Melisa

BooksAndArticles

deleted by author

Stacker Saloon

saloon

From the ashes of the old, a new you wakes up to a dawn that unfolds before your eyes...full of light, beauty and grace...this love has no face.
![](https://m.stacker.news/52224)

Two people can damage society :
1.The one who knows and doesn't talk.
2.The one who doesn't know and talks.

![](https://m.stacker.news/50488)

A gentle reminder.
![](https://m.stacker.news/49719)

Loneliness is not just the absence of people. It is the absence of purpose, the absence of meaning. When you find yourself in a world where everything seems alien and distant, where every connection is superficial, and every attempt at understanding is met with indifference, you realize that true loneliness is not being alone, but feeling alone in a world that no longer makes sense.


ideasfromtheedge

>Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

–Henry Van Dyke

I had a Professor that said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly!” It took us a while to let that sink in, until he brought his guitar to class and played that guitar and sang not too badly, but badly. He said he loved to play the guitar and sing. He wasn’t trying to go on a talent show or make it big in a rock band. He said why should he give up what he enjoyed because he couldn’t do it well. Some people are just not that talented in certain areas but everyone has skills, abilities, and talents.

Maybe he improved or maybe he didn’t, but he thought it was worth doing, even if he did it badly. He wasn’t asking anyone to listen or enjoy it, except for that one class, but he was teaching us an important lesson. We hear all these things growing up about striving for perfection. The only way to fail is to try to be perfect because that is unattainable as long as we are humans on this earth. Maybe we will evolve into a new world where we will all be perfect! That sounds kind of boring because there would be nothing to strive for. Just do your best and if you think it is good enough, then it is good enough!

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly!

alter_native

Writing this is a constant refining and failing, like making soup du jour – there’s no perfection, no secret sauce! –  just add water (truth) to an empty vessel, top and tail veggies, sip, sniff and savor, add and subtract taste, put it aside, tweak, taste again, and come up perhaps with something nourishing that fills, inspires and delights, maybe! 

What's said here comes with a reminder that that which one is - awareness - is not transferrable, not teachable; only you can directly 'taste' the aware nature of simply Being, and with J Krishnamurti's caveat to "be your own authority".  Despite the mind's constant urging to conclude, to know, stay open and open. Indeed, one may learn that real freedom lies in never needing to know! ;) That said, and speaking from experience stored in memory, it seems 'waking up' can and does ultimately happen to anyone without efforts, practices, and traditional techniques that may divert and delay.

 It further seems that for some there's a necessary psychological healing and restoration of order that happens with therapy, slowly, in time, but also it seems there's an essential timeless instant -  a direct, indescribable recognition of what one is. In subsequent living, one learns moment to moment what one is not and never gets to 'know' what one is. Or needs to know, beyond that certain knowing of one's infinite Being. Awakening - that melting into awareness - never ends; it's an instant and progressive shattering of what one thinks, feels, and believes is 'me' and 'my' life. It's the desolution of all knowing.  

Post awakening is, as one of my teachers used to say: "a minefield." The mines are the mind's beliefs, and they often  take their toll as the body/mind continues over subsequent years to experience its ups and downs - its post-awakening residues of shallow and deeply conditioned habits, personal desires and fears that seem to continue as one lives and moves and adjusts to relating to life not only in space and time, but also from an absolute, timeless, non-personal knowing perspective. In fine, aware living is an art without an artist, a meditation without a meditator; a living and dynamic experiencing that mind cannot know and all words cannot convey, like the eye cannot see itself.

This awareness is not about accumulated conceptual and experiential knowledge - that social and culturally acknowledged 'reality' that each of us personally seem to experience. Aware living is not an experience with its experiencer; it’s about living in, as and with, the unknown; and that seems to be very challenging to the 'person', to the ego/mind. It's impossible to determine and describe with words that merely re-present and seemingly separate and create a duality where in fact there is none. Nevertheless, let's continue to taste and talk about aware living:

~ One begins where one ends: all there is, is choiceless Awareness.

