Best Of
Laughter and the sense of being
I wanted to talk about the experience of being while you are laughing. It is difficult to be mindful while you laugh, but after you have had a good, deep laughter, immediately afterwards you can examine the memory of it and get a glimpse… Osho once said that this is what it is like to be a buddha.
So what I experience is a kind of absence of mind, and a space filled with light, and cheerfulness, a living, jolly, tinkling place of the sense of song and bells. Pure joy, sheer dance, overflowing energy. Not at all serious but playful.
It was my mother who occasioned this. We were eating dinner, and she had put on her spoon an amount of powdered Parmesan cheese. Just as she brought this to her mouth to eat, she suddenly drew a deep breath, as if in preparation for a sneeze, with as result that she sniffed up a good amount of the Parmesan cheese! She was hacking and coughing for a good ten minutes, and I had to laugh so hard…
It was afterwards that I started to recall how great it felt. Laughter is a wonderful thing…
Jeroen
Re: The Knowledge That Matters
@person said:
The ability to not get attached to our thoughts is an important part of the practice though. >I hear lots of people talk about how understanding that this was even possible was a major >turning point in their lives.
This was the case for me a few months ago while sitting in the waiting room at my neurologist's office. My outcome (which I will find out in a week), will quite literally change my life. I realised in the moments of waiting, that I will not possibly know what to expect or how to feel with the outcome. Why not start letting go now?
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
From time to time, the weight of those who or whom have passed flows over.
My parents and all my aunts and uncles are gone. My older brother and a son, friends..my graduation class will be having it's 60 year reunion with more on the wall of memory than remaining.
But, from anther light, for those still around and those who have fallen, for whatever span of time we each have or had, we all enjoyed the jewel of life. To die, one must first live. So, even as we miss the ones who have gone, we celebrate having shared our lives with theirs. We celebrate sharing and having shared the priceless jewel of life.
A toast - To those we have known, those we now know and those we shall know,
THANK YOU, ALL!
Peace to all
Lionduck
Gone since 2012. I'm back
I'm back to realize my faults and change my habits. It's good to be home.
ginab
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
Our local Tibetan Lama says that there is no enlightenment without developing both wisdom and compassion.
And both of these come from developing an ongoing state of awareness/mindfulness.
As we become self-aware and start to feel compassion for our own habits of ignorance, we start to see that others are just like us ... trying to become happier. This awareness triggers a sense of kinship with all living beings, and that is the source of developing compassion.
Without compassion we are too focused on ourselves ... too ego-centered ... to develop the wisdom needed to live in ongoing enlightenment.
Simon
If anyone here was around when Simon (@Simonthepilgrim) was a regular participant, I learned that he passed away recently. He was a regular contributor for many years back in the day. I learned a lot from him. He’ll definitely be missed.
Jason
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: 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