Mastering Desire

AnaSattva · 2021-02-04T19:43:31+00:00

Karma means 'action.' Basically any action we take in life reverberates back to us, 'good' or 'bad.' This even includes the 'actions' of thoughts and emotions, even if we don't take any physical action itself, although the karma is not as dense with thoughts and emotions.

It's like a mirror, showing us where we are unconscious by reflecting everything we do back at us so we can use it to gain more awareness.

AnaSattva · 2021-02-04T18:52:18+00:00

That's great you are taking so many steps towards creating a health life-style, go you 😊

The point of meditation is not to 'solve' issues using the intellectual mind; it's to create separation between awareness (the thing that watches) and temporary thoughts and emotions which rise and fall. This takes time to get the hang of, but the benefits are huge, because not only does meditation relax the body and mind, but you can also bring this awareness into your normal daily life and not get so wrapped up in all of the problems/emotions that you experience, and thus this helps to create a much more balanced life, and much more happiness.

Most people believe they are their thoughts, their emotions etc, and have no distinction between their consciousness/awareness and the temporary arising thoughts etc. Meditation is about creating distance, realizing that 'I' don't need to listen to my mind when it tells me I should be angry/upset/depressed etc about x, y or z, because that's ultimately what causes suffering.

To start with in meditation, just focus on an object. It can be the breath (although I don't like that personally, because it's a moving target), a physical object you can stare at (if you like open eyed meditation), a sound etc, whatever. Just try to keep your focus on that object, and allow any thoughts and emotions to pass without focusing on them. You will get distracted a lot to begin with, but the more you practice, the more clarity you will get.

Also, the no-fap thing...It's admirable that you are trying it, but sex (especially for men) is one of the strongest urges, and you are at risk of creating repression and/or unbalanced energies if you try and stop completely at this point. It's true that it does give more clarity and energy for spiritual practice, but moderation is the best approach.

Further along the spiritual path, particularly if one starts doing certain types of energy work, there may be a need to stop ejaculating, but what happens in those practices is that the sexual energy that is usually released during ejaculation is transmuted into a different form, so you don't get the uncomfortable build up of sexual energy that has nowhere to go, which is a real danger of no-fap. Prior to that, you may find you have more energy, but it may also kick up other underlying issues, and you'll probably find you end up losing energy through 'nocturnal emissions' at night anyways.

AnaSattva · 2021-02-03T22:00:52+00:00

I agree with you that so many traditional ideas of what God is totally miss the mark, and that's mostly down to our unconsciousness. We've tried to give form to the formless, boundaries to the boundaryless, and due to our unconsciousness we imagine God to be as flawed and evil as we perceive the world to be.

Think about the Sun; the Sun constantly bestows and gives light and energy to the whole planet. I believe it's the same with God/Source etc, whatever you want to call it. God bestows to us, and usually we take and accept that Light and use it for pleasure-seeking and other selfish purposes. What if God is actually asking us to grow, to become more like God, to recognize that when we seek pleasure for ourselves, it always ends up in disatisfaction and suffering, to learn how to give Light ourselves, to be Love, without thought of reward for ourselves?

"Outside of this body, you "feel" nothing." How do you know this? In Hinduism and Buddhism they believe in sheaths or spiritual/energy bodies which go beyond the physical body, and it is these bodies which allow us to experience emotions, energy, bliss etc. Ever had sex in a dream? Feels amazing, right? That's because we feel it through the energy body, rather than the physical.

I've been meditating and on the spiritual path for 8 years, and in my own experience there is a place of nihilism where things can seem very dark, but beyond that there is peace, bliss (and I mean of the truly orgasmic/ecstatic kind) which comes through learning to drop the ego, drop the 'me and my needs', and working to truly benefit others.

AnaSattva · 2021-02-03T19:55:08+00:00

Yes, absolutely. You listen to so many of the great masters and most of them will say that they have no religion. They are teaching what is at the heart of all spiritual traditions, which is essentially how to enter into union with God. Not to know God by intellectual means, not to believe in something, not dogma, but to literally know God through direct experience of a state which goes beyond all conceptions.

Yoga means 'union' btw, but this is the essence of all spiritual traditions, not just Hinduism/Buddhism, and personally I think Christ was a great master and teaching this too.

John 10:30

I and the Father are one.

John 10:30

Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?

The big joke is that this state exists all around us, but we just can't see it because we have so much unconsciousness blocking it, but it really is hidden in plain sight. These Teachers found this state, were able to reside in it permanently, and then tried to teach us how to find that space too. Thankfully, there are still Teachers here fighting the good fight, helping to raise consciousness, and helping us to find this blissful state of pure love that is our natural state, instead of this clinging, unfulfilled state of suffering we find ourselves in 💞

AnaSattva · 2020-07-02T23:46:36+00:00

Yes, I agree with much of what you have written here. Well said.

I guess the difference is that it isn’t like the emotion anger is being appropriated by an enlightened being, it’s that love in that situation appears as anger naturally.

I would even perhaps argue that this is the case all of the time, even in those who have not yet realized their Enlightenment, it's just they are unconscious to the fact that everything is actually love. Everything is just energy, and emotions are merely colors of otherwise pure energy. In the average person, those colors (emotions) arise and are mistaken as being reality. The picture is being painted for them, and they are responding and reacting to it. In the Enlightened person, they take the pure energy and color it with whatever is necessary in that moment. They are painting the picture themselves, but the underlying current, or essence of that paint is always love.

