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    Avalon Member dynamo's Avatar
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    Default Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    June 29th, 2018
    By Wes Annac
    Guest writer for Wake Up World


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    What should you do when you experience a spiritual awakening in which you realize reality is an illusion, everything is connected, and you’re slowly evolving on a mental, physical, and spiritual level? It’s lot to take in, and what you do afterward is crucial.


    You have a few options; some that will take you higher and some that will stall your spiritual growth indefinitely. You can, for example, start behaving in a way you assume is more “enlightened”. You can try to be positive every second of every day in hopes that your forced good mood keeps you in harmony.


    You can go straight to social media, proclaiming to the world that you’re #woke and telling everyone to just stay positive (despite the very real hardships people go through every day). This will work for a while. You’ll feel like a #woke warrior with a high vibe and an unshakable spirit. If something goes wrong, you’ll tell yourself to just think positive; that it will all work out if you avoid negativity and refuse to get upset, and don’t think about what upsets you or bums you out. Just be positive.

    But constant positivity only goes so far.

    Before too long, something will feel amiss. Your curious mind, which led you to awaken in the first place, will continue questioning things. This will include your newfound philosophy. You’ll continue to deeply examine life and the “you” living it until you discover an inherent flaw in your previously infallible belief in positivity; for most of us, that flaw is that despite our incessant love and positivity, we still feel sad. We still get angry. We still get weak and succumb to the world’s temptations. That dark side of us we thought we transcended is still intact, and it begs for our attention.
    This is where self-honesty becomes important. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll explore those negative feelings and consider that they have a role to play in your life. If you’re not, you’ll think you’ve simply failed to be positive for a few moments and push yourself right back onto that self-destructive path.


    Don’t stop being positive.

    I don’t recommend giving up on positivity altogether, because it’s good for you. It’s healthy to look at the positive and the negative. Personally, if I didn’t see both sides, I’d either be in denial or miserable and depressed.
    To focus only on positivity is to bury your head in the sand regarding the problems in the world and in yourself. You’ll feel good, but you’ll be blissfully unaware of these issues that desperately need your attention. This is the opposite of being awake. But if you focus only on the bad and decide that positivity in any form is naïve, your world will turn dark quick.
    “If you’re trying to stay high then you’re bound to stay low.” – Matisyahu (1)
    Give yourself permission to be positive, optimistic, and hopeful. But don’t ignore the world’s problems or abandon your dark side for the sake of staying emotionally high.
    You have a choice when you first “wake up”. You can tell the world how awake you are and insist we all stay positive; or, with meditation and introspection, you can silently contemplate your shortcomings and the role your dark side can play in catalyzing spiritual growth. I know the latter option doesn’t sound too fun. The concept of endless happiness and bliss is much more appetizing. In chasing endless happiness, however, you avoid a fundamental aspect of the evolution of mind, body, and soul: the shadow self.


    What is the shadow self?

    Let’s learn a little about this part of ourselves we fight to ensure never reaches the surface.
    According to Mateo Sol at Loner Wolf, Carl Jung created this now well-known archetype to describe a fragment of our unconscious comprised of all that negativity we repress because we think it’s bad for us.
    Soul work, Mateo writes, inevitably makes us aware of the darker aspects of our psyche.
    “If you’re truly honest about self-exploration during your soulwork journey, you will come across many aspects and traits about yourself that you will find difficult – if not completely disturbing – to accept.” (2)
    Carl Jung, he writes, was led by reading spiritual scriptures to create the “Archetypes model”.
    “In the domain of psychology, renowned psychologist Carl Jung devoted a lot of thought to this problem of the ‘Shadow Self’, being deeply invested in the research of ancient esoteric knowledge and spiritual scriptures to not only treat the mind of man, but his soul as well.
    “In response to his serious preoccupation Jung created the Archetypes model, a concept wherein he believed our unconscious minds are fragmented or structured into different ‘selves’ in an attempt to organize how we experience different things in life. Two of Jung’s major Archetypes are The Persona and The Shadow Self.” (3)
    Mateo describes the persona and the shadow self:
    “… The Persona, according to Jung, defines what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen by the world. The word ‘persona’ is derived from a Latin word that literally means ‘mask’, however in this instance the word can be applied metaphorically, representing all of the different social masks that we wear among different groups of people and situations.
    “On the other hand, the Shadow Self is an archetype that forms part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, instincts, impulses, weaknesses, desires, perversions and embarrassing fears.
    “This archetype is often described as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos and the unknown. Jung believed that these latent dispositions are present in all of us, in many instances forming a strong source of creative energy.” (4)

    The mask is here to stay.

