steve

Appropriately, some of his books sit unread on my shelf! For me it seems to be that I buy books and then can't decide which to read next. The other aspect is that once I have them available, I feel no urgency to read them. Right now I am torn between three novels - Monstrilio, The Master and Marguerita, and Never Let Me Go

I'm a master of the art of tsundoku!

I appreciate you sharing your experience, it sounds authentic and profound. I have experienced something similar though I use different language to describe it. When working with surrender and transcendence, it is important to have a healthy and stable ego as a foundation. Letting go of the primacy and agency of the ego can be very destabilizing for some so there needs to be some way to find grounding and support if that becomes an issue. Given your mention of psychological challenges, I suggest a modicum of caution and self-awareness as things shift for you. If we surrender to something greater or deeper, like you describe, there can be a tendency to objectify, project, analyze, interpret, anticipate, label and all the other things the mind is so good at. (There is little more dangerous than someone who thinks they speak for and believes they know the will of God.) So when the mental activity arises, which is inevitable (eg "Part of me wonders: Am I becoming passive? Irresponsible? Or is this the beginning of true surrender?"), I find it important to always return to inner stillness and silence. When we are quiet enough, the answers we need are there, effortlessly. If they are not coming, the best practice IMO is to let the questions remain open, trusting that answers will be there when truly needed or when we are ready. I appreciate how Steven Harrison talks in his book The Question to Life's Answers about questions being alive and full of potential, whereas answers are essentially dead - nothing more to gain from them. When it comes to integration, I think this is an important part of the process each of us has to explore and navigate for ourselves. In my tradition, every experience of life is taken as the path. One suggestion is to try and find some balance between that sense of surrender to the "absolute" and the value of the "relative" aspects of life, the mundane daily grind. Certainly there are those of us who have the opportunity and aptitude to choose the life of a yogi and to retreat from society for a time or for our remaining years. Most of us need to live with others, maintain a job, support a family, and find meaning and nourishment in the mundane. For me, finding that balance involves finding the essence of the divine within the mundane, finding the joy and nourishment in the little, everyday experiences, particularly in my relationships with other people. In particular, I find it very rewarding and instructive to dedicate time and energy to serving and helping others, both formally and spontaneously whenever the opportunity presents. Another important part of the process is to not neglect one's physical and mental health. An unhealthy body and mind cannot possibly optimize the connection with the source. Get enough sleep, eat whole foods rather than processed, drink enough fluids, reduce consumption of sugar and intoxicants, get plenty of physical exercise, limit exposure to the morass of propaganda and psychological manipulation that masquerades as "news" and "social media." All of these things have been very helpful to me in terms of the integration of the spiritual and secular in my life. I think it is a great blessing to find some sort of refuge and guidance in life, something we can trust, particularly something that is pure and stable. Integration for me means that we are able to use this to really show up in our lives, to be fully available and present, rather than withdrawn and disconnected. So much of our behavior is programmed, conditioned, and reactive, coming from a place of fear, insecurity, and uncertainty. If we can allow our actions to come from a place that is less biased and less influenced by transient emotional states and conditioned patterns, they tend to be more creative, appropriate, and beneficial, IME. Good luck to you @Kati

I suggest you trust your instincts more than anonymous strangers online, be they here or elsewhere. This makes you the perfect target for those who would take advantage. Caveat emptor!

Maybe @zerostao can clarify the intent as he started the thread with a single word, gratitude. That said, I do like your idea!

Empathy is the most meaningful moral foundation and currency, in my experience.

Tango! Boulevard San Jorge by Narciso Saúl

byzantine icons dream of Andrey Rublyov frozen in pigment

It can be a lot of work to try to do nothing! And when we finally see what @stirling so expertly and consistently points towards, we see how much wasted effort we've expended. It's comical in retrospect but frustrating and very serious when we're in the thick of it. I like how Peter Fenner once put it, 'if we didn't do what we didn't need to do, we wouldn't know we didn't need to do it.' But if we can truly trust in opening and letting everything be just as it is for a moment, we can shortcut the process considerably. How unfamiliar it can be to spend much time just feeling stillness, hearing silence, embracing openness, doing nothing at all, just leaving everything as it is. What a waste of time, it seems, in such a materialistic and productivity based culture. It's very simple but not very easy because we are so familiar with, even addicted to, the movement, the sound, the content and activity of the mind. We are so primed for transactional relationship that anything else seems like a failure. It seems so foreign to think the ultimate method is.... doing nothing at all. But that nothing embraces everything, far more than our limited intellect can readily access or appreciate. I was once talking with a friend at a campfire about these things and he was going on and on, waxing philosophical about the nature of this and that. Something possessed me to break this loop of logic and I spontaneously let out a loud shriek. He looked at me shocked, as was I, and I simply held his gaze. Within a second or two, in the silence that followed the interruption, I could see the dawning of recognition on his face and we both broke into laughter, then just sat together in silence. It was pretty cool. Never did that before or since. Sometimes that stuff just comes out at the right time.

A short thread... about emptiness/Source/Self/Dao/whatever.... on DaoBums.... Yeah, right

Thank you @forestofclarity I appreciate all that you and the team do!

One practical aspect/application of the relationship between emptiness and compassion is found in helping others. When you to want to offer help, it's very important to notice what is behind that impulse. So often we try to offer what WE think someone else needs. Of course there are situations where it is obvious, a drowning person needs their head above the water, but very often what they actually need is different from what we think they need and they are not always able to tell us. Sometimes we may even disagree with what they need but who should make that decision? It is easy to make them feel worse or make a situation worse because we are trying to impose something coming from our own pain, conditioning, or ignorance. So when that urge to help comes up there is nothing more important than emptying out our own reactivity, our own assessment and conclusions, and to be very open, inwardly quiet, and really listen and feel what that other person needs. If unsure, best to simply show up with presence, inner stillness and quiet, and simply be there until it is clear what is needed in the situation. No words are more supportive than holding a hand or a warm hug. I was once called to help someone at a retreat who was very ill. I did not speak their language but figured out they needed emergency medical care. Unfortunately we were over an hour from any hospital and had to wait for the ambulance for a long time. I felt so helpless sitting there not being able to do anything so I just sat next to her, holding her hand, gently rubbing her back. We would occasionally smile at each other between spasms of pain. It was one of the most meaningful hours of my life, no exaggeration. Unable to do anything but be open and present for someone else during their intense suffering. The experience completely changed my relationship to how I approach my work and the people I work with. We've felt and stayed connected over a long distance ever since. My teacher is currently leading a retreat on longevity practices from the Bön tradition and one of the things that is being emphasized over and over is the value and importance of human connection for health and longevity. That connection needs no words or agenda. Just catching someone's eyes and offering a genuine smile creates instant connection, provided we are open. The openness is the key and that can only occur when we are quiet and still inside, in other words... empty.

My apologies for any inconvenience. I would like to change my name back to steve, if possible. I changed to distance myself from being identified as a mod as I was getting a lot of mod requests after I left the team. I think that's no longer an issue. Thanks!

got nothing to do nevertheless, the breath moves with me or without

If you've not seen it, this clip is worthy of watching in full. Keep reminding yourself these are actual US congressmen.