Best Of
Re: Stillness… quiet… the body
I have been continuing to explore this practice, and over the months have found myself caught up in a noisy sinaesthesia of sensations of the skin and hearing. It is only when I bring my awareness back to the bones, to the position of the body and the kinaesthetic sense, that I find my pulse, my breath, and a stillness.
It is as if my attention gets dragged out of me by the many activities on the surface… I feel a tingling here, or a knocking there, or a little jerk elsewhere. It is like the process of meditation, learning to ignore these things and continually bringing the attention back to the quiet, back to the bones… very analogous to focussing on the breath.
There seems to be a gradual deepening of sensation, like a getting to know the body and the breath better. I feel that over my lifetime I have accumulated many energies, many streams of ideas, and now there are encounters and resolution.
Jeroen
Re: Quotes - discussion
I think its important for people to do what they can to filter through all the noise. But this goes much farther than Steve Bannon, there are deeper problems with our sense making systems. They aren't functioning well, these are the things to fix, blaming and shaming people not only doesn't work, its counterproductive, it makes it harder to reach them.
person
Re: Mastering Zazen, mastering one's life?
So… is this it, then?
Yep that sounds about it...
In Zen mind Beginner's mind, Shunryu Suzuki says just focus on your posture. According to Shunryu Suzuki, sitting correctly, with full presence, is enlightenment in action.
Right posture/practice
Suzuki teaches that zazen is not a means to an end, it's not to “get” enlightenment or escape problems. The practice is the realisation.
“Zazen is not a means to an end. It is the practice of the Buddha.”
Right attitude
This is the heart of Suzuki’s teaching. He constantly returns to the beginner's mind
“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.”
Right understanding
Suzuki's Zen isn’t about intellectual mastery, it’s experiential. Understanding comes through doing.
"True understanding arises from direct experience in zazen, not from concepts or words"
Thus have I heard, the true magic happens when one stops trying to achieve something.
Shoshin1
Re: My Don'ts And Dos
I keep coming back to this original post. I find it very helpful.
I think that even if the precepts and Eightfold Path DIDN'T fall in line naturally from these do's and don'ts, whatever DID fall in line would be very worthwhile.
Re: Which book are you reading?
Just finished The Radium Girls by Kate Moore.
The dark story of Americas shining women.
The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.
Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive – until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.
But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.
Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Vastmind
Re: New Pope on her way...
I must admit he wasn't half bad when compared to some of the others...
Shoshin1
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies.
With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”
~Hannah Arendt, German historian and philosopher (1906–1975)~
Shoshin1
Re: What documentary are you watching?
Just finished Frontline: Battle for Tibet. It’s from January, this year and I wanted to get the latest info/update
Also, just finished The Dark Money game on hbo/max. Good breakdown of how big business changed the laws to make bribery to politicians legal in the US and the ways money is running legislation now
Vastmind
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
@Jeroen said:
“A perfect man is a meeting of heaven and earth.”
— Taoist saying
"Keep your head in the clouds and feet on the ground"
"Open heart, strong back"
person