Nature of Debates!

[anart]

Hi luke,

Don't worry about being judged - a lot of people here have felt suicidal and have done things we look back upon and cringe. It's part of being human.

Opening up a can of worms of emotions is a good thing - cans have bottoms. My point is that, often, the scariest thing about feeling negative emotions is that we think that if we really feel them, there will be no end to them and we'll get lost and drown in them. We feel that they are so powerful and frightening that we must, at all costs, block them out. This is not true. In fact, negative emotions are most terrifying while they lurk in the background, in the dark where they can grow in our imagination to mythic proportions. When we let go and allow ourselves to really feel them - fully - we realize they are not infinite; they have an end and when we reach it we are still here, and better for having dragged them into the light of experience.

I used to be terrified of feeling sad and afraid - I had this idea that if I really let myself go there, I would lose myself forever because my sadness and fear was this ocean of pain. An ocean so much larger than I was.

For years and years, I tried to avoid it, blocked it out, shut myself down and stopped living at all really. This put enormous internal pressure on me and my health and life suffered terribly. Long story short, once I threw myself into those emotions - took the leap and just dived into them without holding back - I found out that the can did have a bottom and I was still here after feeling it all.

We are stronger than we think - that is one guarantee I can make in this world of chaos. ;)

 

[Nienna]

That is why, I repeat, you have no measure and live passively according to your likes and dislikes.

Is there really another way of living life other than according to your likes and dislikes?? I mean, I try and do things I like and try and avoid things I dont like. How else can I go about living if it is not this way?? I really have no idea. Sometimes I find myself doing things I dont like, but more often than not, it is out of necessity not out of free choice. So even in this way, I act passively. I hope this makes sense.

Yes, luke, there is another way to live. Consciously. Living by what you like and dislike, it is really the predator that is living by "its" likes and dislikes. By doing what "it" doesn't like and not doing what "it" likes, "you" are then making a conscious decision. It is called the Work. And it is called the Work because it really is work to stay conscious, to self-remember and self-observe as often as you can. To spot those programs, to identify them and, eventually, to be able to control them.

Have you yet read all the Wave Series and Adventures With Cassiopaea? There are a lot of important information in them.

Also, very important reading is In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspenski, Narcissism Big 5 books and other related topics in the recommended reading list.

A lot of work, I know, but it is probably the most important work you can do. And, also, you have to not only read these materials, but to apply these things to yourself, as you admirably did with "The Initiation" by Madame de Salzmann. :)

I think that it is wonderful that you are asking these questions and actually looking at how things are applied to yourself after reading the material suggested to you. Good job!

 

[Gertrudes]

I think that it is wonderful that you are asking these questions and actually looking at how things are applied to yourself after reading the material suggested to you. Good job!

I think so to, it was great to see how you used the material you've been given luke.

It's very hard, if not impossible, to see what's really going on when you're a child, and how things are affecting you. The same is true when under depression, where one barely has energy to get through and survive. As we become stronger, surviving turns to living, and I use the word living within this particular context, since to live in the full sense of the word much greater work on oneself is needed.
After the turmoil of a difficult childhood and subsequent depression, after we have finally began to live, a stronger emotional and mental base has also been built. This can be a particularly precious time for us to go back, look at the wounds, begin to understand what really happened, and initiate a much needed deeper healing process. I may be off, but it seems to me that this could very well be where you're at :)

My point is that, often, the scariest thing about feeling negative emotions is that we think that if we really feel them, there will be no end to them and we'll get lost and drown in them. We feel that they are so powerful and frightening that we must, at all costs, block them out. This is not true. In fact, negative emotions are most terrifying while they lurk in the background, in the dark where they can grow in our imagination to mythic proportions. When we let go and allow ourselves to really feel them - fully - we realize they are not infinite; they have an end and when we reach it we are still here, and better for having dragged them into the light of experience.

I want to thank you for these words Anart. They've very accurately explained one of my biggest hidden fears, the one thing I have been working on over the past months, now made clearer when I read this.
Thank you again, this was very relevant for me.