Fixation

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GarcherLancelot
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Fixation

Post by GarcherLancelot »

Is fixation,rumination on certain topics for most part of your time bad for your mental health?Like limiting the scope of your thinking or something?Any ideas?.. .
Azidonis
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Re: Fixation

Post by Azidonis »

GarcherLancelot wrote:Is fixation,rumination on certain topics for most part of your time bad for your mental health?Like limiting the scope of your thinking or something?Any ideas?.. .
Do you have an example?
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Ayu
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Re: Fixation

Post by Ayu »

GarcherLancelot wrote:Is fixation,rumination on certain topics for most part of your time bad for your mental health?Like limiting the scope of your thinking or something?Any ideas?.. .
If the certain topic is not beneficial and the thoughts are running in a circle all the time, round and round again - I would say: Yes, not convenient.
I don't know, if it is really unhealthy, because maybe what must come out has to come out.
But at least it doesn't feel good.

If I have such circle-thoughts, I take it as a sign to stopp with the unbeneficial topic (mentally & physically) for some time. To get peace.
Helpful for this is mantra-chanting or concentration on a beneficial thought.
GarcherLancelot
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Re: Fixation

Post by GarcherLancelot »

Lets say for example you keep thinking about your favourite football club.. .
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Grigoris
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Re: Fixation

Post by Grigoris »

GarcherLancelot wrote:Lets say for example you keep thinking about your favourite football club.. .
C'mon Garcher, I am sure you know the answer to this question.
:namaste:
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Azidonis
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Re: Fixation

Post by Azidonis »

gregkavarnos wrote:
GarcherLancelot wrote:Lets say for example you keep thinking about your favourite football club.. .
C'mon Garcher, I am sure you know the answer to this question.
:namaste:
Probably trying to find a loophole.
GarcherLancelot
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Re: Fixation

Post by GarcherLancelot »

Based on what Azidonis said,i guess the answer would be "preferrably not" hahaha.. .
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Grigoris
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Re: Fixation

Post by Grigoris »

:smile:
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
GarcherLancelot
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Re: Fixation

Post by GarcherLancelot »

What about violent thoughts?By that I don't mean being really angry and want to hurt other people because you are angry,but more of for example RTS games where you try to crush your enemy's army?.. .Is there any EXTRA(compare to obsessing about football) negative consequences?.. .
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Ayu
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Re: Fixation

Post by Ayu »

Peace of mind would be a positive consequence of regular meditation practice.
What for?
One will be able to understand things, see clearly.

So the negative consequence of being fixed in an unstable mind is the opposite: war in the head, projected to the outside. A fickled mind in an mad & bad world.
Azidonis
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Re: Fixation

Post by Azidonis »

GarcherLancelot wrote:What about violent thoughts?By that I don't mean being really angry and want to hurt other people because you are angry,but more of for example RTS games where you try to crush your enemy's army?.. .Is there any EXTRA(compare to obsessing about football) negative consequences?.. .
Think of it like a bundle. Every impression, every thought, carries a bundle of things. It carries sensual memories, and the conditions that created that memory.

If you are sitting there watching the game, and your dog runs by the couch and bumps you, knocking your pizza out of one hand onto your shirt, and spilling your beer onto your pants, the impetus is to be furious at the dog... just for being a dog.

The dog didn't actively make the choice to foil your plans or anything, it's just a dog, doing what dogs do, moving on impulse, and from that perspective you were in its way!

We identify with the situations we find ourselves in, using thought. If you are eating the pizza, maybe you feel its texture on your fingers and in your mouth, the smell, taste, even the sound of every bite. And we enjoy it, identify ourselves with it, as "I am having a pleasure moment". But that pleasure moment is impermanent, it will eventually end. We don't want this, as it leads to a form of suffering.

So when an external set of circumstances disturbs our little moment of serenity, we become frustrated, angry. Then, that which was identified with the pleasure moment, the "I", no longer is identifying itself with a pleasure moment, and is instead identifying itself with a painful moment. Knowing that it is attached to this moment, it gives into frustration at the fact that it cannot change what has occurred, and angry at the object that caused its occurrence.

...and then we lash out. "Stupid dog! What did you run in front of me for! Can't you see I'm watching the game!" Then, you continue to scream at the dog, maybe punishing it by forcing it into an area which separates it from you, maybe even kicking or punching it as some people seem to do. All this time, you are caught up in the process of identifying yourself with the painful moment, and while you are doing so, you ARE pain. And you can do nothing during that time but project and inflict pain.

Fortunately for us, and for the dog, the pain moments are impermanent as well. The catch to all of this is to realize that each moment has many factors, both seen and unseen. Perhaps the dog run over you in the middle of watching a big play, such as a touchdown pass. Consider all of the factors involved in that as well. The players, coaches, fans, sponsors, the work you did to pay for the pizza and beer, the dog's life, what the dog saw, smelled, tasted, touched, or heard to make it want to run, etc. All of the events in your life virtually come together in each and every moment to form that particular moment.

And thought is but a memory. So aren't necessarily upset with the dog. You are upset with the memory of the dog running over you, ruining your precious pleasure moment that you were busy identifying yourself with. Then, that identity is carried to the next memory, that of the dog, and you become anger until that moment has run its course in you, and you finally let go of it, possibly missing all of the moments in between.

However, there is nothing you could have done about it. If there was, then you would have done something to prevent it, but you didn't, which means that what was done is the one event that happened out of all the possibilities of events that could have happened. So just accept it, and accept the fact that you were alive to experience the moment, and appreciate that. Then, wash your shirt, change your pants, help your dog figure out what the hell made it run like that, and on with the show. Certainly you will see the big play again during the highlight reel.

We cling to identity, and identity clings to memories, attempting to carry them over from one moment to the next, to form a since of self-continuity. And we are attached to that, because we view ourselves as separate from the whole picture, when really we are not. The hologram of identity just wants to believe it is.
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