Owledge

Ask your consellor whether he/she has read Mein Kampf. If not, I call bullshit, haha. I'm watching Fullmetal Alchemist lately and that belief system of equivalent exchange is bothering me a lot, because as far as I understand it is related to the belief that life is a zero sum game. In that way, alchemy might be closer to narrow-minded modern Western science than holistic spiritual observations. That 'law' of equivalent exchange is also a moldable tool, because you can arbitrarily set the boundaries for such an exchange to more immediate or long-term. It can fit whatever you want it to fit. Instead I suggest not to worry about reciprocity and instead multiplying the good in the world.

Reading the books before seeing the movie - Why are you doing this to yourself? ^^

Did you ever come across a ring that can turn you invisible and potentially gives you unlimited power? If so, would you give it to me? It's just for sentimental value. ... I need to see that bathwater! Do you still have it?

Your opinion is very precious to me. ... You were mentioning rings...

What is NOT God?

OK, this is not at all new stuff to me, so let me show you the next step. After you realized the game that the ego is playing, the next step is to accept the game and continue playing. Aware of the game. Because there's no alternative. Unless you have a death wish, lol. The awareness will grant you new dimensions of empathy and give you new tools for deciding how much allowance to give to the ego. As a possible reference, I could mention a book passage that this matter reminds me of: Opening the Dragon Gate - The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard specifically: Wang Liping's dark night of the soul and the aftermath. Arranging yourself with the inevitability of your continued existence and rediscovering purpose.

That saying is problematic in that it is self-confirming. So you can never know whether it's actually trying to make you realize something or is just trying to look like deep wisdom. As so many so-called philosophical things, it's mostly just an offer of a view on things that you can decide to adopt or reject. It's a tool for playing with yourself. You can shape it any way you want. It will always fit. In more detail: The student is ready for what? To listen? To succeed? To fail? Which was meant to happen? (Which is a pointless question.) That quote is about as useful as "Things happen when they need to happen." It's koan-like. Totally don't try to do what I just did, lol. (I'm only doing it because I've spent my time pondering on those things.)

Haven't read the whole thread, but seems like you are blessed with a mother that can give you feedback making you realize you have been kidding yourself. You are very lucky. My case is quite the opposite. I have been doubting myself so much and unsuccessfully searching for others who could give me valuable enlightening feedback about myself that I eventually had to realize the others are usually the ones who are full of shit.

I kinda realized the following by myself... Was told parts of it as a realization by one of my teachers... Kinda saw it illustrated on ayahuasca... If you want to change someone, don't try to change them. That's the first step. In order to become able to do that, you have to change yourself first.

Read the first few lines. Thought: "Sounds about right." Skipped the rest.

Common misconception spread by people who don't make an effort to observe and ponder. People feel drawn to what they need to attain balance. For some that is an opposite, for others it is an equal. You can also bring astrology into the matter; That would ruin that claim even more. Especially Ba Zi quite underlines my statements. I didn't need it to come to that conclusion, but it's additional confirmation. EDIT: Unless someone is driven/controlled/haunted by pain and seeks even more imbalance because they have given up on healing. But when people are allowing their heart to lead the way, when they sincerely wish for healing, then it is a search for balance.

Especially this part sounds like you might have made the mistake of invalidation. http://eqi.org/invalid.htm She showed how immensely cheerful she can be (even if that might have been for trauma avoidance) and then YOU tell HER about attitude when she is not cheerful.

"The Book On Your Nightstand" by Reverend Self "The Role of Books In Contemporary Bed Lamp Elevation" by Reverend S. A. Gain

Does anybody know anything related to those two things? I couldn't find anything on the WWW, but I did some experimentation now, and whenever I take a caffeine pill and then eat something that contains flavor enhancers, I more or less get a feeling in my head like the one you get if you over-oxygenate your brain, e.g. by hyperventilating. This is not at all a symptom of China restaurant syndrome, and on its own I never had a problem with that stuff, only now in combination with more than tiny doses of caffeine I notice that symptom. I'm wondering whether what's happening is simply an overstimulation of the brain as a combined effect from two stimulants. Strangely, kinda adverse one would think, I got a little bit of temporary tinnitus now after one of said meals.

