Some advice...

Don't identify your sense of self with what is going on in your life at any given point in time. This is something that most people do -- like sitting in a movie theater hypnotized, most people identify their sense of self with the sequence of pictures that flash one after the other in front of them. But you are not this sequence -- you are the white movie screen itself that the pictures appear upon. And regardless of what pictures appear on the movie screen -- whether something utterly beautiful or something utterly horrendous -- the screen itself remains the same before the movie, during it, and afterwards.

Learn to identify your sense of self with the white movie screen instead of the sequence of pictures that flash across it, and more and more you will find deep inner peace regardless of what's currently happening in your life.

Good advice but it is easier said then done.

I see your point Lykan. . .Personally, I find life to be a balance between order and chaos, sometimes one has the upper hand over the other. Even though we may just be the movie screen, it can be difficult to seperate yourself from the 'movie' itself.

Originally posted by sargentlard
Good advice but it is easier said then done.

Yeah, i know what you mean. The concept of it is simple, but just because it's simple doesn't mean that applying it to how one sees things from moment-to-moment is easy. I've found the benefits from working on doing so infinitely worth it though.

sometimes you have to lose yourself in the moment...


otherwise you'll pass up things you won't be able to feel just being the "background" all the time

By all means go with what feels right to you, plasticwingsmelting. But personally my subjective experience of applying it isn't as either "foreground or background." It isn't the best of analogies, but for me it's more like a smaller circle that moves around within a much larger circle. And as i learn to experience my sense of self as the larger circle (ie -- the white movie screen), it increases the potency and vibrancy of my experience of the smaller circle at any given moment during my life.