Getting Stuck on the Spiritual Journey (Excerpt)

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Getting Stuck on the Spiritual Journey (Excerpt)

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2 жыл бұрын

adyashanti.org - A lot of spiritual practices are meant to get us to an uncomfortable place as quickly as possible and we can find ourselves stuck at what seems like a dead end. Adyashanti offers perspectives on these limitations that the ego runs into.
Excerpted from Summer 2021 Online Retreat, “Silent Retreat Vol. 80 ~ Talks”: bit.ly/3zo0cPd
Quotes from this Video:
“We get this idea that we're on a trajectory and we think we can predict where that trajectory is going.”
“You really feel like you're getting the hang of it all, and then all of a sudden, you seem to hit a brick wall.”
“What we bump up against at some point is the limitation of the way our ego operates.”
“We tend to have a lot of built-in avoidance mechanisms and resistance mechanisms to running up against our own limitations.”

Пікірлер: 152

@sakkel.7357 4 ай бұрын

Bible talks about "praying without ceasing", "be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour", "He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression", "tribulation worketh patience", "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness". What is praying without ceasing? It simply means letting go (and let God). It's not begging on your knees 24/7. It's your basic position, your inner stance: Whatever may come, always stay unattached, be free to the core. There's no condemnation; it's only one of your adversary's tricks to lure you out into its territory which is the only area where it may devour you. Our weakness is true strength because the weaker you are, or should i make it clearer by saying the more sensitive you become the sooner you feel the anxiousness, anxiety, the "knot in your stomach" the quicker you're able to let go. These feelings are like alarm bells waking you up, telling you're slipping into enemy territory. Your "weakness", sensitiveness is like you're inner hearing capability which is honed by all the troubles in your life. It's not about the troubles that make you feel their burden, the weight comes when you encounter situations in your life and decide to hold on them; put them in your backpack. This is where your "knot in your stomach" comes, only letting go eases you back to the rest, inner peace, freedom. Our heightened sensitiveness lets us sense the lurking evil in its early stage and react when it's still in its "baby stage" and easy to kill. So, everything works for our good. So called bad things are like purifying fire to the gold; when lesson learned in one area is like gold purified and that "bad thing" aren't bad anymore. Basically, in plain english: Your normal inner state is feeling of ease and total boundless, unlimited feeling of freedom. That's your natural, true state. You can't make it because it already always IS. But your inability to see this leads to suffering bc you search yourself outside of yourself, which (suffering)then serves as a teacher pushing you back home. By understanding this through all our suffering we learn where "bad" is and where "good" is. In all practicality, when i feel that knot in my stomach tighten, i give it my attention, my pure awareness without any judgement and see what caused it. It might be i was watching some video and something/somebody in it made me judgemental. In other words, i let it rob my inner freedom, peace: this world and its forces of deceit are like clouds passing by and that's where they should be, just passing by, disappearing. Don't attach yourself into them letting them drop your peace. The focus should be in releasing all hooks on my end not the other. If someone else did something bad (or good) doesn't matter, just focus in letting go of all hooks attached to you and focus in the feeling of ease, peace, freedom returning when your focus on things outside melts away. This all happens easily the more you see it in action working.

@jacquelynmickens6485 12 күн бұрын

I really received an aha reading this. Thank you.💞

@musemother1 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for giving this state a voice! You are so right, stating this is coming up against the limitations of our egos resonates as true. I actually have been coming to a "solution” of sorts. This limitation has left me feeling a discontent or depression, a flat emptiness. I start to frantically search for what I’m doing "wrong” (the ego) and after much pain (which breaks down barriers) and many moments of surrender, the thing that has finally helped is focusing on actually embracing the experience. Embracing the discomfort. I have judged discomfort as bad. Who says? It appears that forgiving that discomfort, forgiving myself for judging it as bad, and forgiving my ego, is the very thing that is finally getting me unstuck.

@alanarcher Жыл бұрын

This is exactly what I'm going through. Has anything worked for you?

@randylayhey Жыл бұрын

@@alanarcher Only thing to do I believe, is to truely deeply know, that the ego or the thought of self or verb doesnt exist. That it arises from what you are, which is the end game of the teaching. And what you are as the knower, to sit in it. Take one more step "backwards' in a sense to the knower.

