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Re: What Meditation Is About
I would describe my meditation as that which allows phenomena to freely arrive, live, and depart, unmolested by the storylines of my own ego/identity.
....But I suspect that the variations in describing "what Meditation is about" might be as diverse as there are people experiencing it.
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Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
@Shoshin1 said:
No doubt this shift in support for Israel has given anti Semites the green light to express their vile, hateful rhetoric more openly...
Well, it's happening. According to the ADL, anti-Semitism has gone up 388% since Oct. 7. Now, I don't know how they define anti-Semitism - if things they call anti-Semitic are really anti-Israeli. Not the same thing IYAM. Regardless, there are a lot of people in the US who have bad feelings towards Israel and Jews.
The lines can easily become blurred between anti Semitism and anti Israeli government, perhaps this is what Netanyahu wanted all along...
Well, it's been going on for a long time. Some people think that anti-Israel and anti-Jew are the same thing. And they want us to believe that, so Israel can get away with whatever they want simply by playing the anti-Semitism card and the US government shits the bed.
Re: Being fed up with all things spiritual
Being honest about it, I dropped the whole concept of religion in any form some time ago. Instead for a few years now I have been searching through the words of those who are held to be enlightened, in a search for truth and freedom. These of course included the Buddha, but also people like Papaji, Osho, UG Krishnamurti, and others.
It was Osho who said, religion is largely a product of the priests, with only its deepest roots in the resonant concepts of enlightened sages. Therefore, don’t be a Buddhist, but be a Buddha. And if you have to ask ‘how’ that just shows you are still in the clutches of the mind. Just trust that you are a Buddha and let go.
I was considering freedom a while ago, and I realised one of the great things about the words of the enlightened was that they make you more free. Freedom from conditioning, from illusion, from desire, from clinging, even from the spiritual search itself. Freedom is the natural consequence of letting go of clinging in all its forms.
What is left in the end is certain core principles, like Love, Truth and Being. These seem to function like rudders guiding your essence.
Jeroen
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
@Shoshin1 said:
Interesting...
Where's My State? BLACK/JEWISH CLASH on One State Solution (w/ Rep. Dean Phillips)Is a one state solution a solution, or the source of the problem? Why not adopt America's pluralistic attitude toward religion? Is it true that Jewish people are unique among religions or ethnic groups in not getting a state? Does a group need a state to be safe? If so, what does that mean for Black Americans, Hindus, Sikhs or Athiests -- none of whom have states but who number much greater than the Jewish population? This was a spicy debate cut short by circumstances. What do you think?
Dean Phillips is my congressman and I like Briahna as a progressive who is willing to platform and talk to people with different views than hers. I see her more on The Hill or when she comes on to other people's podcasts.
To me the crux of the disagreement here boiled down to whether the state of Israel is legitimate or not. Its where Briahna retreated to when pressed and Dean repeatedly talked about Israel being under constant attack since its founding. I guess my question in that context is whether undoing the state of Israel is a legitimate goal? To what extent can that "original sin" be undone?
person
Re: Being fed up with all things spiritual
@person said:
This reminds me of a feeling I've held about spirituality. I've engaged with it at a character level rather than a personality level, if that makes any sense.
Yes it does, character is a layer deeper than personality which is more superficial. In the same way, engaging with the words of the enlightened is a deeper level than being part of a religion.
But in a way, that is also a hazard. Taking in a lot of powerful concepts from different sources can be confusing. That means, not taking in too much, taking it lightly where appropriate, meditating on where your personal emphasis lies, are all important.
For me, freedom from conditioning was a good starting point. Science, materialism, skepticism, the democratic left, eco-activism, Christianity are all prevalent sources of conditioning worth examining closely.
Jeroen
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
Interesting...
Where's My State? BLACK/JEWISH CLASH on One State Solution (w/ Rep. Dean Phillips)
Is a one state solution a solution, or the source of the problem? Why not adopt America's pluralistic attitude toward religion? Is it true that Jewish people are unique among religions or ethnic groups in not getting a state? Does a group need a state to be safe? If so, what does that mean for Black Americans, Hindus, Sikhs or Athiests -- none of whom have states but who number much greater than the Jewish population? This was a spicy debate cut short by circumstances. What do you think?
Shoshin1
Re: Nature and spirituality
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet on religion:
And an old priest said, Speak to us of Religion.
And he said:
Have I spoken this day of aught else? Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"
All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see him playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see him walking in the cloud, outstretching his arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see him smiling in flowers and waving his arms in trees.
It makes a good point, that in a way the spiritual search is fruitless, for the answer is all around, and worshipping is done at all times. This is well suited to the natural way of spirituality, which does entreat us to see the divine in all things.
Jeroen
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
He makes some interesting observations
"Why Gaza May Be The End Of The West"
Lest we forget the evil which is now unfolding before our very eyes and many of our Western governments (including the government of NZ) are complicit in these atrocities ...
All that is happening in Gaza right now ...Can we really trust that our governments have our best interest at heart ?
Shoshin1
Re: Nature and spirituality
or perhaps that transcendent experience of oneness is actually an underlying constant in life that the human condition simply obfuscates with its own storyline. Perhaps no sentient being gets to escape from the occasional leakages through such delusionary coverings and our respective "practices" are just a spiritual preparatory triaging to face such experiences, no matter how subtle or transformative each bleed through may turn out to be.
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