Best Of
Re: The rarity of the spiritual life
My experiences with school reunions were pretty similar but I think its because this particular form of gathering tends to better represent the conditioned views of our ego's past, than how we have actually moved beyond them today.
The herd gathering of such reunions tends to re-link us to attitudes that we largely held and shared during those formative years of early socialized behavioral conditionings.
It's not quite as dramatic as the mob behavior of a lynching but it partakes of some of the same shared absence of true equanimity.
You might also be surprised at how many other people report much of the same disappointment in such gatherings that you found.
What better teaching could you have received on how much spiritual adolescence lurks just below the surface of any of our beliefs in our own spiritual adulthood?
As far as our conditioned propensity to judge self and others through a materialistic lens, It is one of the reasons I see that the "right livelihood" of the Buddha's 8 FP could be more practically represented today as "right relationships".
how
Re: Knowledge of the absolute
What do you think, can we know that something is eternal?
Instead of trying to posit eternity, can we know-see something that is unchanging, not subject to birth and death(arising and passing) aka the deathless?
The five aggregates are impermanent ie. anicca, dukkha, and anatta.
Can one impermanent phenomenon know another impermanent phenomenon?
To see the movement of a train, one has to stand on the platform.
All things are impermanent
when one observes this with insight,
then one becomes detached from suffering;
this is the path of purification.
"This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Nibbana." — AN 3.32
"The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering; the result of the mind sent outside is suffering; the mind seeing the mind is the path; and the result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering."
Ajaan Dune
Nibbana is not an experience but the cessation of experience.
Can 'something' that has no form, no shape, no color, and not a thought, a feeling, a memory but be subjected to 'time'?
The universe itself is not eternal!
Eternity is still time-bound, no?
My own experience is that everything passes, nothing that can be experienced lasts.
‘There is the Unborn, Uncreated, Unoriginated: If there was not the Unborn, Uncreated, Unoriginated, there would be no escape from the born, the created, the originated.'
Yes indeed, for the Buddha was a pragmatist who only taught what he had actually experienced"
Re: Mindfulness practice
A meditation that one applies to this present fleeting moment is a reality unmatched by any planned meditation of another time.
Each nanosecond of awareness of any moment offers a living meet & greet with a Buddha.
Outside of such moments, the offerings of Buddha statues will have to suffice.
Three of the greatest values of scheduling a regular meditation and sticking to it is it's
(1) A pilgrimage that says your practice at that time supersedes everything else.
(2) A Commitment to meditate regardless of wanting or not wanting to do so.
(3) Demonstration that nothing conditioned need limit the possibility of practicing anytime.
how
Re: Mindfulness practice
'Trying' to be mindful involves thinking about being mindful and this is where the problems occur, the trap of becoming pre-occupied with the thoughts about (how) to do/be mindful....
One could always try the reverse way of entering into in, by trying 'not' to be mindful....
"You can not catch hold of it, nor can you get rid of it.
In not being able to get it, you get it
When you speak it is silent
When you are silent it speaks"
~Zen poem~
Shoshin1
Re: Mindfulness practice
Life is practice! [Lobster faints] I am sure I read that somewhere … eh … everywhere. We may have a plan … 🤭👋😉😶
lobster
Re: Modern teachers and money
I think in the western world, the phrase "you get what you pay" is unfortunately embedded in people's minds. New Buddhists who know no better sometimes get taken by flashy fanfair and corporate practice jargon and they are impressed. They shell over thousands and come away feeling a sense of reward. But this reward is hollow much like going to Disneyland or a blockbuster movie, the hype is there but fades because the "thing" they paid for isn't always present; when actually all they needed was a Sangha close to house and a grounded practice based on their own findings and experience. Sharing with others and learning by doing. As it is said "rely on no one for your salvation, for only YOU can save yourself".
Re: Modern teachers and money
I thought that Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in Scotland where I once stayed for two weeks had a very nice system. Donation based but with a clear "suggested donation".
That way (I assume) most people can just pay the suggested donation and those on either extreme of the affluence ladder can either support others or be supported themselves.
Now that others have said that some monks complain that donations do not come often enough, I wonder what proportion of people donated to the Abbey and how much. It might make for very interesting economics research - whether it might be possible to implement such a system elsewhere in the wider economy.
marcitko
Re: Modern teachers and money
In an affluent society, a teacher should pay a student for learning. Obviously most teaching and students are not ready for such a radical approach.
Teachers and students are often under the delusion, that they can transmit or receive. If that were true we would have a more enlightened society.
Some of us learn from our mistakes. We learn our and others real motivations and capacity. We have to be exposed to the nature of this situation in a variety of ways …
https://www.lionsroar.com/the-life-of-milarepa/
lobster
Re: Modern teachers and money
The publishing houses not only offer lectures and courses by people who have been certified by a Master or Lama and validated by him to go out and make a living out of it, but now they also open the door for their relatives to do the same.
They all have something supreme to say or comment on, and they will charge you for telling you.
These people are overwhelmingly from the Chosen People (above all other peoples of the world) of the one God.
Re: Righteousness
Where I am in Canada, while there are trails,paths etc, cycling and scooters seems to use the road with the cars. Okay while I don't object, it would be nice if they would follow to same rules of a motorist if they want to ride there. (Like stopping at stop signs, stop lights etc) Same as a footpath, it's called that for a reason. FOOT path. Use your feet!