Experiences and realizations of your spiritual journey.

[Informer]

I think that everyone has an affinity to their personal path for one reason or another. What led you to your path and kept you going along that path, or if you switched around paths what was the reasons?

 

I think we can all learn a lot from one another through our experiences, as subjective as they are, the subjectivity can help us to better relate to one another by presenting alternative perspectives to our own. This helps our awareness which stems perception to be more like water, more fluid and less fixed.

 

One of the most important things I have found and continues to be of use, is to never keep an absolute or fixed perspective on any matter of spirituality, which in turns allows alternative perspectives and the ability to communicate without hostility or being offended/defensive.

 

Even if ones view seems to be contorted and illogical, it is possible to use a rational mind to present the flaws in the perception, by assimilating the perspective to see the flaws. You don't necessarily the perspective, yet utilize it.

 

An open mind.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Informer

[Stosh]

I think that everyone has an affinity to their personal path for one reason or another. What led you to your path and kept you going along that path, or if you switched around paths what was the reasons?

 

It is a good probative question, possibly very personal disclosure required in the answering of.

Raised Catholic I had a very grand view of God, beautiful beyond the teachings I was told, and so I came to question the validity of it all.

One day I wrote a poem to myself reflecting on things, it became a sort of touchstone, maybe it sounds silly, but although I wrote it over twenty years ago..it still squares me up. So although its not Shakespeare..

 

The gentle breeze it flows,

and only I know it ,

by the pull on the sail and the tilt of the rudder I press.

If I but lift my hands ,

to what rocky shores or sargasso seas shall I be drawn?

 

From this swaying perch

I see but blue unchanging sea and sky.

So question I ,this vessel most untested.

All answers in dumb reply , say "yes ",

and in saying so

say nothing.

 

Speculating birds float aloft ,deciding if to rest,

and ride along unfed a bit , biding time ,

till unknown random stirs their wings.

Let sails be full , and drag me on?

For I will never know till I am there,

what destiny for me does hold.

 

What choice is there twixt seeming same, and seeming same?

Count my provisions on trips of unknown span,

while setting anchor lonesome?,

bristling cannon brought to bear ,

against imagined enemies unseen?

 

So choiceful action removed from me,

by unresistance I drift the faster peaceful waves,

and softly nod unconcerned,

the quiet stars beckon to dreams.

 

 

 

From there on I investigated and found more and ..Voila!

Edited May 11, 2012 by Stosh

[Vmarco]

 

An open mind.

 

 

From my observations, most abandon their Spiritual Journey before the age of three, when the 6 senses, led by ego, take over the Journey for its own useless delight.

 

I'll let you in on a little open secret,...the 6 senses cannot experience what surrounds them, only what surrounded them. In other words, they do not experience directly, but are merely absorbed with imagined experiences born from the conditions of their beliefs.

 

An Open Mind implies a mind free of beliefs. A mind free of beliefs is uninterested in the imaginary journeys of the 6 senses.

 

V

[fizix]

[Rishi Das]

What led you to your path and kept you going along that path, or if you switched around paths what was the reasons?

 

Probably a culmination of events and experiences throughout my childhood and teen years; however one experience definitely stands out as the starting point for major growth and the acceptance and understanding that truth was what I sought and spirituality was where I would find it.

 

It was about two and half years ago when my life literally turned on a dime, something inside began to call and everything shifted upside down, inside out. Up until that time I had not been interested in spirituality at all, never had it really even crossed my mind, and to be honest I thought anything that had to do with the topic was just a waste of time; the real deal was I didn't really even know what spirituality was outside of monotheistic religion.

 

Anyways, a close buddy of mine started getting into massage therapy, functional weight training, and body mechanics; he was eager to share all that he was learning and I was there ready to listen. One day I walked into his apartment and was bombarded with comments of how horrible my posture was and that I really needed to do something about it. He proceeded to walk over and place one hand on my lower back and the other hand on my shoulders, helping to place me in what he said was "correct alignment." I remember the exact moment something inside clicked, the exact moment when my world shifted and everything was pulled drastically inward.

 

From that moment forward I was conscious of my journey; plunged into an unknown world, I was beckoned to fulfill something so much greater than anything I had ever known to be true, transformed from projecting externally to internally all within a blink of an eye. Since that moment everything has simply unfolded in such perfect harmony, it's literally as if events, experiences, moments are lined up, destined to be lived out in perfect sequence; when one moment ends another new and exciting one follows right behind.

