In ancient Japan, spiritual leaders once believed that men possessed the power to become gods, thru a method called the 8 celestial gates. These gates are within each and everyone of us, and have the ability to open, only with true undersanding, will power, courage and several other requirements and elements that require them to achieve so. By slowly opening these 8 gates, men can achieve the path to heaven and ultimately become heavenly beings themselves.
I dunno, sounds really freaky to me.
But what I do understand is this one thing. The ancient monks of Japan used these as a gradual step to achieving something, which is where I got the idea from. Time and time again, we feel emotions, that sometimes go wild, out of control. Ur first kiss, a first hug, a betrayal, a big loss.. These feelings sometimes erupt and cause devastation to ourselves and the people around us should they go out of hand, because of the lack of control we have over them. Many ways of controlling emotions are out there, including therapy and self-searching, but since I enjoy doing stuff just because it interests me, I guess this can help me in someway or another.
We usually lose control, because according to these people, the 8 gates within us are basically opening without cohesion. Meaning they open at random, when u don't realize it. I dunno bout other people, but I feel the dam same way. I can be very excited one moment, and very down the next moment. I can feel like on top of the world, and the next moment I feel like s***. The monks in ancient Japan used the 8 celestial gates method to actually teach themselves how to gradually open these gate WHEN THEY NEED THEM, meaning having control over your OWN feelings. U can feel happy even when u are sad, feel like ur on top of the world even after a break-up and all that. Sounds like a load of bull, I know, but I'm not interested in the specifics, I just wanna know how I can gain control over my emotions, though... it does sound pretty cool to be able to feel what I want whenever I want to. xDD
Ok. Initially I thought 'that's lying to myself, right?' like self hypnotizing myself to believe that I am happy when I'm sad. But not really. Its all about understanding what ur emotions are really about. Finding out the reason why u CANT be happy, when ur sad. Why u CANT just let go of something and move on. Its a complicated process, but the key is to understand how u feel. And this is the part where many people, especially myself, fail to do all the time. Theoretically, yes, I know its what I should do, but its easier said than done right?
So when I think about it, why not result to this, cuz I'm always interested in stuff like this. xDD The 8 gates begin with the gate of emptiness or void, or ground zero. U can basically call them anything u want to, as long as the idea behind them remains. It allows us to be oblivious to everything that happens around us. Now, most of the time I, even many others,cannot , or have never realized it before, but when we meditate, when we sit down, relax, take a breather after a fight, or when we sit down and think things thru, the 1st gate opens. Some people are going 'bulls***' now but I dun giva ***... xDD Whats important here, is that knowing that there is indeed a gate like this, actually allows us to always remember to go back to the beginning, ground zero, or the point before everything happened, and reflect on the wrong moves u've made. It allows u to think and contemplate about the things to do, the thing that should not have been done, and then, u get answers, faster than anything else. (Zero theory)
The second gate to the seventh gate are not really important to me, because its all gradual stages of understanding the way things work, and eventually achieving things ONE STEP AT A TIME. But what is important, and like what a gud fren o' mine once told me, the world renown motivator, Tony Robbins used a similar method to encourage people to improve themselves. He says 'a penny a day is much easier than trying to aim higher and finding impossible ways to achieve something big in life' He tot me that it was easier to achieve goals step by step, little by little, because it is much easier and requires less effort, and the effects are amazing, cuz u dun realize how much u've achieved after that.
The 2nd to the 7th gate is just to label them according to ur own needs. For example, u can distinguish between what is gate 2 and gate 3 for urself. If I say gate 2 makes me happy, then i need to figure out what is there in gate 3 that can make me happier? If gate 3 makes me a better man, then how do i go on until i reach and become the perfect man, all the way up to gate 7?
So then, I come to gate 8, or the heaven's gate. It starting to sound like a bad naruto rip-off with guy-sensei and all that but hey,I got most of the inspiration from there. xDD The 8th gate is basically the gate which, I would, right now, in my current condition, call it impossible. because gate 8, is the grand finale. It is the final destination. It is the last gate, when u finally and truly understand all of the 7 gates, and most importantly, have the mental ability to access ANY ONE of those gates at your own WILL. That's just kick-ass cool. Its like me going from 50sph to 180sph! (smiles per hour) xDD just kidding. Its like me going from being really sad to bouncing back and be able to let go and get on with life, in a shorter time than most people. What I learned is that if I can have the ability to take my sadness or emotional distresses and then put them away for a while, do things that are more important, and then get back to it later, it will be really swell. Also, I would love to be able to take less damage from emotional distress and that sort of thing, like feeling less pain, because I finally UNDERSTAND what is going on.
So, conclusion is this. I cant do this the normal way, because its boring. So I jumbled up all these really awesome (to me) methods and came up with my own 8-gate theory to suppress my negative feelings and express the good ones. Also to understand my own feelings, my weaknesses, and then gradually be able to grow confident about who I really am and finally portray my strengths at all times.
Void Gate --->Gate 2 ---> Gate 3 --->Gate 4---> Gate 5 --->Gate 6 --->Gate 7 ---> Heaven's Gate
Sounds really funny, but I think we shud learn things in interesting ways, so why not giv it a try. xDD I just hav to label these gates according to what I want them to be, and everytime I feel sad or down all I gotta do is think back, and remember how small the steps were to move from one gate to another and gradually, yet slowly and at a comfortable pace reach the gate that I want to,which the process I hope will be much faster with more practice. ^^
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