@RogerioLupoArteCientifica 2 жыл бұрын

it's really funny to see how even this video seems to come to a dead end. Apparently, it's intentional and that's precisely the point. The brick wall (limitation) can be appreciated too. If there's no way out, says Eckhart Tolle, there's always a way through. What we're supposed to do now is a nondoing. This is all about the appreciation of everything, as nothing can be apart from the Absolute. Including the appreciation of dead ends, of the cliff, or the sensation of stuckness... these are all just different disguises of the Absolute. It's always the Absolute tricking itself through itself.

@mustafajaved8996 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks

@mustafajaved8996 2 жыл бұрын

Your comment helped me a lot.

@RogerioLupoArteCientifica 2 жыл бұрын

@@mustafajaved8996 great to know that! 👊🏼🙏🏼

@salvadorprieto182 2 жыл бұрын

There's no letting go, when there was no grasp. Best thing is to accept and realize there's no real conduction or trajectory because the destination is the journey. It's place less, you search til nothings to be found.

@moonsod1113 11 ай бұрын

To get enlightened there is nothing to be done. It happens when it is ready to happen. You do not get anything. The SELF, Atman, awakens to itself and pulls itself free from form and structure and expands into infinity. The mind stays where it is. Enlightenment is not for the personality, which is individualistic, whereas the Self is universal. You are very wrong about there being no letting go. The whole path is about letting go. There is no enlightenment without the surrender of everything, your whole sense of self has to be surrendered, but the thing is - the person does not know how to do that. Everything within you has to collapse and then you transcend what you thought you were; as Buddha said, beyond the beyond into freedom. It took me almost 50 years and a pile of meditations. But I could have done it in 5 years. It only takes a second of totally letting go. Of ungrasping everything. So to say there is no grasping is just stupid, but the real problem is the identification with the lower self, which keeps us bound to ignorance and the illusion to what the real Self truly is.

@salvadorprieto182 11 ай бұрын

Surrender to hope

@youarewhatyourelookingfor4496 Жыл бұрын

I’m right here. At the jumping off place. Pointlessness, hopelessness and futility, my 3 longest companions for over 40 years with occasional breaks of sunshine to keep me from suicide. Tried that and went to a hell realm so that’s out. Now what? Is this it? Just waiting to die?

@andreasmario805 2 жыл бұрын

You can you put up your sailboats sail, but can not will the wind it’s an act of grace wen it propels you, liberation is not for the mind it’s liberation from it. You are on a Journey with out distance. Thank you for your video.

@victorial9036 2 жыл бұрын

"you can't do it!" De Alan Watts sur KZfaq est l'une de mes vidéos préférées ⛩️ ...une véritable acceptation que "ce n'est pas de notre fait/doing " 🤔 pas simple, même si, en cadeau c'est la fin de l'autocritique et de la peur . La réalisation ? J'y suis pas encore mais c'est pas ma faute c'est l'autre ! 😂 Good evening everyone from France ⛩️

@NadiaFranke 2 жыл бұрын

I like him too !! I mean Alan Watts 😘

@TomSlijkerman 18 күн бұрын

The limitation of oneness dreaming up being a person. Not the other way around.

@onreact 2 жыл бұрын

There is no spiritual journey so you can't get stuck. The whole journey metaphor is misleading. Be where you are, don't go anywhere. So you caught glimpses of enlightenment. Great, be thankful. Don't expect the universe to deliver again as if it owes you something. You don't manifest by wanting but by having. Likewise you are enlightened by being enlightened not by wanting to be enlightened. Wanting something implies you don't have it. Wanting also implies that you expect something to happen in an imaginary future. When you switch off the inner TV set that is babbling all the time and take off the dark sunglasses that cloud your vision you see the light and hear the silence. Some people meditate for decades 18h a day and do not awake. So don't expect anything or try to achieve something. Just do what you do or don't do anything.

@stanjones6659 2 жыл бұрын

Wise words, thanks for your input.

@mmmuscraft5558 2 жыл бұрын

I guess this is what Jesus meant when he said : "for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." Mark 4 21And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? 22For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. 23If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 24And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. Luke 8 16No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. 17For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 18Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.

@UMASUJAY 2 жыл бұрын

Well said! :)

@ShunyamNiketana 2 жыл бұрын

Being and becoming.

@onreact 2 жыл бұрын

@@stanjones6659 "not me, not mine".

@rjevans2728 2 жыл бұрын

HIGHLY recommend Stephen Wolinksy's youtube videos and writings. ("The End of The Game" is about this topic.) He draws heavily from Nagarjuna, Wittgenstein, and of course Nisargadatta.

