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No fair @lobster you stole my line!
Indeed. We need to conjure as much love as we can at this point. And some luck that he doesn't get mad at Twitter and launch missiles.
Inoculation against Dukkha might seem like a salve, sometimes it can be our salvation/refuge.
There is a paradox, we become more sensitive/aware but we also need a bolster (yes it is a type of cushion and an anagram of lobster) for the madness of samsara.
I love Dr Strange.
Anything Cumberbatch, actually...❤
0
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
I can't get over the cupid bow on his upper lip... nobody has a right to have such perfect lips, especially a man!
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I'm quite looking forward to Dr Strange in the cinema, but I managed to lose my glasses a little while ago, which means if I went now it would all be a blurry mess. But hopefully Friday the new glasses arrive and I can go to the movies!
@silver said:
I think mindfulness is good enough. Probly cuz I'm no good at meditating - my mind is rebellious too much to settle in.
What does 'no good at meditating' mean? The teachings say to 'study, reflect and meditate'. Start with study, reflect on what the teachings say and then take up meditation. That's what Ringu Tulku Rinpoche said in July this year. (Interestingly, we tend to have learnt the other way round in the West - meditate, reflect and then study.)
I always heard that it's good to know how your mind is when meditating - so if you're rebellious (and you know it), then this is good, this is great! This is what's called 'good meditation' even if it's unsettling.
If 30 mins fills you with dread, go for 5 mins a day. Set up a routine, then you'll see how rebellious your mind gets. Bring it on!
Apart from the fact that meditation is a practice inherent in the Buddhist tradition, neuroscience research has proved that if you meditate for 15 minutes every day for a month, the function and structure of your brain and immune system change.
Given the benefits, fifteen minutes does not seem like too hard a goal to build up to.
The mystic arts that Dr Strange Love studies (Hollywood gangham syle) are something I have been involved in since my first yoga, dharma and celtic magick books when I could barely read ...
Now like Hermione I am a witch. I squash demons by a spell of sitting ...
This morning when meditating, I felt some kind of 'gee, there's a lot of rubbish that wanders around in my mind' experience. I just stopped believing that it was really that important.
And then I was in the queue to get a coffee and I looked at the pumpkin bread (and why wasn't it banana bread if it said on the wall it should be banana bread - couldn't they be consistent, grumble grumble grumble) and thought that the person serving was taking too long grumble grumble grumble and I saw the ego create thoughts which float and puff out - the thoughts, they were germinated by the ego and then they arose and then they evaporated.
It's true, my ego creates a lot of junk. It's like having McDonalds in my mind. I've always thought what I had in my mind was proper food but really it's just junk, not nourishing, not helpful to the overall being. It was almost like it was a judgment from the outside which was on the inside of my mind. But it was just false advertising - just like in the 1980s with the advertising campaign 'McDonalds - it's Australia's meat & potatoes'. Giving the impression that it was good but really it's just crap.
Tee Hee! A mind full of rubbish? Yep! Perfect description of ye average persona. Certainly is my mind. Not really my mind at all, it has been kidnapped by a mad monkey, wer-lobster and some sort of Buddha fetish ...
The Buddha fetish is the most relatively sane.
The mind calms, agitates, expresses, spirals in and out of dukkha etc.
Discipline. Apply it or ... (usual dharma nagging). Slowing/calming, lessening the arising garbage is our usual fist step ...
Listen to the ego for long enough and it becomes apparent that its a dead thing just repeating the same old fears. desires and emotional habits over and over again. When my mind goes silent during samatha there is still intelligence and awareness there and I realise I am not my thoughts. Hard to carry over into real life though when one is overly bombarded by sensory stimulus.
@Lonely_Traveller said:
Listen to the ego for long enough and it becomes apparent that its a dead thing just repeating the same old fears. desires and emotional habits over and over again. When my mind goes silent during samatha there is still intelligence and awareness there and I realise I am not my thoughts. Hard to carry over into real life though when one is overly bombarded by sensory stimulus.
I'm less bothered by sensory stimulus - instead, I've realised that I'm lonely. Since your name is Lonely-Traveller - how do you work with it?
@Tiddlywinds Fortunately I can be happy with my own company. The name Lonely_Traveller came about because when I used to play video games my favourite game was Fallout 3 a post apocalyptic video game where your character is known as the Lone Wanderer. I also play pen and paper role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons - my favourite pen and paper game is a Sci-Fi game called traveller so I mashed them up and became Lonely_Traveller. Personally whenever I get bored with my own company I call someone on the phone. Usually my girlfriend.
