Revisiting guilt, shame, and fear

[mat422]

I guess I'm paranoid then. Unfortunately I can't go into this further, otherwise I'd be breaking the rules of the forum.

My views are always open to change. But past experience has taught me that this book does not benefit me.

If you had been present you could have seen that I was being Egoic by labeling you "paranoid". Just like you reinforce your thoughts with believing them to be true, you reinforce your "self-image" by accepting the label as yourself.

This is how I comprehend it:

Thoughts and saliva are the same kind of thing.

When you see, smell, or sense food that is appealing, you salivate. Your saliva changes due to the external stimuli, but YOU are NOT the saliva, it just works inside your body.

Same with thoughts. They start "juicin" when external stimuli are/is present but they are just something that happens in your body YOU are NOT your thoughts. Nor are YOU paranoid, your thoughts are, and you believe you are them (you identify with them).

If I were to identify with my saliva, I might say "Man, I'm gushing wet right now." when I see food and get some weird looks from people, but it is, in essence, the same with thoughts.

You are not paranoid, you have paranoia INSIDE of you.

The saliva is in the mouth, the thoughts are in the brain.

Food for thought. :o
lol


Oh, and just like you can salivate by thinking about food with not a single piece of food around, so too can you react to thoughts that are of things that aren't even happening. Like the past. The past is gone yo, where is it but inside your mind?

Where are you RIGHT NOW? In the past? In the future? Where will you EVER be, if not right here, right NOW?

Ok I take back what I said about the book and Tolle. I've skimmed through parts and I'm seeing where I went wrong in the past.

I've just had a bad experience with the book. And looking back it's my fault because I probably misinterpreted his teachings.

His emphasis on not being your thoughts or emotions caused me to detach. I confused his states of now for detachment instead of presence. There's a very fine line between watching these thoughts and emotions from a higher state of awareness vs detachment. One just numbs you out completely.

My paranoia stemmed from falling back into that state of detachment. Many bad habits were cultivated that lowered my quality of life.

As for being in the now, I find relaxing and focusing on the breath is a very good method. Tolle is far too wordy for my taste and only complicates things more. Probably because he borrows from all different teachings and squashes them into one book.