On loneliness and emptiness

 A few years ago, a man who had been meditating for twenty years told me that during the Chinese New Year, he went out for a walk and saw others were in pairs during the New Year. He was single and not married. When he saw others in pairs at that time, he felt very sad. He was depressed for several days. I said: “Why?” He said he saw others in pairs while he was alone. When he told me this, I told him that when two people are in pairs, they have their own problems. They may quarrel about their children, their future, their finances, or whether they should go back to their in-laws' home. Being alone also has one’s own freedom. Others all say that I am alone and free. So, I told him that one person has one person’s problems, and two persons have two persons’ problems too. If you don't learn to understand yourself today, even if you are always in pairs and achieve what you want, you will still have problems.

 

After listening to me, he suddenly became cheerful. He seemed to think that it's not bad for him to be alone. He didn't continue the topic, so I let it go. Why do you feel depressed when you see two people in pairs? Is what’s inside you coming out? Ah? Loneliness and emptiness come out, right? But our conversation just touched the surface, right? Do you understand your loneliness and emptiness? So, in our many relationship, business, and job problems, why do we feel better for a while, and then those problems reappear not long after? The reason is here, which is what we will learn later. What was that emptiness? Did he understand it? This emptiness is deep in our consciousness. We encounter many things in relationships or in life, and our interaction with people on the surface are all right, but when we get to the deeper level, this thing will come out. So why do your relationships with your partner and children keep going around? The reason is that we have not yet transcended this part of loneliness and emptiness. It is that simple.

(…)

That man has meditated for twenty years, and his mind is already very attentive and calm, but he is still not aware of his own emptiness. Why? This is worth exploring.

Excerpt from Suzhen Liu’s recent family energy workshop, week 11, Emptiness and Loneliness

If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering/dp/0999251732

See the power of Oneness and the inner interference as is

 We are wired to pursue what we like and avoid what we dislike. The challenge is that this “institution” that fends for our happiness sees a world of make-belief and tries to override what is and creates a lot of mischief in the process.

This impostor claiming to be “me” has been around for eons and we have taken it for granted. If we try to get rid of it we are bound to face a lot of inner resistance. This entity naturally distrusts the power of Oneness and minds our claim that it is illusionary.

We can’t be aligned with the power of Oneness consistently until we have faced this interference, understood it and let go of it. There are two approaches. One, seeing the power of Oneness and two, seeing the inner interference to it.

Everyone wants to be enlightened but no one likes to do the dishes. We have that natural incline to shy away from fears and aversions and run after our desires instead. Again, we need to have the staying power to see the “f-a-d” as is.

Stoicism: maybe we sit with this fear, disappointment and restlessness without doing anything about it as some sort of punishment for the sins of our past, or simply to be someone in the eyes of the higher power that we envision to exist.

Super-ego: maybe we do all this spiritual work which includes the willingness to stand up to our fears, aversions and desires because we have the desire to get something on the other side of the imagined enlightenment state.

There is really only one solution to this problem. Face all the feelings that pop up and examine them honestly. If you are shaking in your boots full of fear, saddle up anyway. If you feel the desire to be somewhere else, hold this tension like a diamond. 

Align with the power of Oneness and inquire into the nature of the inner interference and do it today or it will never happen.

On loneliness

 I'd like to ask everyone if you ever feel empty and lonely?

Audience: “Often.”

We all have these feelings, and we have been doing many things

driven by loneliness and emptiness in relationships and in life.

What is loneliness? What is emptiness?

Audience: “No sense of belonging.”

No sense of belonging. Okay.

Audience: “Feeling unanchored.” “Lack of direction.” “Unable to grasp anything.”

Being unable to grasp anything. Oh, this is very close.  Great!

Audience: “Meaningless.” “A feeling of no existence.”

“I want to do many things when feeling empty.”

So, when I feel empty, I go out to eat, drink, and have fun; this is called emptiness.

So, we still don't know what emptiness is, right?

Audience: “Feeling meaningless.”

Nothing can fill it up and be grasped or found, right? Emptiness!

Okay. Is there any other definition?

What is emptiness?

Audience: “It’s like being floating in the air.”

Okay, anything else?

Audience: “Nothingness.”

Nothingness. This is very close.

Audience: “Not happy whatever I do.”

Yes, emptiness! Nothing is right. Nothing can be grasped. Nothing brings happiness.

Everyone, today if we figure this out, we can avoid decades of wasted time. It’s true.

Why is it? I will take you all to see it later. Not just to see it, but to take you together to transcend it, ok? Why are you sick? It’s also related to this.

Does anyone else want to tell me what emptiness is?

Audience: “It’s like an empty hole.” “Nothing can be grasped.”

It's like a hole. Nothing can be grasped, right?

Emptiness. Does anyone else want to say about emptiness?

Audience: “It’s accompanied by great fear.”

 Yes, it is accompanied by great fear.

So, are all these definitions that we just talked about actual emptiness?

So, when I can't grasp anything, I feel empty and so I go to grasp something.

After I grasp it, do I feel empty? Will I still be empty? Yes, I will.

(…)

We grasp something that is a projection of this part of our inner need, and we then forget this emptiness. You grasp something that you think is precious; maybe it’s a relationship.

When you lose this relationship, why can't you get out of it? You lose the person you love, and you are in pain. It’s not the person leaving you that makes you painful. What is it that makes you painful? It’s the emptiness, being unable to grasp anything, that makes you painful. You must first understand this point.

Excerpt from Suzhen Liu’s recent family energy workshop, week 11

If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering/dp/0999251732

Learning and transforming amidst being

 “I never do it again,”

is an empty statement.