One thing I have found when working with difficult emotions is to have an attitude of metta towards them, radical non-judgemental acceptance of whatever arises at the sense doors. Thich Nhat Hahn advises to let them in, smile at them gently and cradle them in your awareness.
1
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
It has been said before, and doubtless you have heard it said, @Tiddlywinds , but we need to discern the difference between being solitary, and being lonely. I suspect you have a sufficient handle on your emotions and thoughts to damn well know the difference, thank you very much, so I want to assure you I wasn't being patronising.
Being alone and lonely sucks, big time, and I do get it.
Being alone and solitary can sometimes be a blessing. Being "Far from the Madding crowd" can sometimes seem a heavy weight to bear, but given a choice of being surrounded by a tumultuous multitude of 'fools' being on one's own may be the better option...
Loneliness is a state of mind.
You may be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.
It all boils down to how well you feel on your own, with your own person.
Moments of solitude are good to recharge one's battery and tune in to ourselves: do some soul-searching, connect with our inner self, meditate.
@federica said:
It has been said before, and doubtless you have heard it said, @Tiddlywinds , but we need to discern the difference between being solitary, and being lonely. I suspect you have a sufficient handle on your emotions and thoughts to damn well know the difference, thank you very much, so I want to assure you I wasn't being patronising.
Being alone and lonely sucks, big time, and I do get it.
Being alone and solitary can sometimes be a blessing. Being "Far from the Madding crowd" can sometimes seem a heavy weight to bear, but given a choice of being surrounded by a tumultuous multitude of 'fools' being on one's own may be the better option...
This is a great post. It's true that it's better to be lonely on your own than lonely in a crowd or relationship. I'm in a foreign country, at Easter I split up with from a long time relationship with the person/reason I came here, I find it hard to connect with the locals. Sounds a bit (actually a lot) like my childhood.
I keep wondering what loneliness is. Someone asked on another thread, 'what's anger'. I keep asking myself 'what's loneliness'. Any ideas?
@Tiddlywinds said:
I keep asking myself 'what's loneliness'. Any ideas?
In a sense one could say ...It's just another strong desire for things to be different to what they are....ie, a form of craving/thirst that can never truly be quenched (long term) ...
Unless....
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
@Tiddlywinds said:
I keep wondering what loneliness is. Someone asked on another thread, 'what's anger'. I keep asking myself 'what's loneliness'. Any ideas?
Loneliness is feeling the lack of the human companionship that you are expecting or used to. The threshold where you start to feel it varies from person to person, some people can go weeks with minimal human contact and others feel lonely within a day.
At its base level I think it's conditioning, and is connected with your social drives - do you have social ambitions, or feel you'd like to be the heart of the party, then it's more likely to bother you when these goals seem more distant.
But being in a country where you don't connect with the locals is a particular sort of lonely. It's a place where you feel a long way removed from help, or human friendship, if you don't feel accepted. I have no answers for that one, eventually I also returned to my home country.
@Tiddlywinds said:
I keep wondering what loneliness is. Someone asked on another thread, 'what's anger'. I keep asking myself 'what's loneliness'. Any ideas?
Loneliness is feeling the lack of the human companionship that you are expecting or used to. The threshold where you start to feel it varies from person to person, some people can go weeks with minimal human contact and others feel lonely within a day.
At its base level I think it's conditioning, and is connected with your social drives - do you have social ambitions, or feel you'd like to be the heart of the party, then it's more likely to bother you when these goals seem more distant.
But being in a country where you don't connect with the locals is a particular sort of lonely. It's a place where you feel a long way removed from help, or human friendship, if you don't feel accepted. I have no answers for that one, eventually I also returned to my home country.
I was just thinking, by the way, @Namada, that you make meditation sound like a chore.
Have you ever actually meditated?
You do it once, you want to keep doing it.
It is through the practice of meditation that you become more mindful.
You can't dance "Swan Lake" unless you do the previous barre job.
For me my nightly meditation before bed is perhaps the part of the day I look forward to the most of all, as I'm able to shut myself away from the rest of the world and focus on my own spiritual well being..
I remember when I first started, I meditated once and then didn't come back to it for a few years. Then I meditated and found I made the time most mornings but at some level it was a bit of a chore.
