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Truth, honesty and knowledge of the self

It seems to me that all search for truth can’t get away from the subjectivity of it, the fact that your own viewpoint defines the results and extents of the search. This leads you to explore yourself, to deconditioning and self-observation. In many ways earnestness, a commitment to honesty inside and outside yourself, is an ally in this search, an accelerant of the process in which you let go of many things.

It really is a process where the question “who am I?” forces you to confront all the untruths. It leads to many questions about yourself, and a long process of letting go of things. But as Ramana Maharshi said, “the question ‘who am I’ is not meant to get an answer, it is meant to dissolve the questioner”, and eventually the questions stop coming.

Eventually this exploration of the self leads you to a set of core issues. For me these were, how I related to honour, keeping my word, honesty; and later to love, my mother and my birth. Beyond that even to my earlier sense of being.

Jeroen

Re: What Meditation Is About

@IdleChater said:
That's fine, knock yourself out! But let's call it what it is: "Not Buddhism".

In a certain way, all of our lives, even that which seems not to be Buddhism, actually becomes involved with Buddhist practice. Maybe that is too Zen a standpoint for the normal Buddhist but to me it seems true. Gardening becomes a meditation, the food we eat becomes spiritual in obtaining and preparing, even reading becomes soaked in evaluating and taking in concepts using a spiritual thought process.

Jeroen

Re: How do people who suffered severe abuse can accept their karma?

OP, I'm going to express a radical position on karma here, and point out, that in his earliest discourses, the Buddha cautioned against projecting karma to future lifetimes (and one would assume correspondingly--from past lifetimes to the present), and simply focus on the current lifetime. He seemed to be saying, that past and future karmas "aren't relevant" to his path, in the same way he told his followers, that whether or not there is a supreme deity or deities was not a relevant matter.

Some scholars feel that the multi-lifetime karma concept seeped into the texts from an outside influence, namely--Hinduism. Karma isn't a trap, or something to bludgeon people with if they were born into adverse circumstances. It's simply the law of cause and effect applied to the current lifetime; be careful how you treat others, so you won't have to worry about your misdeeds or harsh speech bouncing back to you, basically is the idea.

And by the way, there is a therapy technique for trauma that doesn't involve talking about the incident/s. It's a miracle treatment that heals the mind by working with eye movements, helping the brain to reprocess past painful experiences. It's called EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. After treatment, you'll still have the memories, but they'll no longer be painful or debilitating. You'll be emotionally neutral and calm in relation to them.

Another option that doesn't involve talking is a certain type of acupuncture that works with psychological states. It can be a little challenging to find a good practitioner though; the acupuncture field in the US (I don't know where you're located) is dominated by a system from China, which they call "Traditional Chinese Acupuncture" (TCM), when in fact, Mao purged the traditional techniques that really work. You'd need to find someone who practiced 5 Element acupuncture, sometimes called "classical" acupuncture, from Taiwan or Hong Kong, and tell the practitioner that you need a special set of modalities called "Ghost Point" acupuncture for a childhood history of trauma. No talk, just treatment, which in your case would require a long course. You could Google "Ghost Point Acupuncture" + your locale. Also "7 Dragons" acupuncture.

I've received these types of treatments, both EMDR and Ghost Point acupuncture, on various occasions, and can vouch for their effectiveness. If you have questions you'd like to ask privately, you may message me.

Relief can be achieved, OP. Healing CAN happen! There is hope. Hugs, and best wishes.

Dakini

Re: The Other Elephant In The Room

@Shoshin1 said:

I know you're posting here as a kind of therapy for your horror at the situation

Yes I guess in a way it is kind of therapeutic, but I don't write or post videos with the intention to harm others/incite violence...just information which some readers 'may' find of interest,

And I'm sorry if what I post makes you feel uncomfortable @SuraShine, but why do you continue to click on this thread, when you know that some of the contents may disturbs you?

