Best Of
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
The love we talk about is not the "Love You" nor the "Love Me" one way love.
It is the "Love All" love. It is the love that embraces self and others and all else.
It says, "I love and appreciate my life; I love and appreciate your life; I love and appreciate all life; equally.
This is the all embracing love, compassion and mercy. Such love does not always sound to the ears as live or compassion or mercy.
When a child does something he or she was told not to do and, say a vase is broken, if the parent responds with anger, "You broke my vase, now you will be punished.", though the parent may love the child, those words of anger are not coming from love.
Now, under the same scenario, the parent is upset, but chooses to not act out in anger, but, instead approaches the child and says, "You were told to be careful, yet you were recless. As a result, the vase is broken. It can not be unbroken. Of course You should be more careful. You will clean it up. But what else have we learned that we many not break more vases?"
In the first, the child learns to not upset ther parent, that is it.
In the second, while not a necessarily perfect example, the child is given the tools to evaluate the action, the causuality, and reflect to gain from the experience an understanding beyond , "You break, I punish". It is a reflection of the "Love All".
To love others without love of self is of slander self.
To love self without love of others is slander others.
Neither is good or healthy.
To live self with a love that enables love of others, the "Love All" is the Middle Way.
It is not the way of the selfish or the coward. It is the way of the truely brave.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Good news
It is a misunderstanding that the monks are "begging monks". Yes, they carry "begging bowls".
They are not truly begging. They are, uner the provisions of the Thervadic tradition, accepting offerings and thus allowing the individual to gain good fortune through the cause of supporting Buddha through the act offerings to monks who are the living representatives of the Buddha.
Granted, this is a simplified presentation. The Monks are also the teachers of Buddhist text, of course.
While I practice a different school of Buddhism, I respect these monks and support their message.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Buddhist Economics
Well, here are a few things I do to support the planet…
- I don’t own a car (public transport is pretty good here)
- I don’t have kids (too many people on the planet already)
- I don’t eat meat (but I do eat fish and eggs and cheese)
- I try to buy durable things (Apple computers, a new bed built to last 30 years, no cheap clothing)
- I buy only what I need (my iPhone lasts six years for instance)
- I try to buy organic vegetables and fruit
- I stay away from mainstream social media (Facebook, TikTok, X, Instagram)
- I drink very little alcohol (the occasional Trappist beer)
- I separate my garbage (plastic, cardboard, compostable and remainder)
- I recycle my drinks containers (glass, plastic, cans)
- I give stuff I don’t need to the recycling shops (circular economy)
- I donate to Wikipedia regularly
And Kotishka, iPads stay good to use quite a long time, I’m still using an iPad from 2019 regularly, and it still gets another year of regular security updates. I’ve found even without security updates Apple devices have very few problems beyond the usual end-of-life.
Jeroen
Re: Good news
I'm upright, breathing, and above ground. Having had a death of a loved one, and two other deaths of friends' husbands - in the space of 5 months - that is something I am astoundingly grateful for.
Well, it's good news to me, anyway! 😁
federica
Re: Good news
I haven't been here in ages. But my good news is I FINALLY formally took my Refuge Vows last month and have found a permanent home in a Sangha close by.
Nerida
Re: Ploggers of the world...unite!
The plogging walks have returned....my new enemies...the cans...It is a great exercise to practice both patient, equanimity and loving-kindness because I still get thoughts of: "f*cking human beings, dirty pieces of ..." and then I return to compassion and also tell myself to not be so quick to judge others. Finally, one must realise that harbouring and generating negative thoughts is useless. Better just pick up the trash and keep walking.
This was today's view.
Kotishka