At some level it still is a bit of a chore but it's similar to doing morning exercises. By the end I'm really happy I've done it.
So for me it's not the meditation that's a chore, just the 'getting started' bit.
We meditate to change the world, starting with our inner peaceful realm. If you can't sit, stand, if you can't stand, walking meditation. If you can read this, you can be mindful. Or you can stay in zombieland. Nobody forces you (nagging/inspiration always available) ...
@Tiddlywinds said:
What does 'no good at meditating' mean?
A useful and pertinent question. Be interested in others take.
My understanding is 'bad meditation' is a start. Bad meditation is undone meditation, undisciplined, rigidly fixed and so on.
My practice is a daily discipline, sitting with a maniac (that would be me too). I consider myself 'no good at meditating' but of late have been 'no good' for a daily hourly sit. It is doing me noticeable good even though it is fixed by a timer. My meditation mind is a 'rebel without a cause'.
Personally,I meditate because I don't want to suffer anymore.I see meditation as a vehicle to get to the Other Shore (Nibbanna).I just want to get out of here (Samsara).
I find myself finding any excuse not to meditate. I don't seem to find the calmness people describe. There's a rushing torrent of thoughts, which everyone says is normal, and sometimes vivid mental images that I find entrancing, disturbing, or just plain weird. Last time I sat, I was feeling quite anxious about something (I forget what). I gently interrogated the sensation of anxiety to see what was there. Immediately the image arose of a lava field with a wind howling across it and blowing black flakes off the surface. I didn't expect anything like that from meditation! Rather than finding a calm and peaceful space, I was looking into a place of hot, dangerous energy. It's a bit off-putting to be honest. Looking back, I guess I should have just noted that image and let it go rather than following it, but it was so strong and vivid that it hooked me immediately.
@Susanna said:
I find myself finding any excuse not to meditate. I don't seem to find the calmness people describe.
hello
We all start somewhere. 'NOT-MEDITATING' meditation is a bit advanced for me. I prefer to calm my mind by sitting and practicing 'excuse me, you are not my mind' meditation ...
i meditate because it brings me peace and happiness.
with all the destruction going on in the world, and all the things i've done in my life to contribute to suffering, to just sit back and focus on the breath is very worth while for me.
it's a way for me to tame my desires. when i'm on the cushion there is a lot of freedom from worldy desires, hope and fear.
i don't want to be involved in clinging or craving. meditation is a way for me to let go, and just be.
Comments
I found this interesting link on Buddhanet as to why it is important to meditate.
One interesting point it makes, is that the pali word for meditation is "bhavana," which means "to make grow, to develop."
And then:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda06.htm
And a conscious effort to understand how the mind works?
That too, @SpinyNorman, and to observe the mind too, though it is not stated there
Because Trump is President Elect
No fair @lobster you stole my line!
Indeed. We need to conjure as much love as we can at this point. And some luck that he doesn't get mad at Twitter and launch missiles.
Beat me to it - but yes
Thanks guys. Dharma minds think alike.
Inoculation against Dukkha might seem like a salve, sometimes it can be our salvation/refuge.
There is a paradox, we become more sensitive/aware but we also need a bolster (yes it is a type of cushion and an anagram of lobster) for the madness of samsara.
Mr Cushion is here [whilst @federica is not here]
https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-meditation-cushions
OM MANI PEME SIT! (mantra for Dharma Dogs)
Oh, I am never far away, @lobster, dear...
We gets super powers over ourselves, much better than Dr trump Strange
I love Dr Strange.
Anything Cumberbatch, actually...❤
I can't get over the cupid bow on his upper lip... nobody has a right to have such perfect lips, especially a man!
I'm quite looking forward to Dr Strange in the cinema, but I managed to lose my glasses a little while ago, which means if I went now it would all be a blurry mess. But hopefully Friday the new glasses arrive and I can go to the movies!
I saw it in 3D last night. First movie I've gone to see at the theatres in ages. Definitely worth spending the money.
What does 'no good at meditating' mean? The teachings say to 'study, reflect and meditate'. Start with study, reflect on what the teachings say and then take up meditation. That's what Ringu Tulku Rinpoche said in July this year. (Interestingly, we tend to have learnt the other way round in the West - meditate, reflect and then study.)
