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The importance of forgetting
It seems to me that the right way to read religious writings — Dhamma talks, discourses, books and so on — is to let them sink in, to absorb them and then to forget them almost immediately. In this way one learns the essence, one is changed by what one reads, without memorising, or calling to mind the specific words and trying to live by them.
It makes no sense to try and live by another’s exact words, you cannot imitate him or be him come again. Instead, be the unique expression of the universe you were meant to be. But you cannot stop changing or evolving, as long as you are alive change will be there. So it is with letting those changes teach you, alter you, shape you.
So learning means to absorb, which means to read slowly, deliberately, to let realisations which come from the words of a text arise and be considered. It is often good to pause and contemplate for a few seconds. But when you’re done, discard the words and carry on.
Memorising is a form of clinging. It is better to let the words go, and just let their essence stay with you, even if it means occasionally returning to texts you had read before, in order to see if a new appreciation arises. Even with quotes, which are meant to be memorable, it is good to just let them be and forget them for a while… if they are truly worth remembering they will stay with you. So I thought I would close this with a quote 
“The man of knowledge learns something new every day. The man of Tao forgets something every day.”
— Lao Tse
Jeroen
Re: Ozempic
It’s not as unattainable as it once was…for some people.. I know several middle income women who have taken it for weight loss, and my own Dr tried to push it on me. Several insurance companies cover it ( copays vary, of course).The problem was diabetics with no insurance or who were on a fixed income couldn’t afford it, and once it became the fad for weight loss, supplies dropped. That being said….you can’t take it forever, and the results are not permanent. The cravings return.
AFA fostering ‘motivation’….the Buddhist POV would be intentions and right effort.
Vastmind
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“If you can stop taking the world and your stuff seriously, you’ll be a lot happier.”
— me
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“When you ask yourself, who am I, the important thing is to realize that you won't be able to answer that question. So anything the mind comes up with is wrong, no matter what you say. And even if you say, ah, I've got it: I'm consciousness! Wrong, because it's a concept. Who you are is not believing in a concept. It's just a concept. So who am I? This was recommended by Ramana Maharshi and other spiritual sages as a profound meditation. Who am I? That question, you can ask it yourself with eyes open or eyes closed and then wait for the answer, which is not going to come as an actual answer that you could identify. It's not going to come as a thought or a word or anything you can talk about or think. The answer is the space after the question 'who am I?'.”
— Eckhart Tolle
Jeroen
Re: From the teachings of Ajahn Chah
Buddhism is a training program to be prepared to reach the shore of Nibbana when meeting death. The arhat's mind is empty and reaches liberation when thrown into the maelstorm of death.
The bodhissatva decides to return for some more waves, like someone in this forum once said.
I keep struggling to find liberation through a complete experience of selflessness. Nothing to struggle really, it is simply not the moment due to conditions...
I know Zen teaches me to avoid goals or advances, but here I see a very strong difference. I remember Dogen speaking of two kinds of beings: ordinary and enlightened. Theravada approaches this in a similar way, perhaps insisting on the effort and admirableness of even coping with the most basic adherence, meaning to precepts, scripture, and daily practice.
So like in muay thai, they make our shins (body and mind) strong for our ultimate test.
May all beings obtain wisdom!
Kotishka
Re: How to Change Your Mind
@Shoshin1 said:
No need to try to change the mind.... just unfetter it...
It’s not so easy to unfetter the mind, if it “signifies a mind that is not bound by attachments, cravings or delusions”. That sounds like an enlightened mind, which in general isn’t affected by chemicals like psychedelics. I remember Ram Dass’ story about how he went to India with doses of LSD and gave them to various gurus and noticed it hardly seemed to affect them, and was told later that it allows them to see the “lesser lights”, the first stages of what comes after death.
Even a mind with few attachments or delusions will be stuck in the bubble of what it knows. It’s one of those things, you usually hardly notice that your mind stays on certain tracks, and that what you perceive is just the ordinary.
For many people these substances have inspired a deep spiritual search, for those of us who are still bound by habits and attachments it opens up a window where we can catch a glimpse of the wider universe. I’ve been following some of Graham Hancock’s stories about his psychedelic voyages and the things he encountered, it seems to really unleash something visionary in some people.
There are non-chemical techniques like breathwork which can have a similar effect. Stanislav Grof did a lot of work with these in the time after Nixon’s “war on drugs” started in the late 1960’s. In some ayahuasca retreat centres like Rythmia in Costa Rica they do a day of breathwork sessions to prepare people before doing ayahuasca ceremonies.
Jeroen
From the teachings of Ajahn Chah
I’ve embarked on a re-reading of The Complete Teachings of Ajahn Chah which made a great impression on me when I first read it and I wanted to share with you selected passages from the book. Instead of dropping them all in the ‘Buddhist Quotes’ topic I thought I’d make a new topic for it, so that we can discuss the pieces if people feel the need.
The complete book can be downloaded here…
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/chah/the_teachings_of_ajahn_chah_web.pdf
===
This practice requires endurance. Some people, when they come to practise, don’t want to be bothered by anything, they don’t want friction. But there’s friction the same as before. We must try to find an end to friction through friction itself.
So, if there’s friction in your practice, then it’s right. If there’s no friction it’s not right, you just eat and sleep as much as you want. When you want to go anywhere or say anything, you just follow your desires. The teaching of the Buddha grates. The supermundane goes against the worldly. Right view opposes wrong view, purity opposes impurity. The teaching grates against our desires.
These days, in the same way, the Buddha’s teaching is contrary to our hearts. People want to indulge in greed and hatred but the Buddha won’t let them. They want to be deluded but the Buddha destroys delusion. So the mind of the Buddha is contrary to that of worldly beings. The world calls the body beautiful, he says it’s not beautiful. They say the body belongs to us, he says not so. They say it’s substantial, he says it’s not. Right view is above the world. Worldly beings merely follow the flow of the stream.
These days, those of us who still have doubts about the practice hear these things and say, “Oh, how can I do that?” Sometimes we feel happy, sometimes troubled, pleased or displeased. For what reason? Because we don’t know Dhamma. What Dhamma? Just the Dhamma of nature, the reality around us, the body and the mind.
So there is truth in this world. Trees, mountains and vines all live according to their own truth, they are born and die following their nature. It’s just we people who aren’t true. We see it and make a fuss over it, but nature is impassive, it just is as it is. We laugh, we cry, we kill, but nature remains in truth, it is truth. No matter how happy or sad we are, this body just follows its own nature. It’s born, it grows up and ages, changing and getting older all the time. It follows nature in this way. Whoever takes the body to be himself and carries it around with him will suffer.
Jeroen