Judgment is really hard, especially if it comes with a large dose of shame, which it often does. And anything that starts in early childhood is incredibly difficult to work with. Once you learn to embrace and even become intimate with your traumas and fears, you start to find who your true self is, your core, your essence or spirit, however you think of this. You begin to understand your suffering. One of my favorite quotes that has resonated for many years, from Kahlil Gibran: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” We are all seeking emergence from suffering. And, when we find it, I believe we have a duty to share what we learn with the world. How we do that is our core purpose.
I’ve been trying for two weeks to open up, but I keep bumping into my fear of revealing who I am. I decided during Monday’s dharma talk that I can’t do that any more. Being vulnerable is hard, but it is incredibly rewarding, renewing, liberating when you do.
How I manage to invoke a dream state is to slow my body down. The way to slow your body down is to completely relax, which is hard. Everything is hard, in my experience, but it’s worth every effort and then a lot more. I posted more about this here: {Ram Dass/Alan Watts Week 3: Day 19} Just Us Here - #2 by Pam_Boling