Your friend ... Negativity

Hi there,

The following is not advice, it’s just a passing observation that may or may not resonate …

There’s no hiding from the increasing amplification of negativity and suffering is there? Well there is, in a cave or forest somewhere, completely and totally isolated from other humans and their influence, their technology, their very existence … but that’s sort of suicide whilst one’s physically alive, a capitulation, and as such it misses the mark. Everywhere you are physically or digitally, this negativity is expressed as an ever increasing physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual aggression between humans and between humans and nature itself. You notice this, and it never stops, there’s almost no refuge or respite from it, and it wears you down because it’s like carrying this heavy weight that you cannot get rid of, because it is controlled and inflicted by others. For you certainly are a loving soul that would rather this nonsense abated and everyone would just chill the funk out. But you’re not going to get pushed around either because you are smart and have dignity, so if someone aggresses you with their ideas and opinions you’re going to push back, because yours are just as valid, and if only to stand your ground and protect yourself. Or perhaps you have reached a spiritually convenient resting place where you don’t get affected as much and can create a small bubble of stillness around you some of the time.

It’s so difficult though, everywhere one looks more and more people are existing at their emotional brink, where one more little thing can set them off at any moment. We are literally walking around pre-loaded to jump at each other’s throats at the slightest perceived aggression. We see it when we drive around, we see it apparently on Australian cruise ships, we obviously see it on the internet where relative anonymity makes these expressions easier. Some of it is genuine natural human angst borne of disconnectedness, some of it is contrived to achieve this end by external forces that set the dogmas, allow human proclivity for unity to be falsely sought externally by forming tribes around said dogmas, and then light the fuse to pit us against each other. All this is for another thread but I note it now just to make the point that both through external forces and our complicity, it isn’t going to go away or subside, there’s no relief, it’s only going to intensify.

Keep in mind that many do not want to shed this weight, their attachment and identification to their thoughts are so engrained that any affront to one of their opinions or beliefs is always going to be interpreted as a personal affront to their very existence, for they are their thoughts/beliefs. Those of this ilk would be done a disservice to try to disconnect them from their dogmas, and doing so will be interpreted by them as a matter of survival and defended as such. It’s not a problem, let them be and they will get it eventually without your intervention needed, they’re just not ready yet … almost everyone does eventually, even if it takes a few lifetimes.

So how do those who carry this weight cope? Try to reduce one’s internet exposure, avoid the news and social media, load up on the sarcasm and eye roll ammunition, make rules never to talk politics to basically anyone, avoid any type of conflict even if it means it might be seen as a sign of weakness, insert personal strategy here? I guess just stay close to those you know and trust and be leery of all others until proven otherwise. Basically what we’ve always done but just a lot more of it to counterbalance the ever increasing enveloping negativity and suffering. For the most part this is what I’ve been doing. I have stopped sharing myself with others, I have been relatively content in my own meditation, near only to those who are closest to me, but sometimes even distant from them. At first what seemed like a functioning reasonable protection mechanism has slowly, almost imperceptibly been replaced by indifference and apathy, conveniently and willingly confused as a spiritual practice as opposed to the ego trap that it is, but mostly because I just could not take people repeating themselves all the time, and even more so because I got so tired of repeating myself. It has sort of worked for me and I am as tolerant of myself as I can be, except for the fact that I am not the only part of myself … therefore something more simple and more aware seemed worth considering …

There’s a great quote from the blessedly named Ram Dass, that’s as authentic and true as language can touch: [I]“A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done.”[/I]. Don’t get attached to this quote.

In this context, the application of this mantra is to note that negativity like most conceptual interpretations, including love and positivity, imply a relationship. Yes all are projected from a source, but there needs a subject for them to exist, they require to be felt by a willing recipient, they cannot exist without you.

“Well that’s all well and good you hippy” I hear you say, “but that doesn’t stop the trolls and asshats everywhere that are bringing me down.”

Fair enough … but here’s a, dare I say, thought …

There’s no need to stop them.

