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Post by cerulean on Mar 29, 2018 14:43:04 GMT
There is no doubt that mind and body tend to get mixed through all the events they share together and the flow of suggestions from body to mind. I think (based on my experience) it is impossible to maintain a clean mind that controls the body for a long period without resorting to "clean ups" through meditation-like activities.
I just got back into meditation today. There was a strong feeling of discomfort throughout the first 5 min (because of the intermingling of the body/mind)...but after that I got settled and after few minutes I started to get this feeling of whirling and my eyes started to move left and right rapidly. Then I stopped.
Is that how it is done ? I've never kept up with meditation, but my constant failure to maintain control of the body for longer period of time is a sign that I must implement meditation. Maybe as frequently as the 'salat' of Quran.
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Post by Immanuel on Mar 31, 2018 19:38:40 GMT
There is nothing magical about meditation, but it can help with focus/concentration to focus the thoughts and it resembles meditation more or less. The attachment to bodily (Jehenom) you cannot break by meditation so there is no use of aiming for some kind of illusion that this practice achieves anything like it.
Controlled thoughts is what you are to accommodate through the meditation-like practice and to make the mind emerge away from bodily bias when you do not focus on the body.
It is about raising the level/grade of Existence or Being, as I have until now translated it as. And Existence is life, and life is consciousness as opposed to lifelessness. What does increase the consciousness which leads to Existence is a mental resistance to the autonomous driving instead of surrendering to its call or urge. The resistance is increasing the mental power alike a bodybuilder increases his muscles by resistance to his weights applied. This is a genuinely true parable, so if people have perception they better heed this proclamation.
Worldly people seek to strengthen the body. We who know better seek to strengthen the mind and we can do it by resisting the body, but also usage of the mind by independent thought and reflection does it. However, active resistance to the body is required, there is no shortcut and without a distance to the body it is not possible to go all the way towards maximum consciousness.
Be well Q. A. A.
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Post by Immanuel on Mar 31, 2018 19:47:39 GMT
And I never meditate in some kind of ritual, the closest thing to meditation for me is reflection and constant repelling of anything which is produced by the animal/body I am attached to. Not getting hooked up in meaningless human routines and getting time to reflect is an effective means of "meditation".
Like said, there is nothing magical in concentration exercises and whatever happens which is positive is that you focus your mind so it is being used independently and keeping it over matter. The sharpness of your mind is essential and it is with it that you will be learning Existence.
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Post by cerulean on Apr 1, 2018 8:59:56 GMT
I agree with you. Controlled thoughts is the needed result.
I speak with a lot of my peers, and I can see those who suffer from the inability to control thoughts and they are mostly people living alone or simply not very exposed to others in their privacy. Unlike those who live with others, like a dorm or something.
People who live alone suffer from the manifestation of the Self.
Some of the issue they face: a corporeal desire to feel like existing a corporeal desire to feel loved a corporeal desire to express self
And to answer these needs, they face compulsive behaviors: daydreaming idle talk listening to music watching movies playing video games eating a lot [anything to divert the mind and provide good feelings]
These are usually people who have difficulty in school.
Now unlike them, people who are more exposed to other people are more motivated by the desire to "look good" to others and the fear of being judged by the other and belonging to the mass and keeping up with it. Maybe that is why the community is a good thing. or even marriage.
But community might not be that good of a thing, I think everyone should go through this period (and possibly everyone has gone/will go through this period) so that they experience how terrible Self is and how bad things can get if they let Self control.
On this regard, Plato, who lived hundreds of years before Jesus, said: "The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile"
And Confucius: "The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. On this account, the superior man does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he hears things, to be apprehensive. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone."
Yet, even after experiencing Self and knowing beforehand what the result is (suffering/regret/.../) there is still this missing piece that is MENTAL STRENGTH, enough mental strength to break through this Self, that is always waiting for the right circumstances to just pop out and take over.
And the people who live as one with the Self, oblivious to everything, chasing this and that.
What a design.
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Post by hftwo on Apr 1, 2018 10:29:20 GMT
So Cerulean, You are saying The Self is a bad thing? What?
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Post by cerulean on Apr 1, 2018 13:38:37 GMT
I use Self very loosely so in the context of what I wrote, Self refers to the Flesh, the "lower self", the primitive intelligence, Satan.....
But in different contexts, Self is used to refer to the Soul, like in Hinduism in the Upanishads. I think it's a matter of context, I personally don't have a specific terminology for these metaphysical things.
But yes what I referred to as Self LEADS to bad things. It is not really a bad thing since it is what it is and it is there by design for a reason.
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Post by Immanuel on Apr 1, 2018 15:18:18 GMT
There is no wrong in choosing to be someone meaning there is no wrong in having a self and one cannot relinquish what they are, they are a self, this is a part of existence.
What is the self?
It is a projection of conscious existence which one experiences. You have the right to this existence, it is nothing to be ashamed of and suppress. In that there are different levels of existence and so there are also a level of existence which is more complete than the other. The key signature of Quran says "B'esm Allah Al-rahman Al-raheem" which speaks of the condition of Existence which is absolutely complete", like becoming fulfilled.
On the other hand, humans are attached to the bodily and it imposes an external force which is the instinct and it an animal behavioral pattern, since the human spirit is in a primate. It has its own drive and this humans can be assimilated by and driven forward. It causes the affected choices I have written quite a lot about. This has nothing to do with listening to the self or ego, which is who you are, it means you are listening to an external factor. The instinct is like voiceless whispers which call to something and if you are weak to resist they force you to what you would not want to do.
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Post by Immanuel on Apr 1, 2018 17:05:02 GMT
Apart from the terminology I agree though.
In ways there are two identities and thus two selves, one is the mind and the other is the body, and we should not be influenced by the latter but take command of the mind and control our matters through it.
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