@notavailable708 2 жыл бұрын

Channel name?

@joywalkertalks 2 жыл бұрын

Isn’t this more seeking?

@rjevans2728 2 жыл бұрын

@@joywalkertalks "depends"

@pouya6631 2 жыл бұрын

Self-illusion or thinking is like a transparent curtain that adds an extra layer of information to our vision, we see our thoughts but they do not exist in front of us! This is the human ability to see things that do not exist! The problem that occurs in humans is that, when the nervous system contracts, the thinking process automatically begins to think! And because most people have more or less nervous system contractions, they have this extra thought! And in the long run, these thoughts almost become an additional operating system, and it makes its own decisions! If the nervous system relaxes, this process of extra thought will automatically stop and the new human being can see the world as it is without disturbing the mind! After that, it can be understood that creation is predetermined from the beginning to the end day! As consciousness we only understand the life story, and the rest is out of our control!

@notavailable708 2 жыл бұрын

@@pouya6631 great to hear all this but still the same question? Why are we born? Why experience this?

@consideredwhisper 2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely spot on. I get this.

@sombrastudios 2 ай бұрын

loving baseball-bat-buddha in the background

@vreddy8231 2 жыл бұрын

In the end the nobody can help. One has to see this clearly.

@cynthiaennis3107 2 жыл бұрын

I’m here after seeing your delightful interview on Inspire Nation with Michael Sandler.

@jessicastrangelove656 2 жыл бұрын

Ego can't get anywhere. It causes everyone the same drama and hope and frustration. But maybe we are The collective pretending to be small and limited. We as little egos are trying to spoil God's game prematurely. We can have lasting bliss when we are back to the unredacted self. But the big I will say when. It could also be just as perfect to experience all the suffering. I only know in truth it is all perfect.

@willowway42 2 жыл бұрын

Agree... ♡

@brushstroke3733 2 жыл бұрын

Have you checked out the Law of Attraction message? Seems we the avatars, the characters, might be here to enjoy the expansion of the collective being through observing contrast (nothing would exist without polarity, duality) which inspires the collective source to create an improved condition in response. Maybe it has no purpose other than that it must be this way in order for THIS existence to be eternal, never-ending, always temporary, always expanding. If it wasn't this way, there would be nothing, which of course there is infinite amounts of even with something appearing! 😉

@ShunyamNiketana 2 жыл бұрын

And...? We may go only so far in this lifetime. Doing more "work" doesn't work.

@JonasAnandaKristiansson 2 жыл бұрын

?? May only go so far? Only your body-mind identity and "karma"/not-yet-worked-out-patterns can set a "limit" on "how far" one "can get". It is not about working, not about trying or forcing, neither is there a real limitation. The only (seeming) limitation is that which you/we put on ourselves. Hardwired 'garbage' that seem to limit us, and think we can "only go so far". You are already That. There is literally nowhere to go, you never lost "it". Agree that doing more work doesn't work. Om

@benjaminhartson3714 2 жыл бұрын

Well, this is where I’ve been for 16 years. No clue how to proceed. I thought maybe there would be some advice here. Perhaps this is the place where surrender occurs and there is nothing to ‘do’.

@TheVera123456 2 жыл бұрын

Maybe because you didn’t finish all work you owe to this world yet. Like you still hate someone or could be anything else. “Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Matthew 5:26.

@rjevans2728 2 жыл бұрын

Stephen Wolinksy ftw. Maybe some Karl Renz or Jim Newman.

@NondualityChannel 2 жыл бұрын

That is the being hung up on being a "me"...the "me" never gets it and the "me" can not cause it. Stuck on a "me" trying to get it. The "me" can do nothing. Cease doing...just be still, be silent, and be fully aware.

@lastincarnation8062 2 жыл бұрын

Instead of advice, I'd like to offer you something that can actually work for you. A direct experience instead of mental food for the mind. Please take your time with it. You wrote, "Perhaps this is the place where surrender occurs and there is nothing to ‘do’". 16 years have passed as you've said, so why would the concept of "surrender" happen at this exact time? That's nothing but a thought in your mind. Observe it, don't touch it. Don't identify with it, don't believe in it. Observe any thoughts and feelings that may come up too, in the same way. Don't identify with them, just notice them. Don't go to them. Stay as you are: as pure presence. Any thought, feeling, or sense of identity is simply being observed. Now notice your sense of being. It is always here. This is what you are. Feel your sense of existence: the sense of "I" with no personhood attached to it. Now just feel your sense of beingness in your body. That's the only certainty that's always here with you: your simple sense of being. Notice that there's nothing that you need to do to notice your sense of being. Feel it. This is what you are.