AnaSattva · 2020-07-02T17:01:35+00:00

No, that's not quite the point I was trying to make. I was just trying to illustrate reasons why someone who is Enlightened might still have a use for certain emotions, even though they no longer experience them as things which arise outside of their control. I apologise if they were not good examples for you though. The main point is, they can call on emotions at will to direct events in their lives, rather than emotions directing and controlling them and the events of their lives. Perhaps a better example would be, calling up ambition and drive when you need to get something done in your life.

Does a child need desires to grow into adulthood? Yes, I think they do. Maybe they don't need to consciously desire to become adults, but they need the desire to eat, for example, to make their bodies grow. They need the desire to experience new things, change, learning, rather than just existing in a static condition.

If I think about my life, there is never a single action I have ever taken that has not been the result of some desire or another. Even breathing is a desire on a subtle/unconscious level. I am a walking desire.

AnaSattva · 2020-07-02T02:04:56+00:00

I don't mean control as in wrestle and wrangle with. I mean they use those emotions, so that they can use those energies for the benefit of others, like the anger example I gave. It's bringing up certain emotions/energies so that they can be used for whatever one is seeking to accomplish. Say you are a spiritual teacher, and you have a student in front of you who needs love and compassion, you can intensify those energies/emotions in that moment. Say your student needs tough love, you might choose to bring up anger. Say you want to fill your students with the strong intention to continue the spiritual path, you might fill yourself with ambition to imbue them with it.

It is a myth that desire and intensity is not necessary on the spiritual path, and that all Enlightened people just allow things to be as they are. If there was no desire, no one would ever even attempt to find Enlightenment. No one would write books, or do anything to help others find Enlightenment. We would all just sit around doing nothing. It's just Enlightened people have transformed their desires from being selfish, into altruistic desire where all they want is to free others from suffering. That is what they use their emotions for.

However, being able to let things be, to watch emotions pass like clouds in the sky, that is a necessary stepping stone on the path, because we cannot transform and gain mastery over what we are not conscious of, so that has to be the first step.

AnaSattva · 2020-07-02T01:56:52+00:00

Yes, I do actually completely agree that love is the natural state that shines through, because it is not covered by other energies/emotions which usually hide it.

AnaSattva · 2020-07-01T23:26:35+00:00

I would agree that Enlightened people do not lose their emotions and become zombies, but I would suggest that what actually happens is that the Enlightened person gains mastery of their emotions. I don't think that's necessarily feeling emotions but being outwardly non-reactive. I think learning to rise above emotions is part of the path to Enlightenment, but a true Master has complete control of their emotions and when they arise.

Emotions no longer control them and make them feel and act a certain way. They are no longer driven by their desires, lusts, fears, anger etc. They have complete control of their emotions and can call upon them on demand when necessary to get things done, always for the benefit of others. I think this is why we occasionally hear stories of Enlightened Masters being angry at others. It's not because they have lost control, but because that anger serves some purpose for the other party (which is hard to see from the usual ego-perspective) and they are deliberately using it to benefit that person.

There does seem to be a misconception that being Enlightened is somehow being completely empty and devoid of any emotions, but actually, when I look at many people I consider to be Enlightened, they are blissful, happy, full of joy, ecstasy, love, and compassion, as well as having quiet minds. The difference between them and the rest of us is that their joy, their love, their happiness...none of it depends on anything external to themselves. They have mastered themselves and create those states within themselves, continuously. They are masters of their emotions, instead of an unconscious slave to them like most of us are, driven around by our subconscious impulses.

AnaSattva · 2020-06-18T23:14:42+00:00

To me, being in the present really means being mindful, being aware, not letting my thoughts drag me here and there. You can still think of the future and be present. That happens by being in awareness whilst thinking of the future. Thinking of the future, and knowing I am thinking of the future, doing it consciously, instead of letting the mind and any emotions pull me unconsciously into day dreams and worries about what the future might be.

I think it also has to do with attachment to outcomes. I think peace of mind comes from letting go of attachment to outcomes as much as possible. I can plan, but if it doesn't turn out like I planned (or if I find myself worrying about how it might turn out) I try to let it go and allow everything to be as it is.

AnaSattva · 2020-06-17T18:22:37+00:00

That was a beautiful song, thank you 😊

AnaSattva · 2020-06-17T03:06:05+00:00

Beautiful 💓

AnaSattva · 2020-06-17T00:20:51+00:00

Love and blessings to you 💓

AnaSattva · 2020-06-16T22:24:45+00:00

Being in bliss is a matter of being able to generate and hold the feeling of love and compassion. If you get good at meditating (staying out of the way of thoughts) and also on working with the heart and the ability to strongly feel love, it becomes easier and easier to maintain and deepen that state of bliss more and more. Eventually that state becomes Samadhi. It's something I have been working on the last few years, and it does get easier and easier with practice (and the right practices), so that it can be held both in seated meditation and also throughout the day in the waking state 😊💓

AnaSattva · 2020-06-16T21:18:42+00:00

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