That is life, you don't know beforehand.dloheb wrote:how do you think (this is for anyone to answer), one can go about knowing if something was meant for them or not?
what I mean is, as a younger guy, I do not know what I should put energy into. I don't want to breath life into something that isn't meant to happen for me, as stated in Serpents of Wisdom.
So how does one know what it is they should try to achieve?
refer to page 46
Serpents of Wisdom
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Don't read my signature.
Dloheb, and all others who ask this fundemantal question in life or feel they've answered it but something is amiss, please read carefully "What do I want?", http://www.swamij.com/what-do-i-want.htm. An excerpt from it (the emphasis in bold is mine):
From what I have learnt in my life and my constant practice of the above, leading truly to confidence about the purpose of my life, I can say with full confidence that I know that the vast majority of people, no, even more than that, almost all people, never actually manage to do it and thus fail to realise their potential. Many of those people even say that they know what they really want. But the right person can clearly see in their eyes and faces that they are lying to themselves and what they actually know instead is how to create great problems for themselves and others. It is a gigantic, extremely ugly and repulsive lie, and such are all around, sapping blood and spirit.
I also think that my post on the topic "Thinking too much", dated July 9, 2006 -- just a little before you posted your question -- can be of a good use to you, if you haven't read it already.
Absolutely worth the time and effort to read the whole carefully. Then practice it.There may be many things you want in the external world, but here you want to have a key principle that you, yourself are seeking at the deepest level of the inner chamber of your heart. It needs to be your word, not just that of somebody else, something that was read in some book, or is popular in the culture.
[...]
It's a longing that has been there a long time, a very long time. It was probably there in early childhood. It was with you in adolescence. It is still there. But what do you call it? What is that single word or phrase that draws you back to that felt longing.
Just by having that word or phrase drift through your mind field, that deep memory is no longer latent, but stirs in wakefulness with a passion in the heart. There is a certainty about the purpose of life that suddenly emerges with clarity.
Find that keyword that works for you and never, ever let it go.
From what I have learnt in my life and my constant practice of the above, leading truly to confidence about the purpose of my life, I can say with full confidence that I know that the vast majority of people, no, even more than that, almost all people, never actually manage to do it and thus fail to realise their potential. Many of those people even say that they know what they really want. But the right person can clearly see in their eyes and faces that they are lying to themselves and what they actually know instead is how to create great problems for themselves and others. It is a gigantic, extremely ugly and repulsive lie, and such are all around, sapping blood and spirit.
I also think that my post on the topic "Thinking too much", dated July 9, 2006 -- just a little before you posted your question -- can be of a good use to you, if you haven't read it already.
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
When you ask yourself "what do I want?" is it Swami's point to make you realise that there is no I and thus no goals?? As in Transpersonality?? (Something which recurs again and again in Hindu thought.)
Or is he actually talking about active engaging to have what you want??
Either way, he is right though. If you keep something in your mind at all times it can stir something in you up. But there are those who repeat some words too much; you have to know when to stop. And there are situations where it isn't good to repeat the goal at all.
To illustrate. Repeating the phrase "I want to get rid of anxiety" isn't going to do much good to someone who has anxiety. Or a teacher constantly reminding himself to "behave wiser in the classroom"; it isn't going to work either. All those goals are self-defeating. It is because you want to get rid of anxiety that you have it, and it is because you want to behave wiser in the classroom that you don't. The solution to both the 2 problems is obviously not found in keeping them as an objective in mind, since that will only aggravate the situation.
So, in some ways it is good to self-remind you of your goals. But it can get too far, and in the wrong direction.
Or is he actually talking about active engaging to have what you want??
Either way, he is right though. If you keep something in your mind at all times it can stir something in you up. But there are those who repeat some words too much; you have to know when to stop. And there are situations where it isn't good to repeat the goal at all.