For far too long, Israel (acknowledging that not all Jewish people see present-day Israel as their homeland) has seemingly evaded accountability for their treatment of the Palestinian people, often described as 'getting away with murder.'

In the past, only a few brave individuals (myself not included) dared to criticise Israel. Many more wished to voice concerns about the treatment of Palestinians but hesitated for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic for criticising the Israeli government. Ironically, even some Jewish people feared this label.

One has only got to look at what's happening in Germany at the moment, where German Jews are being called anti-Semites and even arrested for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. This illustrates the current chaotic state of the world.

The point being made is that it's always the innocent who suffer the most, as demonstrated by recent events .

No one has made Hamas accountable for the numbers they release. Unlike Israel who have all their statistics verified independently because no one believes them.

You do realise that Israel won't allow independent observers into Gaza.

There are times when there is no offence intended, where a person just writes about what has been happening in the world, but some just don't like what's been written and want to shut the person up...
Again, look at what's been happening recently in German the US & UK...

Just so you know, over the years I have had friends of different ethnic backgrounds and religions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist.

If the shoe was on the other foot, (that is, if the Palestinians had a 'government' that was treating the Israelis in a way that was cruel and unjust killing and stealing land and so forth ) I would also be speaking out about the plight of the Israeli people in the same manner...

As MLK said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny"

I appreciate your reply, I really do. And thank you for expanding on the points the way you have, it means a lot.

I agree with some of the points you have made in this post. I wanted to address a few things for clarity's sake.

You do realise that Israel won't allow independent observers into Gaza.

Yes I do, but the Associated Foreign Press and others have analysed, questioned, verified, rechecked etc all Israeli statistics including the original deaths from October 7th without entering the country. If they can do this then surely there's no problem verifying Hamas' Ministry of Health claims.

And I'm sorry if what I post makes you feel uncomfortable @SuraShine, but why do you continue to click on this thread, when you know that some of the contents may disturbs you?

Because I can? It's like an itch to scratch at times. Honestly, I don't come onto this thread very often these days and like I said previously, when I find myself reacting, I use those reactions as fodder for my own practise. But since posting my previous reply, I have decided to limit my time here and on the forum in general - but I thought I at least owed you an answer. I've turned off my notifications for the forum.

If the shoe was on the other foot, (that is, if the Palestinians had a 'government' that was treating the Israelis in a way that was cruel and unjust killing and stealing land and so forth ) I would also be speaking out about the plight of the Israeli people in the same manner...

The Palestinians do have a government doing that to Israel though. Hamas, who they voted in to power over Gaza in 2005 and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Both of those parties are funded by the Islamic Public of Iran and both of them are based in Qatar. The Islamic Republic of Iran funnel at least $100 million annually to Hamas and at least 700 million to Hezbollah. There have been a multitude of forced exiles of Jews from Israel/Palestine for at least a thousand years. The last one in 1917 just before the Ottoman Empire relinquished control of the area. And there have been plenty of attacks from Palestine, instigated by them to Israel since 1917. When Israel was re-established in 1948, the land the Palestinians were inhabiting stretched into Jordan and Egypt and the border into Lebanon was also further into Lebanon. These countries refused the Palestinians that land. Other countries like Syria and Iraq deemed this "avoiding the Palestinian refugee problem" Why are these countries not being held accountable as well? Egypt wouldn't even open a border to Palestinians to flee the fighting until international pressure was applied by means of financial penalties.

Now I in no way agree with the occupation of the West Bank. It was never agreed upon and Israel has no business being there. My personal belief, as a Jew and a human being, is that the original borders should be adhered to. The main argument I get against those beliefs is that in the 1967 war, Israel won and "conquered" extra land. Is it a moral or ethical argument? I don't personally think so. Yet there are many countries in Europe currently that have borders differing due to "conquers" through modern warfare. I believe that they should also be held to the same measure as Israel - that's just my POV, I know you haven't raised that and it's not a dig at you in any way.

