How are you feeling?

[BHelmet]

this. How does one determine if such events are significant in some way or if a cigar is sometimes just a cigar?

I usually go with “all of the above”

 

[BHelmet]

Interesting thought is that I think G differentiates between emotions and feelings.

 

[Andrew]

I would suggest reading Laura’s To Be Or Not To Be.

Can you post the link to this by any chance?

 

[Ina]

How does one determine if such events are significant in some way or if a cigar is sometimes just a cigar?

It depend on the zoom factor of the moment, but a cigar will always be a CIGAR.

 

[Andrew]

Can you post the link to this by any chance?

For anyone else who hasn't seen this, I think I found it here: To Be Or Not To Be by Laura Knight-Jadczyk

 

[meadow_wind]

I am going to be honest: I just do not like pain!

I am not equipped much to help people in distress. But as I emptied my mind trying to find something to say that could help you, this came to my mind:
No one likes pain. But as we grab onto something important to us, we then become able to go through the transformation and keep going toward a better state. In the same way a woman gives birth to a beautiful baby: one must go through pain for this beautiful thing to happen.
I'm not sure if this will be of any help, but it's what came to my mind.

 

[axj]

Accepting that some pain is a part of life, at least while we are here in the 3D existence, was also very difficult for me. I used to try to avoid feeling all pain or emotions I do not like - and then I found that this blocking actually creates much more pain and discomfort than what I am avoiding.

I also find it helpful to remember that at any given time we are never given more than we can handle. It is also possible to ask your Higher Self to make it easier for you when you feel it is too much.

 

[Nienna]

But in your current incarnation, you are only able to base your idea on experience of STS existence. Maybe you would not feel like ‘the only way to win is not to play’ if you had experience of an STO existence?

I don’t think we should assume that an STO existence would be ‘easy’, but perhaps it would be preferable. Perhaps it would be more fulfilling, or something like that.

The Cs explained why we chose to incarnate in an STS environment here:

Q: Why did I have so many children?

A: This is what you chose to do at several levels.

Q: It is a very great responsibility.

A: It is a great responsibility, but you have learned many lessons as a result. Prior to this incarnation you requested a "fast track," as the popular parlance would indicate, for ascension to the next level. You were told, as all were who request this, that such a challenge would be difficult, indeed. And, as is your soul imprint characteristic, you responded that, in your opinion, the challenge was not nearly as great as others perceived it. But, of course, those others giving the message were of higher density and, therefore, by nature, had much greater awareness and knowledge.

 

[BHelmet]

Can you post the link to this by any chance?

I’m sorry Andrew. I tried to look it up on Cass and realized it was a bunch of cherry-picked Laura quotes from the Wave mostly that I compiled that resonated with me and made a doc and gave it that title so I could reference it whenever. Victor might as well just reread the wave perhaps.

 

[T.C.]

Over the last couple of weeks, I've spontaneously broken down crying three times, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is exactly that I'm crying for.

It comes when I think about the world, and life, but it's not simply the horror and the suffering. It seems to come from the combination of horror vs. love.

The first time it happened, it took me back to when I worked at Amazon and experienced something that was almost the same, but less intense. When I worked there, there was a massive mezzanine where all the packages go before being split off down different conveyors for different dock doors. I worked up there, and now and again, I would look out over the whole warehouse. I worked the night shift. It was during the lockdown.

I would look out and see something that amazed me - human beings striving, pushing the rock slowly up to the top of the hill, doing so in the knowledge that tomorrow, that rock would have rolled back down to the bottom and they'd have to do it again. It's 3:30am, and here are all these unique individuals, with their lives, all stood at their stations packing box, after box, after box. What spirit our species has! I would marvel at these people, and simultaneously feel sadness at the fact that this is what they needed to do, and inspiration at their strength in doing it.

So back to the first of these recent times when I broke down. I was at work, in our quiet warehouse, just going about my business, and I had a flash through my mind, of similar sentiments to what I described above. But what I felt was this overwhelming love for humanity... but it hurt!

