About Me

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I have recovered from the disease of Alcoholism. I believe there is only one person really,.. everybody. And that peace of mind is everything. -So treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself, because your neighbor IS yourself. I think most of recovery is what I would call common sense, but that learning to be ordinary is a true gift very few people acquire. My ambition is to accept everything unflinchingly, with compassion, and therefore be intrinsically comfortable in my own skin, no matter what. I am comfortable being uncomfortable and am willing to go to any lengths to improve my life. I believe the Big Book was divinely inspired, and is extraordinarily powerful. Unfortunately AA's best kept secret a lot of the time. (In my opinion). I just try to do what works, no matter what it is.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

I am LOVING Ajahn Munindo's online talks right now

(And people like Ken Wilber.) It feels like what I need to hear right now.
Just thought I would share that with you!
I was listening to the talk called Am I Practicing Rightly? Today and LOVED it.

Gawd knows, but its just the ticket. Mostly stuff about what I call 'emotional processing' because I have NO CLUE what else to call it!
He refers a lot to Self centeredness, but the words he uses to describe it is 'trying to get my own way', and control freak. I always use those two terms to describe what's happening when we are 'trying to run the show'.

He also describes what he calls a 'capacity to feel', being increased by this process. Which is what I was trying to describe in an earlier post called
'Steady containment' is what I call enlightenment
Becoming a 'Strong Vessel': Increasing your capacity for holding very powerful (good and bad) mind states in consciousness, without going mad!
Peace of mind is NOT dependent on having PLEASANT thought forms or emotions

What he describes is the ability to hold powerful emotional states in consciousness without making them a problem. Normally they are overwhelming, But that the more you do this thing, the greater your capacity is to feel these things. This is a step 11 mindfulness technique if you don't already know. This is a post step 9 thing really.

Anyway, he explains it better! have a nice Sunday!

5 comments:

ArahMan7 said...

Thank you for sharing 'emotional processing', my Irish friend of Bill.

Anonymous said...

I am gonna check out your suggested listening. We are such emotional beings, sometimes a blessing and a curse. I need guidence, espicially with my situation today, to begin learning to channel these emotions. I am ready, and am grateful for all that you post, ways to live in the solution.

:)

Recovery Road London said...

This is all new to me.

Am off to investigate. Thanks for sharing new resources/ideas.

:-)

Anonymous said...

Powerful stuff, that actuality of experience and the willingness to bear with it!! Right here and now the word capacity has taken on a new meaning and as is said in the talk, I really, really don't know but here goes. Lw

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

Heheh Glad you like him. None of these things make much sense until you actually give them a go. to me it is not much more than 'radical' acceptance in AA terms, but applied to the realm of emotion and inner experience. but then, the AA doctrine says we should 'practice these principle sin ALL our affairs', so I have no conflict of interests between the two ideas. this is just a description of getting our head (fixed ideas/old ideas) out of the way and accepting ALL our feelings. All I know is that this approach really appeals to me. I get very annoyed when people end up becoming judgmental toward their feelings in the interests of being 'serene' or a 'better' AA. The only I way I know how to be at peace is to accept EVERYTHING. Anyway. I love this stuff too. As you can probably tell! Mr Munindo seems like a nice bloke. And he only lives up the road in harnham. Its free to visit you know! (See monastery kitchen blog link on the right to see what its like up there) It looks lovely! The best way to learn this stuff is to visit the monasteries for a meditation class if you get the chance. But the talks are online too, so that's the next best thing. They are actually very good teachers. They really know their subject. There are some really BAD ones out there. Wishy washy ones. These guys are pretty damm tough. Well, the ones I like are anyway.. I find them a bit addictive!