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Hi stevierojas. I can't be a teacher to you, but I can share some ideas that might be of great help to you. A few things to keep in mind are: 1. Have faith, and trust that everything is happening as it should. Let go and know that everything is okay. 2. Look to a Higher Power. If you don't believe in God, there's still a deeper part of you, your "divine nature," that is available to help you. You can always ask God or your divine nature questions, then sit quietly, and answers will come to you- you'll receive guidance in the form of thoughts and feelings. Also, you can always ask God or your divine nature for help whenever you need it. 3. Know that the kind of person you are matters FAR more than things like which spiritual practices you do, or even what you believe. Treat yourself and others with kindness- that's what the world needs. 4. Don't underestimate the value and power of forgiveness. If you can't forgive others out of love, at least let go of anger for YOU. Do it because it's best for you. 5. Keep things simple, not complicated. A major concept of Taoism is simplicity. Seek simple answers to your questions. 6. Do what gives you peace. Do what makes you truly happy. God wants you to be happy and wants you to do what gives you joy. These are a few of the most important things I've learned. Good luck. All is well.

I recommend Spring Forest Qigong. springforestqigong.com is the website. If you're new to meditation, try mindfulness of the breath and the "just be" meditation. For mindfulness of the breath, just bring your attention back to the breath whenever your mind wanders. Don't force it. It should be natural. For the "just be" meditation, just sit there and be. Let thoughts come and go naturally without effort. Good luck and I hope you enjoy interacting here.

Something has become very clear to me, as I've come across books which support various perspectives, whether spiritual, political, scientific, or otherwise. I've never once in my entire life seen such a book in which the author didn't have a personal, emotional investment in defending their point of view. Where is the honesty, the objectivity? It seems that every author has an ego agenda of defending their opinions.

I've found that integrity naturally leads to consciousness, to awareness of one's thoughts and feelings. When I'm having my integrity, I'm in touch with myself, I'm naturally self-aware. Yet mindfulness can also lead to integrity. When you observe yourself, you can see any dishonesty or lack of integrity clearly, and that leads to healing. Jon Kabat-Zinn said in Mindfulness for Beginners that conscious living, mindful living, is the only healthy, sane, and wise way to approach one's moment to moment experience. What I'm saying is that sanity can precede conscious living, or vice versa. Each lead to the other.

I don't claim to fully "know what love is," and it was the realization that I don't that made me want to post this. I do feel though that I have had a fairly accurate idea of love throughout my life, and although I've failed many times in this respect, I have tried to interact with others in ways that were kind and respectful toward them. What I want to say is, people seem to have varying degrees of clarity about the nature of love. I don't mean in a philisophical way, but as a matter of relating to others (and also to oneself) in the kinds of ways that would be regarded as "loving". An example is my older sister's parenting. My nephew told her once, when he was only about four, that it made him mad when she would tell him to do things. A very mature and healthy expression of emotion imo. She responded, "I'm your mom and you have to do as I say." I just feel that she could have really blessed him if she had said something like, "Oh thank you for telling me honey, I'll think about that. If you ever get mad, please tell me and we can talk about it. I love you." You see, it wasn't that she was trying to be a bad mom. But, her reaction didn't seem to me to reflect a very accurate understanding of what love really is. J. Krishnamurti said, "Can you put your whole being into finding out what love is?" What is a truly loving way to interact with others? How would love respond in a certain situation? We demonstrate our personal answers to these questions every day, as we live our lives.

Perceiver, I have a pretty strong feeling about what might have happened, and some ideas about a possible solution. First thing, health, vitality, and happiness are your natural state. When those things aren't being experienced, they're being BLOCKED. It sounds like you created a "block" to your energy and life force when you denied your sexual desire. Your life force and spiritual energy were manifesting as sexual desire, and you blocked it out. The solution is to release the block, and to allow the energy to freely flow again. There are several effective ways to go about doing that, but the key is naturalness, which is ironically a Daoist concept I just read about before reading your post. To fully experience naturalness, just sit down with your eyes closed and BE, totally naturally, without effort, and without trying to control your thoughts. Just let thoughts come and go naturally. What you'll be doing when you meditate this way is releasing any blocks and negative energy, just by being yourself, sitting there being totally natural. A quote from J. Krishnamurti is, "Meditation is the total release of energy." You've created a barrier, a block, to your energy, and meditation that is totally natural and effortless can release it and get your energy freed up and flowing again. Btw, I recommend just sitting in whatever position is natural and comfortable for this kind of meditation. It's true that sitting with the back straight is best for some kinds of meditation, but for what I'm suggesting the key is to be as natural as possible.

