Tomas. Seeing a new share from you drop in my mailbox started to give me this response: "Which one of my experiences is he writing about this time?" Your words, your style, familiar experience.
Really well written. I wonder - did you experience any pain or discomfort or fear on your ascending path of ascesis? And if so, how did you manage that and keep the temptations of hedonism at bay?
Zan, thanks a lot! Love these insightful questions of yours. To be honest, pain is almost absent, most of these activities prepare you to be much more resilient to it. Discomfort is constant, but a lot of energy comes with it as well, I train myself to focus that energy and channel it to something meaningful, like work, exercising, doing Substack, meeting new people, going to events. There was a fear that most of these things were not very healthy, as they were so radically different from what everybody else practice. But since I feel great, I do not question it too much now. How can I manage it? The more I practice this, the more natural and the only way to live it becomes. It was unusual at first, but with time it became the only way. Also, I always tell myself that I can change it back to the old ways anytime I want. But since it feels so calm, and peaceful here, there is no need to do this.
Yes - just funnelling the energy into something different. Once you notice that the experience is superior, there's no internal driver making you want to reorient back. Now you also see when someone is settling less, emptier experience, not knowing they are settling because it's all they've known... so far.
Absolutely! Trying it out and seeing for yourself is the best approach. Then you know the difference and can make a choice. Not a choice of someone who does not know any better, but a conscious choice that comes from experience.
Ah nice - thanks Tomas and Klara... sounds like it's very close to the idea of sublimation then... or transmutation even. Love it - thank you for your insights
I've been living the monk life the past year in a quiet beach town in southern Brazil. I can relate to what you're saying!
Time away from everything and everyone that I knew has helped me to find my own way. There are so many strange things in this world we have come to accept as normal, but in reality, aren't.
The tendency to fill up our world and numb ourselves is the strangest to me. I realised I used to do this because of a lack of feeling a connection with myself and the universe. Only when I stripped away all noise I was able to find it. Now I'm ready to come back to the "normal world", but forever changed.
Tomas. Seeing a new share from you drop in my mailbox started to give me this response: "Which one of my experiences is he writing about this time?" Your words, your style, familiar experience.
Klara, love this! I am sure that this familiarity is a good sign.
Really well written. I wonder - did you experience any pain or discomfort or fear on your ascending path of ascesis? And if so, how did you manage that and keep the temptations of hedonism at bay?
Zan, thanks a lot! Love these insightful questions of yours. To be honest, pain is almost absent, most of these activities prepare you to be much more resilient to it. Discomfort is constant, but a lot of energy comes with it as well, I train myself to focus that energy and channel it to something meaningful, like work, exercising, doing Substack, meeting new people, going to events. There was a fear that most of these things were not very healthy, as they were so radically different from what everybody else practice. But since I feel great, I do not question it too much now. How can I manage it? The more I practice this, the more natural and the only way to live it becomes. It was unusual at first, but with time it became the only way. Also, I always tell myself that I can change it back to the old ways anytime I want. But since it feels so calm, and peaceful here, there is no need to do this.
Yes - just funnelling the energy into something different. Once you notice that the experience is superior, there's no internal driver making you want to reorient back. Now you also see when someone is settling less, emptier experience, not knowing they are settling because it's all they've known... so far.
Absolutely! Trying it out and seeing for yourself is the best approach. Then you know the difference and can make a choice. Not a choice of someone who does not know any better, but a conscious choice that comes from experience.
Ah nice - thanks Tomas and Klara... sounds like it's very close to the idea of sublimation then... or transmutation even. Love it - thank you for your insights
Thank you!
I've been living the monk life the past year in a quiet beach town in southern Brazil. I can relate to what you're saying!
Time away from everything and everyone that I knew has helped me to find my own way. There are so many strange things in this world we have come to accept as normal, but in reality, aren't.
The tendency to fill up our world and numb ourselves is the strangest to me. I realised I used to do this because of a lack of feeling a connection with myself and the universe. Only when I stripped away all noise I was able to find it. Now I'm ready to come back to the "normal world", but forever changed.