The bottom line is - the history is a lot more complex than is being demonstrated by those in a position of power to disseminate information to the world at large. Having studied ancient history myself at a tertiary level and having a daughter doing her degree at University majoring in Israel and the Near East, I have some deeper knowledge of the region and access to textbooks that some don't. That does not make me superior in this in any way, though I admit it frustrates me no end to see how the general public are not given all the information before they make an informed choice either way. And I am certain that if I started to post on any platform, many would automatically label me as a genocide lover or other horrible label going around online.

I'm sorry this is so long. I wanted to clarify my position and why I feel the way I do. Like I said, I have disabled notifications and am going to intentionally minimise my time online so I may not see your reply straight away.

I write this coming from a position of respect for you and in the interest of understanding.

Much metta,
Sura

SuraShine

Re: How do people who suffered severe abuse can accept their karma?

As you said you don’t want to talk to anyone, perhaps counseling is not for you. And your question about karma might be better answered by a Buddhist teacher, which I am not.

But I have heard it said that karma is not a prison, that all your karma good and bad can be burnt up in a flash when you meet the right teacher. Just so you know. A well-lived Buddhist life can also purify heart and mind, and generate much good karma. The other thing is, a poor upbringing is a release of a lot of dark karma, so now that you are rid of it you can get on with dealing with the after effects.

It is good that you are aware of your trauma and its roots. I would suggest reading some books on trauma, people like Dr Gabor Maté or Dr Bessel van der Kolk, who have written compassionately and out of experience about trauma. The scientific perspective might help you gain some distance from the self blame.

Ultimately I think a traumatic upbringing can be risen above, through self help and good spiritual life. My own upbringing was also difficult, though there was love.

Jeroen

Re: The Other Elephant In The Room

I know you're posting here as a kind of therapy for your horror at the situation

Yes I guess in a way it is kind of therapeutic, but I don't write or post videos with the intention to harm others/incite violence...just information which some readers 'may' find of interest,

And I'm sorry if what I post makes you feel uncomfortable @SuraShine, but why do you continue to click on this thread, when you know that some of the contents may disturbs you?

For far too long, Israel (acknowledging that not all Jewish people see present-day Israel as their homeland) has seemingly evaded accountability for their treatment of the Palestinian people, often described as 'getting away with murder.'

In the past, only a few brave individuals (myself not included) dared to criticise Israel. Many more wished to voice concerns about the treatment of Palestinians but hesitated for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic for criticising the Israeli government. Ironically, even some Jewish people feared this label.

One has only got to look at what's happening in Germany at the moment, where German Jews are being called anti-Semites and even arrested for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. This illustrates the current chaotic state of the world.

The point being made is that it's always the innocent who suffer the most, as demonstrated by recent events .

No one has made Hamas accountable for the numbers they release. Unlike Israel who have all their statistics verified independently because no one believes them.

You do realise that Israel won't allow independent observers into Gaza.

There are times when there is no offence intended, where a person just writes about what has been happening in the world, but some just don't like what's been written and want to shut the person up...
Again, look at what's been happening recently in German the US & UK...

Just so you know, over the years I have had friends of different ethnic backgrounds and religions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist.

If the shoe was on the other foot, (that is, if the Palestinians had a 'government' that was treating the Israelis in a way that was cruel and unjust killing and stealing land and so forth ) I would also be speaking out about the plight of the Israeli people in the same manner...

As MLK said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny"

Shoshin1

Re: What Meditation Is About

@marcitko said:

...I'm in the mood to correct the corrector Neither is your comment Nor mine...

Well, I wasn't trying to correct anyone - just making an observation.

It's fairly typical of the board, though. When I got 86'd 8–10 years ago, the discussions here were almost entirely about Buddhist topics. Now it seems like all but a couple Buddhists remain, and there's even less discussions of Buddhism. Shit-all-Friday, folks, it's like people are more interested in posting what movies they're watching.