I always heard that it's good to know how your mind is when meditating - so if you're rebellious (and you know it), then this is good, this is great! This is what's called 'good meditation' even if it's unsettling.
If 30 mins fills you with dread, go for 5 mins a day. Set up a routine, then you'll see how rebellious your mind gets. Bring it on!
Apart from the fact that meditation is a practice inherent in the Buddhist tradition, neuroscience research has proved that if you meditate for 15 minutes every day for a month, the function and structure of your brain and immune system change.
Given the benefits, fifteen minutes does not seem like too hard a goal to build up to.
The mystic arts that Dr Strange Love studies (Hollywood gangham syle) are something I have been involved in since my first yoga, dharma and celtic magick books when I could barely read ...
Now like Hermione I am a witch. I squash demons by a spell of sitting ...
Mantrayana is again part of my session. Here is one cushion magician:
http://wenshuchan-online.weebly.com/how-to-practice-chan-meditation.html
... and here is a recipe for ox tale soup
http://www.buddhanet.net/oxherd1.htm
and a bit of Mantra Magick ...
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/day/2013/08/03
Indeed!
This morning when meditating, I felt some kind of 'gee, there's a lot of rubbish that wanders around in my mind' experience. I just stopped believing that it was really that important.
And then I was in the queue to get a coffee and I looked at the pumpkin bread (and why wasn't it banana bread if it said on the wall it should be banana bread - couldn't they be consistent, grumble grumble grumble) and thought that the person serving was taking too long grumble grumble grumble and I saw the ego create thoughts which float and puff out - the thoughts, they were germinated by the ego and then they arose and then they evaporated.
It's true, my ego creates a lot of junk. It's like having McDonalds in my mind. I've always thought what I had in my mind was proper food but really it's just junk, not nourishing, not helpful to the overall being. It was almost like it was a judgment from the outside which was on the inside of my mind. But it was just false advertising - just like in the 1980s with the advertising campaign 'McDonalds - it's Australia's meat & potatoes'. Giving the impression that it was good but really it's just crap.
Tee Hee! A mind full of rubbish? Yep! Perfect description of ye average persona. Certainly is my mind. Not really my mind at all, it has been kidnapped by a mad monkey, wer-lobster and some sort of Buddha fetish ...
The Buddha fetish is the most relatively sane.
The mind calms, agitates, expresses, spirals in and out of dukkha etc.
Discipline. Apply it or ... (usual dharma nagging). Slowing/calming, lessening the arising garbage is our usual fist step ...
"Mind Is Just Society's Garbage Bin"
Listen to the ego for long enough and it becomes apparent that its a dead thing just repeating the same old fears. desires and emotional habits over and over again. When my mind goes silent during samatha there is still intelligence and awareness there and I realise I am not my thoughts. Hard to carry over into real life though when one is overly bombarded by sensory stimulus.
I'm less bothered by sensory stimulus - instead, I've realised that I'm lonely. Since your name is Lonely-Traveller - how do you work with it?
@Tiddlywinds Fortunately I can be happy with my own company. The name Lonely_Traveller came about because when I used to play video games my favourite game was Fallout 3 a post apocalyptic video game where your character is known as the Lone Wanderer. I also play pen and paper role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons - my favourite pen and paper game is a Sci-Fi game called traveller so I mashed them up and became Lonely_Traveller. Personally whenever I get bored with my own company I call someone on the phone. Usually my girlfriend.
Sorry I couldn't be any more help.
One thing I have found when working with difficult emotions is to have an attitude of metta towards them, radical non-judgemental acceptance of whatever arises at the sense doors. Thich Nhat Hahn advises to let them in, smile at them gently and cradle them in your awareness.
It has been said before, and doubtless you have heard it said, @Tiddlywinds , but we need to discern the difference between being solitary, and being lonely. I suspect you have a sufficient handle on your emotions and thoughts to damn well know the difference, thank you very much, so I want to assure you I wasn't being patronising.
Being alone and lonely sucks, big time, and I do get it.
Being alone and solitary can sometimes be a blessing. Being "Far from the Madding crowd" can sometimes seem a heavy weight to bear, but given a choice of being surrounded by a tumultuous multitude of 'fools' being on one's own may be the better option...
Loneliness is a state of mind.
You may be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.
It all boils down to how well you feel on your own, with your own person.
Moments of solitude are good to recharge one's battery and tune in to ourselves: do some soul-searching, connect with our inner self, meditate.
