Unota

This thread makes me so happy. Look at all of you.

Hmm, this sounds like a fun read. I'll add it to my book list.

As for the separation from religion thing: In my personal view I just think you can just do 'whatever you want forever.' You can detach your practices from the historical beliefs however you want. You can twist it to suit you personally however you want. You can know as little or as much about it as you want. What am I going to do about it? Even the uneducated cultivators are not doing anything to harm me, even if it annoys me a bit that people don't seem to understand that the DDJ can only be truly understood through personal interpretation because it was written in vaguely interpreted ways on purpose. When you read a translation, you are only reading what it means to the person that translated it. Which, is why you have a bunch of translations that seem vastly different from each-other. I also think that trying to detach religion from a system that is deeply tied into these beliefs historically, shows an aversion to religion in general, which I don't entirely agree with. Religion is tied to the evolution of culture, the foundation of how people thought and why they did things. I think if you completely detach the religious aspect from the philosophical aspect, then you reject it as a whole. As for the, why there are so few daoist posts, and why I don't typically interact or add my own: I think it's silly to argue about things unless I just want to put my own personal opinion out there, which I don't really think matters that much, and I'm not usually inclined to do. That might be the case for other people, which is probably, why we don't have a lot of 'forum fodder,' as Keith put it. It just kind of feels like...a waste of time to me. Maybe if that is something that you like to do. I'm sure that there are people that get genuine enjoyment from debate. But I would rather be doing other things. I do really like legends and learning about them. I like learning about inner spirits. I like learning about historical figures which may or may not have even existed, or the progression of external to inner alchemy throughout history, and what 'external alchemy' looked like in certain time periods. But I don't really feel like starting a whole thread about it. I also think that a lot of things people posted about on here in the past have been a bunch of 'new age nonsense,' and I think that the concept of achieving some sort of spiritual 'superpowers' or 'immortality' via things like 'staring at the sun' have always been a depiction of self-inflated ego, even throughout history. People took things like mercury pills to live forever. (Question: Why would you do something like that? Why would you even want to?) Despite the fact that I love to read about it, I have no personal interest in applying 'alchemy' to myself and will not talk about it in any related threads. And, like Keith said, a lot of this is all more something you put to practice rather than typically talk about. And, from observation, I also think that a lot of these daoists on this forum are grumpy old men with too much free time. I am not particularly interested in having any discussions with any of them. I think that a lot of Daoists are very...self-absorbed. And it comes across in the way that they speak. I like the Buddhists more. This is probably the most 'opinion' that I have put into a post. But I feel obligated since for once, people are actually talking about something that interests me.

What...? Is this the 'can we separate religion and philosophy in Daoism' debate again?

Hmm, I don't really do anything at all. It's too late to really 'start' or invest in anything, so I often just lie there and...chill? I often have problems falling asleep, so it's not good to get invested in anything in the evenings...I won't want to go to bed. I have ADHD too! but rather than the 'boredom' problem, I get too deeply lost in things. It's hard for me to prioritize my focus to important things. Hours go by, I do not even notice that I am hungry, that I haven't eaten yet, or...that it is now three in the morning.

I think maybe I want a PPD...? I'm not sure how often I would post in it. But on occasion I ramble in my status feed, and after looking at other peoples PPD's, maybe that would be a better place for it...? hahaha.

I think that it depends on where the 'strong emotion' is coming from. I think that only you would know 'what to be done' from there. Why exactly are you angry? Is it anger at the world? Is it jealousy? Is it grief? Is it stress? Do you feel wronged? Why do you feel wronged? Ask yourself why, why, why. And when you finally understand, it is also one thing to understand, and one thing to directly apply it, to resolve this anger. To remind yourself that this thing you are clinging to, that you should stop clinging to it, and let it go. It was okay to be angry, but to keep that anger, it is causing you suffering. I think...It is probably a gradual thing. It takes time. I think it's okay to talk about that here too.

Hahaha, right, If you're meditating to purposefully try to fix something in that moment, all you're going to think about is how hard you're trying to fix it. How would that work? 'I'm meditating...I'm meditating...This is going to fix all of my problems...I'm meditating so hard...any moment now...any second now...It's going to work...I am SO unbothered by this...'

Aww, I thought he was funny.

My case was much more recent than childhood. I guess in a way it was tied to a rut I tend to get into, to want to be able to control or do something about things. I've seen a lot of suffering people lately. I did what I could, but, I couldn't help but still feel somehow responsible, for not being able to do more. I think I was trying to keep that grief with me, like it was my responsibility, as if that helped somehow, when it didn't. I can't be doing that, hahaha. Not good.

Umm...Good question. I'm the person that randomly generated my username, so I'm probably not the one to ask. I imagine meditation is only relaxing if there is nothing currently 'wrong.' But if you're harboring anger or resentment about something, that will resurface. If you're harboring grief, that will resurface. And, I think I saw Maddie mention something about panic or anxiety being induced by meditation, which I would guess, probably comes from awareness of the body. It was also very hard for me to deal with this at first, when I started meditating. When you become aware of your body, you become aware of pain, of things that are wrong, things that you often can't do anything about. You may even make up in your head that things are wrong that aren't, inducing unfounded anxiety, because you don't know what things are supposed to feel like. Um, that is just my guess, though. Probably something about how...processing things comes first?

I'd like to see that thread. I'm curious about that too. I've never had anything happen like that, until recently, when I went to meditate and started just... uncontrollably crying. Tears just started streaming down my face out of nowhere. I think that I've been stockpiling a lot of grief, lately, haha... I felt a lot better afterwards.

Huh, I was joking, but Nungali taught me something new. @Cobie D'aww, stopp !

People will judge you, it's your choice whether you want to be bothered by it. (Although I do not mind being called demonic. Muahahahaha!)