Best Of
Re: Where is everyone?
@DairyLama said:
. You're not NB.
Didn't you see Jason's titles by his name: God, Emperor, Moderator? That pretty much means he's not only Spiritual and Temporal Ruler (like the Dalai Lama used to be), but also Honcho Moderator. We do prostrations to him as part of our practice.
Dakini
Re: Being sensible makes you dead inside
You could say they feed on each other, capitalism is a result of sensible thinking towards private property, and then sensible thinking is forced onto you by the structures of capitalism in the world around you.
Kerome
Re: Where is everyone?
Remembering the good old days?? They were fun. We didn’t even know we were in them, haha. That’s always the way, isn’t it?
This place was a big deal for my practice and a nice support group. 
…..Will always have nothing but love for this here living room. 
Vastmind
Re: Where is everyone?
Forums, culturally, are not popular anymore. Online communities are evolving rapidly. Most younger people connect with the world through mobile phones and through content-driven apps and networks; they find community not through written word but through video and voice chat. Long-form typing paragraphs and sentences to communicate is becoming passe and dated, and it's not made easy on a mobile device.
Brian
Re: Letting go of control
It seems like there are many types of "meditation", with various goals. Though I'm always a bit dubious when people start talking about "real" meditation, implying that all the other types of meditation are missing the point. Some meditation methods are designed to develop concentration, some to develop tranquillity, some to develop insight, some to develop spaciousness, and some to facilitate "letting go", eg "just sitting".
But if there's no method at all, why would you call it meditation? If I'm just sitting there letting my mind wander for 20 minutes (whatever), how is that any different to my "normal" habitual experience?
I think....
The dream that Shakyamuni advised his followers to awake from can be described as the illusion that we've created from our habituated responses to all that we see, hear, smell, taste, feel or think.
What differentiates "Just sitting" from ones "normal habitual mind wanderings" is that the former is a disengaging from deliberately maintaining our heart & mind story lines
where as the latter is a deliberate indulgence in those story lines.
The former one represents a form of renunciation whereas the latter one represents a path of acquisition.
What both forms often share though is that the other path is one of madness.
how
Re: Where is everyone?
@DairyLama said:
This used to be a busy, lively forum, but now it seems like just a handful of regular posters. How has this happened?
YOU LEFT, that's what happened! Where the &$#!! have you been??!!
Dakini
Re: Covid Cabin
Hello all, long time no see. I hope you're all coping with the pandemic OK. I quite enjoyed the lockdowns myself. 😋
I've been exploring Advaita for the last couple of years, which has been fascinating.
Re: Professor Mark Williams A Talk On Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Don’t say, “I am depressed.” If you want to say, “It is depressed,” that’s all right. If you want to say that depression is there, that’s fine; if you want to say gloominess is there, that’s fine. But not: I am gloomy. You’re defining yourself in terms of the feeling. That’s your illusion; that’s your mistake. There is a depression there right now, but let it be, leave it alone. It will pass. Everything passes, everything. Your depressions and your thrills have nothing to do with happiness. Those are swings of the pendulum. If you seek kicks or thrills, get ready for depression. Do you want your drug? Get ready for the hangover. One end of the pendulum swings over to the other.
Anthony de Mello
"Bhikkhus, consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could have it of consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.' And since consciousness is not-self, so it leads to affliction, and none can have it of consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.'
Re: What do we owe our children?
Not exactly what you asked for but it seems others have done a fine job with your initial question. I was a single parent. When my daughter turned sixteen, her card explained that there was no store bought gift this year; that I had made her something. The box she opened had sixteen short stories I had written about my sixteen favorite memories of her from her birth through toddler. Things she wouldn't have remembered and could share with her children some day. It took eight years but she told me then that she had taken to bringing it out every year on her birthday and re-reading them and that it had evolved into the best gift she had ever received.
yagr