disconnection from and reconnection with the Force

Hello! My questions are:

* Have you ever felt disconnected from the Force?
* What was the process of reconnection?

In my experience, severe stress may kick you outside of your focus and harm your nerves to the point of apathy - this is just biology and chemistry, AFAIK. And during apathy, when your body is compensating for the resources lost, the connection to the Force might be diminished to nearly null. The flow of the spiritual element, with which you aligned so much, is (temporarily) out of reach. So you need to reconnect through meditation and maybe deal with issues of trust to yourself and trust to the Force, which brought you on the hard path. Can you share your experience on this?

I guess it all depends on your conception of the Force.

For me the Force is all that is... even if we lose our awareness of that connection, that doesn't diminish it any more than closing your eyes makes the world pop out of existence

But once the awareness has been experienced it can undoubtedly be disorienting and stressful to live without it. The process of reconnection... that's an interesting one. For me it's not something one can "strive" for... it's one of those things that one has to make a space for, and then let happen, like setting up a camera trap and hoping to see some wildlife. The more you grasp for it, the further it slips out of reach... "chasing the butterfly".

For me those unexpected moments of awareness have only ever come when the conditions were right and I was still and open enough to let the butterfly land.

Your point about the difference between losing connection and losing awareness feels right. In terms of eyes and the world - I would describe disconnection as being unable to open your eyes for some time. It is disorienting indeed - walking with closed eyes )

The point about not striving to reconnect sounds right for me too. For now, I feel that I have to be not only open to the spark, but to exercise some patience and the art of letting go.

I wonder if meditations will be of any use for now. Wouldn't it be like contemplating the dawn with closed eyes?

I don't mean to be awkward, but again... depends on your definition of meditation

For me meditation is about becoming empty, open, still... in other words, the exact conditions I feel are likely to help create a space for that awareness to return. But only you know your own mind... I would say if it doesn't feel right, don't force yourself (no pun intended) to do it. Just try and get back into the flow of your life, and let the butterfly come to you.

I hope it lands soon

I`ll try some meditation and if it does not help for now - I guess I will just practice patience.

And on the definition of meditation - I have always done it instinctively and it helped. I think it is a separate topic. Maybe, it's something I have to look for in Initiate Programme to define consciously.

Thank you. )

Yes, tzb is correct ...

One is never 'disconnected' from the Force. We, as well as everything else, comes from it and exist only within it. We get distracted by the anaesthetising thoughts about how things are or should be, but that is no more 'disconnected' than would be an anaesthetised toe that we might think has been disconnected from the foot. In reality, it is very well still there and connected, regardless of the anaesthesia ... Or, as in dentistry : still drooling, even if I can't feel it happening. At least the tooth doesn't hurt any more ...

The Awareness of that connexion isn't made by anticipating something, but in the simplicity of present sensations - even if those aren't very pleasant. One can know quite certainly that there is a connexion with the Force when one forgoes the anaesthesia of thoughts about wanting things to be different than they 'are'. Granted, some pain is just too much (toes, teeth, tattered egos ...) but connexion to the Force is still there ...

I can't even imagine how one could 'lose' it.

Maybe, I should have said not "disconnection" but "losing the sense of the connection". The connection was and is permanent, but I was (and partly am still) temporarily blocked from the sense of it.

By the way, I think the better metaphor for "losing the sense of the connection" from the Force is being not only with closed eyes, yet with closed ears and no smelling or tasting or touching ability. The "sense of the connection" is the only sense we have to communicate to the Force, whilst in the "close eyes" metaphor you will still have 4 senses. It`s like sensory deprivation . That makes it a bit more difficult.

Don`t consider me complaining - I`m more like a person wondering on a discovery of a phenomena. )

"There are no ordinary moments" - Socrates (Way of the Peaceful Warrior)

On the TOTJO wall last night, I posted something about me eating my dinner... I'll paste it here:

I ate very attentively... put it on my fork... took a clear look at it... put it to my nose and smelled it... took one last look at it, put part (not all) of it into my mouth at a time... paid attention to the texture, the flavors, and the response of saliva development to help it process. I took my time. It was prepared exactly the same as it always was - but tasted 250% better than it ever did.

Why did it taste so much better?

Simply because I paid attention to it in the moment.

When someone says "the Force", and "sensing" it, I find that they often may mean "to feel it with their sixth sense" or the such. Indeed I do feel this level of sensation exists, and we all have this ability and opportunity. However, I don't feel this is necessary to "sense" the Force if the Force excludes no conceptual thing. While I ate and paid complete attention to the food, I sensed the Force. The Force was the texture, the taste, the smell, the appearance, the effect it had on my mouth, and more. Sometimes, all you have to do, is just pay attention.

Physical senses such as this can be used as a gateway into the deeper "sixth sense" that was mentioned above. It's just one part of the process of "paying attention" again, to the magic in every moment, which is where the Force is most radiant. The more you set aside your own social conditioning and ego (your desires, and judgements) and simply pay attention to yourself and what you are experiencing right NOW, the more you connect with your TRUE self (the "master" according to the Tao Te Ching), and then we can see, in a deeper sense, the Force (the Tao).

Just three questions:

Where are you?
What time is it?
What are you?

That what you are describing seems like an application of "acting meditation" - like when zen monks consider the manual labor (inside & outside cleaning of the temple) as a way of meditating, as an exercise.

I find no use in trying to tune up to my sixth sense while it is blocked. It would have provided me with better perception on my path, but I think that the Force will come when it is needed and when I am ready.

I love the saying that "When the apprentice is ready, the master will be found." That being said, acting meditation and patience seem to be the Way.

Thank you )

I have found that fasting for a brief period of time helps immensely with the process of reconnecting with the force...