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Jed McKenna's Enlighenment Trilogy
I liked the more "do stuff" approach that the intersection of pragmatic dharma and magick offered. "Say these words, sit like this, count this, name that" as well as the message I got from some people that "a regular guy who has a beer at the pub can wake up" - in other words, it soothed my fear that meditation or waking up might turn me into some kind of dreamy bald california dude saying "blah blah blah". I'd get to hang on to my "I'm a secret rebel" persona, feel cool, etc.
Both of the above fell apart eventually. But just as examples of how we have fears and fantasies about waking up that aren't always even conscious. I figured out both of the above in hindsight.
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Adyashanti Says It Better
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-- tomo
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"Over time I began to see how delicate and challenging it was for most seekers to find the courage to question any and all ideas and beliefs about the true nature of themselves, the world, others, and even enlightenment itself. In almost every person, every religion, every group, every teaching and every teacher, there are ideas, beliefs, and assumptions that are overtly or covertly not open to question. Often these unquestioned beliefs hide superstitions which are protecting something which is untrue, contradictory, or being used as justification for behavior which is a less than enlightened."
That's the truly relevant piece from the Adyashanti link I posted. It's about having the courage to face what you might find in your spiritual quest. Courage, guts, balls, chutzpah. We should ask ourselves, "What am I protecting?"
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Jed McKenna wrote: Depression is fear with hope removed. It arises as we discover that something we thought could be ours will never be ours. Unhappiness is when we worry about not having something. Depression is when we realize we will never have it. And freedom is when we realize nothing is ours and nothing can be ours so that, in effect, nothing is not ours.
-- tomo
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Tom Otvos wrote:
Jed McKenna wrote: Depression is fear with hope removed. It arises as we discover that something we thought could be ours will never be ours. Unhappiness is when we worry about not having something. Depression is when we realize we will never have it. And freedom is when we realize nothing is ours and nothing can be ours so that, in effect, nothing is not ours.
Seems like a much less insightful take on depression than Gabor Mate's idea that depression is "the body saying 'no'." -- to me, anyhow. The body says 'no' to a great many more circumstances than frustrated desire. Sometimes it says 'no' for reasons that make better sense than we can understand until we accept that "no means no."
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