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How do you know when you have clarity?
I know one thing mindfulness is supposed to bring is clarity, but how do you know when you have it? In my day to day life I often find I don't know where I stand with people... meditation has helped me realize that often I imagine people are up to something when they aren't, but equally its made me aware that people I thought would never be up to something, might be up to something. But who I do and don't trust changes quite a bit from day to day. Presumably there is a point at which I am seeing things clearly, another at which I am being paranoid, and another at which I am being naive. But how do I know which one is which?
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I always understood "clarity" as relating to what's going on in your own mind, not someone else's. In this regard, I would say that you have achieved a high degree of clarity when you see thoughts and emotions arising.
I think that achieving clarity in your own mind will help with understand others. There is also a study that showed that Tibetan monks scored high on the ability to detect liars.
I only know what it is like for me when I get a short span of time wherein I feel clear(clarity). To try and describe it in words is difficult, but I will try.
It always seems like a mixture of an out of body experience(like watching a horror movie with the certain knowledge you will not be harmed) and a dose of extreme mindfulness(a perfect understanding of all behaviors and the karmic results from them).
As such, Paranoia was possible but not perceived as necessary, and Naivete was a foreign concept in it's entirety bordering on the level of impossibility.
Hope this helps,
Nanimo :om:
you know you have paranoia when you have paranoia.
you know you have naivety when you have naivety.
where's the problem here? the first part of that sentence i can see, because meditation brings up some bad habits like being paranoid for no reason. the second part is just stupidity because you say that they might be up to something. first off if what they're doing doesn't affect you, you should stay out of it and secondly if you're working off assumptions that's not intelligent. it seems like you also have some trust issues too.
If you just keep doing your practice and keep your eyes open, when you do finally find clarity, you will know that you found what was there to be found (rather than something created by a pre-definition).
What I'm asking is how to tell the difference?
To me it seems that everything you mentioned is the opposite of what I'm trying to explain. Clarity to me would be you at work, simply just working. concentrating 100% on your task. No thoughts of others preceptions or your own. All that thinking stirs up a lot of undeeded stress.
For me at this point in my practice this is the most beneficial thing.
BTW.. I learned this by walking mediation. A monk told me you can be enlightnened by just walking. I found this to be a little different than the common idea that you sit in a perfect posture. I continue to get much farther through walking mediation than sitting. Distance traveled and spirtually.
Kind Regards
Tough questions. Here's some ideas in the form of advice:
First, maybe you should avoid making interpretations in situations where it is likely any plausible conclusion you would make would not affect your behavior anyway. In these cases, you may as well give the person the benefit of the doubt and spare both of you ill will.
In other words, only bother making interpretations when it is needed to make a decision.
Second, keep track of your interpretations and whether they ended up being correct or not. Try to analyze the conditions which you were right and wrong. Perhaps you can find out empirically whether you have "clarity" or not.
Third, keep working on building clarity of your own mind. Sometimes we have our own motives for wrongly impugning someone, or incorrectly overlooking someone's ill intent. We should see our motives clearly.
When you start losing the desire to post daily on the internet ?
... LOL!