Unnecessary forms of suffering and hardship we're better off without

[Tuesday]

Yes, positivity can be good. But the thing with positivity is that if it's false positivity ("I will win a million dollars on lottery today", "tomorrow i will find the love of my life" or even "I am not feeling this negative emotion, instead i am happy, joyful etc") it's not baised on reality, it's based on a lie.
That is why what is really important is to look the situation in the eye and think "how can i make this better?"
Yes, positivity and good feelings come from that but we will never be freed of negativity if we lie to ourselves,

[MattMVS7]

Originally Posted by Tuesday

Yes, positivity can be good. But the thing with positivity is that if it's false positivity ("I will win a million dollars on lottery today", "tomorrow i will find the love of my life" or even "I am not feeling this negative emotion, instead i am happy, joyful etc") it's not baised on reality, it's based on a lie.
That is why what is really important is to look the situation in the eye and think "how can i make this better?"
Yes, positivity and good feelings come from that but we will never be freed of negativity if we lie to ourselves,

My point is, when we have false positivity, and we address this false positivity, then addressing it needs to be perceived as good, beautiful, awesome, etc. So, it all still comes down to positivity because we still need that perception of goodness, beauty, awesomeness, etc. Again, I define positivity as perceptions of goodness, beauty, awesomeness, etc.

[Altair]

It's difficult to look at positivity and happiness without knowing the reverse. We chase positive experiences because we may also be aware or are aware of negative experiences. Even a crying little baby will feel the difference and prefer the happy moment. Do we genuinely prefer the positivity or do we prefer to avoid the negativity?

If 'god', soul, or divinity is all about the happy ones, then why does the opposite exists?

I agree with you much suffering in this world is pointless though. Nobody is asking to be murdered or tortured, nobody asks for cancer, malaria, or plague. There are natural causes but our mind just want to believe there's more to it than that, it wants to believe that everything has a ''meaning''.

Originally Posted by Pastthemirror

Our experiences, for better or worse, shape us to an extent.

Agreed. To me we're the sum total of our experiences, the selection and assimilation of which is steered initially by the genetics and soul we're born with . (No need to philosophise about the soul here).

And we all suffer at times - even the smallest stresses afflict us from day to day, and may add up. And we strive to do something about them. As long as we're aware of what they are the answer is rarely spiritual contemplation but administrative. It may not always be easy, nor can be dealt with immediately but if we can see a solution we strive toward it. If someone needs to calm their mind then do the Middle Pillar exercise and a few sessions of Pilates breathing.

Even ills that arise from emotions can be dealt with by "standing back" (or should be) and trying to rationalise the "why?". It may take a little time but the "body+mind" can withstand shock most of the time, just as the body alone can deal with much physical shock.

The bad one is suffering from serious medical illness where we don't know the outcome (nor the cause, sometimes). This is where faith comes in, finding one's Self, so that no matter what happens after passing away, one's soul is in the best position to deal with it.

[MattMVS7]

Originally Posted by Altair

It's difficult to look at positivity and happiness without knowing the reverse. We chase positive experiences because we may also be aware or are aware of negative experiences. Even a crying little baby will feel the difference and prefer the happy moment. Do we genuinely prefer the positivity or do we prefer to avoid the negativity?

If 'god', soul, or divinity is all about the happy ones, then why does the opposite exists?

I agree with you much suffering in this world is pointless though. Nobody is asking to be murdered or tortured, nobody asks for cancer, malaria, or plague. There are natural causes but our mind just want to believe there's more to it than that, it wants to believe that everything has a ''meaning''.

There's positivity, negativity, and apathy, also known as "neutrality" (not caring about anyone or anything, and not seeing anyone or anything as good, beautiful, precious, valuable, worthwhile, horrible, tragic, etc.). Positivity is the higher spiritual vibration, and is holy and divine, negativity is the lower spiritual vibration, and is unholy, while apathy would be in the middle. Positivity symbolizes heaven, negativity symbolizes hell, and apathy symbolizes The Void (an intermediate between heaven and hell). Our goal is to live a beautiful, amazing paradise, and that's why we need positivity.

Lastly, people who have near death experiences and go on heavenly trips to the afterlife learn that life is all about loving one another. Love is a positive experience, which means life's all about other positive experiences as well, such as beautiful, amazing, magnificent experiences. To love, you must have a loving perspective, and to have a beautiful, amazing, or magnificent experience, you must perceive something, or someone, as beautiful, amazing, or magnificent. So, love, beauty, magnificence, good, etc. are all perceptions/states of mind. They're divine, holy perceptions/states of mind. Hate, misery, bad, horror, tragedy, etc. are all unholy perceptions/states of mind, and we should avoid them.

[Ciona]

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

When I say we need the positivity in our lives, I'm talking about perceptions of goodness, beauty, magnificence, awesomeness, etc. Perceptions of good are the only good things in life, and perceptions of bad are the only bad things in life, since good and bad don't exist independently of our perception. Good and bad are simply perceptions/value judgments/states of mind.

So, the more good we perceive, the more good we're getting in life, and the more bad we're perceiving, the more bad we're getting. We obviously want the good (the positive), and we wish to avoid the bad. So, our goal in life should be to see (perceive) as much good as possible.