 

I'm not sure I could answer the question what path are you on, because i'm not really to sure i'm on a specific path. I adhere to no tradition, seeking only truth, I will take from all traditions and discard whatever doesn't fit. In that way, I sincerely understand and adhere to your thoughts about keeping an open mind and never dealing in absolutes or fixedness. Knowing what is known now, there is absolutely no way I could ever turn back, the inner drive, that push, that calling is too strong to even think about giving in.

 

Bottom line, I want truth more than I want the next breath. I am willing to do whatever it takes, willing to give whatever is necessary. So to make a long story short, that's where i'm at.

 

EDIT: I appreciate you creating the space to allow me to share informer; i'd love to read some other personal stories, maybe even yours. Always enjoyable to hear what brings everyone to a forum like TTB.

Edited May 12, 2012 by don_vedo

[Informer]

My journey began with Christianity. Growing up in the bible belt does not leave one with many alternative options, as a child, I was indoctrinated into it. It didn't take me long to realize the inconsistencies inherent within the teachings, as they are many. I left religion all together when I realized the scope of it all, and the division cause and condoned by the many religions, each seemingly to say their way is the only way. I refused to believe that a benevolent god would only make one way to discover that which we are, and that without that way we are doomed to eternal reincarnation or hell or whatever fear mongering appeal to fear is being used.

 

By chance I met a guy while I was in Job Corps who had a book and within the book was a meditation technique to awaken the supposed "3rd eye". I was extremely skeptical about most of the book, some of it was logical to me and made sense while the majority of it seemed ad-hoc'd. I decided to try the meditation technique anyway and found that there was truth, and I could feel the third eye. From that point on I have been attempting to unravel the mystery in an unbiased manner. It has even led me to biology, because considering all the independent lines of subjective evidence pointing at the same things, I am under the impression that there is a biological process that can be identified to bring this subjectivity into the objective realm. This searching has led me to the sub-atomic quantum level, which is considered an aspect of the universe. Our minds work on the quantum level, it is what differentiates our awareness from that of a rabbit or squirrel, allows us to see the mechanization and determinism surrounding us, yet we are not governed by it, as we have choice.

 

It was a long time before I realized there was more to spirituality than awakening of the third eye, for years and years I had an awakened third eye and no knowledge of the next steps. I was basically off the path, until I found people on message boards talking about the same things, I decided to continue pursuit and seek understanding of these other phenomena being described since ancient times. I found truth in many paths and never adhered to any one path. I think that is why I can now see the correlations and pointers being the same amongst many differing practices, and objectively so.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Informer

[eye_of_the_storm]

Death motivates me

 

and the promise of "Freedom"

 

since a child

 

---------------------------

 

Beautiful poem Stosh

 

Beauty motivates me too! thanks for reminding me

 

Beauty in all its myriad forms / expressions

 

--------------------------

 

realizations = nothing much of a muchness? (haha, slight rip from Alan Watts)

Edited May 12, 2012 by White Wolf Running On Air

[Thunder_Gooch]

"So if you really go the whole way and see how you feel at the prospect of vanishing forever. Have all your efforts, and all your achievements, and all your attainments turning into dust and nothingness. What is the feeling? What happens to you?

That's what it's all going to come to.

And for some reason or other, we are supposed to find this depressing.

Do you see in a way, how that is saying: the most real state is the state of nothing?

But if somebody is going to argue that the basic reality is nothingness. Where does all this come from? Obviously from nothingness. Once again you get how it looks behind your eyes. You see?

See? So in this way, by seeing that nothingness is the fundamental reality, and you see it's your reality. Then how can anything contaminate you? All the idea of you being scared, and put out and worried, and so on, this is nothing, it's a dream. Because you're really nothing. But this is most incredible nothing.

So cheer up you see?

The essence of your mind is intrinsically pure. Pure means clear, void.

See? If you think of this idea of nothingness as mere blankness, and you hold onto this idea of blankness then kind of grizzly about it, you haven't understood it. Nothingness is really like the nothingness of space, which contains the whole universe. All the sun and the stars and the mountains, and rivers, and the good men and bad men, and the animals, and insects, and the whole bit. All are contained in void. So out of this void comes everything and you are it. What else could you be?"

-Alan Watts

[Stosh]

Death motivates me

 

and the promise of "Freedom"

 

since a child

 

---------------------------

 

Beautiful poem Stosh

 

Beauty motivates me too! thanks for reminding me

 

Beauty in all its myriad forms / expressions

 

 

Thanks, folks usually hate my poems because I aim for multiply valid interps and don't hold to traditional methods.

Death as motivational?

Is that the reason for the wolf motif?

or is it one of the two Native American wolves that eternally war within us,

the winner for the day being the one fed most.?

Or is it just a really great photo you took.

