Well I got lucky and then I got unlucky got a trip at 9 pm right before major Thunderstorms warning then eventually Tornado warning. I left to go outside the sirens were going off so ran to the Tornado shelter for safety. How am I still alive? How did I forget all this? How am I still sane and at work today?

Hello folks, I took detailed notes, so figured I’d share it here. The next lecture is tomorrow at 9:30 at 13508 Broadmeade Ave, Austin, TX 78729 He talked about the four practices in spirituality 1) Discernment - seeing the harmful from the helpful. That which brings pain vs joy. That which strengthens vs weakens us. That which is permanent vs impermanent. 2) Non attachment - having seen this clearly, we stop being attached to the impermanent or that which causes pain in the long term 3) The six treasures (restraining the mind, restraining the senses, pulling back, forbearance, concentration and deep faith) 4) An intense longing from freedom I’ll elaborate only on 3 since I didn’t take notes yesterday when he talked about 1 and 2, and he’ll talk about 4 tomorrow Restraining the mind - just as we are careful about what food we put in our bodies for physical health, what we put in our minds via what we read, watch, ideas we ponder and whom we spend time with affects our mental health How do desires come in? Our mind is like a house with a small living room and a giant basement. We polish only the living room where we entertain visitors and put all the garbage in the basement. And we’re rarely aware of what’s in the basement (unconscious). When we engage in an activity (eg drinking coffee for the first time) and enjoy it, a new conditioning enters the basement. Next time we pass by Starbucks, we’ll have a desire to drink coffee. We drink it again, and the conditioning strengthens. If we later decide we need to not indulge in a desire (eg refraining from sweet things after a diabetes diagnosis), we need to exercise will power. Saying yes strengthens it. Saying no weakens it Knowing when to say yes vs no needs wisdom. Pain comes from getting this wrong. Restraining the senses - Some of this has been discussed above. Additionally, our senses have a defect. They always look outward. They are not good at asking “who is seeing this world?” Or “what do I know about this person?”. When we shut our external perception during meditation, we may have better luck in looking at this person.

We have three monks visiting us in Austin over the next month! This is an unprecedented frequency afaik You can find the times and venue here: https://www.vedantaaustin.org/ Swami Tyagananda - April 17-19 Swami Sarvadevananda - April 26-28 Swami Mahayogananda - May 8-9 They’re from the Ramakrishna order of monks and nuns. They all have a very strong spiritual presence and most of them have a strong nondual flavor. After every visit, I find myself in great joy for the next few days and my practice deepens noticeably.

I had a great morning but now it feel like everything is failing. Like I just talk with guys and now I feel like to stop talking to all of them because the way I am feel like I will never be good enough for someone to love me because the way i am. I feel like i will be alone and no body will understand me. I just open the window a little it cold to change my mind and it help a bit but I still feel stuck that I am not good enough.

⬇️ Have you had a similar experience? What helps you regulate your nervous system?