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    In my opinion, the persona is unavoidable to an extent. We all wear a mask. We all have this side of us tied to the ego that doesn’t want to be embarrassed or humiliated and just wants to fit in. The world could certainly use more authentic people, but I don’t think we can or should remove the mask entirely. The problems come when we latch onto the mask and forget about the shadow self or the unconscious altogether.
    One way we become reattached to the persona after a spiritual awakening is by insisting on being positive and refusing to see the negative. We decide one day to never take off the mask and let our hurt show. In this way, an awakening can unfortunately lead to the opposite of what was intended.


    Instead of exploring our unconscious, which is our link with the other side, we abandon it. By adopting false positivity, we cling to the persona and push the shadow self ever deeper until it’s forced to erupt just to get our attention.


    Spiritual bypassing.

    This suppression is known as “spiritual bypassing” or using spirituality as a reason not to explore your subconscious because of the demons that lurk deep below. Confronting these demons is the chief purpose of a spiritual awakening, and the fact that it’s often used not to do this is a little ironic.
    Jordan Bates at High Existence describes spiritual bypassing, citing psychotherapist Robert Augustus Masters:
    “In the early 1980s, psychologist John Welwood coined the term ‘spiritual bypassing’ to refer to the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid confronting uncomfortable feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs.
    “According to integral psychotherapist Robert Augustus Masters, spiritual bypassing causes us to withdraw from ourselves and others, to hide behind a kind of spiritual veil of metaphysical beliefs and practices. He says it ‘not only distances us from our pain and difficult personal issues, but also from our own authentic spirituality, stranding us in a metaphysical limbo, a zone of exaggerated gentleness, niceness, and superficiality.” (5)
    The purpose of this “exaggerated niceness” is to separate ourselves from those negative feelings that will eventually come to the surface anyway. Tragically, some people genuinely believe that to let these feelings in is to stray from their path. They try their hardest not to acknowledge anything negative.
    This constant positivity keeps you in the shallow end of the mind, stopping you from diving deeper, finding the monsters at the bottom, and kicking their asses (metaphorically, of course). When you finally acknowledge them, everything changes.


    Spirituality: not for the faint of heart.

    Since I like to cite spiritual teachers in my writings, let’s hear from a few about the harshness encountered on the spiritual path and why we should be open to it. It turns out there’s no shortage of guidance on the inevitability of struggle and the ways in which it can help you become a better “you”.
    According to Bernadette Roberts, this journey is not for the faint of heart.
    “This is not a journey for those who expect love and bliss; rather, it is for the hardy who have been tried in fire and have come to rest in the tough, immoveable trust in ‘that’ which lies beyond the known, beyond the self, beyond union, and even beyond love and trust itself.” (6)
    One challenge, she writes, is the dissipation of the ego and subsequent descent of the “cloud of unknowing”.
    “In experience, the onset of this process [of God-realization] is the descent of the cloud of unknowing, which, because his former light has gone out and left him in darkness, the contemplative initially interprets as the divine gone into hiding.
    “In modern terms, the descent of the cloud is actually the falling away of the ego-center, which leaves us looking into a dark hole, a void or empty space in ourselves. Without the veil of the ego-center, we do not recognize the divine; it is not as we thought it should be. …
    “From here on we must feel our way in the dark, and the special eye that allows us to see in the dark opens up at this time.” (7)
    St. John of the Cross affirms that the spiritual path contains plenty of “darknesses and trials”.
    “The darknesses and trials, spiritual and temporal, that fortunate souls ordinarily encounter on their way to the high state of perfection are so numerous and profound that human science cannot understand them adequately; nor does experience of them equip one to explain them.
    “He who suffers them will know what this experience is like, but he will find himself unable to describe it.” (8)
    Brother Lawrence encourages introspection after an awakening.
    “When we enter upon the spiritual life, we should consider and examine to the bottom what we are.
    “And then we should find ourselves… subject to all kinds of misery and numberless accidents, which trouble us and cause perpetual vicissitudes in our health, in our humors, in our internal and external dispositions; in fine, persons whom God would humble by many pains and labors, as well within as without.
    “After this we should not wonder that troubles, temptations, oppositions, and contradictions happen to us from men. We ought, on the contrary, to submit ourselves to them, and bear them as long as God pleases, as things highly advantageous to us.” (9)
    Your demons become your allies when you embrace and work to heal them. You no longer worry that the universe is punishing you and instead take responsibility for your role in your struggles. When you ignore and avoid them, they grow and grow until they become your most formidable opponents.
    They’re easier to deal with if you confront them early on when they have less power over you, but their power grows if you continuously ignore them. They slowly take over, demanding you do what would’ve been far easier in the beginning.


