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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2017 10:40:30 GMT
The Daily Vernon Howard Quote this morning on the subject - "HONEST AWARENESS 'Today I noticed envy in myself.' 'Good.' 'Yesterday I became aware of resentment.' 'Excellent.' 'Excellent?' 'Of course. You are ending self-deception by becoming aware of your actual condition.' 'But I seem to be getting worse.' 'No, no, no! Honest awareness of your actual condition is the first step toward liberation from negative traits.'" There is a Way Out, p. 119 -------------------------------------------------- A post of the Shades of Awakening group this morning - "Joseph Campbell — 'Gods suppressed become devils, and often it is these devils whom we first encounter when we turn inward.' Many hours of inner dialogue resolved this for me - getting to know the pain, and get its message. See Internal Family Systems Therapy, or Inner Relationship Focusing." www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzHdjUTNhd8__________________________________________________ Internal Family Systems Therapy - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_ModelInner Relationship Focusing - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Relationship_FocusingTrauma As a Doorway to Spirit www.vanissar.com/blog/trauma-as-a-doorway-to-spirit/
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2017 10:41:57 GMT
i have been trying to shift focus onto what is the lesson - what is the learning?
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Post by Bodhitree on Jul 13, 2017 17:56:58 GMT
For me, asking what the lesson was didn't help very much. There was no internal teacher, and for every experience what came out of it was different. But I do like the Vernon Howard quote very much, honest awareness is one of the real keys for getting to know yourself. It's easy to fall into traps of avoidance, not-seeing or talking yourself into delusions about your negative traits.
When I was using honest awareness and becoming more familiar with my negative emotions, the key question for me was, what is at the root of these things? I feel jealousy of the man with his fancy Porsche, why do I feel that? Do I feel I deserve something like that? Is this a form of greed? Powered by a long-forgotten desire? As those questions leading to the core of an issue became clear I found things resolving themselves, unwinding themselves. It's a beautiful experience, just from insight and awareness.
It's a long journey, but as the negative things unwind and you reject them, positive traits get more air and you can develop those.
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Post by Bodhitree on Jul 13, 2017 20:12:26 GMT
"Therefore, in training ourselves as those who have left the world, we must learn to give up all forms of evil, giving up all those things which are the cause for enmity. We conquer ourselves, we don’t try to conquer others. We fight, but we fight only the defilements; if there is greed, we fight that; if there is aversion, we fight that; if there is delusion, we strive to give it up. This is called “Dhamma fighting.” This warfare of the heart is really difficult, in fact it’s the most difficult thing of all."
— Ajahn Chah, The Complete Talks
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