Best Of
Re: Ways to spend time
Dear Friends of focussed behaviour,
How do you feel? Sometimes I generate posts that are far from the far shore, far from peace of mind. That, to some, means, copy. To others it means, my mind is like that. It is awful. 😶
The grounding focus that @marcitko describes, is an example of behaviour that is mind calming. Giving us the option, to master rather than inflict or express unhelpful mind states on ourselves and others.
When we are on a Buddhist forum, we interpret and illustrate either wisdom or ignorance, in it's complete range. Crazy wisdom is not a gibbering and jabbering stream of mind noise. Which in effect, can be potentially dangerous. 
It is why I have a traditional practice and am still learning. Always. It is a bit like slowing down. Stilling, focussing on what is happening… Finding where the sense and mind gates arise from. In this sense, we can even cut 'no-grass' or turn turfs.
So are the reactions to others posts are an opportunity for meaningful and comprehensible feedback? Always. 🫶
lobster
Re: Adventure and wanting to be a hero
@Lionduck said:
Ah, heroes are not so much the valiant the warrior standing alone against the horde.
This is the thing. The game and movie hero stereotype obscures the reality.
Jeroen
Re: The don’t know mind
Only the Smokey Bear Sutra can save me... or maybe not...
https://sacred-texts.com/bud/bear.htm
lobster
Re: The real in the here-and-now
If you ask me....'Trying' has a lot to answer for....always trying to poke its nose in where it isn't wanted or needed...
Shoshin1
Re: The real in the here-and-now
Neither trying to think nor trying not to think.
Just sitting with no deliberate thought is the most important aspect of zazen.
What I see as a mind no longer getting to ride roughshod over my other sense gates.
Here, experiencing the body & mind as one, beyond the limitations of the human condition, or our identities storyline, or a self versus others viewpoint, freedom options arise from what might otherwise have been an ego-hobbled existence.
how
Re: The real in the here-and-now
@pegembara said:
the experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.
Indeed. I have read, I cannot recall exactly where, that the attention should go equally to those six areas, but I have found that thinking absorbs disproportionately large amounts of attention.
When you get close to the body through its kinaesthetic and touch senses, you find it is actually very peaceful and a bit lazy.
Jeroen
Re: The real in the here-and-now
Don't think. Just watch the thinking.
There is no past and no future, only thoughts of the past and thoughts of the future.
What is here and now is the experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.
The real in the here-and-now
In the past week or so I have been thinking a lot on what is real. So, two things:
- Don’t think, just be. Even the things you think are real in your thoughts, the most real among them, are abstractions and simplifications. So there is no point in looking for real things in your thoughts or memories.
- Find the real in the here-and-now. What is most real is this moment. Don’t pay attention to the mind, be in the moment, as totally as you can. Rest in open awareness.
There was this Zen story. A master and a young monk were walking along a mountain path together. The young monk asked, Master, what is Zen? The master said, do you hear the mountain stream. At first the young monk couldn’t hear it, but as time went by he heard more and more. At last he could say, master, I hear it! The master replied, enter Zen from there.
Jeroen