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Hi Wendy,
I think you are very courageous for sharing your experience and for participating in the subsequent discussion in such an open way.
I am not sure I could have done it…
Emelgee
Hi Max,
Just wanted to say how wonderful your reply to Wendy was. I also don’t really call myself a Daoist or any other type of religion or path. I only refer to myself as a Daoist because I follow the Dao.
I think we are all Daoists on this board because we attempt to do the same. My definition of a Daoist is one who follows the Dao, just as a Siddha is one who follows God.
I totally support what you said 110%, that you need self-discipline in any practice, otherwise you’re not going anywhere.
Smiles,
FajinPlato and max,
You should always add that these are of course YOUR OWN OPINIONS. Especially the “Life is suffering with no resolution save death” part, you sho’nuff don’t speak for me. I AM finding resolution and completion.
Live your own life of suffering if that is your choice.
Thank you Emelgee, I feel supported knowing that there is still another woman hanging around somewhere on this forum who is adding very nice replies and shares her own opinion. Thank you again for being here.
Hello you two,
I am curious how you can expect to get good sustainable results in self-cultivation if you stress being tough over being compassionate.
In my personal practices, I rely on how much I love doing them and the excitement of the goal to motivate me. I do not ever consider myself to be disciplining myself.
It sounds like you are taking the path of most resistance instead of the path of least resistance which is contrary to the basic premises of what we say we are studying. Why does the idea of fighting/conflict appeal to you when the point of the whole thing, the goal, is transforming our dualistic thinking into wholeness consciousness?
The idea of all this being a battle inside oneself (even though it is often experienced that way) is no more than a perspective we can take. The heart sees only one, the personal mind doesn’t want to. It wants conflict because that is what feeds it. In my experience, after enough pain has been felt from holding yourself outside of your own love, you change and stop fighting.
As I see it, the excitement of fighting is an ego attachment which drains you of Being and replaces it with a false sense of self which comes from having to prove how powerful you are.Love, Alexander
Smiling broadly at our human dilemma!
Ya gotta luv it.Thanks to all of us.
By the way, Pietro, I really appreciate the depth of your responses here. Your solidity and sobriety is a stabilizing and nurturing presence. There are others like this too, absolutely.
Love, Alexander
Hi Alexander,
I think you have the wrong picture. Self-discipline does not imply any kind of forcing yourself or being tough on yourself, neither does it imply fighting or any kind of rigidity whatsoever. It can be rigid and forceful if you make it that way. In my martial arts practice, I always maintain a smile on my face, wether Taiji, Tantric Martial Arts, or Shaolin. I do not force myself to practice when I don’t want to.
But the thing is that I disciplined my mind at first to practice for a long duration each day, only going as much as I could handle without any undue strain, and I soon wound up practicing martial arts for about half my day which is what I do everyday. I love to practice and don’t need to push myself as it gradually gets more and more effortless as I practice.
To me, discipling yourself can mean loving the practice so much that you want to do it. You can use force as your motivation, love as your motivation, desperation as your motivation, etc. Disciplining yourself means conditioning yourself. You may condition through any of these motivations. I do it through love like you.
Metta,
FajinHa, ha.. (smiling, smiling) I know, Fajin. I can feel where you’re coming from.
I used the word “tough” because Max used it previously with Wendy.
Be at peace, it’s alright.
-A
You are right again Pietro, very big smile to you and to Alexander I just was heading to post on another treath :’You have such a gentle and nice way to express yourself Alexander’!
Can you feel how it elevates our mutual energy field? It elevates my heart, it increases my energy body like I can embrace you from behind my computer; it brings a smile on my face and a deep sense of connection, my energy centers start to buzz. When we could uplift each other like this, this world would be soooooo much better!
Living Alchemy.Your warm hearts make me very HAPPY :))))))) embrace embrace embrace all the super males on this forum ;))
may this vibe of gratitude and respect continue.
W>>When we could uplift each other like this, this world would be soooooo much better! <<
INDEED!!!
I like to think that this forum is one means of helping to create that reality.
+ – = mat
If it is so obvious, why should I add a disclaimer in CAPS?
You say you are finding resolution and completion yet you’ve done nothing to bring this miraculous discovery of yours to the world to save others (and please don’t say you are a HT instructor).
You are still of the DELUSION that suffering is a choice that can so easily be controlled–just take a few courses at the HT!
Those people suffering in Afghanistan from depleted uranium no doubt chose that, right?
I suppose you are going over there to teach them Kan and Li?
Hi Max,
“Being tough is a choice in certain cases when toughness is needed. Being compassionate is not a choice- it’s a state outside your choice. It’s a culmination of all your spiritual work and rises by itself in your daily interractions. It takes compassion to be tough with people you care and love if what you give them will benefit them and improve their life. I’m tough about my training because I realised long ago if I don’t push it to the limit I would be still talking about cultivation without actually doing much.”
I like your feeling-tone underneath here.
For me, what you say is true except what you say about compassion not being a choice. I can choose to love myself or to be another way with myself. HOW I push myself is the point. Not with a stiff hand and criticism but with an excitement for who I am becoming and a respect for who I am now. Fajin tells me that you taught him the word “metta” and that it means loving kindness. See what I mean?
I might ask myself what good thing does that part that wouldn’t actually do much without my being tough want. It sounds like forming a relationship with “it” would allow you to achieve an ease of cooperation and you’d expend less energy getting things to happen. What is the underlying goal?
I bet “it” wants your love.Love, Alexander
W: “You are right again Pietro, very big smile to you and to Alexander I just was heading to post on another treath :’You have such a gentle and nice way to express yourself Alexander’!”
Thank you, Wendy. My heart is happy now.
I feel we are creating something wonderful across the world by doing this.“Can you feel how it elevates our mutual energy field? It elevates my heart, it increases my energy body like I can embrace you from behind my computer; it brings a smile on my face and a deep sense of connection, my energy centers start to buzz. When we could uplift each other like this, this world would be soooooo much better!
Living Alchemy.Your warm hearts make me very HAPPY :))))))) embrace embrace embrace all the super males on this forum ;))”
MMMMMmmmmmm! I feel all those things too.
Yes, living alchemy. Beautiful! Big hugs to you.M: “may this vibe of gratitude and respect continue. I like to think that this forum is one means of helping to create that reality.”
Yes, the unity of our thoughts and other vibrations and the alchemy produced from it all is powerfully creative.
“+ – = mat”
This is interesting Mat, what does it mean? Balance? Also, how are you doing?
Love to all, Plato included,
Alexander
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