That's fine, knock yourself out! But let's call it what it is: "Not Buddhism".

Maybe Linc should re-name the board? Just kidding, Linc, don't change a thing.

IdleChater

Re: The "mental-game" - individual and political levels

@person said:
I've heard somethings along those lines, though it isn't concrete in my head. Something like higher and lower order politics.

For myself I probably wouldn't categorize so much. But for the purposes of directing social policy that sort of thing is often helpful.

I think it kind of corresponds to people’s degree of reasoning ability when making voting decisions, and their degree of idealism. A lot of republican voters in the US seem to me to be borderline insane and perhaps even dangerous to know. The Netherlands has its own right wing voters but many of them are just financially conservative.

Part of the message of the book The Constitution of Knowledge that I'm slowly working my way through is that the current information landscape has blown apart much of our sense making apparatus and its letting in lots of bullshit and groupthink that was formerly checked.

Certainly the volume of socially-relevant information we consume has increased. “Blown apart” though sounds rather hyperbolic and I’d appreciate seeing that substantiated a bit more.

Jeroen

Re: The "mental-game" - individual and political levels

I've heard somethings along those lines, though it isn't concrete in my head. Something like higher and lower order politics.

For myself I probably wouldn't categorize so much. But for the purposes of directing social policy that sort of thing is often helpful.

I plug in peripherally to some organizations that seek to raise the level of political discourse and I think what you laid out in grade A seems to be the ideal they're working towards. I think there is room, and likely a fair bit of value, for the passionate and radical in a healthy political world. I think it becomes dysfunctional when the extremes take control and start setting the tone and the overall rules of the game.

As a moderate I'd also throw into your lower grading scales that as it degrades there is an increasing demand for ideological conformity with increasing penalties for non compliance.

I put a lot of the blame for the degraded political world today at the feet of social media. When the printing press was established and the gatekeepers of knowledge were bypassed lots of new ideas were able to proliferate. Eventually we all landed at a better place but not before centuries of religious and ideological wars over which ideas were right. Part of the message of the book The Constitution of Knowledge that I'm slowly working my way through is that the current information landscape has blown apart much of our sense making apparatus and its letting in lots of bullshit and groupthink that was formerly checked.

person

The "mental-game" - individual and political levels

Dear all,

Some things have become clearer to me lately so I share something I wrote yesterday. We've had elections yesterday so that got me thinking... Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, perspectives, criticisms...

I am going to present a crude categorization of our „states/levels of mind“ which I claim can be categorized into higher and lower. Based on a poker analogy, I call these states A-F. I observe how these states of mind are playing out in my current (individual) life but also how they have historically played out socially/politically in my country. All of this is crude but I hope illustrates the point that our spiritual/philosophic/existential understanding can operate at a multitude of levels, that the content of thought/belief is relatively predictable while on a certain level, and that these levels can be observed both on an individual and social/political level.

I understand that some members will shoot me down because I talk about levels, instead of a strict dichotomy between clear/enlightened and unclear/deluded or a non-dichotomy between any levels. However, observing both myself and the world around me, it does seem to me at this time that the unclear/deluded camp can be further broken down/categorized into varying degrees of unclarity/delusion in a helpful way. I do not claim that I have „solved the riddle“ but offer only preliminary thoughts on the issue.

The „mental game“ – a poker analogy

Stay with me, I'm using poker only as an analogy and entry-point 😊
Winning professional poker players talk a lot about and practice the „mental game“. The mental game is the state of mind one is in while playing poker. The mental game is hugely important as it directly and in a large measure impacts the profitability of an individual poker session. At the extremes, while playing their „A game“, poker players can implement easily and in full their technical knowledge of the game, as well as their intuitions and „reads“. This provides for a very profitable session, excluding effects of luck ie. over the long term. At the other extreme, when playing their „F game“, poker players are said to be „tilted“ and their mind is totally clouded by negative emotion and/or substances and/or irrational thinking and/or tiredness etc. When playing their F game, excluding luck ie. over the long-term, even professional players playing against the same opponents as in the previous example are usually losing money. Since poker players classify their mental game into A-F grades, I'll do the same in what follows.

