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Re: Manifesting: real or hokum?
Manifest, I think, is used as bringing forth or onto perceived reality that which is already within. To reach beyond the veil, beneath the the pool of darkness to bring forth or to "MANIFEST" the true self - the selfless self, the self which is not the self and the not self which is the self as one in the same.
In the Western culture in particular, we are brought up aware that we are separate, unique, apart. Yes, we have family, community bindings, but still unique.
We are each unique, true. But we are also we are interconnected, we are a part of this world, this universe and is within each and all of us. We have separate, individual conciseness, yet we share consciousness.
This manifesting is not through the conscious mind as we know or perceive it, but through the emergence of the Greater Mind, so to speak. Call it what you will.
It is what we may call the bringing forth, the Emergence (Manifestation) of the Buddha state, the awakening, the "Emerging from the fog into the bright sunlight."
That is, naturally, merely my way of putting it, incomplete as it is, but, here we are.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Compassion in a dark world
The realm or worlds are separated for purpose of description.
They are not, in reality separate domains.
They are conditions within which one passes often from moment to moment.
All are within each all the others.
One in the Deva Realm has not divested of the other realms, but the dominant realm remains the Deva Realm.
One who is currently within the Animal Realm may pass, in an instant, into the Human Realm or even the Deva Realm while still within the Animal Realm.
An example drawn from a movie quote (I do not remember the movie title):
While in prison, place considered to the physical manifestation of either the Hell Realm or the Animal Realm, the main character states, "...I have never been freer than I am now.", showing himself to be in the Human or even the Deva Realm while within what can be considered a Hell Realm.
Again, Whether described as The Ten Worlds or as The Six Realms, these worlds or realms are not separate worlds or realms, but life conditions, possessed by each and all of us. And, each world or realm is contains within it all the other life conditions (worlds or realms) which may/will arise depending upon internal and external circumstances.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Compassion in a dark world
HOW CAN I BE HAPPY WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG IN THE WORLD?
A wonderful answer by a Buddhist monk:
A man once asked an old Buddhist monk:
“How can I allow myself to feel peace or happiness when the world is full of suffering, injustice, pain, and chaos?”
The monk looked at him quietly and asked:
“If your house was dark, would you refuse to light a candle simply because the whole world is not yet bright?”
The man fell silent.
“The suffering of the world is real,” the monk continued. “But if you destroy your own peace completely, you may lose the clarity and strength needed to help anyone.”
“But isn’t being happy selfish when others are suffering?” the man asked.
The monk smiled gently.
“Caring about suffering does not require you to suffer every moment. Compassion needs a steady heart. When you are consumed by despair, it becomes harder to respond with wisdom.”
Then the monk pointed toward a nearby pond.
“When the water is disturbed, it cannot reflect clearly. But when it becomes still, everything becomes easier to see.”
He looked back at the man.
“The same can happen with the mind. A restless mind may react with fear, anger, or hopelessness. A calmer mind has more space for wisdom, compassion, and meaningful action.”
The man lowered his head.
“But the world still feels so heavy.”
“Yes,” the monk replied. “And that is why your peace matters.”
“Do not try to carry the suffering of the entire world in one heart.
Be kind where you are.
Help where you can.
Speak gently.
Protect what you can.
Reduce suffering in whatever small ways are within your reach.”
“A single candle cannot remove all the darkness in the world,” he said, “but it can still brighten the room around it.”
In Buddhism, happiness is not about ignoring suffering or pretending that everything is fine. It is about developing enough inner stability to remain compassionate without being completely consumed by the pain you witness.
You are allowed to feel joy while caring about the world. You are allowed to rest while others are struggling. And you can protect your peace not to escape responsibility, but to have the strength to meet suffering with greater wisdom and compassion.
The monk smiled one final time:
“Do not extinguish your own light because the world is dark.
Keep it burning.
Then use that light to make the small part of the world around you a little brighter.”
Jeffrey
Re: On Christa Pike
@Jeroen said:
I read up on the Wikipedia page, I didn’t know the case. First of all, I think it is somewhat absurd to now keep her in intensive care on a ventilator machine, while first they try to take her life by lethal injection.
I'm sure her doctors feel the same way. Especially knowing that another attempt to execute her is a very real possibility once her health is restored. Her entire life was tragic and although I wish for the family of her victim to find peace too, I wish more people would want to prevent such through humane ways as opposed to just take revenge with extreme cruelty.
