It is during the festivities that some of us are overwhelmed with feelings of self consciousness, sharp pangs of unfulfillment and emptiness.
Some, it seems are unable to partake in the festivities in a joyous mood as they felt have not accomplished as much as compared to others, and as a result, felt left out, lagging behind.
Others, being in amidst of it all, caught up in the flurry of activities, are overwhelmed in the opposite of the scale of participation, feels flustered. And when the festivities ends, feels drained.
On both ends, the feelings of emptiness creeps in, and one feels a sense of loss and unrealness of existence.
And why so?! It is because Self is something never permanent and inherent to begin with. Because the pace of life does not match the pace of our consciousness, our Self, that such a feeling of uneasiness arise. We project and expect expectations to conform them to occur within timeframe. But life, often do not turn out the way we want, so life is full of regrets and disappointment. Such is the life.
Life is dukkha, or dissatisfaction. To find bliss, we need to go back to the ordinariness of being.
To begin with, we do not live in the present moment, for when either dwell in the past and project towards what that has not come, in other words, the future. We often comes short, and end up dissatisfied. We hold back unsatisfactory feeling without acknowledging them. Suppressing them, allowing them to bite back at us on a later date.
We crave self gratification, and often we fell short and yet we are often so comfortable in wallowing in self pity that we are unwilling to wake ourselves out of this state of unsatisfactoriness.
What are states of unsatisfactoriness, unhappiness, regret, anger, envy, craving, denial are among them. We have develop such behavioral patterns to help as relate life to us and know they have come to haunt us. Such is the formulae that has come to define our personality and character has now come to bind us in a vicious cycle.
One way of overcoming these sensations is to savour each moment as it come, being in respect for the moment enjoying each experience as it arises, not anticipating nor over indulging. The difficult part is in the over indulging of the pleasurable and negative rise of emotions. One way of putting is like when holding a pen, or a weapon and or even a broom when attempting using them. Holding firm without grasping it too tightly. This how we can hold our mind.
A light touch is called for not allowing them to forment, aggravating them. We simply acknowledge the rise of any emotions, initially with a labelling, eg. I am angry, I am disgusted, so on. As we become more dexterous, we are now just responding to angry, disgusted, without the I.
The more we are accustomed to such attention, we detected the rise of reactions as quickenings of consciousness, until they are no longer habitual.
We progress from grossness of such emotions to subtle rise of such emotions. We gradually progress until they no longer become our push buttons.
There are many conditions that impede the extinction of such arising of such emotions, but they are doable. Just be mindful of aggravating factors that causes the negative emotion to rise. Practice vigilance and single mindedness at all times will help.
Moderator, please help to consolidate the multiple postings into a single topic.
Your kindness and patience is appreciated, thank you!
Originally posted by Weychin:Moderator, please help to consolidate the multiple postings into a single topic.
Your kindness and patience is appreciated, thank you!
I can only edit, not able to consolidate your posts. Hope AEN will do it.