@benjaminhartson3714 2 жыл бұрын

Nonduality & Enlightenment Simplified Yeah. “Me” definitely is the struggle. The whole struggle does come to a stop whenever the effort get somewhere or do something ceases.

@noneya9035 8 ай бұрын

I love this guy so much. Literally the first 56 seconds he has summed up where I am.

@shaneh1003 6 ай бұрын

So I just keep recycling seemingly all the way back to my old programming over and over again. Spend weeks at an awakened high that’s glorious with vast blessings and gratitude, while remaining completely conscious of reactive thoughts, remaining in each moment as if no other time exists, and just being all around heavenly for the most part. Then, it’s like everything new that I’ve worked on is gone and I’m back to the same patterns and processes. I very aware of it all, and still reminding myself of the same mindsets, but they don’t seem to matter much or do much good. Time quickly is such a… passing and taking, but if not for it there would never have been what it takes. Grateful for the opportunities of infinite blessings, for what is always taken, but first manifested by the same force that taketh away.

@NondualityChannel 2 жыл бұрын

@temmuz9138 2 жыл бұрын

The last thing the “me” wants is the end of “me”

@meditationamsterdam Жыл бұрын

I like Adyashanti but find a hard time agreeing with the dismissal of the neural integration that happens during the practice. This is not the illusion of progress, the subconscious is being colonized by the very act of observation, and the last step is no different. Of course from a subjective experience point of view it's different, but we should not mystify where things are clear. This is where the Chinese/Daoist model of enlightenment is so healthy, it is recognized as a clear physical and mental process that results from very specific integration and reduction of resistances. The formation of the ego is a normal and predictable developmental process and its dissolution is equally so. Of course the factors that lead to the latter are complex and often difficult to predict and orchestrate.

@BA-ei7tl 2 жыл бұрын

So at the brick wall, we surrender???? But if I am stuck, how do I get unstuck? Surrender is recquired, but you just can't quite manage it.

@mars4315 2 жыл бұрын

Death the ultimate teaching,.......

@lionheart3292 2 жыл бұрын

the last thing that any-one ever does is let go

@BeyondTheAlchemy 2 жыл бұрын

but even that isnt a doing. Its more of a happening- via grace. Im not correcting you by the way-- just enjoying trying to explain something that cant be explained with words...:)

@logansayres9003 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@JonasAnandaKristiansson 2 жыл бұрын

Legend of Awareness. Thank U

@mkartmkart6335 2 жыл бұрын

Well. My problem is kind of opposite (maybe). I know what to do. I know what is right. But somehow I dont do it. Am I just to comfortably numb ?

@jipjap7720 2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like the most common problem, lack of love for self. Heal your solarplexes chakra or try a dmt shortcut

@mkartmkart6335 2 жыл бұрын

@@jipjap7720 Thank you for honest advice. I will :)

@ailidhlalala1592 2 жыл бұрын

It seems that's the me trying to get enlightened.... Watch it... And you realise it is not you.... Rupert Spira explains this also very good... It happens when you want something to happen.... But maby there is nothing that happens except a gradual realization

@awakenotwoke7949 2 жыл бұрын

What is it you want from Enlightenment?

@gloriasilence 2 жыл бұрын

I didn't hear how to get unstuck... what is useful here/now...

@rjevans2728 2 жыл бұрын

Check out Stephen Wolinksy's videos here on youtube. You might wanna start with "Advaita is Vedanta" or "Portals to the Absolute". Then you wanna go for "The End of the Game".

@gloriasilence 2 жыл бұрын

@@rjevans2728 Thank you RJ for the suggestions... I'm exhausted... totally ready for the end of the game...

@NondualityChannel 2 жыл бұрын

@gloriasilence 2 жыл бұрын

@@NondualityChannel Thank you... Yes, I understand... Thank you for your reply...

@rjevans2728 2 жыл бұрын

@@NondualityChannel this is the trap OP is talking about; the illusion of oscillating mind/stillness.

@vict0rtayl0r 2 жыл бұрын

🙏

@alardar1166 2 жыл бұрын

I can't find the right word. Thank you!!!