First of all you can’t any more than you can stop the sunrise. If this world had no opposites, no duality, it would not serve its purpose. I mean I’m sure there’s someone out there who goes to bed every night hoping that the sun won’t rise in the morning because of the thinking in his/her mind and wakes up to disappointment every morning. You don’t want to be that person do you? That’s just silly. So in the words of another great spiritual guru named Bob Newhart: Stop it! I speak of it with humor, but honestly, if one’s expectation is that all of this negativity will fade or get ‘better’ they’re just committing themselves into permanent disappointment, which they will interpret as more negativity.

Here’s the good news …

Someone above our pay grade has obviously gone through a lot of trouble to create us, this planet, and the universe around us, just for us to be given an opportunity to realize ourselves. Including inserting into it and maintaining the ever accelerating daily negativity and a soul crushing degree of suffering. War, famine, illness, ill functioning social and political systems, religions instead of faith, crime, manipulation, and that’s just the human influence.

Putting our individual and collective cognitive dissonance aside …

… there would be no greater waste, no greater example of missing the mark, no greater sin, than to let all that suffering happen for nothing by not using it for its intended purpose, your realization.

Yes it is beyond painful, yes it is horrible, yes you sometimes feel like you look the same as those people that do that to each other but you’re surely of a different species because there’s not one tiny piece of your soul that could do this to other living creatures … and all of this is true, and because it is true you would be doing yourself the greatest disservice possible by labeling it as negative and being averse to it instead of using it.

I’m not saying run towards suffering or embrace negativity … all I’m saying is that most of what humans interpret as free will is a non existent construct of their mind, choosing to allow all things no matter their nature to be the access points to your true self instead of wasting them by taking a mental and/or emotional position towards them, is the only true free will one can exert, and the upshot is that although not easy to practice, it is a lot easier than carrying all that unnecessary weight … and doing so serves you whereas all other approaches do not. Here’s the thing, if you truly get this, you’re not shedding weight, there just isn’t any weight to carry … all there is is relief at first, and then a true freedom from being unnecessarily affected or even manipulated by other minds, because you’re not enabling a relationship between them and yourself, you’re just allowing and using what this world is offering you, including the negativity and suffering.

Before you know it there’s no more need to spend all that energy protecting yourself, for even though you allow all the natural emotions borne of your environment to exist, you are doing so in true knowing, a knowing that they are a necessary element created to allow you to exert you true free will, and they do not linger after they have served this purpose. When the question is not why is this happening and how do I stop being affected so much by it, but is why and who in me is allowing me to be affected, you’re not resisting the sunrise any more, and there’s room for empathy to return, reengagement with those other parts of you called humans can also return without fear … even if they kill you, you can be happy in the knowledge that your suffering has served a purpose for others’ realization, and it shall not be wasted. No? Too much? Well, maybe you can baby step it and feel liberated enough to bring yourself to slowly reengage by doing the sort of tldr thread that bores everyone to death, just like the olden days.

Sounds like he made his meditation on negativity itself... so staring at negativity day in and day out one in a sense becomes negativity taking it all in like a breath...

Holding that breath in? One will obviously lose consciousness so there is a point where the breath turns and it comes out in the opposite... like sitting on the cushion focusing on the pain so great that it bursts forth or hts the turning point and goes the other way into bliss.

Of course now that all the breath is out... in his discourse of negativity focus... not allowing any breath back in? Exactly the same as that held inside... one loses consciousness then the turning point that forces them to take another breath.

So macro-micro/inner and outer/ that's the real meditation no matter the duality... the turning point is the hub or middle all of that revolves around.

Awareness conscious grasping volition to do or not to do... thats the monkey leaping thought after thought leap after leap, focus after focus... it's job is to feed on what? Nothing.

Attached to not self one takes it in as self... wasn't self now it is children taking the external internal like a breath and then exhaling out the same over and over.

Well where is the turning point? As such a thing has gone on for thousands and thousands of years.

In the individual... they have to see that impermanence of the breath the same held internally or externally it is just breath impermanent as the sunset yesterday except in the mind digging the corpse up or looking at a photo like smelling a flower and then grasping it to carry it along and it's scent soon passes. If left alone it's sent would still pervade until nature takes its course.