Not sure whethere there are any misconceptions. The information that's in the public sphere seems quite accurate. Half a sentence of Wikipedia sums it up nicely: "glutamate is an important neurotransmitter that plays the principal role in neural activation." You put it in food and it automatically tastes better, regardless of the food's nutrient content. It stimulates your brain in a way that makes you crave more. Thus, the possibility of overstimulation is an important question. And scepticism about the discussion is also very advised since it's a very 'economically charged' topic, involving ruthless corporate politics and such. It's a whole chain of unhealthy symptoms following from that. Even if nobody wanted MSG in their food, corporations like Nestlé wouldn't give a damn about that. They'll continue finding new names to hide it in the ingredients list. They don't even try to sincerely educate the public about their standpoint, likely because they have good self-knowledge, hah. And after all, there is empirical evidence. I'm taking cafeine pills often, but not always. When I take one and eat something that contains a significant amount of 'flavor enhancers' (I tried two very different foods), I get a dizzy feeling in my head. Never happened with caffeine pills and any other food or not food or any kind of condition.

You don't even notice how much you're contradicting yourself. Not only that, but you don't realize that your use of those quotes is not suitable for supporting your claims' validity, but it assumes it. You're seeking help in the perceived authority of other people's words. That's a very externalized mindset. Also, the way you bring the idea of "reality" into this shows how little you see. Your first sentence actually contains a hidden message for you. (Actually not so hidden now that I pointed it out.)

Vmarco, you yourself are so full in your mind that you tear apart words instead of grasping the message in them. Projecting, as people so often do. YOU are so much intellectualizing the idea of "absolute truth" and acting out spiritual materialism that you don't acknowledge the inherent impossibility of the idea of "absence of absolute truth" to make sense. I tried to tell you that 'the tao that can be spoken of isn't the eternal tao', that there is no rational sense to be made of it, and then you drag quantity over quality into the argument. You forget that it is irrelevant how often you took what substances. It is detracting from deeper insight when you fixate on those things. You talk about proving statements here as incorrect. Oh my. As it were, you are very wrong because you don't understand why you are very right.

Additional thoughts: Careful what you believe to be the truth. If it isn't, it might become it through your belief, and then it's your responsibility. I have made certain disappointing experiences with people and accept them as truth about people, but I won't make certain mistakes. 1) I don't generalize them as applying to people as a whole. 2) I accept them as a phenomenon relative to me. Someone with lesser aspirations/expectations/standards would experience less disappointment.

I'm not a food chemist or something like that. The information I can access is either too vague, or so specific that I can't make deductions based on it.

Reminds me of my 'mystical' dilemma. When I seek help from people, I try to explain my situation to them, but it is incomprehensible to them, thus they judge me based on their limited perception. The people I seek out for help often could use MY help, but don't realize that either, thus I cannot find fulfillment that way.

Yes, Vmarco's claim regarding the quote is itself based on the intellect's understanding. He is trying to grasp Shantideva's unspecific statements with his mind. I went a bit farther on ayahuasca and saw how there isn't just a difference between relative and absolute truth, but how there is no absolute truth, because on the level of the manifestative divine power, anything willed to be is. To use a somewhat metaphorical way to explain what I mean: God is almighty, and if God decides that it does not exist, it doesn't. This is of course something the mind cannot grasp, but you can still experience the infinite sea of possibilities that allow you to end your own existence, and then resume it, if you want. It's total mindfuck WHEN you actually experience it, and not just think about it like an intellectual idea. I can freely talk about things I experienced, even trying to imagine how it was, and it's so infinitely distanced from the experience itself. On rare occasions my thinking back to the experience unlocks the feelings for brief moments and then I am terrified again and notice how the power of the waking mind swiftly blocks it out again.

It is almost painful for me to read how you are willingly rejecting a great blessing like that. I try to release control whenever I can, but need some degree of it due to having gotten so much negative feedback from going with the flow and having faith. My case is even worse. When I don't try to control and force things, nothing substantial happens. When I make an effort to improve my situation, the negative feedback I get is proportional to the effort exerted. I'd be extremely happy about some substantial blessings coming my way that I can build on, because I feel very burned out from doing nothing due to lack of energy. ... But I'm a bit uncertain and doing nothing often seems preferrable to the available alternatives.

One minute of stopped time can seem like an eternity. Follow my Twitter pwease? :-) https://twitter.com/Dowlphin/status/542421786155958273

And God spoke: "The scale of the universe is my con, CERN."

Who knows? Some say, when you truly give up, you succeed. Others say the opposite. You can have all the confidence in the world and have it betrayed again and again, which creates much more damage than if you didn't have any expectations.