Best Of

After spending most of my Buddhist life in the Tibetan tradition I moved away from it because I could no longer reconcile my own skepticism and need for evidence to hold a belief and the way supernatural explanations were baked into the teachings.

Looking into more western oriented Buddhism I found them to be too politicized for my taste.

I was thinking about the Tibetan lojong teachings and spent some time looking at them again and found myself moved towards them. The feeling is something like finding a jug of water while out wandering in the desert looking for a home. I was going to buy a book, but in shopping I realized I already have one, by Chogyam Trungpa that I had yet to open.

Anyway, hoping my wrong practices will lead to a new perspective on a familiar view.

@コチシカ said:

Some of you have mentioned the importance of simplicity, naturalness during one's practice. As long as this is followed, and there is some mindful appreciation towards the precepts or teachings based on them, the dhamma, it is good enough already. Therefore, I think I would be careful when labelling something as wrong practice, except for myself.

I like this

The usual intent behind defining anything, has as it's basis, a self oriented program running to maintain the dream of our own specialness.
This is simply us seeking to establish a separation between self and others, make the chaotic nature of existence into something more controllable, convince ourselves that we will continue to exist beyond deaths door, and a host of other similar dream production support structures.
Here, reality has a flawed foundation with duality as its substrate, where the answers about Samadhi/Nirvana/practice/ enlightenment become skewed even before the questions can be asked.

Each nano sliver of time is another seeker in another existence with another choice to make in how to meet it.

There is ignorance and there is the absence of ignorance.
There is a self in a dream and there is an awakening from that dream.

Just who is this self with a right or wrong practice?

@David said:

I have to say the States aren't looking too good from Canada. Please stay safe and maybe take heart in the idea of the world coming together even as the States may be falling apart.

Maybe I'll be joining you after it all goes down. 😄

@lobster said:
These knots of 'right practice' are broken by the crazy wisdom @Kerome mentions. Which is never abusive but may confront our certainties.

This is maybe why I find Taoism so helpful. Offering a yin-yang change at the moment we thought the water was just right ... 🦞

Hmm, an interesting view on crazy wisdom, if it is abusive it may be crazy but it is no longer wisdom. It is not an excuse for everything, take note various ex-teachers.

But I agree the Tao is helpful. My uncle (who is still slowly dying but is on holiday at the moment) sent me a short piece of prose the other day, an answer to a question I had posed him about our life’s joy... he said:

“Don’t become attached to detaching and don’t hold on to letting go. Stream with the water and blow with the wind. Let go of thinking, without letting go because the path is what it is, Panta Rhei (Heraclitus) that which streams!”

Which I thought had a rather Taoist feel. It’s the pattern of nature that underlies all things, the harmony of existence which we all follow if we are wise. Suffering is an artifact of the mind, if you manage to reach the no-mind, actionless action, then you can count yourself among the wise.

Its funny, because when I started talking to him I thought it might be good for him to have someone to talk to about spiritual things, but I had no idea he was so into the Tao.