This seems to be what he is suggesting however; he has failed to see the permanence in the impermanence... grasping at time... hey stop theres plenty of it. Well thanks for taking the time how many lifetimes do you need to stop fighting the breath of in and out when it turns naturally?

Calling that breath anything but life is to embrace death... so why not? Everyone alive is doing it and like the flower at different rates.

Because of suffering that's why... it's the same reason the heart will kick start you back to life after passing out holding it in or letting it out.

Mind grasps all sorts of things important or not... heart grasps one thing life. Whether that heart comes from you or another? It still goes on... the suffering however like the scent arises and passes and it's length is based on that attachment... to itself? Longer. To another shorter, however the gift of that life of sacrifice scents up to the heavens.

Life and volition go hand in hand either in the lap, or in service to the body, whether that body a service to oneself or others who is to say... as that too carries on the wind. Foul or not is not my attachment to grasp... although many would have you make such distinctions only to keep turning you round that point of losing consciousness yet again and again life after life. It does it anyway with or without their help... knowing this is the difference between ignorance and enlightenment.

No refuge because one is already at home, no matter where that may be.

a reply to: schrodingers dog

That was beautiful. I remembered the dancing spidey. I didnt associate it with you until I read one of your threads again. Thanks for adding to the soup. Im glad youre back!

I agree with a lot of what you said. What most resonated with me was the part about not setting yourself up for disappointment. I see negativity as a counter balance to creation that seeks out its opposite like positivity in its madness seeks out destroyers. Each is flawed when trying to sway the other. Each is best in its place, acknowledging the other within itself.


Have a good one.
Hold it down.

Yeah, that was a cool and truly thought provoking thread...

But I'm more concerned with that little dancing spiderman dude in your Avatar... Yeah sure, he's living it up now... Throwing all negativity out the window and just passionately dancing like their's not a concern in the world.

But soon the drugs are gonna wear off and he'll lose all motivation to even dance at all... he'll be stuck with nothing but negative thoughts of a meaningless existence and an overwhelming desire to just put a bullet in the back of his own head.

Trying to hard to find a positive niche in life, will probably just burn him out completely... in the end.

... poor little dude.

Negativity only gets in you if you let it. Depends on how well grounded you are against external influences.

Lots of first responders jobs involve the most negative s*** happening around them all day. They run to it wherever it is, yet manage to stay sane, because they don't let it get to them.

its their job.

a reply to: schrodingers dog


Ummm...to what end...

Completeness...?
Wholeness...?
Equanimity...?

To what point...?

Balance...?


There’s a certain part...a certain aspect of self that is deceived by claims of fulcrum anectidotes...
However...other aspects are aware that negativity within the present construct outpaces...progressively...geometricallly...positivity...

Perhaps this is due in part to conditioning...by media...by governance...by design...
Yet...another aspect senses an innate desire for self immolation...for suffering...for ending or causing destruction in opposition to creation...

If indeed I am an optimist...it is optimism tempered by pessimism...skepticism...awash in curious open innocence...
If I have found that central point of perspectives...neither overflowing...or void...
If also I realize emoting and alert awareness...without thought are also sides of a coin...

What next...to what end...to what point...?

In the end...meditation...either focused or void...always returns the self...and place is exemplified by all aspects...and there is no escape into nirvana...or satori...because enlightenment is fleeting...like coitus...fleeting...

Breath returns...the sun rises and sets...life must be lived...body functions...
Endless days and nights of repitition that eludes finish...never finished...never finishing...no perfection...no purity....only a strange mix...an amalgamation of dualism’s awash...steeped in irony...

What next...to what end...to what point...?









YouSir

a reply to: schrodingers dog

Schrodinger? Is that you?

No way....Seriously??

I have to do more reading. There is no way you came back.
Is ATS having a reunion?

Great post, by the way.
Illuminating.

originally posted by: schrodingers dog
...