To illustrate. Repeating the phrase "I want to get rid of anxiety" isn't going to do much good to someone who has anxiety. Or a teacher constantly reminding himself to "behave wiser in the classroom"; it isn't going to work either. All those goals are self-defeating. It is because you want to get rid of anxiety that you have it, and it is because you want to behave wiser in the classroom that you don't. The solution to both the 2 problems is obviously not found in keeping them as an objective in mind, since that will only aggravate the situation.
So, in some ways it is good to self-remind you of your goals. But it can get too far, and in the wrong direction.
Don't read my signature.
How about repeating mentally "I am getting rid of my anxiety" and "I am behaving wisely in class"
(over and over until you do.)
What is it actually that transforms you/I ? The intent to do it? Or is it your/my action? Is it the belief? What is it?
(over and over until you do.)
What is it actually that transforms you/I ? The intent to do it? Or is it your/my action? Is it the belief? What is it?
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got.
Thanks for the link Yothu, very helpful.Yothu wrote:How about repeating mentally "I am getting rid of my anxiety" and "I am behaving wisely in class"
(over and over until you do.)
What is it actually that transforms you/I ? The intent to do it? Or is it your/my action? Is it the belief? What is it?
Now I just have to figure out what exactly that is.
Hehe, nono. Then you haven't accepted a bit. Then you only accepted there being room for change, but not accepted who you are. And if you have not accepted who you are, who are you going to change?? In order to change yourself, one must first know what to change. Dismissing something you don't like about yourself is doing the opposite, it is pushing something in a dark corner and trying to forget it is there. How can you overcome something which you have previously tried to hide?? The solution is accepting who you are in it's totality. You must face your horrors in order to overcome them. And apart from that there is no change. The overcoming is in itself all the change you'll ever need.
Don't read my signature.
Who or what is that "who you are" anyway?
Some NLP folks might say: The map is not the territory.
In other words, what is "you" at one given moment, is not the "real you" but only a representation (of an aspect of yourself?).
"Act as if, ..."
J.W. Goethe is reported to have said “If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
Some NLP folks might say: The map is not the territory.
In other words, what is "you" at one given moment, is not the "real you" but only a representation (of an aspect of yourself?).
"Act as if, ..."
J.W. Goethe is reported to have said “If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got.
You are what you think you are.Yothu wrote:Who or what is that "who you are" anyway?
Perfectly right. But that is only intellectual understanding. Now I want existential understanding.Yothu wrote:Some NLP folks might say: The map is not the territory.
In other words, what is "you" at one given moment, is not the "real you" but only a representation (of an aspect of yourself?).
This is something different. Here J.W. Goethe is talking about accepting someone ELSE. And I was talking about accepting yourself.Yothu wrote:J.W. Goethe is reported to have said “If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
The first step in overcoming is accepting the problem. If you don't accept the problem, what is there to overcome?? I simply know from my own experience that if you are going to push things away, repress them, it isn't going to solve anything. So, therefor, it is best to first acccept that you have a problem.
Don't read my signature.
I think that whatever we think about ourselves, concrete, what I think who you are and what you think I am is not really relevant until we are put into test. That is a situation in our lives occur where we discover a bit more who we really are, how strong our convictions really are, what we are ready to do etc.
I believe the same goes with you looking at yourself, "who really are you?", you might be asking yourself. You might come up with more or less precise ideas what or who you really are but until you are tested and experience yourself you do not really know.
That is my opinion.
I believe the same goes with you looking at yourself, "who really are you?", you might be asking yourself. You might come up with more or less precise ideas what or who you really are but until you are tested and experience yourself you do not really know.
That is my opinion.
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got.
Please remember that I started all this in response to Vesko's advice from Swami Rami. That advice was about constant mental repetition of your goal. Althought I said I agree with this I illustrated some situations were the constant mental repetition of your goal is counterproductive. Another example of this might be the situation where you are unable to go to sleep. Any insomniac knows that the constant repetition of "I need to go to sleep", or even, "I am getting sleepy", isn't working. The only thing working is giving up the whole goal of going to sleep. Or take meditation as an example. Constantly thinking, "I must stop thinking", or even, "I am stopping thinking", isn't going to work.
