Why do you post? What is your motivation and or purpose?

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Actually Meta, I look at your picture and see a Soul out of time. No offence intended, just my perception. It's as though you should have been born a Roman :-) Perhaps the Senate would have been more suited.

I threw 'the book' out of the window. Reading some guru's yabber doesn't do it for me. I like the interaction, the place where you can ask stupid questions or vent your spleen. Doesn't happen with a book. Well you can, but it's one way and a one way ticket to the looney bin :-) There's much more Spirituality here than in the words of the gurus, in the Lives of people that come on these boards and share. As with any topic I have a strong view about, I post to because I want to share what I believe. Being honest I enjoy it when people disagree because you get much more from that than an agreement. The other problem is that there's nobody around for many miles that I can talk to on this sort of leave, not without pointy-finger weird-weirdo. Living in picturesque Scotland where traffic jams max out at six cars and the kid next door does have its drawbacks :-) Apart form that, I doubt anyone would put in the effort and expense to come and slap me.

Nah Meta, your ego isn't going to get any stroking from me - got better things to stroke. By the way, does anyone have a cure for hairs on the palm of the hand, perchance?

I can relate to having no one to talk to about this sort of thing, i live in the deep south aka "the bible belt", strict christian views only.

we spoke a wile before the forum closed down about past lives on atlantis i was metamorphosis then, Hi, lol thought id start a new chapter as my beloved kali.

Do you really have hairs on your hand? lol

Such forums have been my primary spiritual practice for many years. The odd truth of the matter seems to be that spiritual work is a solitary trick done with mirrors. That is, the work is about what one is, or appears to be, in relation to everyone and everything else.

I'm a solitary guy with very little interest in making friends. It's not that I have a problem with people, it's more like it doesn't matter so much. However, as somebody talked about, I've done my share of reading the woo woo gurus, and while it provides an excellent focus at times, it's not nearly as dynamic and specific as the focus that forms on open forums because one cannot have a living relationship with a book.

I've heard Truth referred to as 'The living Truth'. To me, this means that it is here, now, vibrantly alive and active in our experience with everything. IOW, it moves dynamically in our relationship with the world, not just in our silent meditations.

On a more pragmatic level, it's easy to be 'spiritual' as long as the real world stays out of my self involved meditative space, but if it is taken into relationship with the world, such delusions collapse quickly. Some guru said 'If you think you're enlightened, go spend a weekend with your family.' Hehe.

I've noticed for years that my area of focus is reflected in the discussions that show up in these forums. There was a time that I posted on several forums at once, and the same topic was sometimes being discussed at the same time on all of them, and in most cases I wasn't the one who started it. This is quite interesting by itself and demonstrates a bit what I mean by the living Truth as it unfolds in our relationship with the world.

In the end, an enormous amount of clarity has come through intuitively exploring the focus of attention that is formed by others on these forums, and a lot of attachment has been explored and released. Sitting in silence at the feet of some guru cannot do this.

I know it would make me appear more humble to admit that I'm here to impress and be right and be praised, but the truth is I don't much care how I appear or what you think of me. Of course it's more pleasant to be agreed with than disagreed with, but I don't recall ever letting go of anything because somebody agreed with me or praised me. I'm usually grateful for both, but the thing is it's not about you. It's never about you.

I post when certain ideas pop up in my mind and I cannot hold them when they become brimful. Humans by nature want to express their thoughts or emotions and there are different ways of expressing them and indeed writing is one of the most effective ways of expressing them

I have many purposes and motivations for being here. Most of them involve simply a need for social interaction. I want to connect with people, communicate, share ideas and find out what others will think of them... I also want to learn more about the various subjects here. I want to figure out what my own beliefs are on these subjects, hear perspectives I never thought of before, etc.

I used to put a lot of effort into appearing to be intelligent. It was partly because it was so difficult for me to overcome my shyness enough to communicate. And partly because people will agree with you more and respect you more if you appear intelligent. I had every intention of convincing people to agree with me. I made myself appear peaceful when I actually felt angry. I spoke compassionately even when I felt contempt. People would occasionally praise me, but I didn’t feel comfortable with it because they were praising a fictional character. I saw my real self as a very stupid person who only managed to write things that appeared intelligent due to use of a thesaurus, google, and a whole lot of effort.

Over time, I very gradually evolved the fictional character I hid behind online to look more and more like my real self. And I think what people see now is just about the real me. I no longer feel it is very important to convince people to agree with me. I mostly like to communicate what my own opinions and knowledge are on various matters. If people don’t agree I’m more okay with that than I was in the past.

That said, Meta, I’d like to ask you some questions. When you post to elicit praise, do you see yourself as the smartest one before getting this praise? Do you think they are praising the real you or an image you fabricated in order to elicit praise? Do you need others to reflect that back to you in order to see yourself as smarter? Is it possible that the continued desire to obtain ego boosts in this way is due to a subconscious or perhaps even conscious awareness that the fabricated image of “smartest one” is not your real self?

Originally Posted by Greenslade

. By the way, does anyone have a cure for hairs on the palm of the hand, perchance?

Laser Hair Removal works well.

That's The Best post I've ever read, Meta.

You must keep good company.

Truely speaking the motivation or purpose behind my posting is to show others, that How intelligent i am & Time pass chatting,

I think this is another trick of my "Mind" to entangle me in illusion.
Even knowing this i am helpless.

jasdir.

Phroggy- Such forums have been my primary spiritual practice for many years.

We have to talk.

[Squatchit]

Wow meta, you've caused quite a stir.

I post because I can't stop it.

Nice posts, Phroggy and everybody else!