Hi /x/, I've been trying to follow spirituality for a while.

>>19233955
>I've heard the true self is neither the body nor the mind.
the true self is BOTH body AND mind, PLUS spirit. It's all of those combined under a tightly, focus alignment of values, attitudes, and beliefs.

start by writing down the things you strongly believe in right now. Make scenarios and write how YOU (your true self) would react and act to them. Then see overtime how they change or how true/correct they were as you go through life

hey id like to learn more about this too OP
have you found anymore books related to such topics?...

>>19233955
Well, first, if you're not already meditating, ya need to start my man.

As for the true self: there is no true self. And that realization is the "true" self. The true self is just detachment from the contingent self. As in, your detachment from any particular image of yourself and the world you live in, insofar as these self-conceptions are detrimental to the path.

It's like, if you're at work, the self you are at work is ephemeral, only ever the product of the particular determinations it imposes on you, and if you can really, intuitively grasp how arbitrary your day-to-self is, how it's just the output of who knows how many biological/subconscious/conscious inputs, and it's more like just a schema or a mold you take on according to given conditions x, you realize that it's not "you" that's acting but something fundamentally not-you.

Easy example is sexuality. Sexuality is healthy and a part of life but if you're getting boners in public and shit, then you gotta realize it's not your conscious center acting here, it's literally a lower will (your benis) imposing itself into your consciousness. No these things don't have a mind of their own, they just have directives, functions they too must perform, that can violently assert themselves the more they are fed. And same with all kinds of addiction: you've fed a sub-mental complex that justifies itself through your own thinking ("one drink won't hurt...")

The more you become aware of how you become a putty in another force's hands - even something as innoccuous as changing how you act as soon as someone enters a room that was just empty - the more you can ground yourself and act from a "True Will", which is just taking a step back, breathing, and re-asserting the unity of consciousness that you are against all the parasitic complexes that use you only as a vehicle to realize themselves. Reclaim an individuality beyond a mere empirical, political, social individuality.

>>19234743
>>19234826

I like.

My 5c; you know like the christians have the question they ask themselves, 'what would Jesus do?' Well begin to ask yourself, what would I do in this situation if I were the very best version of me that I could possibly imagine.

As anon above says, true self is detachment from the contingent self, but these contingencies are our vehicle for growth and exploration. Our little self, our ego, is the best effort of our mind-body-emotions to protect us in an uncertain world. It develops in response to outside effects which you couldn't fully integrate or cope with at the time, and it has continued to run the same responses whenever it felt threatened ever since. So don't beat yourself up for failing, or feeling like you only see your little self. It has been serving you for a long time. Whenever you recognise it at work, notice it, give it attention, thank it for being there and give it permission to rest, or settle, or integrate, or whatever concept works for you.

Bit by bit we learn to release the learned responses and find something stronger, more 'central'. This process is different for everyone, and may include meditation, getting healing or psychotherapy, living a life of service, art, writing a journal, mastering a skill, finding your vocation, or just trying to live with awareness.

Learn to recognise what I call 'soul functions'. Some of these might be self-evident; compassion, generosity, creativity; some less so, assertiveness for example, and the real big one which in my experience which few people really understand, is gratitude. When you are feeling gratitude you are plugged right in to your true being. You can't fake it, but you can practice it. If you take nothing else from this post, remember gratitude.

>>19235097
One book I thought of while writing this, from some years ago, 'Living With Joy' by Sanaya Roman. Don't let the slightly hippy flakey title put you off, it's full of very sound esoteric understanding. And has practical exercises at the end of each chapter, so it's not just reading a bunch of words.