Best Of
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Well I arrived back in Aotearoa Saturday evening after spending just over a month overseas visiting my children and siblings in the UK and Europe. Going over I had a 12 hour stopover in Beijing (I got to stay in a transit hotel not far from the airport). On my way home I spent three and half days in Beijing. I booked into a traditional Chinese hotel in the city centre (well one of the centres) for three nights.
I visited Tiananmen Square and walked (in part) the Great Wall of China plus rode on a bullet train....I can remove them from my bucket list...
The videos are short.
It was daylight when I left my hotel to walk to Tiananmen Square which was not far. Little did I know that there would be big queues and security checks along the way.
The Great Wall and the surrounding scenery was/is amazing, but it was very steep in parts and quite hard going in 32 C with little shade.
On the bullet train to the Great Wall.
Gondola ride up to the Great Wall
The walk begins...
How steep the Great Wall is in parts
Very sore feet, aching legs and perspiring like a water fountain ...On the home stretch (Thank Buddha for that 
)
When making my way back to the train station I stopped to watch this Shadow Carving Craftsman At The Great Wall : He Works Using Mongolian Marble.
Shoshin1
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
Nothing is wrong BUT
that doesn't make everything right.
In other words we do the best we know how AND learn from those that are doing wells or wishing well on all.
To put it another way... Nope will leave that for others...
lobster
Re: Good and Bad People
@Lionduck said:
I pose a question here:
Which is worse:
The commission of acts of evil (bad actions)
(or)
Seeing the bad/evil/negative actions (knowing such actions are bad)
and doing nothing.A famous person said that true evil not someone doing something evil, but (aware of the evil) good people doing nothing.
Someone also said, "The easy path is to do nothing: The hard paths is to take action."
My issue is the lack of conviction and finality with any act or outcome. Is it good, bad, or who knows? Have I identified the problem and found a good solution that will make things better or is my intention misaligned with reality. By preventing some harm or doing some good am I creating the conditions for something worse, like preventing small fires or brush clearing leading to catastrophic forest fires.
I feel like a focus on the good of personal growth and development doesn't run into the complexity of the world. Rather than worry about the external ethics, virtue ethics says worry about the quality of the people in the world. Am I right, wrong, or who knows? Does everyone have to be all things or is alright for the priest to focus on faith and the fireman to focus on fires?
Or what if your good or prevention of evil harms my good? I think a major problem in the world is the mountain of information people have to sort through, much of it not very good and misleading. If one of the tactics you use in fighting evil is hyperbole or mischaracterization (intentional or not) does that not harm the good I care about?
person
Re: What books are you reading?
I was just following The Book Club on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and it seems such an archetypal book of childhood that I’m amazed I haven’t read it. It’s been called a foundational classic of English reading… I think I’m going to have to get a copy, preferably a nicely bound illustrated edition.
Jeroen
Re: Being a light unto yourself
Listened to this talk from Joseph Goldstein today. In it he talks about the ongoing work that needs to be done even after a degree of awakening. That a stumbling block that some advanced practitioners encounter is believing that their awakening experience means they're done and therefore the insights they may have are pure and coming from that source of awakening, when in fact there are still plenty of defilements coloring things.
person
Let Them
I just became aware of an idea/book that has been the new trend/very popular idea by Mel Robbins. #1 bestseller everywhere, Oprah book, etc.
Its not a new idea, its kind of about being non judgmental, non controlling and personally agentic, but the simple framing in the context of our agitated world seems to have struck a chord with people.
My take is "Let Them" means accept people and situations for what they are. Stop seeking to control the world. Then there is the second half of the 4 word phrase, "Let Me". Turn your focus from what the world is doing into how you can respond. So even things that are universally agreed to be wrong like sexual harassment at work. Let Them means you don't spend your energy wishing the other person would be different, Let Me puts the energy into what action you can take, confront the harasser, go to HR, leave the job, etc.
person
Re: Being a light unto yourself
Ah ha the difference between childish and 'like a child'
My feeling is this limited processing continues ad infinitum 
...but then what do I know...
lobster
Being a light unto yourself
I have come to the realisation that the Buddha was right to tell us to be a light unto ourselves. There is only so much you can learn from others, and instead of just finding writings that you agree with it is better to develop your own understanding. This requires that you get to know yourself, and understand your place in the world, and comprehend what you think is significant.
In a way, by reading and memorising the sayings of the Buddha you end up adding a layer of conditioning to all those that were there before, and by speaking from that knowledge it is often the Buddha who speaks. Your own voice, drawing on your own understanding, can get lost in the endless thoughts of other people. This happens when you speak on topics you have only read or heard about, but that are not your lived experience.
Getting to know your own beliefs (as opposed to other people’s beliefs) is an important step.
Jeroen