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What if I am mad?

Dear friends of the anxious and depressed,

My sister suffers with these two, plus paranoid delusions. Maybe in the future she will be well enough to meditate again. Thought this might be helpful. It deals with how anxiety and depression can be helped by cushion therapy.
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/science-addiction/2014/10/mindfulness-and-meditation-two-steps-toward-better-health/

In some dharma everyone in ignorance is seen as part of a degree of being crazy, which with many Tantrists seems to be the norm. Mentioning no names or celebrity dharma crazies . . .
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha

Personally the outside the norm consciousness is not something I find skilfull, I am kinda crazy that way . . .

:crazy: .

bookwormBuddhadragonHamsakammoAllbuddhaBound

Comments

  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    What if you are mad? What if we all are?
    Sometimes I look back at all the different lives that I have lived in just one lifetime, the different persons I have been, the glory and the hell of our reality, and the madness of it all brings the concept of sanity into question.
    Who can claim to be altogether sane "up there" when we strive after nirvana's carrot with our feet plunged in samsara's mud?

    lobsterHamsakammo
  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    Ha! And what blame or responsibility can be found in the desire for the carrot? It's like we are 'charged' to orient toward Nirvana's Carrot. Gosh that is starting to sound like a concept :buck: Nirvana's Carrot. Nirvana's Carrot . . .

    Buddhadragon
  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    @Lobster and regarding the first link; I've utilized, not as often as I could, the "ACT" technique. I highly recommend it for it's inarguable practicality. It is about as non-woo woo as it gets. No faith required, ifn's you lack it or pay no attention to things like 'faith'. I recommend the books written about ACT. Being Buddhist (or whatever we are) practitioners, the parallels are almost perfect. It's just like visiting a next door neighbor. The tools are excellent and concrete, and could easily benefit a perfectly UNdepressed person as well.

    lobster
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited October 2014

    What if I am mad?

    You don't have to be mad to post here (on the forum that is)...but if you are it helps . :D ..

    Mental Awareness Disorder

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited October 2014

    _There was once a king who was told by his court soothsayer that a strong poison was about to be introduced into the kingdom's drinking water. Armed with this intelligence the king prepared himself for this calamity by using a different water soure. Sure enough the poison did manifest in the kingdom's water and all the king's subjects drank it and went crazy.

    >

    Now as time passed these subjects, each one crazy, began to suspect that it was the king who had gone crazy because he didn't behave like everyone one else. He was out of step, out of the (new) normal.

    >

    As his subject's confidence continued to deteriorate the king finally decided there was only one thing to do to stay in power. He drank the poisoned water too...and they all lived crazily ever after in bizarro land._

    >

    @Lobster, don't worry. Count me in.

  • What is the defintion for mad?

    Yes, maybe we all are mad, with craving, defilments etc...but what is the opposite off mad? Craving for wholesome things instead? I dont know, we are just here, and we can just try to do the best out of it...mad or not.

  • Thanks guys.

    what is the opposite off mad?

    Good question.

    I feel it is about balance in the Middle Way. We might talk about a practice induced tendency towards clarity, wholesome and helpful non suffering mind states.

    It is different for all of us.

    For example I feel it is quite skillfull to act the loon in La-la land that @federica‌ mentions, without drinking the kool-aid . . .
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid

    Many aspects of Buddhism seem crazy. For example, people report how difficult sitting still and doing nothing is. The non Buddhist norms wonder why bother . . .

    In the Buddhist tradititions we have practices such as the Tendai mummification or marathon monks that are . . . how can I put this politely . . . a little extreme . . .

    http://www.japanese-buddhism.com/buddhist-selfmummification.html
    http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni41a2.htm

  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

    When you get in that condition, you've meditated for too long. Those blood clots can be murder!

    ZenshinBuddhadragonlobsterTosh
  • What if I am mad?

    Was it ever in doubt?

    lobster
  • I feel that right speech also involves being able to distinguish what would cause good or bad outcomes towards oneself and others, and if that IS the case then that makes a lot of people wrong, or in some cases can be considered "mad".

    lobster
  • Sometimes I look back at all the different lives that I have lived in just one lifetime, the different persons I have been, the glory and the hell of our reality, and the madness of it all brings the concept of sanity into question.

    That makes sense. In so many ways we are a monkey mind of potential labels and affiliations. Child, parent, partner, practitioner, Buddhist, atheist and so on. My sense of Buddha Nature is independent of this inner crowd.

    Perhaps this inner schizoid is not dependent on the emotional content of many other internal beings? :buck: .

  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran

    What if I am mad?

    I possibly could be. I've given up caring about it. I'm focusing on living ;) ...

    lobsterBuddhadragon
  • @dhammachick said:
    I'm focusing on living ;) ...

    Good plan. I am totally discombobulated by dharma craziness. I love it because it is so beyond sense.

    . . . however skilfulness is not about encouraging mad monks or crazy monk-ees. We may have to find a middle way whilst in extreme situations.

    . . . for example this local potential meal, was doing its best to avoid my thoughts of fried rice and crispy mandarin duck . . .

    If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?
    John Cleese

  • ChazChaz The Remarkable Chaz Anywhere, Everywhere & Nowhere Veteran

    @lobster said:
    I am totally discombobulated by dharma craziness.

    I kinda doubt that, @lobster‌ . It's probably more like you want us to think you are, and that's ok. Some of us will and some of us won't.

    Nice picture of a duck btw.

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    @lobster
    WHAT IF I AM MAD

    Perhaps the word "MAD" could use some definition.
    I tend to use the term "MAD" for any behavior that is socially unacceptable.

    This means that it is just a social reference to describe behavior that does not align with our tribal identity or predictability
    but does not automatically refer to good/ verses bad or right verses wrong.

  • ^^^ Mad can mean angry, outside the box, delusional and so on. Sufis are sometimes called 'the madmen of God' because their devotion is crazy . . .

    In a Buddhist sense, I would suggest as in many spiritual paths, the goal is not to be outside of conventional mental health but if possible to start from it. It is clearly difficult to move towards clarity if ones mind is clouded by drugs, illness or fantasies . . . I would have thought . . .

    It is why we come off drugs but not medication.

    I would also suggest and many can attest, that regular practice has many experiential improvements in our mental and emotional being.

    ZenshinTosh
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    The lunatics are in the hall;
    The lunatics are in the hall;
    The paper holds their folded faces to the floor;
    And every day the paperboy brings more.

    -Roger Waters
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