Towards a categorization of levels (philosophic/spiritual/existential) of individual states of being (A-F):

as observed just by me for my current overall state of being over the past few years.
note: Even though my therapists tell me there is nothing fundamentally wrong with me, I have had a historical (10+ years) problem with mental-health. Hence, your mileage may vary in the specifics, but I suspect that you might be able to find the same phenomenon of levels of states of being in your own life, they will just manifest differently in your life.
I find that the content of thought is relatively predictable while in the various levels ie. I tend to think about similar things while in the A-F states.
I find that I can quite easily imagine a lower state while in a higher, but have difficulty imagining the higher, while in the lower, even though I have experienced it before or even recently.
I find that some activities/behaviours/thoughts (ie. the good/positive/wholesome) tend to push me "up", while others (ie. the bad/negative/unwholesome) tend to push me down.
I find that over the long term - depending on my actions ie. creation of new karma - the "whole landscape/ladder" moves up or down.

A) I find everything to be easy, clear, direct, humorous
B ) I experience moderate amounts of anxiety but can function well
C) I experience strong anxiety and moderate compulsive/forced negative thoughts; can still function at a moderate level
D) I experience strong anxiety and strong compulsive/forced negative thoughts and hypervigilance. Difficulty functioning.
F) Mental-health breakdown, retreat from the world.

Towards a categorization of levels (philosophic/spiritual/existential) of group political thought as observed by an example (A-F):

based on a simple model. This model is not thorough or all-encompassing but rather aims to illustrate the point that the political differences between the Left and Right can at different times and/or for different political actors be of a higher or lower level.
as observed by me in Croatia, examples of levels taken from the past 85 years ie. since during WWII. The biggest issue(s) between the Left and Right in your country, or the way they have historically dealt with the issues presented below, may be different. However, I suspect that the main point that there are levels - holds also in your country.
Of course, this is a crude model. There are always parties and actors outside this model or who act on a different level during a time where the majority acts on a particular level.
The example taken are the attitudes of the Left (L) and Right (R) towards priests, businessmen, national and religious minorities in Croatia over the past 85 years, a period which has included two big wars, and three political systems: nazism/fascism, communism, and liberal-democracy (all three of a local variety, but generally of those types).

A) Not sure I've seen much of this level, but here's a possible sketch: Everyone (L+R) agrees that everyone should participate equally in the political and social system, there is cooperation towards a mutual benefit taking into account the different and appreciated differences in values/interests/goals/etc. There is high social trust in the populace and between groups. Conflict exists but is minimal and there are efficient ways of dealing with it. (this paragraph should be improved).

B ) Everyone should participate equally in the political and social system BUT
L: harbours mostly unspoken suspicion towards priests and businessmen
R: harbours mostly unspoken suspicion towards national and religious minorities

C) Everyone should participate equally in the political and social system BUT
L: expresses huge contempt towards priests and businessmen
R: expresses huge contempt towards national and religious minorities

D)
L: priests and businessmen should be excluded from participation in the political and social system
R: national and religious minorities should be excluded from participation in the political and social system

F)
L: priests and businessmen should be shot
R: national and religious minorities should be shot

F-)
L: priests and businessmen are actually shot
R: national and religious minorities are actually shot

To end on a lighter note, here are some follow-up questions:

Is it helpful to categorize your level of state-of-mind into (say) A-F states?
Do you observe them changing in your life in this way?
If so, is what and how you are thinking about while in the various states relatively predictable?
Taking a historical view or looking at various present political actors, can you observe the same/similar A-F states of mind playing out in the political sphere?
Insert and answer your own question 😊

Thanks for reading and I hope you have an excellent day!

marcitko