That means the more things, people, moments, works of art, and situations we see as good, the better. The more good we perceive, the more good of a life we're living. The same idea applies to perceiving beauty, magnificence, etc. The more of that we perceive, the more beauty, magnificence, etc. we're having in our lives/mental universes.

When we perceive goodness, beauty, and magnificence, that puts our mind in a good, beautiful, and magnificent place, since perceiving different ways puts our mind in different places. For example, having a sad perspective would put one's mind in a sad place, a happy perspective would put one's mind in a happy place, etc.

Our minds need to be in a good, beautiful, awesome, etc. place (i.e. a positive place), and that's why we need to perceive as much goodness, beauty, awesomeness, etc. as possible. But, there are factors that can prevent us from having a positive perspective, such as having a devastating crisis that renders one suicidal.

In a situation like this, one has a very negative perspective, and that's no way to live or be an artist. He has a very morbid, hateful, traumatized, horrified, disturbed, tragic, etc. perspective, and his goal should be to regain his positive perspective. A positive perspective is a holy, divine state of mind, and that's the state of mind we need to be in.

So be in it. You can be in that state regardless of all that other stuff you wrote or what circumstances/situations are going on. But that takes a level of spiritual maturity and practice over time to achieve. I'm not suggesting it's easy, nor am I suggesting that the 'good' and beautiful things one authentically cherishes in one's personality aren't necessary at base level, if you can't get into that state on your own, yet.

And perception is a tricky thing. You don't actually have to perceive anything or 'know' anything, good or bad, to be in that state. You can embrace the unknown, the unclarified, the confusing, the nothing, also.

[Ciona]

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

Hate, misery, bad, horror, tragedy, etc. are all unholy perceptions/states of mind,.

Not remotely true

[MattMVS7]

Originally Posted by Ciona

So be in it. You can be in that state regardless of all that other stuff you wrote or what circumstances/situations are going on. But that takes a level of spiritual maturity and practice over time to achieve. I'm not suggesting it's easy, nor am I suggesting that the 'good' and beautiful things one authentically cherishes in one's personality aren't necessary at base level, if you can't get into that state on your own, yet.

And perception is a tricky thing. You don't actually have to perceive anything or 'know' anything, good or bad, to be in that state. You can embrace the unknown, the unclarified, the confusing, the nothing, also.

First of all, perceiving goodness, beauty, magnificence, awesomeness, etc. is a positive perspective. Secondly, having the thought of red isn't the same thing as seeing (perceiving) red. Likewise, just having the thought or belief that something is good or beautiful isn't the same thing as seeing (perceiving) said thing as good or beautiful. So, what allows us to perceive goodness, beauty, magnificence, etc.? It would be our emotions, and not our thoughts or beliefs alone. Sure, thinking or believing certain ways causes us to feel certain emotions because a thought of horror causes us to feel horror, a thought of beauty causes us to feel beauty, etc.

But, it can only be our emotions that allow us to perceive things as good, beautiful, horrific, tragic, etc. Like I said, perceptions of goodness, beauty, magnificence, etc. are holy and divine, and we should avoid perceptions of badness, horror, disgust, tragedy, etc., since they're unholy. That means positive emotions are holy and divine, while negative emotions are unholy. When we perceive, for example, beauty, we're having a beautiful experience, and that puts our minds in a beautiful place.

When we perceive horror, then we're having a horrific experience, and that puts our minds in a horrific place. Our minds need to be in a holy, divine place, which would be a good, beautiful, amazing, etc. place, and that's why we need to feel positive emotions. Lastly, there are emotion theorists who posit the theory that emotions are perceptions of beauty, magnificence, horror, tragedy, etc. Based upon my personal experience, I agree with these emotion theorists, and I think emotions are the only perceptions of beauty, horror, etc. Unfortunately, emotions are transient, fleeting things, which makes positivity fleeting.

[inavalan]

In consciousness evolvement there is a feature progression: instinct, emotion, intellect, intuition.

On the same line, there is the progression mineral, plant, animal, human. Plants started to develop instincts, animals are dominated by instincts and started to develop emotions, humans mostly mastered instincts, are dominated by emotions and started to develop intellect. The distribution of these features varies both inside each category, and the distribution's tails extend over the full range.

Your[*] emotions impede your creation of your reality as you'd like it. All positive emotions germinate their dual negative ones. You have to learn to master emotions, not to embrace them. Lack of intuition and relatively undeveloped intellect are also factors that prevent most humans' graduation to exclusive higher realms projection.

You shouldn't focus on suffering, but on creating wellness. Focusing on suffering brings more suffering into your reality.

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[*] NOTE: In this post, in all cases, I used "you" in its impersonal meaning, and didn't address any of the posters in particular.

[Native spirit]

I Remember being born and not wanting to come here. I have lost much since being here.and gone through more than anyone could possible imagine.
Yet i have always Helped others. .
I trained as a counselor .I am a medium as well as a Healer.
I could sit and wallow in self pitty and be Negative, but i choose to channel my Energy into helping others.
We have to make the most of the time we have here.
Because what ever you are going through. Remember there is always someone going through worse.


Namaste