Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Best Of

Re: What documentary are you watching?

@Shoshin1 said:
For 'real' chocolate lovers

I buy Whittaker's dark chocolate 72% cocoa

I used to buy Lindt "Flor de Sal" which was 47% cacao and salt. After this, I'm sticking to Torras 100% cacao. I checked the ingredients and only pure cacao paste and no dodgey child-exploitation (for now..) ... I think it is important to share these videos and alternatives (your brand is not available where I live but I will keep an eye open for it) as a bit of Buddhist economics is a great way to continue and extend our practice to our day to day lives. Well, for those inclined in the "socially-engaged" aspect of Buddhism.

Kotishka

Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?

@Kotishka said:
. Meanwhile I practice shikantaza...that being.... I face the wall, eyes slightly open, straight back, and bam: let it start baby!

Hey Kotishka
Of course, one could always consider turning around and facing the other half of existence.
Bad zen joke!

A mind seeking a teacher or a better explanation of a practice, is not in itself a sign of a lost pilgrim. If you have a practice that allows an objective observation of the incoming data feeds of all your sense gates and can allow them a collegial co-existence with each other, equanimity and suffering's reductions will inevitably follow.

If you ever again think you're lacking because of the absence of a teacher, consider that whatever makes you reluctant to practice in any moment is actually your real teacher.
Forget about your strengths in meditation; they will take care of themselves.
Like the spokes of the 8 fold path where the entire wheel is only as strong as the weakest spoke, your meditative progression can simply be buttressed by how you practice wherever you are least inclined to meditate. Here, the right teaching for you might exist where ever its hardest for you to meditate.
Cheers
H.