Best Of
Re: No thought being true
It seems that other people besides Adyashanti have also been saying this about thoughts. Byron Katie’s ‘Work’ is based on examining one’s thoughts for truth, and Eckhart Tolle and Diederik Wolsak have also talked about it.
I think these teachings point us at a good habit, acknowledging that our thoughts may be false means we have to take a certain distance from them and not identify with them. It points us at equanimity, because feelings arise in response to a thought. It seems to me that it is not too much to say that this is a core ability, a key knack — to leave our thoughts alone for a bit after they arise, and only then examine them.
If you can feel compassion for yourself as you examine your thoughts, then this habit can give you a great deal of inner peace.
Jeroen
Selflessness and Altruism
I had an experience in one of my TTRPG games recently that got me thinking a bit about a distinction that helps define the virtue of non self. I'll use some definitions that are maybe my own, its the idea behind them rather than any precise dictionary definition. I'm thinking of selflessness as doing something without thinking of yourself and altruism as you doing good for someone else.
So in my game there was a sort of test to determine the character's quality. In the test my internal experience was pragmatic, it was about the best solution for the most people, myself included. It wasn't about doing good, or being a good person. I wasn't being sacrificial, I took risks that put my character in danger, but it was benefiting me, I just included everyone else in the benefit. Anyway, this was just pretend, I didn't have any real skin in the game, I'm not trying to humble brag, I doubt I would have acted the same IRL. The point is in my mind I was acting pragmatically but in the eyes of the person giving the test I seem to have come across as virtuous.
Which got me to thinking, what is the internal experience of selflessness? Is it an attempt to be good to others, or is the internal experience one of doing good without regard to self and other? You see suffering or a problem and regardless of whether its yours or someone else's you act to remedy it.
person
Re: Selflessness and Altruism
@person said:
Which got me to thinking, what is the internal experience of selflessness? Is it an attempt to be good to others, or is the internal experience one of doing good without regard to self and other? You see suffering or a problem and regardless of whether its yours or someone else's you act to remedy it.
I help others when I'm in a position to do so/as the situations arise....I just do it without giving too much thought on the whys and what fors..In a sense it's like being on autopilot ...and the only thoughts passing through the mind are how can I be of assistance...However there seems to be a feel good feeling after the act, but this is not the goal. it's just a by-product of the experience
I'm not sure what the internal experience of selflessness is for me .... I just do it before the (often emotionally charged) self ( the selfish side) tries to talk me out of it...
At times I find I'm not in a position to help and there's an acceptance in the self that this is the case...
Shoshin1
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
We’re having a late summer heatwave over here, temperatures around 30 degrees for six days in a row. And that after the whole of July and August as intermittently wet and temperatures around 20.
Jeroen
No thought being true
I was rereading the No Buddhist Quotes thread, it has kind of become a shorthand for my spiritual wanderings, and came across this:
“In that moment in which I realised that no thought is true, all other thoughts became irrelevant. They didn’t mean anything. They were just the mind trying to describe something, trying to tell a story.”
— Adyashanti
And it occurred to me that this is the ultimate freedom, that you can just abide in the peace of the body and be free from thoughts. No thought being true means that they are all just mirages, illusions, attempts by the mind to tell a story or divine the future.
Any conclusion we reach, even the gyrations we go though in a dream or a nightmare, even the things we think in response to a feeling, the emotions that we trigger by the thoughts we have, it is just so much fluff, irrelevant, we can let it go.
The mind is a mechanism for detecting threats, and in the realm of the immaterial there are no threats, so unless you’re on safari and having to cope with hungry lions and stampeding elephants, it’s thoughts can be safely let go of.
What a wonderful, light feeling! It’s a good morning to be alive 
Jeroen
Re: Accentuate the Positive or Eliminate the Negative?
@person said:
Is one way more beneficial such that we are justified in advocating generalized advice to adopt one over the other?
Why do either? Anything, you do, like accentuate, or eliminate, gives rise to karma. Karma results in suffering and rebirth.
Why not the cultivation of equanimity instead?
Re: What music are you listening to?
@Bunks said:
If the North Dakota State Fair was televised and pulled 3 million viewers then yes indeed!
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No, not even close. I guess that final is a bigger deal than the NDSF.
Aside: I wonder if they'll perform in makeup?
Re: Buddhist quotes
"How we relate to this moment is sowing the seeds of how we will relate to not just the next moment, but the next day, the next week, month, year, where we are further strengthening pre-existing propensities, pre-existing habits, pre-existing fears, pre-existing prejudices "
~Pema Chodron~ "Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change"
Shoshin1
Re: Buddhist quotes
“The sequence between shamatha and vipashyana makes perfect sense: first refine your powers of attention, then use them to explore and purify the mind, which can be directly examined only through first-person observation.”
~Alan Wallace~
Shoshin1