~ There's a pervasive inner Peace akin to Silence and Clarity grounded in a total sufficiency that abides in all and any circumstances and events in time.

~ One is already, unconditionally, free. This Freedom without boundaries abides in the midst of the mind's inherent conflict and confusion and the feelings it produces.

~  Joy and delight and beauty are abundant, along with deep gratitude in simply Being .

~ One apparently lives in a world of personal fancy AND actually lives in an unknown 'world' of nonpersonal fact, - a world of paradox.

~ There's a deep and deepening love beyond measure and this shows up in acts of compassion in daily relationships.

~ In truth, in aware living, one never knows, there being no knower. One is moved to act presently, not react; to engage without knowing, without attachment, without expectation, without a plan. Of course, one can still function well and truly, to catch a bus!  ;)

~ In sum, Awareness totally and intimately engages without attachment and fully enjoys what is, as it presents, knowing all is well.  

There's much more - and ultimately much less! - that could be said about aware living.These are just a few observations that arise and may stimulate your own; you're invited to explore, question and otherwise comment. In looking thru and beyond the mind's filters of 'knowing already', one may see and taste and love the whole unknown beauty of this moment! 

Tasting freedom: Aware living in the unknown

Review: The Righteous Mind

Undisciplined

>According to psychology, never express too much love, affection or care to someone, because it's human tendency to underestimate anything that's free of cost.

Do you agree or disagree with this? 



What do you think about this statement?

We are all a part of something bigger than ourselves. Together we can build something incredible.
![](https://m.stacker.news/48243)

I used to be good with people.

I used to be an open book, but no one can read me now. I no longer join meetings two minutes early. I used to be hopeful and optimistic, until I realized how unfair just some things are.

I like keeping things to myself now. Celebrate small wins in silence, put my earphones on and shut everything and everyone out. You see, I learned that sometimes, it’s better to build walls around you. To not let anyone in and see your vulnerable side. Most people don’t care anyway. Some only check in to make sure they’re still doing better, that they’re still ahead.

I guess I lost my appetite for drama, and somehow, it felt good.

— Jun Mark Patilan
![](https://m.stacker.news/48195)

Choices made in anger can ruin your life

![](https://m.stacker.news/48035)

Stop spending money on things you don't need and start making your dreams come true today.

![](https://m.stacker.news/47886)

The biggest asset in the world is your mindset.
![](https://m.stacker.news/47446)

The ego blocks your choices by:
- Telling you what to do
- Imposing rules on you
- Driven by fear, guilt and shame
- Lack of awareness by being automatic

The higher self offers you choice by:

- Knowing you are not your thoughts
- Creating your own rules
- Driven by purpose, love and passion
- Gains awareness by being conscious

Raising your consciousness gives you more control, choice and confidence in your life.

Who you are is a choice…


I've been a psychology professor since 2012. In the past six years, I’ve witnessed students of all ages procrastinate on papers, skip presentation days, miss assignments, and let due dates fly by. I’ve seen promising prospective grad students fail to get applications in on time; I’ve watched PhD candidates take months or years revising a single dissertation draft; I once had a student who enrolled in the same class of mine two semesters in a row, and never turned in anything either time.

I don’t think laziness was ever at fault.

Ever. 

In fact, I don’t believe that laziness exists.



##### [**...read more at Medium**](https://archive.is/YO49f)

Laziness Does Not Exist

Social intelligence is a superpower that works in reverse: The less you try to be special, the more special you become.

In times that are transitional and characterized by instability, anxieties, and dead ends, man searches more intensely for the meaning of life.

Seasons of stability have many good things, but they also have a flaw: they can put existential thinking to sleep. Man becomes numbed in prosperity. This is a stake for our society: will it be able to change? How will it change?

A key question of change is therefore whether we can also develop a more genuine existential pursuit. But to do so requires less consumption and less enslavement to the society of the spectacle. It requires an asceticism to be able to keep the existential question awake in oneself, which we should note is the normal state of man.

Good and bad times

> AI slop has come to Stacker New

What does that mean? 

The sad truth of society
![](https://m.stacker.news/46899)