Plenty of experience to add here Zach...as a teenager I learnt to meditate and thought I'd found a way to float right past the anger and insecurity that bothered other people...in fact I just learned to bottle stuff up and say "doesn't matter, I don't care"...a certain satisfaction to be had I think in "rising above" the condition.

I don't talk about it often in recovery circles because people have their own experience...the church or meditation class or 12 step retreat or psychotherapist that someone is counting on to be their next only hope...not for me to f*ck with that and suggest it might or might not work...what a person needs at a point in time is for them to find and experience.

In truth, all of these things have been positive experiences for me in my journey...none of them a panacea and every time theres a temptation to think "this is it - I found it!"...but I'll say again they have all been and still can be positive experiences. They add to the totality of me and my life experience.

Nihilism has never been an option for me...something attracts in the search for something truer, purer and more real. But I like what chogyam trungpa has to say about Spiritual Narcissism. ..any path can lead to enlightenment but any path, even the purest can become the servant of the ego...so we think we're walking the right way when we're just going down the same stubborn path we've always walked.

it's a pitfall...but if I always avoided pitfalls I'd never get out of bed :) Walk but walk with care is my motto...head in the clouds but feet on the ground :)

P

Oops...rising above the "human condition" :))

P

Oh an aside:

http://hintjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/mind-body-wellness-finding-your.html?m=1

The Child, the Magician, the Wise Old Man, the Storyteller, the Warrior...all of these things are part of me and always have been...at least a part of how I see myself and Interpret the world...

I believe these aspects of me dictate the answers I go looking for...all well and good as long as I don't overidentify with them :)

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Well said, paulokes.

I'mm with Paul here , I was threatened with Catholic school when I was12 and we weren't even Catholic Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Intellect,logic and sound reasoning reminds me of a story.What the difference between a pig and a pig with a dress ... drum-roll....the outer garment hehe

My cursor was froze up:( It was interesting article Zach but here is a nice set of talks by Father Tony which personalizes it in a more concise and Historical set of sneaky cover ups some of us human may do with or without a addiction that may help to explain the suffering cute little pink piggies may be exposed to at many levels that are down - right counter productive to any form of a evolving inner spirit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3Q7H2urto&list=PL9285D44ED7F7B18B

Thks Oki for the vid. I hope to watch more got it booked marked.

"The rain is the same it grows thorns in the marshes and flowers in the garden"

Wow Zach! That was a great read and food for thought. I absolutely believe that we have to examine ourselves and acknowledge those parts that we are not so proud to see. We're all works in progress and it takes time and effort to address the "dark side". This is how we grow as human beings.

Wow just re read this. I definetly go for the bypass on a regular basis.
My therapist (who coincidentally I don't see anymore) told me that I was minimizing. I of course thought she was full of poo.
Anyway, this in particular resonates with me....

"grasping rather than gratitude, arriving rather than being, avoiding rather than accepting. It is spiritual practice in the service of repression, usually because we can not tolerate what we are feeling, or think that we shouldn't be experiencing what we are feeling."

That in a nut shell is also why I drank. I didnt want to tolerate being or feeling.
Hmm. On the upside, I have opportunity for growth:)

Hi sticky,

Thanks, you pointed me in the direction of that article as it is from the same author from the article you posted from Psychology Today in another thread. I liked the article you posted too as I gravitate in the direction of being self righteous a bit too much (now that's an understatement). Thanks again.