I’m not saying run towards suffering or embrace negativity … all I’m saying is that most of what humans interpret as free will is a non existent construct of their mind, choosing to allow all things no matter their nature to be the access points to your true self instead of wasting them by taking a mental and/or emotional position towards them, is the only true free will one can exert, and the upshot is that although not easy to practice, it is a lot easier than carrying all that unnecessary weight … and doing so serves you whereas all other approaches do not. Here’s the thing, if you truly get this, you’re not shedding weight, there just isn’t any weight to carry … all there is is relief at first, and then a true freedom from being unnecessarily affected or even manipulated by other minds, because you’re not enabling a relationship between them and yourself, you’re just allowing and using what this world is offering you, including the negativity and suffering.

...

Are you trying to tell us that you created this thread, in hopes of attracing negativity, so as to practice your free-will, and to realize yourself?

He-he: just teasing.

Your post begs the question: how attached are you to these concepts of testing, and this stated purpose of realization?

a reply to: YouSir

Yeah.
Just a whole lot of: "whatever", is what we end-up with.

Nice thread and pretty eye opening.

Ever since 911 I have been caught up in this crap and wasted countless time reading conspiracy theories and such. Believing some of them and modestly trying to debunk more of them. Your post has made me realize just how pointless it all has been.

This latest shooting has really hit home for me as well. It has made me realize just how little water these conspiracy theories actually carry and how blind I have been to participate and waste so much time and energy around them. For the first time in a long time i am looking forward to the sun rising. It's not too late me for me.

Thanks much for coming back and sharing this thread. It is going to make a difference for at least one person.

a reply to: schrodingers dog

Brilliant, i loved reading this.

a reply to: schrodingers dog

Have a towel! It's still frosty and you shouldn't be dancing through these halls without, wet like you are.

Him whom I love, I love better in winter than in summer; better do I now mock at my enemies, and more heartily, when winter sits in my house.
Heartily, truly, even when I creep into bed-: there, still laughs and wantons my hidden happiness; even my deceptive dream laughs. I, a - creeper? Never in my life did I creep before the powerful; and if ever I lied, then did I lie out of love. Therefore am I glad even in my winter-bed.
A poor bed warms me more than a rich one, for I am jealous of my poverty. And in winter she is most faithful to me.
With a wickedness do I begin every day: I mock at the winter with a cold bath: on that account grumbles my stern house-mate.
Also do I like to tickle him with a wax-taper, that he may finally let the heavens emerge from ashy-grey twilight. For especially wicked am I in the morning: at the early hour when the pail rattles at the well, and horses neigh warmly in grey lanes:-
Impatiently do I then wait, that the clear sky may finally dawn for me, the snow-bearded winter-sky, the hoary one, the white-head,-
-The winter-sky, the silent winter-sky, which often stifles even its sun!
Did I perhaps learn from it the long clear silence? Or did it learn it from me? Or has each of us devised it himself?

Thus Spoke Zarathusta(F. Nietzsche).PDF

a reply to: schrodingers dog

Ignoring negativity and focusing only on positivity creates imbalance. It is imbalance that creates tensions and through tension, harmful choices.

a reply to: schrodingers dog
Proverbs 17:22

22 A joyful heart is good medicine,* [Or “good for healing.”]

But a crushed spirit saps one’s strength.* [Or “dries up the bones.”]

As neuroscientist Fabrizio Benedetti, one of the pioneers of placebo research, puts it, there isn’t just one placebo effect but many. Placebo painkillers can trigger the release of natural pain-relieving chemicals called endorphins. Patients with Parkinson’s disease respond to placebos with a flood of dopamine.
...
None of these biological effects are caused by placebos themselves, which are by definition inert. They are triggered by our psychological response to those fake treatments. The active ingredients are complex and not fully understood but include our expectation that we will feel better (which in turn is affected by all sorts of factors such as our previous experience with treatment, how impressive or invasive a treatment is, and whether we’re an optimistic person) and feeling listened to and cared for.

Source: The Science of Healing Thoughts - Scientific American

Attitude Makes a Difference! Awake!—2016

It can affect whether you attain a goal or give up or whether a tragic event brings out the best in you or the worst.

