Best Of
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Hey everyone. Hope y'all have been well.
Havent been on here for sometime but wanted to share something with older members who may remember me.
I had my (postponed by the pandemic) graduation ceremony for my Batchelor degree on Friday. Was a nice break from Masters things and a nice excuse to go back to my old Uni town. Didnt let the awful British weather ruin it either!
Re: Healthy Habits
Frequent water
Multi-vitamins and essential oils so no matter how bad I get, I keep a few things in line.
House plants for company and to always be reminded of compassion.
Re: Thoughts vs Emotions
One who simply attempts to disregard emotions usually ends up in mental health trouble over time. Learning how to identify and process emotions is key. Understanding they don't have to have power over us. Emotional intelligence is highly important. Experiencing emotions is a vital part of being human and just like thoughts, they will continue to arise no matter what we do. But we can know how to react to them appropriately. Disregarding them results in "stuffing" them and they always find a way out eventually, the more you stuff them, the more inappropriately they eventually come out, or manifest in mental illness.
karasti
Re: Healthy Habits
@Jeffrey said:
I'm still looking for more strategies though. Do you have any?
I thought I did but they turned out to be fair-weather friends. They all work great until they're put to the test. Your strategy is one of the better that I've tried. I've heard it called "No Zero Days" and even if it is just one push up, you can at least use that one push up as a small grounding point to prove to yourself with direct experience you can do something you don't want to do. Then hopefully build from there. Where I run into trouble is the continuation. If I stop for even a single day, all progress crumbles.
Another strategy I've tried which usually only works when I'm in at least a fair mood is what I call going in with the mindset of "Half-assing" the task. I struggle to attempt tasks due to need for perfection and fear of failure so if I go into the task with the permission and assumption it won't be perfect or even very good at all or even that I'll complete it, then I find I have a much more relaxed attitude about it and will give it an attempt vs not doing it.
Of course ideally on days where I remember to let go of self and attachment, and on days where I can muster the will to do so, I find I can take the energy used fighting the things I don't want to do and reflect it outward as compassion and concentration since in that moment I no longer identify with the desires of self. However this too is much easier state to remain in on fair-weather days, though it works to small degrees on any day I can muster enough care to give it an honest attempt. Sometimes that's enough for the breath of fresh air I need to snap out of my mind-controlled funk. I had actually forgotten how to tap into that and reliving it in the explanation here helped remind me, thank you.
Re: The Guru Papers discussion
Guruyoga is dangerous. When it goes sour, it goes sour in a big way. Why? The guru is God if you're a Hindu, or the guru is the Buddha if you are a Buddhist. Students of the secret mantra are taught to consider their guru as a Perfectly Enlightened and Perfectly Infallible Buddha. The Saṃgha is the guru's body. The Buddha is the guru's mind. The Dharma is the guru's speech. The refuge in the three jewels, to a Vajrayānika, is refuge in the guru. That's all fine and dandy if the guru is actually a Buddha. Frequently, however, gurus are simply ordinary persons. Sometimes, gurus are horrible persons, and these extreme cases get a lot of press because people get very hurt by them. They stake their entire personal salvation on the Buddhahood of the guru. If the "guru" is in fact a conman looking for fame or sex or worldly power, the students get used to these ends.
This isn't a condemnation of Tantra/Vajrayāna. It's just a description of a tradition that even labels itself as potentially dangerous and not suitable for everyone.
Re: Aligning one’s views
Luckily for me, I have the right to call myself whatever I want and don't have to subject myself to the whims and strict criteria of others and what they deem to be necessary. Not only because I'm a rebellious free spirit, but because even strict doctrinal traditions have their rebels and outliers and even outright heretics. Nothing is ever as black and white as we try to make it.
Jason
Re: When does the path come to an end?
I am not sure that the Buddha cared about where the path began or ended. He seemed to only speak of the direction it headed towards. Its end seems more within the purview of an ego's view than in any transcendence of that ego. I have a hard enough time delineating when this present fleeting moment in front of me begins and ends, to worry over what the Buddha has said had little to do with our heading towards suffering's cessation.
how
Re: Blessings
"May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another.
May those find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness be guarded by beneficial celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood."
https://buddhapowerstore.com/blogs/buddhism/3-popular-buddhist-prayers
lobster