Emotional Baggage and being overweight

[Tess]

Maybe Pharos is not of a meditation nature, maybe he doesn't believe in the law of attraction - what goes around comes around  (oh and it does at least for me laughs)    That is okay.  We all have our beliefs and that is okay. I understand the law of nature but maybe this is my time  to understand and be in the zone..  I get it wrong from time to time and then I go oops!!! I blew it again!!!  I try my best.  I have no doubt Pharos is doing his best from where he is coming from as do we all. 

It is my dearest wish that Pharos will start a new thread with something positive to say as I have no doubt he has lead a very interesting life.

Good night and God Bless,
Tess xxxx

[Rangeswar]

PART B of my reply: (to answer your question re: defining the law of karma)
The concept of karma is that our body is only a temporary state (i.e. healthy; ill; young; old etc). In other words, it is constantly changing, but something is inheritantly more fixed (i.e. who we are). So the body is considered more like a vehicle rather than a permanent fixture. We're so attached to it, it's hard to separate the two, but the law of karma assures us that death is not the end (i.e. we are forced to step out of the vehicle at death). So, just like when we leave our motor vehicle, we continue in a superior vehicle (the human body), the same applies at death (i.e. when we leave our human body, we continue in a superior vehicle). According to India's Bible (the Bhagavad gita -Yogananda's translation), "the self is never born, nor does it ever perish; nor having come into existence will it again cease to be. It is birthless; eternal; changeless; ever-same (unaffected by the usual processes associated with time). It is not slain when the body is killed."

If that could be true, i guess then we might change the way we look at things, i.e. we know that we may evade the law of man, but we cannot evade the higher laws (i.e. nature). Similar applies to the law of karma. It implies more responsibility for our circumstances; -sheds everything in a different light (i.e. it empowers us). That why the churches in recent centuries and the government do not want us to consider these higher laws (to keep us separated and disempowered).

But karma is not a law of judgement or punishment, merely consequential; -that is why compassion is a qualification to understand it best.

p.s: I agree with you regarding your example of fear.

[Pharos]

Part A;
By being ill disciplined one is abdicating one's responsibility; getting drunk is a fixed scientific fact once alcohol is consumed. I don't see how one can take responsibility for the actions of others as you describe; it sounds more like interceding, or intercepting in their actions - for which they are responsible - which does have a place.
I'm sorry, but the last para. to me is full of contradictions and non sequiturs, I do not understand it. Pharos.
Tess, I do meditate, a very personal form; I admit I chose a very personal path many years ago, and to feeling it hard as the consequences became apparent, but I have pursued it and have become rather 'odd' by the standards of many. In meditation I focus on increasing objectivity; this requires an absolutely enormous amount of energy at times, to produce collapse of the ego based, relativistic comfort zone which most people need and rely on.
It gives them a strength, that of the support of others in a subconcious investment of mutual admiration, but it is also a weakness. I feel it tends to dissolve personal reliance, and responsibility, and allows personal growth to go fallow.
By attempting utter objectivity, one can often see the subjectivity of others, the 'political' (small p) games they play, often based on outmoded parent-child relationships, but not always, and it enables one to understand the illusions to which they are prey.
A corrollary of this would be, if such a person were wicked, the use of such knowledge for personal gain. Isn't that what politicians, some psychologistsm and public realtions people do.
But for me my moral code is an electric fence which will kill me if I attempt to cross it.
I hope that what I have said is of some use, and not boring or egotistical, and, God forbid, not self pitying. Rather I hope for mutual insight, and that these discussions fertilise further understandings.
My hard drive sounds like a child in the next room being sick!
Rangeswar Part B: I do not understand the 'law of attraction', and have never had it defined.
I think many would descibe my life as rather emotionally impoverished.
I agree up to the point at which karma says that death is not the end - who has evidence for that being so?
I would love it to be so, and it is a comforting way to look at things, but I do not see from what you have said how the law implies more responsibility for our circumstances.
I certainly had formed the idea of the law of karma as one of judgement; if I chose my parents, and the resultant relational mess which ensued, which caused a lot of pain all round, then it follows that my responsibility for such a choice could very well be deemed worthy of punishment.
For me compassion for others is very important; it is easy to think that the wrongs they perpetrate are done with malevolently meditated forthought, but often people do bad things out of panic fear, or just a plain inability to get a grasp of a situation.
So, tomorrow represents a tenth of the 'new century' gone.
Good night all, and a Happy New Year. Pharos.

[Tess]

Hi Pharos,

From my learnings there is no hard and fast rule about meditation.  Simply focusing on a flower is meditation.   Washing the car mindfully, paying attention to what you are doing will bring you into  the present moment is meditation.   We all meditate at times and don't even know.  For me, its the tapping into what I am thinking that is important so I am aware of what sneaky thoughts are popping up   - like weeding my garden - and I zap em!!!!  (smiles).  I find it empowering.

I wish you a very Happy and Prosperous 2010.

With best wishes,
Tess x

[Rangeswar]

Pharos

I should try again (re: "our responsibility to something outside our control").

From the irresponsibility of drinking too excess, we can only blame ourselves if a resultant hangover occurs. (i.e. the hangover then becomes a consequence which is outside our control).   

From the irresponsibility of not attending to one's own child's needs in a past life, it may produce a resultant anger in that reincarnated child towards that reincarnated parent in a future life. In other words, the resultant anger may seemingly appear to have nothing to do with the reincarnated parent's responsibility, because who can remeber transgressions in a past life? But according to the law of karma, they exist. 
   
For the best proof I can immediately think of re: life after death, I recommend the website SoulSurvivor-book.com 

I don't much about the law of karma, but I have heard that all circumstances are always co-created. Whether one views a consequence as a punishment or a consequence is subjective. A punishment may traditionally be how we have heard it. In reality though, it is merely a consequence.

Why would we create bad experiences in this life? To learn a lesson of some type (i.e. to develop compassionate qualities).

[upgradereality]

Overeating is often linked to anxiety or stress. A job or any skeletons in your closet can cause that anxiety and thus cause you to eat way more than you need. I havent done too much research but it makes sense that if the cause of the stress or anxiety disappears that the desire to overeat disappears too.

[Rangeswar]

I think you're right. It is common to turn to sense gratification (i.e. food; alcohol; s*x) from a stress or anxiety trigger.

So we need to identify the underlying causes. If something causes you too much stress -like school; home life, social events, or work, you are probably deep down bored with it. If you have a life, why would you develop a sense gratification problem (i.e. over-eating)?

Boredom appears significant, however, does not go deep enough. Fear (and anxiety) for example, restrict, actually triggering boredom. At the fundamental level, it is s*x impulse which drives us according to Vedic texts, and many are sexually frustrated according to Freud (note, there is a big difference between s*x driven by love and s*x driven by sense gratification).  





  

[admin plant]

The cassette and book The Seven Secrets of Slim People by Vicki Hansen and Shawn Goodman is very good.

 

[MikeJsimon]

Stress, anxiety, depression and unresolved emotional issues are what instigate compulsive overeating. Anyone can suffer from compulsive overeating disorder though the disorder is more common in women than in men.
Self help groups are also a great source of strength and comfort. But the most important treatment comes from within the person's mind. If the victim is determined to overcome binge eating and is prepared to take decisive steps to combat their inner compulsion to binge, more than half the battle is won.