Best Of
Re: New? Introduce Yourself to NB Members!
Hi there, my name is Ivo. I became interested and fascinated with Buddhism two decades after seeing a biography about the life of the Tathagata on a television public broadcasting station. l while I was living with my uncle in the SF Bay Area. I started integrating meditation into my life about 7 years ago.I feel very fortunate to have found this website.I hope to gain more knowledge about the philosophy of the Blessed one! My goal is to travel to Thailand within the next year or two once I save up enough money to afford a plane ticket! Blessings
Ivomon77
Re: Zazen is good
You are very kind, thank you!
Today I will be renewing my precepts with the Treeleaf sangha. Today it is Full Moon and it is when the Fusatsu ceremony takes place. It is a short 30minute ceremony. If you ever want, they also do a weekly Sunday morning sit! I also decided to do a bit of plogging as I cannot follow the sit from my room and have to walk to my office (40minutes, which also counts for exercise). Three for one!
Makes me feel a bit guilty that I have the chance to do this. Some people are struggling so much to meet ends and barely manage to pay rent.... May all beings be happy and free of suffering..
This made me VERY confused at the beginning ... perhaps still. But Brad Warner helped me to understand this and also kind of explained what other practioners warned me about. In a nutshell, not talking about benefits and making it something to reinforce your ego. I've met people that have very good meditation practices to remain calm and adhere to strict schedules in order to speculate with properties, evict poor people and remain calm while being questioned by the authorities or spouse. Yep....that is not very good in my opinion...so a bit of ..."What is all this Zen bs for?" "Nothing!" is a good protective layer....
Kotishka
Re: Recently Learned...
Anything that involves attachment in the form of "anxious attachment / avoidant attachment" / craving "/ view of "this is how it should be" usually ends up poorly.
Following precepts works best (and sticking to them!) in situations where you try to use logic to convince yourself how it is acceptable in that particular circumstance.
"Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness." Dogen Zenji.
Kotishka
Re: For the coming year
I find that the last few months I have been worrying about selling my dad’s apartment, and I haven’t created as much space for the breath. I had kind of forgotten about it while getting caught up in the day to day.
Then i came across a question on another forum, do you meditate? And in answering that I remembered my year of the breath, and I just picked it back up again. It feels wonderful, so soft.
Jeroen
The mystic sounds
I have experienced…
There are certain mystic sounds, which have the power to touch your heart and take up residence there, as a longing that points the way. For each sound I will give a short description, but if you want to experience them you should seek to hear them pronounced by a native speaker.
“Om Shantih Shantih Shantih” … it means “the soundless sound (or the sound of silence) peace peace peace” and it is the sound that every Eastern scripture ends with. It is meant to give a sense of the whole scripture in just these few words.
“Om Mani Padme Hum” … it means “the sound of silence… the diamond in the lotus”, it is often used by the Tibetans as a mantra though the words are Sanskrit, it is trying to convey the beyond in a way comprehensible to the mind.
“Hari Om Tat Sat” … it means “the sound of silence… this is the only truth”, it is used to connect with the divine, surrender the ego, and affirm that only the eternal is real.
“Sat Chit Anand” … it means “truth, consciousness, bliss”, it is one of those Sanskrit sayings about the mystical experience that echoes the heights of consciousness of those who have gone before.
“Satyam Shivam Sundram” … it means “truth, godliness, beauty”, it is a reflection of the mystical experience of ultimate reality.
Jeroen
Zazen is good
As my practice becomes deeper and more dedicated -two daily 30 minute sittings; maintaining contact with Treeleaf Zen sangha & NB forum- I have noticed that so many of my issues were demands due to preferences, none of which vital or essential for me to pursue a healthy and kind life. For example, not having internet in my room and simply accepting I had to go to another room to use my iPad. Also, noticing how many hours I spend on the internet / behind screens, absorbed in idle chatter. I sometimes feel that I've joined the Path a bit late because of how slow my progress has been. I know progress and improvement are conflicting terms in Zen, but I cannot deny (and I doubt anyone could) that zazen and Buddhist study has provided a lot of peace to me, my loved ones and my community. It has taken though a few years of starting, abandoning and repeating for it to really start to flourish.
Isn't Right view realising of this blessed opportunity, to do good and be kind, to not accumulate for garbage -materially, mentally, behaviourally- and to notice how the 4NT permeate this existence. It seems Buddhism sometimes is going a bit against your usual current: against what your biology has provided you to begin with (temperament & pre-conditioned preferences), our impulses, our self-satisfaction via self-indulgence, against the mass psychosis implemented by the news, ideologies, market, etc.
This without rejecting certain technology and pleasant treats (eating dark chocolate with sea salt as I write).
Good day to all!
Kotishka
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"I am just a very persistent figment of my own imagination"
Who said that ? ~I did~
Shoshin1
Re: The AI tsunami
A fun little story about how overpaid and out-of-touch executives and outsourcing killed a business while blaming everyone else but themselves, with special help from AI!
Still, even then it seemed from the outside like Antonucci was cooking up a future for Providence Health Plan. On Linkedin, Antonucci styles himself as an expert on emerging technologies. “I write about what’s actually happening in AI and health care—not the hype, the operator reality,” he writes in his bio. “If that’s useful to you, follow along.” And through much of last year, he and his team worked to outsource a major Providence Health Plan line of business to a Silicon Valley company that touted its AI technology.
The company, Collective Health, was founded in 2013 and reports “success managing claims, eligibility, and benefits administration for the employer health plans we serve.”
But five current and former Providence Health Plan employees privy to the partnership tell WW it quickly became clear the company had had little experience actually adjudicating and processing health insurance claims, but that when they warned their bosses that the contractor was not up to the task, health plan leaders ignored them, plowed ahead and, in many cases, laid off those who raised concerns
www.wweek.com/news/2026/05/27/inside-the-collapse-of-providence-health-plan/
Jason
Re: Recently Learned...
That goes especially for that wierdo in the mirror.
Tee Hee!
That is the one I can not trust to have anything but opinions masquerading as wisdom. The worst thing is not knowing which side of the mirror I am in.
I think I might be in... nah we have AI to offer us a distorted reality these days...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_mirrors
lobster
Re: “502” error on this site
@lobster said:
I have Privacybadger and Ublock Origin on my browser (from the EFF). Will not turn them off.
Those wouldn't have any bearing on accessing this site. The things they block aren't used here.
Linc