    Conclusion.

    The plain truth is that you can’t run from the “negative” things that form the individual and collective shadow self. Nor can you run from the struggles on your path. You’re a spiritual being, but you’re also human. Your dark side is a natural part of the human experience, and struggle is a natural part of life.
    Suppressing or ignoring them is not.
    You can get to the heart of this ‘beast’ within you by letting it surface and figuring out what (besides the fact that it’s natural) caused it to form. Then, positivity will arise naturally when the moment calls for it; as will anger, sadness, disappointment, and all those other feelings we don’t prefer. The difference will be that instead of pushing them back down, you’ll feel them, learn their lessons, and let them go. This is evolution.
    Let the process flow naturally instead of clouding it with forced positivity, and you’ll enjoy true, authentic happiness and spiritual growth.

    Sources:
    1. “Matisyahu – King Without a Crown Lyrics”, Lyrics Mode.
    2. Mateo Sol, “Shadow Self: Embracing Your Inner Darkness”, Loner Wolf.
    3. Loc. Cit.
    4. Loc. Cit.
    5. Jordan Bates, “10 ‘Spiritual’ Things People Do That Are Total Bull****”, High Existence.
    6. Berandette Roberts, The Experience of No-Self. A Contemplative Journey. Boston and London: Shamballa, 1985, 13.
    7. Bernadette Roberts, “The Path to No-Self” in Stephan Bodian, ed. Timeless Visions, Healing Voices. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1991, 131.
    8. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, trans. Complete Works of St. John of the Cross. Washington: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1973, 69-70.
    9. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God. Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1963, 22.
    Recommended articles by Wes Annac:
    About the author:



    Wes Annac: I’m a twenty-something writer and blogger with an interest in spirituality, revolution, music and the transformative creative force known as love. I run karmayogadaily.com, a daily news blog dedicated to igniting a revolution of love by raising social and spiritual awareness.

    I also have a personal blog, in which I share writings related to spiritual philosophy, creativity, heart consciousness and revolution (among other topics). For exclusive articles, you can also subscribe to my Weekly Awareness Guide, distributed weekly via email, which I offer for $11.11 a month.

    I write from the heart and try to share informative and enlightening reading material with the rest of the conscious community. When I’m not writing or exploring nature, I’m usually making music.

    You can follow Wes Annac at:

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    In the evolution of our soul, how can we differentiate between our very own dark and the dark of those who lurk in our minds to makes us be and do for their own purpose?

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    That is the point - there is no one else...you think and act as you believe you are. That is the great benefit of the shadow - it is the gift of you to you. It is not the thing to despise but the error that creates the space to despise. All the characteristics that you wish weren't you are relegated to this thing, the shadow - and all the areas that you wish were you too.

    You are All that. If you believe you are not then you cast a shadow. Children of Light throw no shadow. They dispel the dark because that is all it is - a spell cast by magnificent beings unaware of their own magnitude.
    Last edited by Ernie Nemeth; 30th June 2018 at 14:33.
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Thank you Ernie Nemeth, and by strange synchronicity I found this in my mail:

    https://www.weareinfinite.love/blog/we-are-the-remedy


    It's by George Kavassilas

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    United States Avalon Member DNA's Avatar
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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    I've often thought the approach to enlightenment most of the time was/is fraught with unrealistic wishful/positive thinking used to mask one's less attractive character traits. I'm of the opinion most of our core traits are not things we can enlighten away.

