Best Of
Re: The importance of forgetting
3 Perhaps.
Perhaps a practice heading towards suffering's cessation is not so much about learning or forgetting as it is about no longer feeding those impulses that habitually pattern knowledge into more fodder for our ego dream-making machinery.
Perhaps as long as one relates to knowledge as a potential self-related acquisition, that specific knowledge is likely to be as limited as it is intrinsically corrupted.
Perhaps, to the degree that an absence of attachment to knowledge is developed, a limitless gnosis arises wherever the self was formally obscuring it.
how
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
