Natural Freedom

I lurk here quite a bit. I would like to thank everyone's contributions. Letting go and releasing attachments is a difficult process for me. Gaining approval and recognition from others is valuable because it feeds my ego. If I do well on a test my ego won't acknowledge it unless others do. Actually making the shift from trying to prove myself to having people prove themselves to me is a great challenge. Wielding power is difficult because it doesn't feel real in my hands. Is it that my ego recognizes power only in the hands of others? If my ego is a liar then power isn't real. There is no spoon.

PS - Thanks Dali for the ZenWriter idea in Resonance's thread.

You are welcome.

I'm writing mostly in daily basis If I can. And notice that most of my thinking it's about some sort of validation or I want specific people to notice me.
It's very difficult indeed, sometimes I ask myself why I'm doing this (seeking other people validation) and that all the people 'seems' so happy, and I don't. It confuses and annoys me, but it's ok. I think it's part of the process. I don't know what to do from time to time, like what to write, but I always carry a pad and a pen where I can sharpen my critical thinking about myself everywhere, wherever I notice some emotional thing, or just noticing very recurrent toughts and the I proceed to write them, but not condemning myself just observing and describing, that's all.

Yeah it's the only mechanism the ego has to survive, in others reflection.
Ego is not real, it's a tought, what are you? what this makes you?... prior to the tought of you?
But ego it's fun only if you just want to tame a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVWfAk5U ... AAAAAAAAAA

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GMST

When he said to identify when people use "I" in reference to consciousness or the body I got confused. Is it that our thoughts claim ownership of our bodies? For instance at this moment I am feeling hungry. My body does require food at some point but that is separate from the feeling of hunger. Knowing this it is rational then to go out in search of food. There are many other instances when going outside ourselves to satiate our feelings is irrational and counter-productive.

Because those are biological directives.

The problem is that the untrained mind usually tend to phsicologically claim ownership of feelings (and very much everything). Like if you said you are hungry, then starts with the feeling of hungriness in the stomach but this is not a psycological phenomena it is just a mechanism that your biological machine (body) uses for indicating the need for some fuel, the sense of hunger cannot be controled (yet in some cases supressed or mitigated) but the machine is working without "You" having to do anything whatsoever, thus the only thing you can claim is that you are experiencing the sense of hunger, not being hungry.

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GMST