Romans 5:3

3 Not only that, but let us rejoice* [Or possibly, “we rejoice.”] while in tribulations, since we know that tribulation produces endurance;


Quoting the OP:

There’s a great quote from the blessedly named Ram Dass, that’s as authentic and true as language can touch: [I]“A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done.”[/I]. Don’t get attached to this quote.

Something in that quote reminds me of an aspect of Stoicism (not saying Ram Dass is a stoic).

The philosophy of the Stoics stressed fate or natural destiny; one should be of high virtue but strive for indifference to pain or pleasure.

Source: Philosophy: Insight, Volume 2

Is tender compassion a sign of weakness? Many imperfect humans have held that view. For instance, the Roman philosopher Seneca, who was a contemporary of Jesus and a leading intellectual figure in Rome, taught that “pity is a weakness of the mind.” Seneca was an advocate of Stoicism, a philosophy stressing calmness that is devoid of feeling. A wise person may help those in distress, said Seneca, but he must not allow himself to feel pity, for such a feeling would deprive him of serenity. That self-centered view of life allowed no room for heartfelt compassion.

Source: “The Tender Compassion of Our God”

originally posted by: richapau
a reply to: schrodingers dog

Ignoring negativity and focusing only on positivity creates imbalance. It is imbalance that creates tensions and through tension, harmful choices.

i think the point is to let all the negativity drive you. Don't participate in it and move forward while everyone else wallows in the awfulness of it all.

a reply to: YouSir


This is best read in a Big Trouble In Little China Lohan voice from here on out; Ah you have not yet found your purpose which means passion... once that occurs the rest becomes clear.

Fine to drop the voice dramatics now if you want... but even though I was on a path what seemed like two of them; what I was doing and where I was headed... seemed to be in uncertainty even though I never made hasty discussions but well weighed them and well sometimes the well weighing was weight from the past holding me back in embracing more of life. Past gone but couldn't get past it lol... well now past it? Many others are not so they do the dragging and it isnt for me as champion best to look past the me at the greater cause... and the other side not for me either in denial etc. so whatever once one drops all of their baggage so0meone is gonna wanna claim it. Me I just enjoy doing art and throwing some wisdom out there for others on the road.

I used to have to go from direct experience, first person business... like I needed to know or else I wouldn't. Impatience was the issue got to get going got to move got to do this... not taking MY time by running on what brings me joy has to run on the mundane time. So seeing I dont have to base the things I enjoy on others time and only my own? I was able to move into observational learning.

So of course the passion business... I was having a selfish thought some years ago; and decided to ask my self a question since it showed up. What have I always lacked? It said encouragement... then ran away. So I pondered it and well I noticed days later as that was bouncing around... well thats what I was always giving people so much so I seemed to lack it for myself. But in the process of giving I wasn't aware of when I was receiving the equal balance didn't seem equal.

Because I was keeping selfish score... when I was already doing what I loved meaning timeless; no times table on that... in impatience I thought there needed to be. So much of our time is on others clocks our entire life. So little of it to do what one really wants to do so when it does so up? Rush rush rush and not enough time and by the time their is? Poof their time is calling again.

So I noticed I never lacked what I thought I had always lacked blind to receiving what I was giving... so from encouragement to the passion and well once one has a passion craving etc sets in and the life path opens to finally live yours instead of someone elses.

But hey if you make it thus far in self questioning... I can't say how your passion will play out as their are other players called attachment involved. As previously mentioned in brief... others are now attached to my time and well no relativity says we have our own time that it only exists relative to something else. So when some demand it? Youve had enough...

Cheers.

News flash. Negative is Positive and Positive is Negative. Dont they teach this in American junior baby science class for kids?

Spend all your energy trying to make sense of inverted logic...

You who refuse to tell somone they stink? That's positivity, which is actually negativity. You are refusing to help that person overcome their problems,and calling it 'being nice'..

a reply to: schrodingers dog

One way or another...those who have altered nature to drive us to this feeling...this edge despite ALL efforts negative and positive...will be removed.

Let us say..that we hope it can be done in a fashion unlike every other time.

Because this is the LAST time, that it will ever be allowed again.

And balance shall be restored

As many buddhists monks have taught.

Embrace negativity. Suffering is part of life. Embrace suffering and be free