane and move oneself into another that is not seen, is not always felt, and when it is felt, it is felt within you, stirred by something that can't be described with our words. No one can direct you on how to get there. You must rely on a mixture of your heart, your mind, your innermost and strongest self, a self that you seldom see. That you may find is there, but no one has told you about it. If they did, you may think that they are nuts. It isn't really relying so much as allowing, opening, accepting.

It isn't like there is some pie in the sky cloud hopping place. It is vast as it is eternity. Understanding the nature of eternity, all that is, all that has been, all that will be, well that is complicated for the human mind. An organized, purposeful, never ending vastness. Our place within it is important. Yet, we are a very small part of it at the same time. No one, nothing is neglected, we can turn our eyes and ears away from it. Yet, it is still there with us, not just in us, but of us, at all times. Now, to some this sounds incredibly off the wall.

In the following, please keep in mind that the two worlds are not separate and only appear to be so. For instance, nothing is really solid. It only appears to be solid as the atoms or molecules are jammed in tighter in some things than they are in others.

I have been lucky, because I never looked for it. It came to me when I was a kid. I allowed myself to be distracted by this world. It returned, or appeared to return. It never went anywhere. It was always there and is always here. My senses of it are stronger at some moments. At others, I can only see what is in this world. This world is easier to communicate with, yet harder at the same time. The other one knows my heart. The physical world tries to guess at my heart, define my heart, and me. It pushes me to do the same. Ignoring this push, is, or seems to be, very hard. Sustaining the ability to ignore it, is, or appears, to be hard. There is work, there is food to be cooked, tables to be dusted, children to raise and to watch over (especially boys), dishes to be washed, husbands that never can find anything on their own, on and on and on. There are co-workers and bosses, and bills to be paid, and checking accounts to keep balanced, and rent or mortgages, car notes, car accidents. Yet, all while we do these things, it is there with us. I don't intend to describe the physical as a burden, all these things within it that distract are a blessing as well. A distraction nonetheless.

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:20:57 GMT

It is only as complicated as you allow yourself to be convinced it is.

What is it that you find complicated?

Jesus said "Truly I say to you, Whoever does not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it." Mark 10:15 (Lamsa Translation)

In love and peace

an eccentric Aussie

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://opening.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:50:39 GMT

Also, nothing in the Bible or that was stated by Christ ever promised that his message would heal all suffering, just that understanding could be gained and love in the mayhem could be found ,and peace with it, given. And, we are urged to love and give to each other in the midst of it all. In fact, the New Testament says that there will be no peace and that man will almost destroy man and that Christ will return before that happens. Take as much from this as you want. What it means will play itself out in time.

In my last post, I meant to say that it is a very "complicated" thing.

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://opening.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:20:02 GMT

It can come to the question of do you have to have a believer present for it to happen? Do you have to ask to receive? In my story, I did not ask to be kept safe; and, at the time I was by no means a "good Christian". I believed. I talked to God and Jesus, and had experienced God before. But, I was not the model "Christian" in the way I lived. My behaviors have changed as I have gained understanding and a clearer view, more remembering.

It was that I was loved and saved, and my friend as well, for some reason yet known to me. So, I maintain that this force for miracles, as I see it God, is just there, available at all times. It has nothing to do with religion as God is not about religion. Religion is man's concept of God. It could be accurate. It is likely that it is not. So, God, or Jesus, or a belief there in cannot be blamed for the lack of healing within the heart of man or where religion(s) may fall short. That is about the choices that a man makes in his life about who he is and that for which he hungers.

I agree with Arpita, it is a very completed thing that is not bound by religion or people or individualized beliefs. It is just there. It just is and is far too complicated to be understood by me as well.

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:57:48 GMT

I don't think it was a trick question Mike.

I believe the difference, as with most religions is whether you adhere to the scriptures attributed to that belief system, as revealed to that system of belief supernaturally, or whether you allow yourself to be controlled by an ecclesiastical leadership that tell you what you should believe.

In love and peace

an eccentric Aussie

Re: The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

http://mbsu.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:46:48 GMT

Certainly we have isolated anecdotal evidence of what faith can do. We have individual reports of what seems to defy logic and reality.

But man's inhumanity to man goes on unabated and so, although indoctrinated a christian, I have little hope for that, or any other religious dogma, to make even the slightest dent to the world's suffering.

Essentially the end of suffering through love was the Christ message which goes on unheeded, century after century. war and genocide, greed and corruption proceed unencumbered.

Therefore, under the circumstances, the message is no longer valid since it utterly fails to heal. Except, of course, for those individuals who provide reports based on personal experience.

I do NOT doubt their experience, only hope for a more collective experience. I believe such a collective experience is possible, but not under archaic, dogmatic, religious ideologies that have a proven track record of, not only failing to heal the masses, but provoking increased suffering to the masses throughout history.

Actually, no proof is necessary, simply because none is available.

Sorry, it was a trick question.

Thanks anyway...
mikeS