Do what gives you peace. Do what you feel secure and comfortable with. Make a choice then ask yourself if you feel at peace with it. Have faith in the process, that you're progressing in the right way for you. I've heard great things about the inner smile, although I haven't tried it. Finally, there's an underlying sense in many people that things aren't okay, that there's something wrong or bad. Just know that everything is okay. If it helps, repeat to yourself, "All is well" occasionally. One reason I'm saying this is because, when people have a feeling that things aren't okay, it interferes with their spiritual practices.

Aletheia, I'm very inexperienced with the practices you're referring to, so I can't offer any good advice about them. But, I can remind you of a few things that could really help, as you're obviously here at this website to grow and explore your spirituality. 1. Just remember that how you treat others matters far more than which meditation or qigong technique you do. Love and kindness are of supreme importance. 2. Secondly, judgmental emotions such as anger and guilt (anger directed toward oneself) are useless and stand as "blocks" to joy and happiness. Develop the discernment and wisdom to let them go if you haven't already. I know those two things are very simple, but simple ideas like that can be very helpful I think. Good luck and I hope you enjoy interacting here.

Do your best. Be the best you can be. This is simple but profound, and most people don't live this way.

Perceiver, I'm not sure about your question, I really have no idea what the answer is. But one thing does come to mind, which is that the universe and ultimate reality are two different things. The universe is form. It's a manifestation of the universal life/love/consciousness, just as you and I are. As you and I are growing and expanding, so is the universe. But, the universal itself, ultimate reality, is not growing or expanding. It's beyond time, change, and becoming. It's already infinite and has no limits or boundaries. This is our shared universal Self. You may already believe this, I just wanted to point out the distinction between reality itself and the universe.

Here's what I think are some of the key concepts of Buddhism. 1. Beliefs aren't very emphasized. You don't need "faith" in Buddhism, but discernment, which comes through mindfulness. 2. Attachment is the problem. Attachment creates suffering when it isn't fulfilled. 3. The nature of life is impermanence. Impermanence is the simple and observable fact that all relative phenomenon and experiences are temporary and constantly changing. Through the understanding of impermanence, attachment and suffering can be transcended. 4. Mindfulness is the way to gain insight and recognize impermanence. This is my take on it, which is largely just what I've found helpful in my own experience. I feel that we mainly get from reading and studying that which works for us, what we personally find helpful.

Jadespear, Thanks for sharing some of your understanding of religions. I definitely agree that the conditions of society at the time of the beginning of each religion profoundly influenced the nature of those religions. Also, there's no doubt that, as you said, religions change over time, with the additions, variations, and sometimes corruptions of people. I wonder if evangelical Christianity is anything close to what Jesus originally intended it to be.

This came to mind, have a dream of finding your dream. I think this applies to a lot of young people, who would like to have something, a plan or dream for their life. It can be a journey to finding something like that, as you're saying. One has to really want it, and eventually, when they're ready and willing, they'll find their dream, they'll figure it out.

1. let your mind be natural 2. don't deliberately choose to think, but don't make any effort not to think 3. let thoughts come and go naturally, on their own, without effort It's very easy to do this kind of meditation. It can be done sitting down, or as you go about the day. It's an easy way to deal with thoughts and emotions. The difference between this, you could call it the "just be" meditation, and mindfulness, is that you're not observing the contents of consciousness, just letting them come and go. I shared this because it's what I'm focusing on in my own practice.

There are two different interpretations of Rene Descartes' idea, "I think therefore I am." One is that we exist because we think. We think, therefore we exist. The other is that the fact that we think is proof that we exist. "I think, therefore I must exist." To put it another way, the fact that we're aware of our existence is evidence that we exist. Any thoughts on these two different perspectives on this idea, and which is what Descartes meant?