From this point forward we have been making abstractions on abstractions. Please remember that I only was talking about some very specific cases. Those cases where trying to reach your goal is prohibiting you from reaching it. Ofcourse, in other situations all that I have said may not be applicable. So in some situations it is necessary to keep your goal in mind, and in some it is necessary to do the opposite. That is all.
From this point forward we have been making abstractions on abstractions. Please remember that I only was talking about some very specific cases. Those cases where trying to reach your goal is prohibiting you from reaching it. Ofcourse, in other situations all that I have said may not be applicable. So in some situations it is necessary to keep your goal in mind, and in some it is necessary to do the opposite. That is all.
Don't read my signature.
This topic sortof drifted off lol
So what I want is difficult to figure out.
Here's what I want: to NOT have to work 9-5 shifts for the greater part of my life. It's not what I REALLY want, ofcourse, but it appears to me that it's an obstacle of sorts that needs to be overcome. So I have the material desire to sortof fall into a place where I can travel freely and enjoy nature; and nature, etc. is something that I feel will lose its wonderment if I know too much before I can sit and enjoy it in that way, or worse, continue to lose its beauty through our abuse of it. There is also the possibility I am just lazy and don’t want to have to work, but to be honest, I get very bored in work environments and repetition makes me feel very slothful.
Now here's where the problem for me comes in. Is it possible to balance material gains and spirituality? Because when I focus on either I am pulled that way and the other is just sortof a memory (no feeling). Having quite spiritual thoughts the passed couple of hours I have no desire to go through with my plan for making money, for example.
Anyway, continuing…
There is also the ethical side of things. Internet marketing is sortof taking advantage of people’s ignorance.. ok, that’s exactly what it is. While I’d try and use things that are actually useful etc., I would have to ask myself am I really doing the right thing and is this the best thing for me or the best thing for one of my lower wants of the moment?
This must be a common battle. It’s not easy finding out what’s best, but I guess that’s part of the reason of living as is mentioned by you guys.
I wanted to comment on what Faust said about judgement, and I have to agree.. it's obvious you have to judge things in order to know about them while at the same time not being hypocritical (it's also not ones place to "cast them to hell", so to speak).. what I'm getting at is that I think that people often misinterperate the idea of "no judgement" and in a way (perhaps a very real way) give up their critical thinking skills.. which is basically the problem to begin with.
So what I want is difficult to figure out.
Here's what I want: to NOT have to work 9-5 shifts for the greater part of my life. It's not what I REALLY want, ofcourse, but it appears to me that it's an obstacle of sorts that needs to be overcome. So I have the material desire to sortof fall into a place where I can travel freely and enjoy nature; and nature, etc. is something that I feel will lose its wonderment if I know too much before I can sit and enjoy it in that way, or worse, continue to lose its beauty through our abuse of it. There is also the possibility I am just lazy and don’t want to have to work, but to be honest, I get very bored in work environments and repetition makes me feel very slothful.
Now here's where the problem for me comes in. Is it possible to balance material gains and spirituality? Because when I focus on either I am pulled that way and the other is just sortof a memory (no feeling). Having quite spiritual thoughts the passed couple of hours I have no desire to go through with my plan for making money, for example.
Anyway, continuing…
There is also the ethical side of things. Internet marketing is sortof taking advantage of people’s ignorance.. ok, that’s exactly what it is. While I’d try and use things that are actually useful etc., I would have to ask myself am I really doing the right thing and is this the best thing for me or the best thing for one of my lower wants of the moment?
This must be a common battle. It’s not easy finding out what’s best, but I guess that’s part of the reason of living as is mentioned by you guys.
I wanted to comment on what Faust said about judgement, and I have to agree.. it's obvious you have to judge things in order to know about them while at the same time not being hypocritical (it's also not ones place to "cast them to hell", so to speak).. what I'm getting at is that I think that people often misinterperate the idea of "no judgement" and in a way (perhaps a very real way) give up their critical thinking skills.. which is basically the problem to begin with.