    I'm of the opinion it is far better to spend a little time introspectively understanding who you are, and by that I mean understanding what is you and what is planted in you through upbringing and brainwashing.

    Excising and exorcising false paradigms takes not a little while but is surely worth it in my opinion.

    Not taking your opinions for granted and truly examining them until you understand what is truly you and what is not you.



    Good luck to all, a very worth while endeavor in my opinion.


    Last edited by DNA; 30th June 2018 at 17:10.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Therein lies the false paradigm that lay as the basis in the belief of there being two evolutionary paths of consciousness - Service to Others (STO) vs Service to Self (SOS). There are not two separate paths. You can say there is only one path, or better yet - there is no path.

    In other words, Service to Self (STS) is Service to Others (STO). No need for separation.
    Last edited by turiya; 30th June 2018 at 15:39.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    George is a good one.

    Just wanted to emphasize the most important point that may have got lost in the narrative:

    We create the space from where our enemies attack us - by ignorance and denial. We are creative beings; we always create. We either create consciously or we create unconsciously - depending on where our awareness is at...

    Like DNA said with different words.

    By the way, I was just having a talk with my shadow self this morning...I try and engage it at least once a day. It is starting to get antsy again and I have been warned to make good on my promise to integrate more of it into my daily life - or else. I am momentarily stuck because I do not remember what I promised it in exchange for a more satisfactory existence with less interference and trauma.
    Last edited by Ernie Nemeth; 30th June 2018 at 15:39.
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Posted many times before, but a good analogy, IMO, is the image below.
    Simply put:


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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    When you find someone who is bossy, demeaning, overly critical and basically a sadist in so far as there interpersonal relationships with others are concerned, I find it helpful to know and realize that for every mean and nasty thing you see someone saying or doing to others realize that there is a voice inside their head doing 10X the damage to this person internally.
    How we relate to others is a reflection of how relate and treat ourselves.

    We are energetic beings and our energy can be stolen and taken through actions that lower our self esteem and cause us to devalue ourselves. Most of this behavior (in my opinion) is archon related and the more the archon is allowed to maintain control of the personality the more internal damage it does to the host person.

    Turiya and Dynamo both made me think of this with their most recent posts.
    Last edited by DNA; 30th June 2018 at 16:08.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    DNA.

    I see it as you can't see anything other than what you are. If you see archons, there is archon-sciousness in you. If you encounter bossy, nit-pickers there must be that inside you.

    At work there are days when I am in the flow and I can charge 2 hours of labour for what suddenly only takes half an hour. Yet if I should get snagged up by a rusty bolt or incorrectly wired circuitry my focus collapses. I find my focus is hard and unyielding. If I were to soften the edges, to allow for inconsistencies, to roll with the punches as it were, I might find a more happy medium and an easier road, for example.

    It is including the unwanted that creates harmony and grace.
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Quote Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
    DNA.

    I see it as you can't see anything other than what you are. If you see archons, there is archon-sciousness in you.

    There is absolutely archon consciousness inside of me. I know it's voice and I know it's favorite mechanism for draining energy from me. I've grappled with it and found it to be nearly an invincible foe. I've spent years living the life of a solitary monk with the sole purpose of identifying what voices from within are my own and which are not.

    I've exercised great discipline in holding the archon at bay and using the energy it normally consumes to activate other senses that normally lie dormant. I finally decided to re-connect with human relationships and upon doing so I've found I can minimize the archon manifestation but there is no defeating it, ever. If you let up in the discipline necessary to hold it at bay it returns, but there is a certain satisfaction and peace in knowing the difference between yourself and this outside voice masquerading as your own.

    We are all born with an archon attachment, I've seen it in every person I've ever met.

    If you think you are living an archon free life due to your superior understanding it almost always means you have simply never taken the time to recognize the difference between it and yourself.