@gretanavarauskaite2904 2 жыл бұрын

🙏🏻🌸❤️

@akhilkishore8127 2 жыл бұрын

This is the answer that I was probably seeking as it is making me say - Wow!

@robertparkinson2017 2 жыл бұрын

I have to talk with you Adya. Not quite sure how . Rp

@alexandermarieb4124 2 жыл бұрын

This old boy!

@jakescorpion1 2 жыл бұрын

That's because you are teaching them the whole truth

@jakescorpion1 2 жыл бұрын

It's about understanding and that means the psychological

@brushstroke3733 2 жыл бұрын

But Adya, what can the Doer do to get that there is no Doer and nothing to do? 😁😀👊

@mirouu13 2 жыл бұрын

Simply explanation and clear ?

@misawainwright383 2 жыл бұрын

Wondering if ‘the old boy’ is taking emails during his sabbatical? If so is the old Radio Adyashanti email the current student correspondence contact? Just want to write a letter really. 🙏🕊💗

@Adyashanti 2 жыл бұрын

Adyashanti is not accepting emails while on sabbatical (until the end of 2022). Upon his return, you can send correspondence to letters@opengatesangha.org . - The Open Gate Sangha Communications Team

@conniefitzgerald6678 2 жыл бұрын

fasting and prayer! works every time!

@brushstroke3733 2 жыл бұрын

The character in the movie cannot fast and pray herself into becoming the screen she already appears upon. When she realizes this, she is left with nothing to do. She's in the movie. She's on the screen. She's never not been the screen, yet she doesn't feel like she is the screen or has become the screen. It's the same movie. She hasn't escsped. "So now what?" she wonders. She can't pray and fast herself out of the movie.

@conniefitzgerald6678 2 жыл бұрын

@@brushstroke3733 Are you good enough to go to heaven? how many lies have you told before your whole life? Have you ever stolen anything before? Have you ever had sex outside of marriage b4? Have you ever hated anyone before? Have you ever used God's name in vain b4? if you have committed these sins, the God of heaven sees you as a liar and a thief and an adulterer and a fornicator and a blasphemer and a hater at heart and you must face a holy God on the day of judgement! Are you going to be innocent or guilty? will you go to heaven or hell? Revelation 21 says....all liars will have their part in the Lake of fire! the holy Bible declares that....No thief and no adulterer and no fornicator and no blasphemer and no hater shall enter heaven! if you turn from sin and trust in Christ; God will forgive! if you refuse to turn from sin and trust in Christ; then you must pay for your own sins against God yourself on the day of judgment!

@brushstroke3733 2 жыл бұрын

@@conniefitzgerald6678 Since when would a loving creator God create his children and then judge them and damn them to eternal pain? That God you worship is a total fantasy, nothing like the true God. God is not some angry father who is going to come and beat up the kids who bullied you and set things straight. God loves the sinners and the blasphemers and the fornicators. It's you who judge them, and that is why you are not in the Garden of Eden now. You continue to consume the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (the tree of human judgment), and thus you turn THIS heaven into a private and shared hell. Peace be with you.

@johnnylovessheki 2 жыл бұрын

If the cliff comes, jump into nirvana, no body here in the dream

@myfavoritethings6433 2 жыл бұрын

Stuck...that's only another thought.

@temmuz9138 2 жыл бұрын

Much deeper rooted than a thought. Plus “That’s only another thought” is also only another thought haha. Its when your ego realises it was the only thing propelling you to awakening and it can’t go any further because it will mean the end of itself.

@myfavoritethings6433 2 жыл бұрын

@@temmuz9138 of course is another thought, it has to be cuz thoughts belong to the movement of mind, pointing out something like that is useless. If you understand what I said, all your explanation is unnecessary...

@temmuz9138 2 жыл бұрын

@@myfavoritethings6433 stuckness is deeper rooted than “another thought”. Your initial comment really means nothing. You can’t think your way out of a prison made of thought

@pouya6631 2 жыл бұрын

@JonasAnandaKristiansson 2 жыл бұрын

The stuckness goes deeper than the thought. The thought pattern is secondary to the "stuckness". The stuckness is the programming of the nervous/energy system. Dissolving this stagnation, reveals the truth of what is already Here, always. The Self. Freedom. but generally speaking, yes, it is another concept. But it is a ENERGETIC BELIEF, of which is the core of what holds any and all humans back. Or, seem to hold us back :)