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November 27, 2015 at 12:21 pm #45318rideforeverParticipant
Mankind suffers. Its easy not to notice, but if you could see inside people, there is a lot of pain.
And yes they do look for help, and on this planet it is met with the most horrific insincerity. And the suffering just multiplies.
Therapists and spiritual people, christ they really stab people in the heart in the end.
Most spirituality is just shit.
People don’t know what they are doing and don’t care. Perhaps the truth is that men are all just one step from insanity and are quite desperate inside, and the thin veneer of society hides a dark and desperate heart, hence all the wars and blood lust in the movies and video games and porn, the flowing hatred that you would see if you could read a newspaper with innocent eyes.
What is Qigong about ?
You press one button and then you “feel good”, like Pavlov’s dog. So what.
There has to be something better than this.
Does anyone actually have a “theory of operation” ?
Or is everyone just kind of flowing’a’long.
We must do much better as a species, than this.
And what really is the role of suffering, existentially. In many ancient traditions suffering exists to wake you up. It is the message from the universe that you need to change.
And so … what will happen if you take a pill to suppress the suffering? Or with your clever techniques of Qigong you energetically dissolve the suffering bypassing it.
What happens then ?
Yes very clever, and then ?
You no longer receive the messages to wake up ?Some say, especially from the USA, that all that suffering isn’t really necessary. You can just manifest your desires and for $5.99 you can be enlightened.
Is this really true ?
Manifest your desires, isn’t that what Gordon Gecko is doing on Wall Street, the ego in disguise ?
What about facing yourself ?
What about the dark night of the soul ?
Where is that in the Qigong ?
Some say that the ancient idea of suffering is no longer needed. But in truth the ancient idea has always been to ignore suffering, to lie about it, and that idea seems quite alive today as it has always been.
Today I sat in the church looked at Jesus hanging on the cross. What does it mean ?
Well there are 2 elements. The man crucified, and the cross.
My thinking was like this :
The man crucified means, recognize and face the truth of your suffering, and that this is the path to growth … the cross shows the direction of your potential growth, up, out, and deep within yourself.
Face yourself to grow.
Where is this in the Qigong ?
December 24, 2015 at 4:02 pm #45319AnonymousInactiveI was thinking about this today, rideforever.
I noticed that I had a loose strand of sadness in my heart and sat down (as I normally would, before learning qigong) to understand where this feeling had come from, what it was, and how to resolve it and grow through it.
It then occurred to me that all I needed to do was some inner smile and healing sounds work and it’d be “gone” in a couple minutes. But, I intuitively knew I needed to understand it first and grow in that way.
I am very new to Internal Alchemy and presume to have no “final” answers on this matter. Please keep this in mind as I will be dealing with terms to the best of my ability, but perhaps in an unhelpful and inaccurate way.
My guesses right now are that, due to my perspective, I fail to see the greater reality – that all my thoughts and feelings share an equal ontological status as the more mundane-seeming aspects of reality, like math, physics, etc.
I come from a Christian background which vaguely assumes a secular/spiritual dichotomy (though, perhaps, the more thoughtful deny it), and a personal philosophical background which places more meaning on thoughts than shapes, feelings than colors, ideas than matter.
Yet, what is my basis for these assumptions? A person dies if he is hit by a car – regardless of what moral, linguistic, or relational meaning his intention in crossing the street was based on. This tapestry of life has many threads, textures, and hues – but if you pull a string into place I don’t know if it makes much difference which level you were working on.
There is harmony or chaos.
But isn’t qigong cheating? Isn’t it cheating to perform some special movement that I didn’t do the requisite spiritual groundwork to create? Isn’t it bypassing some deep level of learning I need?
Well, we’d have to ask the rule-maker. Or at least the rule-enforcer (reality?) It would seem, based on the fact that I DO seem to grow when I do more qigong, that it is not cheating. In fact, perhaps we misunderstand the entire basis of reality if we’re asking these questions. It seems to me that things are more simple – that the complex is the beautiful manifestation of deeper, simpler principles and that we may manipulate those principles in any way we are able for any reason.
And furthermore, to think I’m cheating presumes that linguistic or psychological work is more useful than mathematical, geometric, physical, and energetic work. Who said that was the case? Are not they all just as real?
In fact, the exact opposite of our concern may occur. Perhaps, in our attempt to be “real” or face our pain, we may mistake something with a root in the physical with something psychological and try to resolve it with the wrong method. For example, let’s say my diet is wrecking havoc on my body and due to kidney trouble, I struggle to be brave. I may try to side-step qigong and diet work, thinking I need to confront the “real” issue – when in reality, my assumptions have blinded me to the more complex (or is it simple?) reality. Perhaps some qigong is the most authentic method of handling that situation. Perhaps I am avoiding energetic growth to nurture my pet-obsession with the psychological lense of reality.
I, personally, will just enjoy the ride of growth and follow my intuition as I flow in a way that seems to be more authentic, honest, and in accordance with the Dao or God’s word in my life.
January 18, 2016 at 2:44 pm #45321rideforeverParticipantI read your comments slowly because I appreciated them. I see how you are exploring life and reflecting on it, and learning.
On one level there is the teaching and learning of Qigong, of human relationships, and other references points in our outer reality. We engage with them, moving from one to another, making choices, adjustments, the material of the outer life.
And on a deeper level something is being learnt. Our “intuition” grows. This is the real level of learning. Like a farmer who after decades of ploughing the fields, he just knows some things. He has learnt from the soil, but his learning is perennial, as if he was using his work to learn the inner rules of his existence.
The Kybalion is one interesting book that discusses these inner rules. But … it’s just a book. I just say it for reference. It is better to be the farmer, then the rules are inside you, and it is a hard won thing to get them inside. I suppose the idea of such a book is that it is a shortcut.
Qigong similarly is an energetic shortcut … but it can be like putting lipstick on a pig. You can put a tiara on too, but … something is missing.
And that something is the result of a sensitive inner work, a reconciling of yourself, a learning, a self-remembering … that is the part that can’t be faked. That must be earned.
Your different interests and background I believe gives you a good spread of navigation points, different influences that you can use on your journey.
Is Qigong cheating, well it can be … but perhaps I am just talking about myself. Perhaps I have cheated a lot, but only for good reasons, I never got lost in it. The fastest way through a storm is to turn directly into it and accelerate. There are other times I curl up in my cave and lick my wounds. And other times I do the Qigong faithfully, and bow down before the teacher.
The intuition grew in me until I found the live wire … now, things are different.
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