While I am truly enjoying this exchange I hope I'm not in the wrong forum while I continue it with you here.  Let me know if thats the case.  Anyways....

I used to look at people more critically until I realized that I only see in them what I've already recognized within myself.  More and more I am accepting of other people and understand that we are all on our own journey, their own path.  There ultimately is no wrong path I understand.  I have not succeeded in loving everybody unconditionally at first site.  I still work on that and slip from time to time into being judgmental.

"Sometimes we can concentrate on the wrong questions and send ourselves off on a wild chase, only to find ourselves sitting in the same place. "

- Your bigger point is agreed upon here but I'm not convinced there is such a thing as right or wrong.  From my experience there are only elements that may retard or accelerate growth/evolution of the soul.  The "wrong question" ultimately leads to the "right" answer.

"The distance home is no shorter and no longer than knowing who we are."

- Never thought about it that way.  When I answered the "Who are you?" question earlier it was from the standpoint more of belief and only partially from experience.  Once I fully experience and am able to shed the illusion of this reality I wont feel the need to ask questions but for now I feel I need to ask questions as the answer is not as evident to me without the question preceding it. (had to contemplate this one)

"So it is not about waiting to find some path, or some secret knowledge, it is about remembering that we are truly never disconnected."

- I understand but ego is still tough to recognize for me at times and I guess thats what drives my need to know my role in the game.(?)  On the other hand, I dont see myself purely waiting to find anything.    I am a seeker and am actively seek questions and their answers.  My feeling is that it's not all about finding answers but rather the experience itself.  I dont continually seek, (at least consciously) rather, I do it in cycles.  I may go weeks or months with no questions, only experience; Then one day it will hit me, a burning question or fundamental truth that I begin to build intention for obtaining validation (which at times comes quickly, other times not so much).  I am in one of those cycles now.  The questions I ask have been in my mind for a year or so but I never felt the need to understand the answers as deeply as I do now.  Before it was something to ponder and put aside.  Now it is a daily question.  I am confident I will receive insight at some point, followed by experience that will confirm it.

Hi, Hueyii, and welcome,

I loved your thoughtful post, and was also glad to see that Looking Glass came across it early on; I've had many similar discussions with him, and it's always helpful to me.

I so understand the feeling the need to ask questions, and try to "understand" and even categorize things, and try to decide which "way" or belief system is the "right" one.  And I also understand the frustration of being told, over and over, that I will learn the answers to my questions "later," and the way everything happens cyclically.

But over the past year or so I've learned a lot (finally getting what my guides have been telling me over and over until they're no doubt sick of saying it!) about "letting it happen"--keeping things simple, not demanding answers all the time, taking and using what's given to me (and, when I look back at it all, it's enormous), and using it well, until the time comes (NOT to be decided by me) to learn something else.  And I find, time after time, that when I remember to do that (I do still forget fairly often, being human and all), things happen--not necessarily what I would have asked for, and usually very different from anything I would have expected, but invariably so much more beautiful and useful.

I talk to spirits a lot, and try to help them when I can (again, I'm learning not to "try" to make them do anything, but just simply give them love and compassion if they ask for it).  Sometimes it gets frustrating, because I'll be "planning" to talk to a particular spirit I've been asked to talk to, at a certain time, in a certain place, and it gets REALLY difficult to see what they're saying--very unclear.  But I wrote this about a week ago (just to pound home my point!):

The problem, I think, is that I still keep trying.  But it’s always at the times when I’m NOT trying—I’m sleeping, or just hanging out, or dreaming, that things happen spontaneously and clearly.  When I set up “appointments” to talk to spirits, I get anxious (performance anxiety, etc.), and it starts to feel like a “job” rather than something I’m just doing out of love, and it doesn’t work well.  

I've often quoted this (from a site called Kundalini-Teacher.com) here and elsewhere, and I often go back and read it when I'm feeling stuck:

The experience of effort creating opposite effects, is to train you to stop trying and simply *be.* Becoming the I AM is engaging enormous power, and using this power unwisely, for ego desires will always cause a negative feed back effect. You are being trained to use power wisely, by learning not to use it, at all! By choosing not to act, but only be, you are allowing the Divine to use you, as It thinks best. Spontaneous miracles result.

As for belief systems, I was never one to feel comfortable "choosing" one over the other, simply because I believe that one group of mortals can have more knowledge of the "Creator" (however one chooses to define him/her/it/them), etc., than any other group.  I find that pieces of almost all of them strike a chord in me (I also notice that one thing that pretty much all of them have in common--even if it's not practiced well by their followers--is the idea of love for fellow beings--doing no harm, helping when you can.  It's the simplest things that can be the hardest to learn!)  I kept asking my "guides" (I hate to use that word, but I can't think of a better one) about how, or if, one should "decide" on a belief system.  "One is no better than the other," was the answer.

So, I guess my feeling, in answer to one of your questions in your post, was, "Yes, you might be trying too hard."  We all do.  When you can, try hanging back, not looking so hard, not being so anxious.  I realized this morning that existence (I doubt that this is an original idea, but it just became clear to me this morning for no particular reason) is kind of like a series of dreams--the dreams being the times when we're "mortal" and living these lives.  The real learning and understanding, I think, must go on in the interstices, when we're in spirit form.  Little bits of that can trickle down, when and if we're ready, during our mortal lives, but we have to be patient.  The "dreams", in relation to our total existence, must be miniscule.

