The Power of Now
a Book by Echart Tolle
I'm reading this, and I can tell already that as soon as I finish, I'll be rereading it. I've hit several parts that I want to spend more time contemplating. The concept of a Pain Body was very interesting.... Quote:
|
Oh man... that is a wonderful book!! I've bought 5 copies and am always giving them away and findmyself buying another. That is awesome LJ!
|
You might also want to check out The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.
|
meant to tell you... my mom happened to have a copy of Loving What is. So that's on my list too. I'm finding out that there is a whole lot of shit I wasn't paying attention to, and a whole lot more stuff available to learn about.
|
A wise man knows how little he knows ;-). I hope the book is as helpful for you as it was for me.
I just started reading a book called Women, Food and God by Greenen Roth and despite Women being in the title I can see how it would be valuable for anyone. It isn't a Christian self help book... the term "God" is used in a much broader sense. It talks about how what we put on our plates is key to our view on spirituality, ourselves... etc and key to identifying and healing whatever it is that causes us to eat (you could translate that into any distructive behavior as she points out) when we aren't hungry. It is facinating. I'm only about a 1/3 of the way through, but I have to recomend it as well... if you can get past the title. |
RE: pain body
I've noticed before that when I feel sad or depressed, or jealous, or grief that I somehow want to continue. I don't want to be cheered up. I don't want to be mollified.
I always thought that maybe I had some defect that made me want to punish myself for something. Or some invisible compulsion that caused me to create situations that caused me to be in trouble. Giving it a 'body' as Tolle does makes it possible to see it as separate from myself, and thus changeable. If it's not actually a part of me, then it's not me. It's just something I do. I can fix that when I notice myself doing it. Tolle promotes constant presence to watch for it. I'm not even close to that at this point... but I have been able, lately, to recognize when I'm allowing my current situation to spin my emotions up into knots. It's not easy, but if I concentrate, and breathe deeply for a few moments, I can bring myself out of the spiral of remorse for the past, and dread of the future... and dig my claws into the present moment. It's getting me through the day, at least. |
I've spoken about something like it regarding anger to my son. When he gets mad, it takes over. The anger has control, and he gets lost in it. I can see it when it happens. I've told him to be aware of it... You never know if it's sticking, with a kid, but I hope it does, because this feels true to me.
|
Here's something to watch, instead of read. Take it with a grain of salt, it brings up interesting things to contemplate:
"What The Bleep Do We Know?" I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the movie's message. Here's a clip about addiction: |
What do you mean by pain, LJ?
We need an operational definition. |
In his book, Tolle defines it as any kind of negative emotion, or situation. Say....addiction...or jealousy.....
|
If you enjoy pain, then it isn't negative.
If it isn't negative, then it isn't pain. If it isn't pain, then you can't enjoy it. It's very circular. |
the point he makes is that the pain takes on it's own awareness, and controls you. the pain enjoys the pain. you don't.
|
Quote:
The more of the chemicals you produce, the more receptor sites are created... |
what sn said
|
Quote:
I don't know a lot about it, but mindfulness seems to be based on Vipassana meditation. I've read some stuff ("Monsoon Rains and Icicle Drops" + "Thirty Something and Over it") about 10 day workshops in Europe and Australia. From what I can work out, on the very limited research I've done, the mindfulness stuff seems like the 'lite' version of Vipassana, but if the thought of 10 straight days of meditation seems impossible, then mindfulness might be the way to build up the skill before going for the 10 day sink or swim workshop. |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:24 PM. |
Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.