Best Of
Re: My Don'ts And Dos
That seems like a fair approach to the Dhamma, I heard it said once that all of the Buddhas teachings could be found from just one.
Jeroen
My Don'ts And Dos
What I don't do:
- I don't, through personal effort, try to follow the 8FP
- I don't, though personal effort, try to keep Precepts
What I do:
- Meditate. Shamatha, to be precise.
From discussion with senior students, mentors, and respected teachers, I've come to believe:
- to make a personal effort to do these things, introduces an element of self that is counterproductive to realization
- The Buddha, according to tradition, didn't "keep" precepts or the 8 elements of the path. He meditated.
- Shamatha has been taught to me as a "complete practice", and will lead to enlightenment.
- As enlightenment approaches, the 8FP and Precepts will fall into line and manifest as a result, naturally, and not by any personal effort on my part.
- Enlightenment and Buddhahood is the result of meditation.
Your mileage may differ and I respect that. This is just what I do and don't do
Re: Development of the internal well
Not sure if this is helpful and I certainly don't often live up to it, but a helpful notion to me over the years has been the understanding that the things that are beneficial in the long run are often unpleasant or difficult in the short term and vis versa, things pleasant in the moment often lead to worse outcomes in the future.
To maybe get even a bit more hardcore. A lesson I've been working to take more to heart lately is to embrace the struggle. George Mumford, the person who coached the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, as well as others, says "no struggle, no swag". A sort of modern take on "no mud, no lotus". I like comfort and try to avoid stress and difficulty to a large degree, but when life forces me to engage and struggle I often come out better for it in the end.
But all that is in balance, coming from a place of someone who has dedicated much time to a spiritual understanding and inner development, rather than a rat racing, productivity maximizer.
person
Re: Development of the internal well
No thing remains the same... situations which one may perceive as wholesome or unwholesome are ever changing.... in a constant state of flux...
This too shall pass @FleaMarket
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Rumi
Shoshin1
Re: Development of the internal well
An internal well,
a stability experienced within an ever shifting landscape,
a slaker of thirst in a waterless desert,
a touch stone of calm when entropy comes calling,
selflessness drawn upon where a self fears to tread,
a candle in the darkness, the compass upon the path,
are among the endless descriptions
of where some respite from life's suffering can be accessed
in accord with a pilgrims particular practices.
and while all are promissory experiences of what the path walker is heading towards, the likelihood of those promises ultimately bearing fruit also depends on the practitioner not becoming attached to them, despite how overtly helpful they might seem to be.
Treat it as you would any other phenomena in a meditative practice.
Allowing it to unfold on its own, without grasping after it, rejecting it or deliberately ignoring it, will remove it from the equation of suffering's potential.
how
Re: Getting better "blog"
@FleaMarket @Kotishka I have company in the thread, most excellent! Feel free to keep journaling 
Today I slept poorly.
I've lost more weight during the past two weeks and am now at -7.6kgs (87.4kgs at 177cm)! I'm noticing improvements as a result in daily life - for instance not huffing and puffing when walking up the hill home, more energy overall, and easier/better exercise. Also, the good and happy kind of pride, when we know we've done something good and difficult. 12.4kgs more to go!
I am again reminded to do and keep doing the right thing and just trust the process. If I zoom in on the weight day to day, I sometimes get discouraged, because it's not fast or linear. Sometimes it looks like there is no improvement, sometimes it goes in the wrong direction. But, long-term it goes in the right direction and all is well. Same thing can be observed in other areas of life. As long as I'm putting in effort/practice, I will improve in that area, and since everything is inter-connected, in other/all areas too. Patience and persistence.
Yesterday, I was acting foolishly/passively. And I was telling myself the standard stupid mantra: "I'll do better tomorrow". But somehow and thankfully, I mustered the determination to do better TODAY (ie. yesterday ). So I did a flurry of positive activities. Going forward, I want to remember that, if I fall, the time to correct my path is NOW/today, not tomorrow, which often is just a lie we tell ourselves in order to feel better.
I've also noticed that I'm a dopamine-addict. I go from one to the other, especially when I'm feeling poorly. My dopamine-vices include: Youtube/phone, smoking, coffee, poker, po**/mast********. Chasing dopamine in this way leads to suffering, that is clear, and I notice it again and again and again. On the other hand, when I do something good, especially if it's difficult, I get the good kind of satisfaction, which does not seem to have negative effects or an opposite.
One problem I have no clue how to solve: I know, for a fact based on experience, that if I keep up the effort to improve myself and my situation, I can obtain excellent results long-term, even better than I can currently imagine. Even having MH difficulties, I can heal them to the extent of being in a much BETTER place than ever before (including before those MH difficulties). However, for the past 10 years I've had a breakdown on average about once a year when much of the progress gets lost. No idea how to stop the breakdowns. On the positive side, I do notice improvement even when taking into account the breakdowns. But, breakdowns or no breakdowns, I must put in the effort as best I can.
marcitko
Re: Recognising bad food and drink
With my diet I've been experiencing the same. There are foods that, apart from their little to zero nutrition value, they make your insulin levels fluctuate in such a way that it causes you to experience hunger more often and intenser, as well as acting in your brain the same way as some drugs: easy and quick and strong reward (feeling good, delicious taste, etc). It also leaves you tired, foggy; inevitably getting fat and unhealthy.
Now that I'm eating clean, I've had two instances were I had these treats: two small pieces of chocolate and, in another ocassion, 3 cookies. They do feel funny, but I guess as long as the quantity is relatively small it does not become a problem.
With alcohol I had the same experience as you, I hardly drink now. Never liked it and I mainly did it because of "social pressure" or "custom". Now I'm a proud water drink.
Though I have a weak spot for sake from Nagano....
Kotishka
Recognising bad food and drink
So after a couple of days ago trying that IJsbock beer, it reminded me why I had dropped alcohol a few years ago. My sensitivity to these things has become such that it just isn’t a pleasant experience to drink alcoholic beverages. If you really pay attention to it, there is a little rush when you start, then you feel a bit ill, then rather dull, then a long period of feeling somewhat unstable. The long tail of unpleasant feelings makes it not worthwhile to drink.
And last night, I had some espresso coffee at about 3 am, and was awake until 6 experiencing in extreme detail how coffee also produces a rush, and then a protracted period of inner energetic grinding. That’s not the first time I have noticed that, and it has put me in mind that really looking at what your body is telling you is a good guide for what is good and what is not. So I have resolved to go off coffee for a while as well.
It seems to me that as your mindfulness increases, you become more sensitive to these things.
Jeroen