When we’re dreaming, it’s usually impossible to see beyond the dream, or to remember that it is a dream and just part of an endless series of dreams, and that there are huge stretches of waking time in between them during which we can “see” and remember all of our past dreams, and anticipate more in the future.  And we can learn a little bit from each dream, even if we don’t remember the dream.  Our waking times (the times between lifetimes) are the times when we can reflect on what we’ve learned from individual dreams, and maybe apply it to the way we dream/live in the future.

As I said to Looking Glass a few days ago, I don't think that the "answers" are subjective, or different from person to person.  But I do think that the ways of getting them are as individual as each of us is.

It's good you're looking...just take it easy, and be patient.

Sorry for the novel, and for rambling!

Doe

Sorry--one more thing (I'm not even sure if any of this is useful to you; I'm just saying whatever pops into my head about it, basically!).

This is something I sometimes ask myself in various ways: what, exactly, would constitute an "answer" for me?  At what point would I be satisfied that I "knew" what my "role" is, and what things mean, and the nature of existence and the afterlife, etc.?  And, if I reached that point, where would I go from there? How would I benefit?  Why do I demand to have the answers to things on my own (or in ANY human/mortal) terms?

And--something I've said many times here and elsewhere--my personal feeling is that once you've decided that you "know" these things with certainty, and have nothing more to learn, you've somehow veered off on the wrong direction somewhere along the line.

It's not about willful ignorance, but about remaining open to answers without demanding them or expecting them to be in the form we want or expect.

Doe

Thanks Doe, for the thoughtful reply.  Sorry if frustration came through in my conversations,  I struggled for a long time early in my journey with the Who Am I question and found myself faced with it again when I was trying to take a shortcut to quench my desire to get an answer.  

Looking Glass, upon reflection and even during our exchange, I like a felt a bhuddist student that had to be reminded of an earlier lesson.  I realize that I had fallen asleep and fooled myself into thinking that I was still awake.  Thanks for the splash of cool water

Doe,  You said something that struck a bell with me:

"This is something I sometimes ask myself in various ways: what, exactly, would constitute an "answer" for me?  At what point would I be satisfied that I "knew" what my "role" is, and what things mean, and the nature of existence and the afterlife, etc.?  And, if I reached that point, where would I go from there? How would I benefit?"

I felt, in a moment of bliss earlier this year that I was a singularity.  Floating in the void, a dot of pure light.  It occurred to me that if I was ever to reach this particular state for eternity, even with infinite knowledge it would seem rather boring not having anything that would reflect my attributes back to me.  This fell in line with various teachings that talk of "god" (name used as a reference point), was at one point a singularity and began division as a means to achieve experience or describe "himself".  It also correlated with other teachings I've had that spoke of "it" being about the experience, not a constant search for the answer to the great mystery.

I dont knowingly talk with spirits but I do believe thoughts/knowledge come from the source and I am in training on how to listen for them.  In this experience I felt strongly that I had touched upon something I was to learn from or use in my journey.

I've been giving my original post alot of thought today.  At times I felt regret in asking about my path.  I know better.  It comes through I think in my subsequent posts but let me be clear.  I understand that my path is for me only and that nobody can confirm that I am heading down the right one.  I was really looking for a psychic reader to tell me if my latest interest had merit or not.

The star-seed question is one that still nags me.  I'm not well versed in what star-seed beings are, and not entirely sure they even exist.  From what I've been able to glean, star-seed are beings that incarnate with amnesia and "awaken" at some point for a purpose.  That purpose could be to help other souls evolve or maybe even help a planet evolve.  I'd be interested in anyones input here.  Not for the sake of clear definition, just to observe other points of view.

My other question about a lynch pin that draws it all together has to do with a guy named Nassim Haramein.  (google video of "Nassim Haramein Crossing the Event Horizon").  He has very interesting ideas that could be used to help evolve mankind to the next level.  I get strong feelings that this his work is important and discovered after listening to his lecture that one of his emissaries is very close to where I live and speaking at a seminar in two weeks about an hours drive from my house. Synchronicity? Nassims theory explains the infinite reservoir of knowledge, multidimensional worlds and it harmonizes with various philosophical and esoteric beliefs.  Powerful stuff.  However, the seasoned student I am I take it wit a grain of salt, experience it and move on.  Whatever happens next i take in stride.

Something I learned but sometimes forget, is that during our journey down the path there are many fruits along the way.  Spending too much energy experiencing any one fruit can be counter productive.

Incidentally, the section in your post about "The experience of effort creating opposite effects" is somewhat new to me.  It sounds almost like swinging the pendulum of karma too far will cause the opposite effect as result of not maintaining balance(?)  Any relationship between these two lines of thought or am I reading too much into it?

Sorry for the long posts, I tend to ramble sometimes) ...new to MysticBoard. not sure if I'm bugging anyone.  Alot on my mind and only a few people in my life I can talk like this to.

hueyii,

Sometimes helping people "evolve" or helping a person to see another way is best done by being yourself. Understanding concepts, creating new ideas to help us forge an understanding of our daily lives, and philosophical banter can only take us so far. The answer to any question does not always have to be so complicated. From my point of view, everything points to one thing, that we are all connected. We are not connected like little dots that form a line or a picture, but rather if you bring those dots together to a single point, we are One. Our minds drive us to be something else, something more. But in the end we come back; though we've really never left.

and btw, don't worry about posting your questions or your thoughts. All are welcome to do so here.


I am your reflection.