RobinH
Re: On Christa Pike
I'm by no means an expert, but I think acceptance of what is would be the choice I would try to take. My heart aches for what's happened, and I am firmly anti capital punishment. I have been all my life since I could understand what it is.
I'm actually quite concerned for the victim's parents as they have made some disturbing (to me) comments on Christa and her current suffering.
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
I’ve started participating with a TV programme called ‘Nederland in Beweging’, it’s a short 15 minute daily show on Dutch television in which you do exercises in front of your tv, following along with the presenters. It’s a full-body set of exercises, intended to focus on condition and flexibility and coordination.
It starts with a warming up, continues with sections ‘good for your heart’, ‘good for your legs’ and ‘good for your torso’, and then a cooling down. It isn't really a replacement for cardio training or strength training, but as a short programme for the whole body it is very good.
It is very accessible, I do it together with my mother, who is 77 and suffers from deafness and poor balance, so she does a lot of the exercises only halfway. It is aimed more at my age, which is 54, where people are still flexible and capable but might have a few beginning problems.
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
I believe that God is on Earth, in every living being. What we call the "divine" is nothing more than the energy of awakening, peace, understanding, and love, which we find not only in every human being, but also in all species on Earth.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
Jeffrey
Re: What my practice is now...
It is true that practice keeps evolving. Yours is a beautiful illustration of that, thank you @johnathan for telling your story.
Jeroen
Re: The Manosphere and it’s anti-women sentiments
@RobinH Your comment actually reminded me of something that happened to me very recently.
My wife and I took her daughter to Disney World for a week. The entire trip was built around her, which was completely appropriate and something I was genuinely fine with going into it. But over the course of the week I found myself getting upset far more often than made any sense given what was actually happening.
I started feeling ignored, unimportant, and at times even unloved.
The strange part was that I knew those feelings weren't true. I wasn't sitting there thinking, "My wife doesn't love me." I could actually see what was happening in my own mind while it was happening. I could recognize that old attachment wounds were being triggered, that I was interpreting things through those old wounds, and that the story my mind was constructing wasn't supported by what was actually happening.
And yet knowing that didn't make the feelings go away.
I could see the pattern and still got caught in it.
That experience really brought something home to me about the difference between insight and actually being free of a pattern. Sometimes we can intellectually understand exactly what we're doing and still be completely caught in the emotional machinery of it.
And I wonder if something similar is happening in what you're describing about feeling useless or fearing that your wife might eventually leave you.
You actually said something really important yourself: you know those fears are baseless, and you know your wife supports you. That's the insight. But the fact that you know it doesn't necessarily mean the fear won't still arise.
I've spent roughly 80% of my adult life as the primary breadwinner. Now my wife makes about three times what I make. So I absolutely understand the ego hit of no longer occupying that role.
But I've had to learn that the feeling of being less important isn't evidence that I am less important.
That's a really important distinction.
And I think this is where Buddhism has become useful to me. The practice isn't necessarily about arguing with the feeling until it disappears. Sometimes the mind already knows the argument and the feeling keeps coming anyway. The practice becomes learning to sit with what is actually happening without feeding the story attached to it.
At Disney, I eventually started using the Great Compassion Mantra while walking. I only knew the first ten lines at the time, so I would repeat those ten lines as I walked. It didn't "prove" to me that my feelings were irrational. I already knew that. What it gave me was something to hold onto while the mind was spinning, until the rumination eventually wore itself out.
That experience actually changed how I understand compassion too. I usually think of compassion as something directed toward another person's suffering. But that week it became compassion toward the part of myself that was hurting, even when the story that part of me was telling wasn't true.
So when you say that you keep coming back to Buddhism because of these feelings, I don't necessarily see that as evidence that something is wrong with you.
Maybe that's exactly what practice is for.
Not to convince yourself that you shouldn't feel what you feel, but to learn how to experience those feelings without automatically believing them.
And maybe your wife making more money than you doesn't need to be solved at all.
Maybe the deeper work is learning that being loved, being useful, and being valuable aren't things that can be measured by your income.
You don't have to become the person who earns the most money in order to become the person you want to be.
And honestly, from what you've written, it sounds like you already care deeply about being useful to her and to other people. That matters. Your art matters. Your writing matters. The way you show up for people matters.
A paycheck is only one measurement of contribution, and probably not even the most interesting one.
I think that's one of the things I'm slowly learning myself: sometimes the thing that needs to change isn't the situation. It's the story the "I" has attached to the situation.
