Everyone list your goals!

[SheepishLord]

I was talking about this with Max this morning at my job (boss was out) and I mentioned to Max that the problem I see is that a lot of people on these on-line boards have no goal with respect to their practices. For example, these are goals:

 

1.I want to be immortal.

2.I want to attain _____ samadhi.

3.I want the 2nd jhana.

4.I want a tantric relationship with a woman.

5.I want a stronger aura to pick up chix.

6.I want to change my fortune.

7.I want to look 10 years younger then I am.

8.I want a body that stores no trauma and has emotional maturity.

 

etc. etc. etc.

 

When you have goals, then you view everything you do through the correct filters and discussions about retention become moot. Max wants jhana so for him celibacy is less hard because he has a goal, and he does the practices which help him attain the goal which tend to drain off the sexual energy into a different direction.

 

Value judgements are only with respect to your goals. If you goal is the world record reps with kettlebells press while bridging on a persian rug then hammering the ham once a week is perfectly acceptable.

 

It would be really constructive if people listed their goals here. Just a simple act will take this community to new heights. Otherwise we can try crazy sleeping cycles and pop tao-in-a-bottle but nothing will ever get done. While I may have a history of jumping around and trying every shit out there, I had and still have very specific goals which I am finally beginning to make real progress toward (although my bad karma has made it an exhausting journey).

[neimad]

these are my short-long term goals.

 

1. recover, coordinate and refine my movements (i.e. physical mastery).

2. have easy and meaningful relationships with all beings i encounter.

3. obtain increasing levels of freedom to go where and do what i want without resistance of any sort.

4. increasing levels of bliss and contentment.

5. increasing levels of spontenaity.

6. father children to several different mothers

 

which i am definately working towards.

 

 

ultimate long term goal:

 

-to reunite with oneness. to become everything and nothing.

 

but... the first set of goals i see as more important to deepen and thoroughly enjoy my experience as an individual human being

[Lozen]

ultimate goal: drop enough ego to make room for the God force to flow through me so I can better help others in selfless service.

 

the rest is just details

[DanC]

1. Become as strong as possible in mind, body and spirit

2. Feel good most of the time

[Cameron]

Why do you have to diss my desire to do the world record kettlebell press while popping Tao in a Bottle on a fine Persian rug?

 

In all seriousness Steve Cotter will be stronger than me if I train kettlebells for 10 kalpas

 

Ok..short term(like next 3 years)...

 

1.Get MBA

2.Get purple belt in BJJ

3. Buy a house(or loft)

4. Initiate enlightenment(let's call that dhyana MOST of the time)

5. Cultivate jing, qi shen and LOVE and help people develop themselves where I can.

 

Cam

 

ps. Oh..and maybe meet the infamous Plato when I visit NYC in July

Edited April 28, 2006 by Cameron

[neimad]

1. Become as strong as possible in mind, body and spirit

2. Feel good most of the time

 

only MOST of the time???

 

c'mon you can do better than that.... it's possible, i think, to feel good ALL the time.

 

i reckon on an emotional level i am now in the 90+% of the time category

physically however still wavers. yesterday was feeling achey and nauseous.

didn't waver my emotional balance though......

[affenbrot]

I deeply distrust this approach. I believe one cannot

pursue spiritual goals like a businessplan.

It's more like stalking, staying soft, ready to change and ajust, never quite knowing for sure,

being ready to be surprised by the unknown.

 

affenbrot

Edited April 28, 2006 by affenbrot

[Yoda]

Imo, I think the business plan is the way to go. And it needs to be in writing and reviewed and reassessed regularly.

 

"Get a plan" will be on my plan when I have a plan.

 

There are so many rabbit holes here in Chiville, it is easy to get distracted from this core need. Thanks for the reminder.

[Ian]

I deeply distrust this approach. I believe one cannot

pursue spiritual goals like a businessplan.

It's more like stalking, staying soft, ready to change and ajust, never quite knowing for sure,

being ready to be surprised by the unknown.

 

affenbrot

 

Others have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.

I am a fool. Oh, yes ! I am confused.

Other men are clear and bright,

 

But I alone am dull and stupid.

Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea,

Without direction, like the restless wind.

 

Everyone else is busy,

But I alone am aimless and depressed.

I am different.

I am nourished by the great mother.

 

[sean]

What Lozen, affenbrot and Ian said. Teachers keep having to evolve new ways of getting this point across. In Buddhism this is how I see the motive behind the move to Mahayana and Vajrayana from Hinayana ... in Hinduism the move to Advaita and Tantra. Enlightenment isn't something you can put on a to do list and cross off one day. IMO that kind of thinking is exactly why we're not enlightened.

 

Take any single goal you write down and ask "What do I want by having this? If I were to have this outcome fully and completely, what do I want through having that, this is even more important?". Eventually you will drop into a state of being as the answer.

 

Example:

I want to be enlightened.

If I were to have this enlightenment fully and completely, what do I want through having that, this is even more important?

Hmmm... well then I would be free of fear and hunger and could share my happiness with others.

