Best Of
Re: Righteousness
Round here, there are not many cycling-lanes. Where there are, I cycle on these lanes. Where there aren't any, I cycle rather slowly on the footpath and never hit anyone. I'm afraid to cycle on the street, it seems far too dangerous. So to confuse matters further, you might look at cyclists on the footpath as choosing the safer option and extend your compassion to them. The cyclist and e-scooter that hit you were most probably reckless - but with that attitude driving on the street they might be severely injured or dead. Just my perspective.
It seems to me that what is required is a good network of "medium speed" lanes for bicyles/scooters/rollerblades/etc.
marcitko
Re: Righteousness
There is no doubt an appropriate and skillful use of righteousness. In my opinion righteousness requires some level of moral certainty and I think there is an over abundance of people with certainty of their position in the world today, and thus an over abundance of righteous people, all with different points of view. Are they all righteous? How can we live together in a diverse world with everyone claiming the moral high ground?
I don't know that I'm right, I'm probably wrong about something, or at least it takes all sorts of people with differing dispositions and interests to make the world work. I'm someone who cares primarily about truth and balance, those require a decent amount of epistemic humility, which kind of runs counter to the moral certainty clarity required to be righteous.
person
Re: Mindfulness at work
Today I am using a one hour Vipassana Meditation on YT that has a ringing bell every five minutes. Hoping this will help bring me back to the present moment throughout the day 🙏
Bunks
Re: Buddhist response to the climate crisis
@Kotishka said:
Thank you Bunks. This will come quite handy!I had a small chat regarding this with a friend, who openly seemed to be in favour of drastic measures, and even "armed preparation" against fascism.
He seemed to view the Buddhist as passive, as it does not support the "right measures" to deal with the crisis. I wonder what Ajahn Sujato would reply to this.
I sometimes feel that equanimity (Upekkha) can be mistakenly seen as "well, whatever happens, happens", though he did not take into account the rest of the eight fold path and 10 paramis, as well as the 4NT.
Equanimity does not stand on its own, high on the sky, as if it were a monk or scholar at the top of an ivory tower... it is built upon calming down, doing good and, sometimes, acknowledging what goes beyond anyone's control. This allows, sometimes, to avoid hurrying into poor decisions that end up causing even more suffering.
Where I live, the situation with rubbish has worsened. More tourists = more rubbish. Plus the locals have not changed their habits that much, meaning the piles are growing more than what I can clean. One of my neighbours openly deposits her rubbish by our street and the police said "they can't do anything about it".
In this case, I was thinking, is it against "equanimity" to start documenting this to let know the new mayor to please take this situation a bit more seriously than what her party has done in the last 14 years....
Hmmhm.... why this urge to change things? I guess for the well-being of all..
Maybe true equanimity would be to do a live zazen surrounded by heaps of rubbish?
Like in that song: "Though my mind is at peace, the world is out of the order."
PD: I just noticed the title is "Let Not The World Burn". Clearly not a very passive stance! Good!
Funnily enough I was just going to post something about “righteousness” in NB.
It’s a difficult balance. When to speak up vs when to stay silent.
I had a neighbour who left an abandoned car out front of his house for a couple of years. By law in my city this is not allowed. It was an inconvenience as through traffic would often need to stop to allow car’s coming the other way through.
After about a year of mulling it over I finally wrote to the council and, sure enough, a couple of weeks later the car was gone.
I still feel a little bit of guilt but I think it was for the greater good.
Perhaps you can look at it in a similar way?
Bunks
Re: Knowledge of the absolute
@Jeroen said:
I was following a discussion on another forum, where various knowledgeable Buddhists were talking about the claim by Advaita Vedanta teachers that we humans are in fact consciousness which is eternal and causes the whole of existence to spring into being.
There is an interesting link here with the ‘observer effect’ in quantum mechanics, that when things are observed they behave differently.
My own experience is that everything passes, nothing that can be experienced lasts. So even to know that something is eternal seems difficult. Yet some of the things that Sri Ramana Maharshi says seem to be true on close examination.
Consciousness as a mirror of ‘what is’ seems to be a different quality than all the rest of the phenomenal world. It doesn’t strike me as impossible that it could be eternal.
Jeroen
Re: Vertical vs Horizontal Transcendence
@person said:
It doesn't have to be so separated, your practice can be motivated by wanting to be of greater benefit. Like learning to be a doctor or something, to be of spiritual service its important to be coming from a place of peace, love and wisdom.
Yes, that is possible. To be motivated to pass on one’s peace, love and wisdom, which were developed through spiritual practice. But that still requires picking up skills like oratory.
Here in the Netherlands there is a University course for being a spiritual counsellor, which you can take in a variety of flavours, including Buddhist. I have wondered about how useful it is. Of course Christians have had theological colleges for a very long time.
Jeroen
Re: Buddhist response to the climate crisis
Thank you Bunks. This will come quite handy!
I had a small chat regarding this with a friend, who openly seemed to be in favour of drastic measures, and even "armed preparation" against fascism.
He seemed to view the Buddhist as passive, as it does not support the "right measures" to deal with the crisis. I wonder what Ajahn Sujato would reply to this.
I sometimes feel that equanimity (Upekkha) can be mistakenly seen as "well, whatever happens, happens", though he did not take into account the rest of the eight fold path and 10 paramis, as well as the 4NT.
Equanimity does not stand on its own, high on the sky, as if it were a monk or scholar at the top of an ivory tower... it is built upon calming down, doing good and, sometimes, acknowledging what goes beyond anyone's control. This allows, sometimes, to avoid hurrying into poor decisions that end up causing even more suffering.
Where I live, the situation with rubbish has worsened. More tourists = more rubbish. Plus the locals have not changed their habits that much, meaning the piles are growing more than what I can clean. One of my neighbours openly deposits her rubbish by our street and the police said "they can't do anything about it".
In this case, I was thinking, is it against "equanimity" to start documenting this to let know the new mayor to please take this situation a bit more seriously than what her party has done in the last 14 years....
Hmmhm.... why this urge to change things? I guess for the well-being of all..
Maybe true equanimity would be to do a live zazen surrounded by heaps of rubbish?
Like in that song: "Though my mind is at peace, the world is out of the order."
PD: I just noticed the title is "Let Not The World Burn". Clearly not a very passive stance! Good! 
Kotishka
Re: Getting better "blog"
At 68 my success at sustaining a gym regimen (somewhere between tedium and injury) only arrived when I started going frequently but for a short duration. I'm in and out within 30 min. Motivating oneself to do this is relatively easy with such a short time commitment, and I no longer injure myself in the process. A fast walk or biking to the gym and back also offers me a preparatory warming up and cooling down for the weight training.
how
Re: Vertical vs Horizontal Transcendence
@Jeroen said:
I think what I wanted to say was that by placing a strong aspirational ideal of service like the Bodhisattva in your practice, you shift the focus away from working on yourself to working in the world.
It doesn't have to be so separated, your practice can be motivated by wanting to be of greater benefit. Like learning to be a doctor or something, to be of spiritual service its important to be coming from a place of peace, love and wisdom.
person