    For the most part, the negative shadow consciousness talked about by Jung is in fact the archon attachment.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Yes, I remain heedful of the archon threads but find I cannot participate in them. It is too disruptive to me. And I understand the meaning, as above, that that which I resist has a place within me.

    As an aside, some long gone member once sent me a blind link to a thread, the horus ra one I think, where I was exposed to a recounting of a child abuse scenario. I do not read such travesties and suffer them poorly. But it did trigger me and I had to do battle I was ill prepared for. Eventually I recovered...
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    One of the biggest traps of the "new age" movement and people who want to
    see only the "good" in themselves and others;

    Forgetting to face the darkness and
    dissolve the resulting blokkades in their psyche.

    Click image for larger version

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    The complete advice..
    "Dodecahedron; 12 faces 20 points 30 edges 6480 degrees"

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    The persona sounds like a version of Freud’s ego ideal. To illustrate, popular entertainment has turned the ego ideal of many modern men to want to be James Bond, which has caused many of them to get caught up in the me-too movement.

    Stanley Kubrick to me was a master of informing us of these social ego ideals given to us by popular entertainment and social interaction. This is one reason many people castigate modern rap music( gangsta rap) that gives urban children the desire to be anti-social or to be proud of it.

    Relating to spirituality, these shadow personalities are illusions and are the impermanent self or selves Buddha refers to often. Here, by illusion, I mean temporary. They’re all social and psychological constructs

    Here’s the problem…
    When we forget spirituality is a science of cultivation, a science of transformation, and that most of the time it involves a period of time to succeed, we can get lost in the deception of our own ego or vanity. And also, that any kind of religious piety is for you, not God.

    So an individual does his meditations, his prayers, goes to his religious services( maybe Yoga) as they should and they can tend to become self-righteous and think that they are better than others.

    What they have done is basically repressed the shadow self and ego inspired personas and taken on a very well known persona of the self-righteous religionist. Such a one often can be worse than a gangster when all that shadow filters through the repression.

    One way to alleviate this bad habit is through self-examination. See and acknowledge the deceptive shadows in yourself and devise intelligent ways to cultivate positive traits to counter or transmute them

    But be careful
    For remember what the teacher Jesus said, Give unto God what is God’s and give unto Caesar what is Caesars

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

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    If you haven't integrated your shadow
    it comes out in ways you don't expect, dis-integrated.
    It comes out as an autonomous spirit under no one's control.
    You either have the shadow or it has you.
    When the shadow is integrated, you are no longer
    someone to whom things happen,
    you become someone that makes things happen.

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    One thing about the shadow self idea is that it’s probably not wise to distance oneself from their shadow self as if it’s some kind of distant entity apart form you.

    The fact is this shadow self is YOU.

    All the accumulated dross of negative personality, delusion, illusion, self-deception, that the Fallen world has socialized and psychologized and internalized with yourself.

    You can’t kill it, or divorce yourself from it like you divorce a mate or lose a friend.

    It can be transmuted, integrated, dissolved somewhat by hard work on oneself.

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    Serbia Avalon Member XelNaga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Quote Posted by boolacalaca (here)
    Attachment 38404

    If you haven't integrated your shadow
    it comes out in ways you don't expect, dis-integrated.
    It comes out as an autonomous spirit under no one's control.
    You either have the shadow or it has you.
    When the shadow is integrated, you are no longer
    someone to whom things happen,
    you become someone that makes things happen.
    boolacalaca,

    do you mean, the shadow will become something like a thought-form, working against us?

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Welcome XelNaga! I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.
    This is a very interesting thread indeed.


    What is your idea concerning "the 5th Obstacle on the Spiritual Path", as stated by Wes Annac, https://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/12/...piritual-path/

    "5. Loneliness (i.e. the absence of people to share our spirituality with)
    Being a spiritual seeker can often be lonely, because some of us are the only ones in our area who embrace spirituality or the various concepts that come with it. This might be different for people in western states like California, where there are a lot of ‘conscious’ people with various beliefs, but a lot of spiritual seekers are alone in their knowledge, their awareness and the way they feel about life.

