Best Of
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
@Shoshin1 said:
Interesting discussion on UpFrontIs this a watershed moment for Jewish solidarity with Palestinians?
Why are you surprised? Not all Jews are fans of Netanyahu. To be completely honest, the constant need for people to have Jews distance themselves from the Israeli government, especially non-Israeli Jews is fucking EXHAUSTING. As I stated in previous posts, the approval rate (which is falling) is/was 14% for Netanyahu. If the media and society in general gave a rat's ass about what Israelis and Jews REALLY think, the reporting might be a bit more balanced, but where's the fun in that. The media can't spin that.
And yes you'll likely write me off as overemotional or some other thing, and to be honest, good for you. Since October 7th I've had death threats, my car vandalised and harrassment in public with no support. I'm at the point where I don't wear anything to identify me as Jewish. I'm against the war, the occupation of the West Bank and am no fan of Netanyahu, but that means nothing to the majority of Pro-Palestinian supporters because I'm a coloniser (never set foot in Israel though I have family who have been in living there since at least 1901 when it was referred to as Palestina of the Otttoman Empire - the British Mandate was in 1920), an automatic genocide supporter - even though I am adamantly against the war and have been told by numerous people Hitler didn't finish the job etc. People like me just can't win. And that extends to here apparently.
I'm going to take a break from here because frankly my sanity and safety is more important than an online site that judges the whole by the few - especially since I posted a video and shock horror didn't check the website it's on. I might add that video has done the rounds on Insta, Facebook etc etc with no source but I digress.
Anyway, take care peeps. See you maybe further down the track sometime.
Re: Buddhist quotes
Listen to the news every day.
Listen many times.
Not the news on a screen or in the Newspaper but the new of your body and mind.
This is the most important news.
What is happening right now?
Observe how your actions and speech affect your mind.
Observe how your mental states condition your action and speech.
This is how we investigate the law of kamma in every day life.
- Ajahn Jayasaro
Bunks
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
According to some teachers, you are doing the right thing when there is
awareness of awareness or according to the Thai Forest Masters, you have realised the Buddho, or 'The one who knows'.
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/25357/like-oil-and-water
How do you know you are aware of awareness?
Direct your attention away from the objects and towards the subjective knower.
What does the knower know?
The knower knows that everything that arises passes away, everything without exception.
Like a dream, a mirage, a bubble, and emptiness.
ANICCA
The following verse is attributed to Bodhidharma, the first Zen Patriarch.
A special transmission outside the scriptures,
Not founded upon words and letters;
By pointing directly to one’s mind
It lets one see into one’s own true nature and thus attain Buddhahood.
"In the same way, friends, even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters, he still has with regard to the five clinging-aggregates a lingering residual 'I am' conceit, an 'I am' desire, an 'I am' obsession. But at a later time he keeps focusing on the phenomena of arising & passing away with regard to the five clinging-aggregates: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such is feeling... Such is perception... Such are fabrications... Such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' As he keeps focusing on the arising & passing away of these five clinging-aggregates, the lingering residual 'I am' conceit, 'I am' desire, 'I am' obsession is fully obliterated."
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.089.than.html
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
It is very useful to not label as in:
- "I am not meditating"
- "I am bored"
- "My leg has gone to sleep"
- "Hoping the meditation gong is being heard soon ... is not meditation"
- "Funny thing happened on the way to the cushion. Still thinking about it"
- "Why am I torturing myself. This is dukkha"
- "Nothing is happening"
Before you know it you will be just sitting around like the rest of us ...
lobster
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
I feel that true meditation should not be tiring. If meditation demands such focus and concentration that afterwards you feel tired, then something is not right. Part of this is finding a meditation that fits with you. There are many.
Jeroen
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
I don't think you're actually meditating. Your expectations may be a bit out of line.
Keep this in mind. Shakyamuni didn't meditate to relieve stress, or relax or exercise mindfulness. He meditated to find the solution to birth, old age, sickness and death, and became Buddha.
Why do you meditate? Maybe you should start there.
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
@IdleChater said:
Why do you meditate? Maybe you should start there.
It seems to me that meditating with a goal in mind is to set yourself up for a mind-generated hallucination, it builds a certain tension. The mind will generally try to give you what you want.
That is why I meditate with ‘just sitting’, it means you let your mind empty of all things other than sitting. No goals, just letting the sensation of sitting be in body and mind, and watching that.
@how said:
There is just about every possible feeling in the world that will arise at some time or another in a meditation practice. Judging our meditation in response to such visitations shows where we have chosen to shift back into a habituated mentality over what the meditation process offers.
Indeed, judging means you have stepped back into the mind. If you can let things come and go, and watch quietly and dispassionately then you have gotten somewhere, you have gained a measure of peace and separation from the mind.
It is not very different from what the Buddha sat through under the Bodhi tree, a succession of fears and temptations made by your mind especially for you.
Jeroen
Re: A very good resource
Thanks, appreciated. I’ve not posted much for a while , been away in a place where there’s no tintyweb….
JohnMac
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
From my perspective, today...
While concentration is a necessary skill to develop to meditate,
mistaking that concentration for meditation is an attachment in the making.
As some Tibetans warn about some forms of meditation....Don't become like a cat watching a mousehole.
In other words, are you just observing the ebb and flow of all the phenomena that is arising, living, and departing or are you trying to direct it?
There is just about every possible feeling in the world that will arise at some time or another in a meditation practice. Judging our meditation in response to such visitations shows where we have chosen to shift back into a habituated mentality over what the meditation process offers.
Addressing the unknown, compared to what we've known, can often be challenging (and tiring) but is it not what we've been beckoning to?
3 steps forward - 2 steps back.
how