How to deal with negative feelings? (Magdi 03-19-2023)

The main ideas from this information are: - There is no need to hold onto the past or rely on external support in order to meet the present moment with innocence. - Love blooms when we recognize others as ourselves and let go of the need to defend or protect. - Relief and peace come from within, not from the mind or external circumstances. - Negative feelings are experienced as bodily sensations and thoughts, but they are not who we truly are. - We are transparent to each other and can sense and be affected by each other's emotions. - It is important to be mindful of how we share and interact with others, coming from a place of openness and understanding rather than separation and fear. So to start if we could just welcome ourselves as this simple presence. Hello. Hello. Nothing special that you need to do. Whatever is past is past. You don't need to do anything about it for now. The moment is fresh, brand new. You don't need to do anything about it for now. Nothing that you need to hold on to. So that you can meet this moment in your complete innocence. With that you need to know anything about it. Without needing some supporting structure. Because you don't need any support. You don't need any identity. You don't need to maintain anything in this moment. What you did and what others did to you are empty tales and traces in the sand along the shore. Which fade away. You never swim in the same water twice. It's always fresh and new. You don't need to figure anything out. You fix anything. As you sink deeper and deeper into being, into presence. Because as presence we are not separate. We are the same. The same beingness. And it is this understanding, the understanding of one reality. Which we all share. Which we all are. It is from this understanding. And as this understanding that love blooms, flourishes in our life. We recognize the other as our very self. And sometimes we may feel hurt. We feel hurt because we cherish something. We feel called to protect something. To defend something. Against whom? Against others. Against the world. It's something that we feel very valuable. We need to defend it. To protect it. For what? For whom? To safeguard that which we cherish, whatever that is. We place conditions onto each other. We overlook the love. We believe that the love comes from the mind. From our thoughts, from our opinion. From our smartness. We don't want to get hurt. It's one thing to feel pain because you put your hand on the hot stove. But what is it that gets hurt? What is it to feel hurt? What is I am? Love itself. Where would the hurt find any refuge in the heart of love? We often blame the other for not loving us the right way or not. Or not behaving towards us in a loving way. Although there are situations where that is blatantly true. Aren't we most often trying to justify our feelings or shift our feelings? So that we experience some release, some relief from the inner angst. We all are seeking relief from inner angst. But in moments of wisdom, moments of insight, we realize that this relief does not come from the mind. Does not come from the world. And yet we know this peace. We know the love that we seek. In the depth of our being we know it. We don't need someone to explain it to us. But as much as we try in the relationship, in the mind looking for a way, changing our world situation where we live, what we do. As much as we try we only experience moments of relief. But not the freedom and the relief and the peace that is unconditional. That is always there so to speak. We all experience negative feelings. We explore various ways. What we share here is an exploration into the situation which is appearing to us. Sometimes it may sound shocking when we hear that there is no such thing as a shun. It may seem preposterous. But this statement is denying my experience. How can one say there is no such thing as feelings while I am feeling so depressed, miserable, upset, painful. We want to run away from such a point. But take a look. Do not take a look conceptually but experientially. Experientially. Before you accept the statement that I am feeling upset. Before that formulation. Press the pause button for a moment and take a look at your experience at that moment. The heartbeat. The pressure in the chest. The heat in the face of the throat. The dry throat. Clenched fists. Sweating. Those are bodily sensations. And then you take a look at the thoughts that are appearing to you at that moment of upsetness. It may be possible to notice thoughts such as why did he do this to me, why did she do this to me. She keeps doing the same mistakes. He keeps doing the same mistakes. Pisses me off. Darn, I wish it could be somewhere else this moment. These are thoughts, right? Thoughts. But if you take a closer look you will find that within these thoughts there is a belief. The belief that I am this person and he or she is this other person. That I am a good guy, a good gal. I am fair, I am just, I am this, I am that. You will find a me story, a belief that you are somebody. That you, which is the reality which right now is hearing these words. You, this transparent awareness, this intelligence, this presence is somebody. Somebody good, somebody bad, somebody better than some, than the other. And the other is just not getting it. You will find that, if you are interested in looking, you will find that belief. Take a moment, take a look. If it is true, it is true. If you are somebody, then you are this somebody. But if you are the awareness, which perceives thoughts, perceptions and sensations, then you are not somebody perceived. Either this or that. You cannot be both. You are transparent, aware presence and a perceived form. You need to figure this out for yourself. Also, if we take a look at our experience, we may notice that sometimes we walk into a room accidentally. Maybe there is a group of people in that room that have just heard some sad news. A dear friend of theirs passed away. We walk into this room not knowing this information. And we feel this heaviness, we feel this sadness. Although we have no idea what is going on, we don't have any news, we don't know the news. And yet we feel this sadness, this sorrow. Sorrow. Which is not our sorrow because we don't even know what happened. But it is a shared sorrow. Because we are transparent to each other. We are not separate. Even at the body level, we sense each other. The movement, the body language. We feel each other's heat. And sometimes when we are in company with people who are angry, we may feel their anger. Although we are not angry, yet we feel the anger. When we are with somebody who is blaming you, although you are not blaming yourself, we are not actually experiencing this separately. Yet you feel the blame. Because we are transparent to each other. Sometimes even with animals we can sense in a silent way. This is why it makes sense to be careful with each other. What we share and how we share what we share. Take a look within. Whether we are coming from a sense of separation, fear, identification, identifying myself with somebody. Somebody righteous or not. Take a look within. Because that's going to be in the space. It's going to be out there. Affecting everybody. Of course we can all play this game of feelings. I'm upset at this and I'm upset at that. It's an easy game to play. Please leave if you can. Make me happy or else you're out of here. We can play this game. But what fun is that? What beauty is there? What tenderness, what love, what understanding is there in such a game? Can we be, to be fresh moment by moment? Not knowing. Open. Not defending or aggressing. Not identifying. Noticing the identification with not buying into it. Let it go. There's a lot if you can return that play. Much more than you think. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.