 

Ps Shouldn't it be white dingo running on air?

Pps the similarity to Vmarcos reference elsewhere is entirely coincidental.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Stosh

[eye_of_the_storm]

Thanks, folks usually hate my poems because I aim for multiply valid interps and don't hold to traditional methods.

Death as motivational?

Is that the reason for the wolf motif?

or is it one of the two Native American wolves that eternally war within us,

the winner for the day being the one fed most.?

Or is it just a really great photo you took.

 

Ps Shouldn't it be white dingo running on air?

Pps the similarity to Vmarcos reference elsewhere is entirely coincidental.

 

I look at the wolf from a shamanistic view / as a totem animal

 

pathfinder / guide

 

+ I look to my ancestors, the wolf being a part of their culture (European) as opposed to the dingo

 

not my photo

 

Death as motivation

 

it was initially as a child pondering life and death and what it was to die

 

seeking union/ knowledge with/of the Immortal/Truth - - - to transcend

 

life to life

 

Edited May 14, 2012 by White Wolf Running On Air

[eye_of_the_storm]

 

Excellent stuff!

[hagar]

I think that everyone has an affinity to their personal path for one reason or another. What led you to your path and kept you going along that path, or if you switched around paths what was the reasons?

 

I think we can all learn a lot from one another through our experiences, as subjective as they are, the subjectivity can help us to better relate to one another by presenting alternative perspectives to our own. This helps our awareness which stems perception to be more like water, more fluid and less fixed.

 

One of the most important things I have found and continues to be of use, is to never keep an absolute or fixed perspective on any matter of spirituality, which in turns allows alternative perspectives and the ability to communicate without hostility or being offended/defensive.

 

Even if ones view seems to be contorted and illogical, it is possible to use a rational mind to present the flaws in the perception, by assimilating the perspective to see the flaws. You don't necessarily the perspective, yet utilize it.

 

An open mind.

 

Great thread.

 

In recent years, I've come to realize that pretty much everything I am interested in evolves around making sense of a few experiences I've had, and to a degree continues to have that may be defined as "spiritual". The ironic thing is that it has, in many ways, been more a curse than a blessing to my everyday life.

 

What these experiences were I have talked about several times, and they are not that important in and of themselves. What is significant is how they have affected my ordinary life. These wonderful glimpses into reality have turned what could have been a pretty decent life in conventional terms into a life of alot of trouble. The funny thing is that there's no turning back. No way back out of the rabbit hole. It's actually a rather lonely journey.

 

Yet I wouldn't trade if for anything.

[astralc]

Gee, I wish I were as inspired and eloquent as everyone else here, that poem Stosh, wow, and death, Wolf on Air, so powerful, thank you for sharing.

 

My story began as a teenager, I had the usual christian upbringing and always wondered what it all meant, these were fairy tales, right?

 

I read everything spiritual I could lay my hands on, and at around 17 years of age I told my mother that one day I would astral travel too, like in the books I was reading. She said, "yes dear, of course dear." and kept on washing up... but still, the word was out.

 

But the turning point for me was in the shower one day, probably when I was about 25 years old, I remember it very well, deciding that today I would stop eating meat and become a vegetarian. Funnily enough, that day was one of those days in life that made a difference. The other one was turning up for my first tai chi lesson at my masters house and not knowing anyone, alone, but with a burning desire inside my chest to learn and to know the unknown.

 

Thank you for this wonderful and inspiring thread

[eye_of_the_storm]

cool

 

wish someone taught Tai Chi closer to home... ah well

 

 

did you manage astral projection?

Edited May 24, 2012 by White Wolf Running On Air

[astralc]

cool

 

wish someone taught Tai Chi closer to home... ah well

 

 

did you manage astral projection?

 

Yep, about 6 months after starting tai chi, and almost every night for the next 20 years until life, work, career and children slowed things down. My dear old Mum does tai chi too, I taught her years ago, she went on to teach as well to her seniors group.

[Thunder_Gooch]

.

Edited May 25, 2012 by More_Pie_Guy

[Informer]

[dawei]

From my observations, most abandon their Spiritual Journey before the age of three, when the 6 senses, led by ego, take over the Journey for its own useless delight.

 

I'll let you in on a little open secret,...the 6 senses cannot experience what surrounds them, only what surrounded them. In other words, they do not experience directly, but are merely absorbed with imagined experiences born from the conditions of their beliefs.

 

An Open Mind implies a mind free of beliefs. A mind free of beliefs is uninterested in the imaginary journeys of the 6 senses.

 

V

This is similar to how I 'see' it; if it has to be explained, shared, or talked about, it is the mind and the 6 senses talking...