The most common difference between mindfulness within stillness and mindfulness in activity.....is one of objectivity.
Mindfulness dependent on stillness, describes an attachment to one's mentality.
Mindfulness when independent from such attachments describes objectivity.
In some Zen traditions, a teacher might suggest that you do kinhin until the objectivity in stillness is indistinguishable from that which you experience in movement.
Of course, since I've just tested positive for Covid 19 and have a fever, who knows what gibberish I'm currently penning here?
I worked in healthcare for years. My wife worked in healthcare her entire career until retiring a few weeks ago. In the critical care fields, ICU, CCU, Neurotrauma, etc it is an overwhelmingly widely held perspective among the caregivers that euthanasia should be much, much more widely available. These are people who see the prolonged suffering firsthand, and care for the patients and their families.
Every human life will end. Every single one. Euthanasia has no impact on that inevitable outcome; instead it compassionately establishes the how and when.
Cruelly and deliberately prolonging agony, pain, and suffering — How can we justify it?
@Linc said:
... I'm focused on making some new software that rethinks how moderation works and will reach out to folks when it's time.
Well that's me looking forward to a lucrative redundancy package... 😁
What do people think about the normalization of euthanasia?
Life necessitates the consumption of other life to exist.
For this Buddhist, the 1st precept is not an ideal that offers an escape from that truth.
It is a teaching that asks a practitioner to minimize the suffering caused by that necessity whenever possible. Otherwise, I'd be a Jain.
A practice that is having to address the question of euthanasia need only ask whether an individual considering euthanasia for themselves will result in more or less suffering for all concerned.
The answer is probably different for each case. Trying to reduce it to a black-and-white pronouncement of righteousness for everyone seems the more obvious breakage of the 1st precept that you expressed so much concern about.
It is not just the people of the "West" who seek to justify whatever they want.
OP, I'm going to express a radical position on karma here, and point out, that in his earliest discourses, the Buddha cautioned against projecting karma to future lifetimes (and one would assume correspondingly--from past lifetimes to the present), and simply focus on the current lifetime. He seemed to be saying, that past and future karmas "aren't relevant" to his path, in the same way he told his followers, that whether or not there is a supreme deity or deities was not a relevant matter.
Some scholars feel that the multi-lifetime karma concept seeped into the texts from an outside influence, namely--Hinduism. Karma isn't a trap, or something to bludgeon people with if they were born into adverse circumstances. It's simply the law of cause and effect applied to the current lifetime; be careful how you treat others, so you won't have to worry about your misdeeds or harsh speech bouncing back to you, basically is the idea.
And by the way, there is a therapy technique for trauma that doesn't involve talking about the incident/s. It's a miracle treatment that heals the mind by working with eye movements, helping the brain to reprocess past painful experiences. It's called EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. After treatment, you'll still have the memories, but they'll no longer be painful or debilitating. You'll be emotionally neutral and calm in relation to them.
Another option that doesn't involve talking is a certain type of acupuncture that works with psychological states. It can be a little challenging to find a good practitioner though; the acupuncture field in the US (I don't know where you're located) is dominated by a system from China, which they call "Traditional Chinese Acupuncture" (TCM), when in fact, Mao purged the traditional techniques that really work. You'd need to find someone who practiced 5 Element acupuncture, sometimes called "classical" acupuncture, from Taiwan or Hong Kong, and tell the practitioner that you need a special set of modalities called "Ghost Point" acupuncture for a childhood history of trauma. No talk, just treatment, which in your case would require a long course. You could Google "Ghost Point Acupuncture" + your locale. Also "7 Dragons" acupuncture.
I've received these types of treatments, both EMDR and Ghost Point acupuncture, on various occasions, and can vouch for their effectiveness. If you have questions you'd like to ask privately, you may message me.
Relief can be achieved, OP. Healing CAN happen! There is hope. Hugs, and best wishes.
1. Hope for happiness
2. Fear of suffering
3. Hope for fame
4. Fear of insignificance
5. Hope for praise
6. Fear of blame
7. Hope for gain
8. Fear of loss
Taken together, these preoccupations represent attachment and aversion.
Respect that is limited to holy people, just points out how little respect we have for everyone else.
As long as teachers allow students to simply swap gross attachments for more refined versions of the same, suffering for both teachers & students, will be inevitable.
Hello everyone!
I'm Flavia and I was introduced to Buddhism and the concept of karma a little while ago, so I'm trying to reconcile this idea with my life experience.
I had a particularly violent upbringing and, according to the laws of karma, the terrifying childhood I experienced, full of violence, verbal abuse, and the extreme rejection and neglect that came from my mother was deserved because it was my karma. I grew up to be a self-destructive, self-hating individual who strongly believes that no good thing can come out of me... I grew up extremely depressed and suffered from an array of mental health issues that I didn't even know I had. However, since that's my karma, I believe I should have a better mindset, stop "acting out" and accept that. But practically, that makes me feel even more dreadful... How can one receive so much suffering to the point you wish suffering on yourself and move on? I don't want to do anything... It took me days to finally write this. I don't want to talk to anyone, I just isolate and try to make ends meet. It's interfering with my ability to provide for myself, my health, everything. I've been listening to some mantras and all, but that's not helping me so much. I really don't want to do all this anymore because I'm super tired.
Anyway, I don't want to make this long, I just would like to ask your advice on how I can accept my karma and have a better attitude about it.
Thanks to anyone who has the patience to read it and respond to it. I really appreciate it.