Best Of
Re: Is it better to believe in one life or in many?
No lectures, missives, or sermons. Just an observation:
Belief in One Life or Many Lives is, I think, of less importance than how we are living THIS life. Atheists, the "One and Done" faction, have often displayed strong ethical and moral fortitude than supposed devout religionists, particularly the Monotheists, and especially the self proclaimed (in the US) Christians of the Nationalist and militant sects.
Rather, the challenge is to honor life. The challenge is to treasure ,the gift, the happenstance we know as life. To honor it in ourselves and in others, be they family, friends, neighbors, strangers, even perceived enemies.
The Bodhissatva, who celebrates life and to others sincerely expresses, "Your pain is my pain, your joy is my joy.", is a model we can all emulate.
This regardless of "One life recurring", "Multiple Lives", or "One and Done".
Pece to all
Lionduck
Re: Being a light unto yourself
“The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of the word is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.”
― Chuang Tzu
Jeffrey
Re: peace
Peace is not the absence of war
Peace is not the absence of conflict.
Peace is more
Peace is love
Peace is gratitude
Peace is endurance
Peace is strength without coercion
Peace is acceptance
Peace is a sunny day, even midst a storm
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Being a light unto yourself
I came across an interesting quote from Herman Hesse’s book Siddhartha, in which a wanderer of that name meets Gautama the Buddha and tells him that he can’t follow him, because he himself had also only found the enlightenment without following anyone. The only teaching Siddhartha would take from the Buddha is ‘to be a light unto yourself.’
There are other teachers who have made similar points, such as Jiddu Krishnamurti’s famous speech that ‘truth is a pathless land.’ Or Osho’s assertion that there have been many millions of Buddhists, but have they created one more new Buddha?
Ultimately these various teachers can place your feet upon the path, but then you have to let go of their helping hands and make your own way forward using what they taught.
Jeroen
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
@Lionduck said:
Our dog is in the final phase of her shedding. Anyone with a super shedder (looking at you, Husky people), know. Every day, we can follow our dog's trail, not from paw prints, but from her trail of hair. FIR COATS ANYONE?
Time to take up hair dog spinning for clothe making?
I think that is a thing...can be used as mulch or soil conditioner...
Yep it is a cottage industry in the UK (also available for cats...)
https://www.devinespinning.co.uk/
lobster
Re: Good news
Where teachers encourage children to talk to foreigners to practice English?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g-IREtnLSSY
lobster
Re: Being a light unto yourself
The old adage: "If you would know others, first you must know yourself."
Though I am no scholar, no "Great Teacher", I share this minuscule grain, this seed which I carry and occasionally (often?) mislay:
One can not change the world of one does not change him/her self. We have our formal teachers (master, mentors...). They guide us, give us knowledge, perhaps direction. Then there are the other teachers, the other mentors. These mentors surround us every day. Who are they? They are friends, bosses, fellow workers, employees, neighbors, strangers, even enemies...the people we encounters in the course of the day or evening.
The gaze, the smile, the frown, the joy, the tears, the interest, the indifference....all are lessons, subtle and blatant actions and words. All are lessons..all are teachers.
If we wishes to grow, to change, our eyes, our hearts must be open to the lessons. To understand the lesson is to grow the heart (light). To misunderstand or not accept the lesson is to grow the dark within.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: The AI tsunami
It seems Elon Musk’s SpaceX IPO has not gone the way he wanted it to… after peaking at 225 dollars per share, the price is now down to 108 dollars, and it may have further to fall.
That means that xAI, Musks AI company, has near-zero value in the package that is a SpaceX share. Which may have something to do with the fact that federal employees, despite having a license te use Grok (xAI’s flagship LLM Ai), are turning to ChatGPT and Claude instead.
Jeroen