Thinking about it now as I write this, I suppose that makes perfect sense. The more you care about someone, the more you'll hurt for them.

I quickly had to pull myself together because, after all, I was working, but weirdly, as I did so, Gurdjieff came to mind. And I don't know why, but I got this feeling, and thought to myself, "This was how Gurdjieff felt about people." I have absolutely no proof whatsoever that that is exactly true - that he felt for people the way I was feeling in that moment - but it was just like a hunch, like it made sense, like if you view everything he ever said, or wrote, or did, through the lens of the idea that he did it because he loved people deeply, with an at least partially awake emotional centre, it just made sense.

And then Paul came to mind. Now I feel much less personally familiar with Paul than I do with G., but I just reasoned that it must have been the same for him too.

As I said, it's happened a couple of times since, and each time, the theme they seem to have in common is not the horror and suffering in the world, but my love for everyone who is here right now, going through all this.

All of that is a pretty shoddy and poor explanation of what I'm feeling, what I'm seeing. Words can't express it. I just had one of these brief emotional breakdowns when I got home from work and I thought of this thread. Just thought I'd share it.

 

[Kay Kim]

Over the last couple of weeks, I've spontaneously broken down crying three times, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is exactly that I'm crying for

It happened to me too. Some years ago I added lyrics to “The Prayer of the Soul “ and time to time I was singing over and over again. And one day when I was singing I found myself crying, I was bewildered and talking to myself, why am I crying for. That was mystery, a puzzle that I still don’t understand.

 

[PopHistorian]

I also find it helpful to remember that at any given time we are never given more than we can handle.

Not to go off track, but I have heard another say this and it doesn't make sense to me. I know it's taken from The Bible but there is debate (easily found online) about that, and also seems to negate free will. I suspect it all hinges on the definition of "handle." I absolutely believe that it is common for people to get more than they can handle, when the lack of handling is defined as someone or something suffering as result. As for the Cs, in Session 2 December 1995, Laura said that she was receiving more than she can handle, and the Cs didn't suggest this was false, but recommended steps to restore "balance."

 

[axj]

Over the last couple of weeks, I've spontaneously broken down crying three times, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is exactly that I'm crying for.

I never understood why it is called "breaking down", since it is actually good and healthy to acknowledge one's feelings or emotions, to let it out and let the tears come if they do. That way we process the heavy emotions and become clearer, which in turn makes it easier to go deeper or higher in meditation.

 

[axj]

I suspect it all hinges on the definition of "handle." I absolutely believe that it is common for people to get more than they can handle, when the lack of handling is defined as someone or something suffering as result.

Gurdjieff talks about intentional suffering, so suffering as such is not always useless or negative.

Not to go off track, but I have heard another say this and it doesn't make sense to me. I know it's taken from The Bible but there is debate (easily found online) about that, and also seems to negate free will.

"Never being given more than we can handle" is based on the idea that our Higher Self arranges events in our life for optimum growth. That is also why asking the Higher Self to make it easier works when we feel that we are getting close to overwhelmed.

Can you explain why you think that this negates free will?

 

[Jo Bugman]

Not to go off track, but I have heard another say this and it doesn't make sense to me. I know it's taken from The Bible but there is debate (easily found online) about that, and also seems to negate free will. I suspect it all hinges on the definition of "handle." I absolutely believe that it is common for people to get more than they can handle, when the lack of handling is defined as someone or something suffering as result. As for the Cs, in Session 2 December 1995, Laura said that she was receiving more than she can handle, and the Cs didn't suggest this was false, but recommended steps to restore "balance."

I’ve thought of it as the quote:
“Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.” By Marcus Aurelius

Which I interpret as everything we can/will experience in life is a part of living, and if I consider that my higher self had somewhat of an idea of what I was walking into I would not have chosen to reincarnate at this period of time if I didn’t think I could handle it. Of course now I know ‘handling it’ isn’t something I’m born ready for without putting in the work first, but just the notion from my higher self that I could potentially reach that point gives me some encouragement.