Thursday, I've had problems too, and have also been hospitalized before. The main thing that helped me was when I realized that healing and growth come from one's divine nature, from a deeper, spiritual part of you. To experience that healing and growth, you don't have to DO anything, you don't have to TRY. Basically, everything is already happening perfectly, as it's supposed to. Your problems are part of the perfection, part of the "divine order" of your life. Healing can happen naturally and easily, it's something that takes place when one simply stops trying so hard, stops forcing it, and "gets out of the way." Your divine nature will heal you naturally. You don't have to do it yourself. So then what do you have to DO? You see, it's a simple understanding- that your deeper Self, your divine nature, is ALREADY in control of your life. So just enjoy your life, just be yourself, and know that the healing journey is unfolding perfectly, and just let your deeper Self do its work. This is what helped me. Good luck.

My understanding is that there are two main levels of enlightenment. The first is liberation, which the Zen Buddhists call "little enlightenment." The second is realization, which the Zen Buddhists call "big enlightenment." Liberation, or little enlightenment, is when you've understood and accepted divine truth. Realization, or big enlightenment, is after you've fully LIVED that truth, after you've fully experienced it. At that point, you fully embody it. So basically, first you find the truth, then you have to fully live it and experience it.

Thanks for sharing this, Pilgrim. The article said that the "Buddha of the next age" is Maitreya. Check out the website share-international.org . It's about Maitreya, who many believe is the "second coming of Christ," and the messiah that all religions have been waiting for.

That's how I see it. A friend of mine once said that spirituality can't be contrived. Sri Chinmoy said that one's progress is entirely the result of grace. The main thing is that everything is happening perfectly, life is unfolding as it should, and our choices are not made consciously (although they appear to be), but on a deeper level of our being. An example is planning. Sometimes you plan, and then never end up doing the thing you planned to. Other times, you don't plan at all, but do something because you know in your heart it's the right choice. Our plans and intentions often have little to do with the direction our life takes. It happens as it's supposed to.

This truth is so important that it couldn't be overemphasized imo. Except for "New Age" (for lack of a better way of putting it) teachers, nearly all traditions overlook it. ACIM defines "death" as the apparent (but not actual) loss of one's divine nature and identity. It says, "What is the end of death? Nothing more than this; the realization that the Son of God (all beings) is guiltless, now and forever." Essentially, "enlightenment" is knowing your innocence, your worth, which are part of your divine nature. Now, I DO believe a person can be awake, realized, or whatever, and not INTELLECTUALLY understand that all beings are innocent. BUT, they must have "found their innocence" in some way- whether they call it "innocence" or not. The shortcut to enlightenment, the easy approach that can save years or perhaps even lifetimes, is the total acceptance of the fact that one is entirely guilty of nothing.

Not necessarily imo. What I would do is find one or more that really resonate with you, and let those be your main mantras. Basically, I think it can be a good idea to have just one, but for many people more than one is the right choice. What you don't wanna do is keep trying tons of different mantras, and never stick with them. I would choose one or several which you FEEL GREAT ABOUT, and let those be your lifelong mantras.

One of my favorites: ooh-sa Although I admit I haven't used it much because I use a TM mantra. ooh-sa is supposed to help with anger.

I've come across a few online, interactive courses in Buddhism, but I'm more interested in books. Of course, there are many good books about Zen, Tibetan, and other forms of Buddhism. But what I'd really love to find is a book that gives a "complete course" in Buddhist spirituality. From "A to Z." Please let me know if you know of any excellent books of that sort. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your replies. thelerner, thanks for the two suggestions. I'm gonna check out Zencast and infiniteSmile right now.

It's clear to me that people, including myself, both fear and avoid their own divine Self. Yet our Self is also what we want most. Ironically, what we're really afraid of and what we really want are the same- our divine Self. If we can look upon this, if we can recognize our fear of, and also our desire for, our Self, maybe we could overcome that fear and manifest the desire. Perhaps self-observation, self-awareness, could be the solution. I feel that if we can see the problem clearly, in that understanding lies the solution, the resolution of the conflict.