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Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
My Buddhism is Based o the Lotus Sutra. Specifically SGI.
My practice is everywhere
My teacher is everyone and everything
Seriously, my primary practice is at home and at weekly gatherings.
I learn and grow through interaction with fellow practitioners, mentors, personal study
and normal (occasionally not so normal) interaction within my environment - living.
Generally, if you think your Buddhist practice begin an ends with your formal practice,
think gain. Everyone and everything is and can be your teacher, your mentor.
The practice of Buddhism is the practice of living.
Yes, you will stumble.
Yes you will wander and wonder.
Perfection is not the point.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
Thank you for your time. A lost meditator here seeking advice once again.
Practice for the sake of practice with no expectations in mind.
And now for the perfect practice paradox
Practice makes perfect, and perfect practice makes perfect practice. Perfect practice is accepting that practice is not always perfect. For if it is perfect, it can no longer be practice, and if it is no longer practice, then why practice?
In other words @Kotishka, what is happening is practice in motion, the ups and downs, the trials and errors, the swings and roundabouts: Dukkha, Sukha, Sukha, Dukkha, the rhythm of life in Samsara.
Shoshin1
Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
@Kotishka said:
. Meanwhile I practice shikantaza...that being.... I face the wall, eyes slightly open, straight back, and bam: let it start baby!
Hey Kotishka
Of course, one could always consider turning around and facing the other half of existence.
Bad zen joke!
A mind seeking a teacher or a better explanation of a practice, is not in itself a sign of a lost pilgrim. If you have a practice that allows an objective observation of the incoming data feeds of all your sense gates and can allow them a collegial co-existence with each other, equanimity and suffering's reductions will inevitably follow.
If you ever again think you're lacking because of the absence of a teacher, consider that whatever makes you reluctant to practice in any moment is actually your real teacher.
Forget about your strengths in meditation; they will take care of themselves.
Like the spokes of the 8 fold path where the entire wheel is only as strong as the weakest spoke, your meditative progression can simply be buttressed by how you practice wherever you are least inclined to meditate. Here, the right teaching for you might exist where ever its hardest for you to meditate.
Cheers
H.
how
Re: The space between self esteem and self compassion
@person said:
I think the context she, and myself, are coming from is there was a big self esteem movement in the 80s and 90s that was well intentioned but made some missteps that had unintended consequences that people in my generation may have taken on.I'll just link Google's summary of the pitfalls:
Narcissism Instead of Confidence: Critics argue the movement confused self-esteem with narcissism, producing a generation with inflated egos, entitlement, and low resilience.
The Problem with Praise: Research found that simply telling children they are "special" or "smart" without them earning it through effort can backfire, reducing their willingness to tackle difficult challenges.
Failed Academic Results: Despite the focus on raising self-esteem to improve grades, studies showed that this approach often resulted in grade inflation rather than actual improved performance.
Correlation vs. Causation: Early assumptions that high self-esteem causes success were found to be flawed; high self-esteem is often a result of accomplishment, not the cause.I think most of these problems with the self esteem movement are addressed in your reframing around comparing oneself to one's past self or commitment to the process rather than other people, or perhaps society in general.
I find it hard to say which comes first, high self-esteem or high accomplishment. My time growing up in the Dutch Vrije Schools (Rudolph Steiner) stressed the uniqueness of the individual, and the search for talent in all its forms. Later time spent in the commune schools gave me freedom and let me take initiative. So you could say by the time I arrived at my later schooling I was well prepared to do well, having a positive self-image and a willingness to knuckle down and do the work.
When you’re young you don’t tend to have the long-range view that applied effort for years tends to instil, and you’re more reliant on others to help form your self-image. But even then you can focus on praising people’s virtues and good qualities rather than just telling them how “special” they are.
Jeroen
Re: Exercise
Great success!
@Kotishka said:
there is a calisthenics park but I'm very shy and seeing all the jacked up dudes and people walking around and going to the beach makes me very self-conscious. Argh...talking about problems regarding too much "self"...
I hear ya. But, you know, we don't necessarily have to endulge such things if we know they don't serve us. I'll make you a bet: after 10 times, the shyness in the calisthenics park will go from strong to mildly uncomfortable, and after 20 times you'll realize you're not even thinking about it.
marcitko
Re: Good news
Ladybirds can resist up to 30minutes submerged with some even resisting longer periods of time! So if you see a ladybird and think it is dead, it is not...it is exhausted and just needs to dry up!
Kotishka
Re: Good news
Listened to an interview with the author and YouTuber John Green. He made the point that good news accumulates slowly, while bad news happens all at once. He then said that the front page story for the New York times every day for the last 30 years could have been that fewer children died today than at any time in the past 5,000 years!
Its people grinding away daily, innovating and working on the ground to improve conditions for people all around the world.
person