This is a great post. It's true that it's better to be lonely on your own than lonely in a crowd or relationship. I'm in a foreign country, at Easter I split up with from a long time relationship with the person/reason I came here, I find it hard to connect with the locals. Sounds a bit (actually a lot) like my childhood.
I keep wondering what loneliness is. Someone asked on another thread, 'what's anger'. I keep asking myself 'what's loneliness'. Any ideas?
In a sense one could say ...It's just another strong desire for things to be different to what they are....ie, a form of craving/thirst that can never truly be quenched (long term) ...
Unless....
"Wherever You Go There You Are"
Jon Kabat-Zinn "Audiobook"
Loneliness is feeling the lack of the human companionship that you are expecting or used to. The threshold where you start to feel it varies from person to person, some people can go weeks with minimal human contact and others feel lonely within a day.
At its base level I think it's conditioning, and is connected with your social drives - do you have social ambitions, or feel you'd like to be the heart of the party, then it's more likely to bother you when these goals seem more distant.
But being in a country where you don't connect with the locals is a particular sort of lonely. It's a place where you feel a long way removed from help, or human friendship, if you don't feel accepted. I have no answers for that one, eventually I also returned to my home country.
This is spot on. Thanks!
For me my nightly meditation before bed is perhaps the part of the day I look forward to the most of all, as I'm able to shut myself away from the rest of the world and focus on my own spiritual well being..
I remember when I first started, I meditated once and then didn't come back to it for a few years. Then I meditated and found I made the time most mornings but at some level it was a bit of a chore.
At some level it still is a bit of a chore but it's similar to doing morning exercises. By the end I'm really happy I've done it.
So for me it's not the meditation that's a chore, just the 'getting started' bit.
Dear Friends of the Cushion,
Chore, bore or euphoria. Had it all. Still Sit.
We meditate to change the world, starting with our inner peaceful realm. If you can't sit, stand, if you can't stand, walking meditation. If you can read this, you can be mindful. Or you can stay in zombieland. Nobody forces you (nagging/inspiration always available) ...
A useful and pertinent question. Be interested in others take.
My understanding is 'bad meditation' is a start. Bad meditation is undone meditation, undisciplined, rigidly fixed and so on.
My practice is a daily discipline, sitting with a maniac (that would be me too). I consider myself 'no good at meditating' but of late have been 'no good' for a daily hourly sit. It is doing me noticeable good even though it is fixed by a timer. My meditation mind is a 'rebel without a cause'.
Well thus have I heard....It beats sitting around and doing nothing
@Lobster, you sum it up perfectly.
I was re-reading the Dhammapada today, and on verse number 372, under "The Bikkhu," I found this interesting line:
I have intermixed Bikkhu Silacara's version with Max Müller's and Ananda Maitreya's.
Why should we meditate?
So we don't go bat shit crazy. Have you read the threads here lately?
Why do we meditate?
Personally,I meditate because I don't want to suffer anymore.I see meditation as a vehicle to get to the Other Shore (Nibbanna).I just want to get out of here (Samsara).
Samsara is truly the real Never Ending Story.
]
I find myself finding any excuse not to meditate. I don't seem to find the calmness people describe. There's a rushing torrent of thoughts, which everyone says is normal, and sometimes vivid mental images that I find entrancing, disturbing, or just plain weird. Last time I sat, I was feeling quite anxious about something (I forget what). I gently interrogated the sensation of anxiety to see what was there. Immediately the image arose of a lava field with a wind howling across it and blowing black flakes off the surface. I didn't expect anything like that from meditation! Rather than finding a calm and peaceful space, I was looking into a place of hot, dangerous energy. It's a bit off-putting to be honest. Looking back, I guess I should have just noted that image and let it go rather than following it, but it was so strong and vivid that it hooked me immediately.
hello
We all start somewhere. 'NOT-MEDITATING' meditation is a bit advanced for me. I prefer to calm my mind by sitting and practicing 'excuse me, you are not my mind' meditation ...
i meditate because it brings me peace and happiness.
with all the destruction going on in the world, and all the things i've done in my life to contribute to suffering, to just sit back and focus on the breath is very worth while for me.
it's a way for me to tame my desires. when i'm on the cushion there is a lot of freedom from worldy desires, hope and fear.
i don't want to be involved in clinging or craving. meditation is a way for me to let go, and just be.