I ate escargot today… very small ones in puff pastry… without knowing it. It was very filling.
Jeroen
This reminds me of a discussion I had with my Dad some weeks ago about the news. He watches quite a bit of news you see, while I’ve taken to just reading the front page of the Dutch national news service once a day.
For him it is about staying up to date with current affairs, while for me it’s acknowledging that news is largely driven by propaganda value for the materialist society and is far from impartial. I learn more from YouTube most weeks than I do from the regular news, and find my mind is far more quiet and peaceful for it.
The thing is, the vast majority of things on the news do not benefit us at all to know them. They happened in the past, or are far away, or are in another way beyond our power to influence. You are better off letting go of these things.
Jeroen
Reminds me of Janis Joplin--"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose".
zorro
Although @Shoshin1 I do think that is a beautiful vision, it presents a different view on the mind than I have gathered…
I often read that the mind obscures our experience of the real world. That the imaginings and delusions and desires that it generates keep us entrapped in samsara. That a key goal of meditation is to let the mind become quiet.
I like Bodhidharma’s quote, and I agree with him that beholding the mind is key. But I do not see the mind as a wholly positive influence. Much of what the mind does is not beneficial.
You don’t want to make the mind into an enemy, but you want to be aware of not getting caught up in it. The mind is a good servant but a poor master, it has been said.
Jeroen
@Vastmind said:
Disappointment is when your mind made an appointment and reality dissed it.
100%
As some of you know, I am somewhere on the fediverse. Helping out the Mastodons, worshipping trees, confusing the Chaos magicians, trolling the nasties. Every day is completely different. If you are crazy, enlightened, an atheist, poet or even a Buddha ... this is a future to believe in ...
https://blog.natanox.de/1932/mastodon-guide/
bonus track:
https://youtube.com/shorts/oUy03oeME8E
lobster
I spend most of my time focussed on consciousness
So @Jeroen, does this mean you're being mindfully aware of consciousness ?....Or something else?
The mind is just this black box where thought happens, with a two-way connection to consciousness and a two-way connection to memory.
From my understanding, the mind is not boxed in @Jeroen, it's where infinite possibilities lie...Where the Dharma patiently resides, waiting to unfold....
The Mind ( the ability to comprehend/ the capacity to understand )
Consciousness( to be aware of)
Awareness ( intrinsically knowing )
They work as a team to unfold the Dharma ...the true nature of things....
Which reminds me of this....
The most essential method which includes all other methods is beholding the Mind.
The Mind is the root from which all things grow.
If you can understand the Mind...Everything else is included.
~Bodhidharma~
Shoshin1
Hmm consciousness is not the mind, neither is memory the mind, although they interact with it. Nor are the senses the mind.
The mind is just this black box where thought happens, with a two-way connection to consciousness and a two-way connection to memory. I spend most of my time focussed on consciousness, ignoring the mind, which is mostly quiet, and also ignoring memory.
Jeroen
The limits of the mind’s understanding
From what "I" gather....the mind has no limits...other than what the psychophysical phenomenon we call the conditioned self puts on it....
And thus have I heard, it as limitless potential, and expansive nature.
One of the main teachings in Mahayana Buddhism is the concept of "emptiness" (Śūnyatā).
Which is not the same as nothingness but rather the absence of inherent, independent existence.
The mind's nature is also described as empty, which suggests that it is not confined by fixed characteristics or boundaries....
Meditation practice leads to realisation, where one can come to recognise and actualise this inherent potential. AKA an unfettered mind ...
In boundless space, where thoughts unwind,
Lies the realm of the unfettered mind.
No limits bind, no fears confined,
Just clarity, open, and undefined
Well that's the plan.....
Shoshin1
Hope would seem to represent a spectrum of related mental activities. It could be argued, I think, that belief is the extreme upper end of that spectrum, but even belief can have its uses. Can you find the middle way without first knowing the extremes? How can hope be used skillfully? Mindfully? Do hope and fear go hand in hand?
At 80 years of age, the hopes - and yes, beliefs - that long dominated much of my own thinking have faded away, along with most of the questions that once seemed so urgent.
I find it quite liberating - even illuminating. Hopes remain, but seem unimportant. Everything will proceed as it will - enjoy the ride.
Fosdick