Best Of
Re: “502” error on this site
I got a little more aggressive with banning bots this morning after some instability the last few hours.
Linc
Re: Blessings
Today, under the blessing and protection
Of your compassionate Buddha light,
I pray to you to grant me the courage
To face all challenges on this day;
I pray to you to grant me the patience
To accept all setbacks on this day;
I pray to you to grant me the strength
To carry out all work on this day;
I pray to you to grant me the wisdom
To be grateful for all causes and conditions on this day.
lobster
Re: “502” error on this site
@Kotishka said:
How can we protect ourselves? You say money? Maybe we can run a small GoFundme to save the forum and take the necessary measures?
It depends on the hosting provider. We're on a cost-capped plan with DigitalOcean & have volunteers to fight against the issue, so we're relatively safe for now. I appreciate the consideration. It pays to have a sister site full of tech nerds. 
I'm just saying if the bots really came for us hard... I am versed in the dark arts and have not yet begun to fight. 😈
Linc
Re: Exercise
My epic walks continue. Today I was chanting Namu Amida Butsu / Namo Amida Bu. I have been studying Pure Land Buddhism and, while I find it a bit too "Jesus, son of God, forgive me I have sinned", it does not disturb my zazen practice. Today it was a literal washing machine 
After 10km walk, a kefir (unsweetened plain yoghurt) and 85% chocolate feels EXTRA delicious.
Kotishka
Re: Exercise
My frugal keep fit routine:
- Wake up (check I am not dead or in hospital/ambulance etc)
- Hydrate, meditate AND do seated yoga and martial arts from a seated position (Lotus Kung Fu/Qi ong)
Walk (several steps) to computer and save the world by venting on Mastodon Social Media
https://fedi.garden/More walking down stairs to have leisurely but healthy breakfast
- Potter in the garden or clear path around it (sit down to learn from insects and birds about high energy exercise)
- Have a nap after breakfast and dream about high energy workouts...
It's a start... 
lobster
Re: The importance of mudra in zazen
Thanks @how that improves my understanding of what Shikantaza is all about, much appreciated 🙏
Jeroen
Re: The importance of mudra in zazen
The difficulty in switching up different mudras in Shikantaza, to bring about different experiences of meditation, is that such **deliberateness **detracts from the underpinning foundation of that practice. You could still call it meditation, just not Shikantaza.
It is not that different mudras don’t affect different flavors of meditation, it's that our choosing of one over another will often in later hindsight, be seen to have been more about self indulgence than of selflessness.
This is where a teacher who is familiar with your particular life koan might give some objective guidance on mudra choices that amount to skillful means for you. In that teachers absence, not switching up your mudras at this time will at least offer an ego during formal meditation, less avenues of potential meditative distraction.
how
Re: The "ill fitting axle" all the way down
Thus have I heard and from what I gather, the whole idea of Dharma practice is for the practitioner to see through the veils of deception conjured up by a conditioned mind, a mind that defaults to the negative outcome when confronted with dukkha events.
And those negative outcomes more often than not involve the misleading concept of permanence, perceiving some situations as unchangeable, when the ultimate teaching is that nothing is permanent, everything is flux.
Pleasant things are dukkha just as much as what one perceives as negative things, because the same conditioned mind grasps at pleasure as if it could last.
There is no permanent entity doing the thinking, feeling, or living, and the more there is a realisation of this, an experiential understanding, the looser the attachment to things becomes, which will eventually lead to going with the flow of change and not against it.
None of this should stop the practitioner from showing empathy and putting this empathy into action, aka compassion, when confronted with a situation where other sentient beings are suffering injustice.
Shoshin1