Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
What if questioning
leahnc
Explorer
Is this type of Questioning a form of attachment?
I know it doesnt matter what we Label it - however its a big roadblock for me in my spiritual journey?
I know it doesnt matter what we Label it - however its a big roadblock for me in my spiritual journey?
0
Comments
"Life's Big Questions" - the ones that have no clear answers have been causing a lot of distress for me - creating a lot of anxiety
My blind faith that I have carried for 35+ years has been wounded & Im trying to put the pieces back together....
Breathe in, breathe out. When things crack ... well, as they say, that's how the light gets in. Take your time. And don't forget Gautama's example: He didn't leave the palace in order to build a new one.
See how easy it is to start living your life by "what if"? To me it's generally a waste of time and emotional energy (not that I don't do it - we all do). You can "what if" yourself to death. I try to remind myself what the ***worst*** possible outcome of a "what if?" situation might be. And 99.99999% of the time it never comes to that. And when it does, 99.99% of those times, the worst possible scenario really isn't all that horrible anyway. So all the "what iffing" really isn't worth the energy.
Consider that these big questions are really just lots of tiny ones, and can be approached with curiosity. You don't need to scientifically pull apart your life's journey into evidence and proof, rather it can be observed in its tiny peices and the answers become much more clear. Does that make sense? If not, a specific example of what you're wrestling with could provide our community (many here do it well) with the information from your side to bring these mountains of yours back into a more reasonably sloped path.
With warmth,
Matt
"answer the 'what if' question."
WHAT IF...*this* happens?
Well, ok, WHAT IF *this* happens? Where would it leave you, and why?
One sensible thing he outlines is that an awful lot of people ask the 'what if' question - but fail to follow it up with an answer.
So fill in your own answer - and see where it gets you.....
(*Mr Cliché is Dr Phil.....)
I can understand the kind of distress that arises from a view like that. I wonder, if you were a singular, central figure alone in the universe, why would you manifest pain for yourself? Because our bodies interact with the world imperfectly and biologically, consciousness has evolved to include sensations that would not be present if there were a single point of generation and manipulation of phenomena.
However, Mountains offers some very sage (if short) advice. Considering our "self" as permanent and independent as a soplipsist does will empower lots of projections and therefore produce great suffering. I offer that meditation, with a focus on feeling the sensations of your body, could be of great help in silencing the doubt that it is indeed biology that transmits the sensations. Also, if any hallucinogens were involved during the program watching, you might wish to abstain from them. Well, perhaps abstain from them on the general principle that they increase delusion, but especially as you let your mind heal.
With warmth,
Matt
So some questions and doubts are not useful and bring more suffering on and on.
"It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored... until I know his home village, town, or city... until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow... until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated... until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.' The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.
maybe you give tho whole sutta a read
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.063.than.html