    This can discourage us from making progress, because there are plenty of people around us who’ll talk about trivial, cultural things all day long. It never feels good for a spiritual seeker to take part in mundane discussion, because they’ve begun to tap in to the secrets of the universe and this quickly becomes their only interest.
    Can you imagine having all these thoughts and feelings about enlightenment, UFOs, meditation, etc. burning deep within, but all anyone around you wants to talk about is the debt ceiling or everything wrong with the liberal or conservative parties? It can be maddening, and if we subject ourselves to too much nonspiritual influence, it can slowly take hold in our subconscious. Before we know it, our minds are once again on all those trivial things we wanted to get away from and we have to start the process of personal liberation back over again."



    How do we act on this in the "best" way?

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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Quote Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
    DNA.

    I see it as you can't see anything other than what you are. If you see archons, there is archon-sciousness in you. If you encounter bossy, nit-pickers there must be that inside you.

    At work there are days when I am in the flow and I can charge 2 hours of labour for what suddenly only takes half an hour. Yet if I should get snagged up by a rusty bolt or incorrectly wired circuitry my focus collapses. I find my focus is hard and unyielding. If I were to soften the edges, to allow for inconsistencies, to roll with the punches as it were, I might find a more happy medium and an easier road, for example.

    It is including the unwanted that creates harmony and grace.
    "archon-sciousness"... ha ha, that's really funny

    I often times feel like I'm two people. Sometimes maybe even three!

    "you can't see anything other than what you are" is a beautiful way of putting it (I tie this into "Realms" of consciousness)

    The thoughts in my head once said to me: "you can't help what you are", and I found that to be kind of reassuring, but it's equally possible that thought was intended to trick me. Maybe I CAN be anything I want to, after all. If I get to choose what to re-incarnate as, I'm coming back as a plant
    Last edited by petra; 27th November 2018 at 17:49.

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    Serbia Avalon Member XelNaga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Embrace the Shadow Self – Your Dark Side Misses You

    Quote Posted by Keyholder (here)
    Welcome XelNaga! I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.
    This is a very interesting thread indeed.


    What is your idea concerning "the 5th Obstacle on the Spiritual Path", as stated by Wes Annac, https://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/12/...piritual-path/

    How do we act on this in the "best" way?
    Brother Keyholder,

    Not sure if you asked me, but I hope you don't mind my answer to this question.

    I know exactly what is meant by that "spiritual loneliness", as I have, as many others I believe, personally felt that. It has been approximately 10 years since I started my spiritual journey, or as some might have, since my "awakening".

    It was really hard for me, for the first couple of years. Every time when I learned something new, interesting or helpful, by my very nature I always wanted to share that knowledge with everyone. And in, lets say, 95% of time, I would be ridiculed, laughed at, made to feel like a fool/idiot, by people very dear to me to whom I only wished for the best. In time, it all started to make me feel just like they were thinking about me, like I'm an idiot or moron for being interested in things like that. Almost all my friends were focused only on couple of things: night clubs, easy girls, drugs/alcohol, and of course making money. My family is completely not interested in spirituality as well, which was even more painful, so to speak.

    But later I've learned one of the most import lessons of that time: freewill! It is theirs freewill to live in blindness, it is theirs freewill to focus on meaningful things instead of our future and our true selves, our purpose in life etc. As much as I would like to share something with them, I realised that I will only do them harm when all I want is to be of service to them.

    So the path became really lonely, and I started spending more time with myself then with other people, because our interests were far different. Now I have only a couple of friends who I spend time with, and don't mention anything of this kind of topics to my family and colleagues unless they ask something, or show some interest.

    Our teacher and brother Buddha once said: "if you have no sincere friends to walk your spiritual path with, than it is best to walk it alone", or something similar to that :-)

    And, just to add this: if material side of life is just a game, and spiritual side is our real life, then, who cares if you are alone or not, play it like any single-player game out there, and when it's game over and you switch off your console, your family and friends will be there, in real and important part of life, waiting for you to show them how many levels you have passed :-)

    PS: sincere apologies for this rambling, mistakes (as English is not my native language), and for using "I" waaaay toooo much :-D

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