It implies that the yesterday “you”

was without wits and determination.

 

“Something inside has shifted,”

is a true acknowledgement of change.

It’s a closer look at the illusionary self and

another step to get the self out of the Way!

(Christian M. Wiese, Get the self out of the Way)

 

I once read a full page special in the NY Times by someone who pledged to beat his addiction with will-power alone. I thought to myself this is odd. He deserves this attention after completion of a ten-year anniversary but not as a statement of intent, but then, the point he made was interesting. He argued that he cannot subscribe to the premise of the 12 step program, “I am powerless,” and I also have to say that I cringe when I see people who have been free from their destructive habits for ten years running when they introduce themselves with the statement, “I am an addict.” We are free but sometimes need a few pointers to realize that we are.

The 12 step program was founded in the 1930s and helped many in finding their spiritual connection in support groups. Surrender is spiritual, “not my will but Thine,” but we are free in joining God’s Will as we participate in this reigning energy. The person who placed this pledge in the NY Times may have succeeded or not in his mission. Sure, we are that powerful to pull ourselves by the bootstraps, but he had one problem to deal with: the will that he appeals to is part of the same entity that got him into the compulsion in the first place. He may succeed in his endeavor to beat his compulsion in one area, but another imbalance will show up without learning and transformation.

The self that we identify with is illusionary and often an addiction is a wake-up call to embark on this quest of losing the conditioned self. There are currently eight billion journeys of a lifetime, and there is no “wrong” or “right” in any idiosyncratic choices of how we live our life. It’s our choice until the day we realize there is no choice. We are being lived by a higher entity with or without our conscious participation. Learning and transforming is what we do, with the occasional glimpses of pure being. I was reminiscing yesterday that nothing really changed since my Awakening started in 2008. I am still riding the higher energies as the first day. Sure there has been some learning and transforming along the Way. We call ourselves human beings for a reason.

#spirituality #Awareness #change #credibility

The ego is a fad

 fad

/fad/

noun

1. an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities; a craze.
   "younger children usually desire the latest fad that they'll probably soon lose interest in"

The ego is a fear, an aversion, a desire: f-a-d. In short, the “f-a-d” is the belief to be better off away from the present moment. The opportunity is to stay with that “thought-feeling-energy” and be willing to see it for what it is. It’s simple really, if we don’t do it now we never will! A new “fad” may present itself in the future, and it likely will anyway, but that’s quite ok. Having been willing to face the tension presently there is nothing in the future that will be any different. Having grasp the game conditioned mind plays with itself, every new spin on it is bound to be “fad-ing” as we look through it.

The Reason Beneath Your Resistance

A friend once told me that he often felt unwell when spending time with people who did not radiate good energy. He asked me how I was able to handle the energies of so many people when I hosted workshops—especially when so many eyes were on me. After all, whenever people look at you, there is an exchange of energy.

 

I told him that I didn’t experience this as a problem. When someone asks such a question, there is usually a stuck point in the mind beneath it. There must already be an idea present for the body to react in this way. Perhaps there is a belief that one should have a body whose energy is always fluid and healthy. Or perhaps someone once praised you for having a “good energy field,” and you became attached to maintaining that state. Beneath these experiences, there are often hidden belief systems at work.

 

I, too, have gone through periods of deep discomfort. These experiences are difficult to describe—you simply don’t feel right. But as long as something can be felt, it means it can be transcended. Whether you wish to find a way through is up to you. To find a way is to pay attention. And when you truly pay attention, the possibility of transcendence arises.

 

I began looking for the root cause of what kept me stuck. Through this process, I discovered something beneath the surface. It unfolded gradually. At first, I didn’t know about what is called fire qi. It was only through practicing qigong that I came to recognize it. Fire qi can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. Many people become afraid of it and try to avoid it.

 

I did not choose that path. Instead, I observed it. Whenever I came into contact with fire qi, I watched how it affected me and how long the discomfort lasted. Through this observation, I learned a great deal. When there was no resistance—when I could observe it purely—it became a powerful teacher.

 

Fire qi may appear as red, blue, anger, depression, or expectation. I came to understand that it is accumulated energy carried across different lifetimes. Sometimes it manifests through the body; sometimes it arises from the mind. Often, the two interact, creating even more complex experiences.

 

There is much to learn about one’s own fire qi. If I had been afraid of others’ fire qi and tried to escape it, I would have lost these opportunities for insight. Often, people fear others’ fire qi because it mirrors obstacles within themselves—obstacles they do not yet know how to transcend. This leads them to resist or avoid it.

 

Resistance is a sign. When we resist something, it usually means there is an obstacle waiting to be transcended. Within this lies deep wisdom. No one can hand us this wisdom—it must be realized directly. Once it is understood, letting go of obstacles becomes much easier.

 

Suzhen Liu

 

If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering/dp/0999251732

Either way, the Way gets its way

 Attention to one's own Self, which is ever shining as 'I', the one undivided and pure reality, is the only raft with which the individual, who is deluded by thinking 'I am the body', can cross the ocean of unending births. The 'I' in its purity is experienced in intervals between the two states or two thoughts.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

You don’t have thoughts, thoughts have you. Self-referential thoughts that is, but outside of solving some technical problems that we tackle, most thoughts are psychological in nature or have their origin therein.

Feelings are the gateway to getting to the root cause of the psychological “I”, just as inquiring into the origin of thoughts are. In silence we are part of “That;” in the driven state too, but we don’t know it.

The Tao Te Ching postulates in chapter 1, we can be part of the mystery or we can be part of the manifestation. Either way, the Way gets its way, but how much fun if we can join the ride consciously.