Best Of
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
Here is a long interview which talks about the giving.
Given to the Buddhist Society (started by Father Christmas Humphreys)
by Lama Yeshe, one of my Tantric meditation teachers.
"Crave or crave not, there is only try'" as Master Yoda might say...
lobster
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
Basically you are craving the sensation of not-craving.
Another mode to appreciate is relaxing. Thich Nhat Hanh recommended “three deep conscious breaths” in a teaching I saw not long ago, to shift into relaxed spaciousness.
Jeroen
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
But of course she did know, even if I didn't yet.
Imagine someone has Nothing to offer. We of course want something. So we give them an impossible task.
... And the funny thing is they are up to the task until we stop taking and start giving
Nothing. 
lobster
Re: All things Sport(s)
I've been following the World Chess Championship. It's a 1v1 14 game match with 4-7 hour games (ie. classical/long time controls). Obviously, few watch the actual games, since they are too long, but there are many recaps online.
We have Gukesh from India. He is 18 and if he wins will become the youngest chess champion. He might be young but talks, is stable under pressure/praise/blame, and wise several decades beyond his age. So far, he has underperformed, since the expectation was that it would be an easy match for him to win, maybe due to pressure/nerves and playing such a match for the first time.
We also have Ding Liren from China, the defending champion. They should literally make a Holywood movie about this guy! It's a "against all odds, the underdog, losing the whole time, manages to win at the last second" kind of story that keeps repeating itself.
It's currently 6-6 after 12 games with 2 more classical games to go and then the playoffs of 4 rapid games ie. games with faster time controls (20 minutes each).
For anyone that might be interested to follow the last leg of the match, the Guardian has good text recaps, while this Youtube channel has good and wholesome video recaps.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/world-chess-championship-2024
marcitko
Re: Sharing practice through non-practice
Thus have I heard...
Expectation is the killer of meditation.
Shoshin1
Re: Sharing practice through non-practice
I feel we can engage with a series of stages until we find the just resting place.
For me (at the moment) formal sitting starts with a period of unloading. Just watching the mind drifting away and returning. Always returning to the rest. The breath. The gentle but alert posture. The unloading leads to a gentle slowing. And before I know, I start chanting. Usually aloud but very quietly. Noticing the nature of the chant. The smoother the breath and mind. The clearer the sound.
I rarely time meditation because at a certain point it stops when ready. Quite a natural process.
In a strange way, it is not a practice. It is just sitting. In this sense, practising meditation is very much ease, eased into...
lobster
Re: Sharing practice through non-practice
@Jeroen said:
I came across this teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh…
I really just wanted to talk about the first 20 minutes of this, where he talks about Mother Earth being within us and just relaxing, not-doing while we breathe, and thinking that healing and nourishment come to us on the in-breath and out-breath, that by letting Mother Earth act for us in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, we can bring healing to our body, our mind, our society and our planet.
I’ve listened to it three times, it seems to be a way within. Wonderful!
🙏
@Jeroen Synchronicity, I watched that same talk (or very similar one) and practised that same method yesterday evening and was planning to do the same today. Maybe the YT algo decided to push that video on all Buddhists yesterday?
I used to call it "active rest" - where I/we are "just resting". I found it very regenerative and good in my situation of monkey mind and monkey emotions where if I try to bring some calm to the system actively, I often (not always) just make it worse.
I think in scientific jargon this would be called accessing the rest&digest nervous system state. Kind of like after having lunch the body wants to snooze a bit or rest after a workout. These are not laziness but the way the body looks to process and get back to balance.
@Person "Battery recharge", yes!
Thanks for sharing.
marcitko
Re: Sharing practice through non-practice
Its been half a dozen years or so since I've had a slowish winter season and I've forgotten what a gift it can be to be able to remove oneself from the movements of the world and slow down.
My twice daily meditation practice while in the world acts like a battery recharge, or a letting go of the worldly accumulations. Not having to counteract that accumulation, I'm reminded of the capacity for practice to deepen and strengthen one's mind.
person