How do you know your way is the right one?

[Apech]

Wait, what is a way?

 

Only a true master would question the nature of the way .... *bows in humility before thee*

[joeblast]

Seriously, all the people that claim other people are wrong and they are right need to put up or shut up.

 

Please tell me how you are better than everyone else and how you can be sure about that.

health, vitality, good balancing of body chemistry and accompanying happiness of proper endorphin levels are a byproduct of *any* good practice that is properly put to use.

 

the buddha said that there are 84,000 methods of cultivation. the exact number is not important, but what is important is that there are many doors one may walk through toward success.

Edited August 29, 2013 by joeblast

[Jetsun]

Some people's way is that of suffering and hardship, an old example is that of Milerepa who went the way of mass murderer to enlightenment. A modern example is someone like Byron Katie who was angry and mentally ill, but awoke out of that through realizing she isn't her mind. Ekhart Tolles way was that of depression then waking up. The Chinese Sage Xu Yin's way was to do a prostration every three steps walking across the entire length of China and into Tibet, which almost killed him on a number of occasions and ruined his health but in the end led to enlightenment. How do you know if someone's way isn't the right way? You don't

[三江源]

I am lower than everyone else, I am dead last, the excrement of a maggot, I am an idiot compared to all the great knowledge shared here. Peaceful and tranquil, my mind is at peace, not moved by crumbling mountains or swayed by the winds of the spoken word. empty but full, ok..... full of myself that is.

Nobody has 'liked' this post, Wu.

[三江源]

I've been experiencing this with many of the heavier books I read as a young man.

Coming back to them, whole sections are alive with meaning that were just strings of so many words back then.

Yes, looping the loop.. coming round the mountain, and round the mountain, and round the mountain....

[silent thunder]

Yes, looping the loop.. coming round the mountain, and round the mountain, and round the mountain....

 

 

Not just with books. With people too, no?

 

Definitely people, really about many things.

Books. Movies. People. Certain conversations with elders.

[joeblast]

Even Bums. Think about how you responded to a bum in 2013 vs. circa 2009 or, in your case, circa 2005. And the gems in the re-reads! You can hear him/her differently. Maybe they shine differently. Maybe only when the flow is flowing (Saturdays are better than Mondays?) can you participate more fully in your connection to the information inherent in the flow...

 

I dunno...make some sense? This is all spontaneous flow from my grey matter...

we may all look at the moon's reflection in the pond, and we each see a different stream of photons, even at that given moment the jem glints differently depending on how it is turned.

[roger]

I say follow the path that gives YOU, personally, the most joy.

 

Anything else might be self-sacrifice (a bad kind of self-sacrifice).

[Brian]

There is no better.

All roads return to the source.

There is no other.

Sorry but I think this is like saying any way you want to try arithmetic is the really same, even if they don't yield the correct result. There may be many approaches to doing division, for instance, but there are only a few that give the right answer and of those few some are more efficient than others.

 

I have a similar problem with the "all paths lead to the same mountaintop" philosophy -- it is obvious bunk to anyone who has actually followed a path to a mountaintop. Not only are there lots of mountains but most mountains have more than one peak. The views might be similar but they are not the same. Some trails lead to the top of one mountain, some to another, some never approach the ridge and some lead to a cliff. News reports each year document the results of wandering into the woods with an "all paths are equal" mentality.

 

There was a hippy-dippy place in town here a few years back that seemed to think all ways of making a burrito were the same. Their customers disagreed...

 

There are lots of variations on brewing beer, for instance, and some of them result in good beer but none of them result in the same beer -- and the ones that strive for something approaching "the same beer" generally don't result in "good beer." Is a marzenbier "better" than a hefeweissen? A porter "better" than a stout? I don't think the question even makes sense.

 

In my estimation, the first follow-up question to help answer the OP's question is, "does it work?" Second question is, "does it work well?"

 

My personal approach is "remain calm, be a good person, and practice my neigong." I know from personal experience that it works and works well -- and everything else will sort itself out.

Edited August 30, 2013 by A Seeker

[Thunder_Gooch]

Every path goes somewhere different, contrary to popular belief they don't all lead to Rome.

 

You can't expect to become a hsien from crystal chakra balancing work, reiki, wicca, dancing naked around a campfire, etc. It just isn't going to happen.

 

You can't build a fusion reactor out of popsicle sticks either, no matter how much you believe you can.

 

This sounds arrogant, hateful, and it is very politically incorrect to say, but it's true.

Edited August 30, 2013 by More_Pie_Guy

[Marblehead]

I thought it read pretty nicely.

[roger]

How do you think it is possible to know if one is avoiding self sacrfiice for the wrong reasons... intransigence, smugness, complacency, fear..

 

Doesnt one already have to be in an extremely aware state, in order to self sacrifice without negative reverbs?

 

Cat, you mentioned something in another thread about how one can know certain things. The opinion I gave is that we ALREADY KNOW in our hearts, we just have to be honest enough with ourselves to see that.

 

I believe there's no magic formula for self-knowledge.....you just gotta have the guts to admit the truth to yourself.

[RongzomFan]

Seriously, all the people that claim other people are wrong and they are right need to put up or shut up.

 

Please tell me how you are better than everyone else and how you can be sure about that.

 

terma

[roger]

I find your observations interesting and very important, Cat.

 

It seems to me that you're inquiring into the fundamental issue of, "What, exactly, is the way?"

 

In my opinion, self-acceptance is how we heal.

 

The real point, the bottom line, is to feel good about yourself and to know that you're a beautiful, worthy, and perfect child of Love Itself.

[h.uriahr]

Seriously, all the people that claim other people are wrong and they are right need to put up or shut up.

 

Please tell me how you are better than everyone else and how you can be sure about that.

 

I'm not better than anyone.

 

I wish that I had these little marbles or seeds that had a reproduction of the amazing things that God has given me and Blessed me with and that I could just pull a seed from my heart and let you have it so you could see and feel what I saw and felt in those really intense moments, 3 of them are INCREDIBLE.

 

My capacity of love has reached an almost indescribable level and the love that I have is so thick and heavy that its on a level of its own. The Love that I have for Christ Jesus has been returned and magnified back to me, that's a better way of putting it

I can also pray in tongues which I describe how that came about in another post. If you knew me before The Transformation then you wouldn't know me now.