If I were to share my happiness with others fully and completely, what do I want through having that, this is even more important?

I would be loved. I would have made everyone happy and then I would be truly loved by everyone.

If I were to be truly loved by everyone fully and completely, what do I want through having that, this is even more important?

** Okness. Being. **

 

As humans we need direction so we have no choice but to create goals, this is where the whole meditation on skillful means comes into play. How to channel an infinite wheel of desire energy into a goal-less goal. It's a koan.

 

That said, here are the goals my mind clings to:

Relax and laugh with my imaginations of separateness

Fall backward into Being

Be What I Am

Embody and share Happiness and Wisdom

 

 

Sean

[SheepishLord]

The problem with not having a tangible goal is like someone saying Taoism is about Wu Wei so they are simply not going to do anything.

 

Here's my goal:

 

Give Smile's mom an orgasm.

 

[freeform]

.

Edited December 18, 2019 by freeform

[sean]

The problem with not having a tangible goal is like someone saying Taoism is about Wu Wei so they are simply not going to do anything.

Yeah, you run into that same issue with neo-Advaitans who think that "Brahma is the world" means they don't have to meditate and they can just surf all day.

 

I look at goal setting almost like vomiting. It's our karma and we have to get it out, we can't just pretend we are not sick ... we have to throw all this stuff up on paper and look at it and try to go for something, and if we really commit to the whole process we get to watch it all unravel as we do.

 

 

Sean

[Yoda]

My Mom could use one too.

 

 

 

(just kidding, Mom)

[sean]

Sean you just re-invented a very powerfull NLP excersise!

I can't take credit for this, I got the process from Core Transformation ... really nice book that helped me get tastes of bliss years and years ago. And you have quite the eye for NLP language patterns btw.

 

Sean

[Yoda]

I look at goal setting almost like vomiting. It's our karma and we have to get it out, we can't just pretend we are not sick ... we have to throw all this stuff up on paper and look at it and try to go for something, and if we really commit to the whole process we get to watch it all unravel as we do.

 

 

Wow! Now *that's* inspiring!

[Smile]

Here's my goal:

 

Give Smile's mom an orgasm.

 

That's the spirit! Never give up!

[sean]

Wow! Now *that's* inspiring!

Yeah, really makes you wanna go for the gold, huh? Anthony Robbins would be proud.

 

The beauty is that after we are done throwing up our false desires, we get to create our life in Grace.

[Yoda]

Others have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.

I am a fool. Oh, yes ! I am confused.

Other men are clear and bright,

 

But I alone am dull and stupid.

Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea,

Without direction, like the restless wind.

 

Everyone else is busy,

But I alone am aimless and depressed.

I am different.

I am nourished by the great mother.

 

 

It's sort of like driving a car.

 

Now you can drive it effortlessly and without intention like the above quote, but at one point you had to learn and that took some focus, practice, and desireful intent.

 

He's talking about what it's like to be on top of the mountain, but not so much how he got there. Ramana Maharishi and E. Tolle sort of just woke up at the top of the mountain one fine day so they focus on the view but not the path. That kind of teaching while "true" has a very limited ability to get you anywhere.

[SunDog]

My goal, become less slothful.

 

And I have this theory about television. Do you think all of these great Taoist meditations and exercises would have come about if the old Taoists sat around the tele?

[affenbrot]

That kind of teaching while "true" has a very limited ability to get you anywhere.

I'm usually the first to start ranting when a teacher withholds the means and didactics to progress towards

something he represents and you want to achieve.

 

But to apply the mindset of goal-achievers and businesspeople to spiritual practice, that's s.th. I am highly suspicous about. I feel more comfortable maybe with the mindet of the artist when it comes to this field.

Goals can create inner tension so easily;

what about taking the joy in immersing yourself into some discipline?

Is a fixed goal necessary for this?

Does a pregnant women work on her goal everyday to birth her child?

 

affenbrot

[Cameron]

Goals are sort of fun. But I agree they are not really where it is at spiritually. My most important goal is to learn to allow everything to be as it is and see clearly. Then I can see what needs to be done with greater clarity and not just from an ego self centered approach.

 

But perhaps saying " I want to change my fortune" or whatever is just another way of going about it.

 

My guess is as long as your focused on the "I" aspect your spiritual life will be limited..but I am still as caught up as anyone..

Edited April 29, 2006 by Cameron

[Lozen]

Does a pregnant women work on her goal everyday to birth her child?

 

Yes.

[affenbrot]

Yes.

[Lozen]

 

I'm serious. Every woman I know who has ever been pregnant is constantly working on both getting important nutrients she needs so she won't have a miscarriage, possibly taking the right herbs (like raspberry, in small amounts, which tonifies your uterus), praying for guidance, thinking about what it means to be a mommy, buying baby clothes and reading over name books, etc. etc. etc. Perhaps you can have a child without going through all the steps, you will keep being right on pregnant anyway, and perhaps you will miscarry even if you do take those steps...but the women I know who have had successful pregnancies and healthy babies...it wasn't exactly coincidental.