Best Of
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Q: Will not right conduct be enough to secure salvation?
A: Salvation for whom? Who wants salvation? And what is right conduct? What is conduct? And what is right? Who is to judge what is right and what is wrong? According to previous samskaras, each one regards something or other as right. Only when the reality is known can the truth about right and wrong be known. The best course is to find out who wants this salvation. Tracing this `who' or ego to its original source is the right conduct for everyone.
(Question asked to Ramana Maharshi)
Jeroen
Re: Buddhist quotes
We feel ourselves surrounded by unpredictable and uncontrollable change. This provokes fear and anxiety. People adopt different strategies to deal with their unease. Some people try to make themselves so busy, physically and mentally, that they have no time to dwell on deeper matters.
It is the ideas behind the cartoon characters that can run off the edge of a cliff, but not fall as long as they don’t look down. Other people devote themselves single mindedly to a cause or a dream. Many people distract themselves with alcohol or illegal drugs.
Perhaps the most common response is to place faith in a changeless but benevolent supernatural force.
The Buddhist approach is different. The Buddha taught us to study change, to understand its causal nature.
When we look more closely within, we can discover the root cause of our fear and anxiety. The culprit is the idea we have of ourselves as a solid, separate independent entity. In fact, all that can be found is a flow of phenomena with no owner or controller standing behind it. We realise that we are not vulnerable, fragile creatures threatened by change. Our life is simply a particular expression of that same universal change that surrounds us. Seeing this, how could there be fear?
Ajahn Jayasaro - 17/6/2023
Bunks
Re: Word Association Game
Guesthouse
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~Rumi~
Shoshin1
Re: Mindfulness at work
I think I remember an instruction for practice amidst pressure and difficult responsiblities. In my past I applied it to arguments or heated discussions. The teaching was to notice amidst whatever difficulty that there is more wiggle room than it seems. Like more space to pause a moment. More space to notice an option that is less of a reaction and more of a creative moment that bubbles up from mindfulness.
And then practicing with that instruction is similar to practicing noticing the breath for a formal meditation. You start the meditation with the intention to notice the breath and then somehow in the middle of a 'thought world' you remember and notice the breath.
Jeffrey
Re: Mindfulness at work
What they do at Plum Village is they have a mindfulness bell which goes off every so often, and then you’re supposed to take a few minutes to come back to a mindful state.
Jeroen
Re: Mindfulness at work
Morning @Bunks
The only piece of advice I can offer is that I try to take five mins here and there and do some quick mantras to refocus. It doesn't always work, but it does help me regroup.
Sura
xx
Re: The Sufi story of Mojud
This story makes me wonder, should I not give up the money I have left after living for so long on savings, and go out and experience more of the world? Money is safety, comfort and freedom, but it also tends to lead your life down certain very regulated channels. We have health insurance, pensions, property…
It’s funny but just after I found this story, I heard of a friend of my father who had had an ayahuasca experience, and was told to go to Brazil. So he is now moving to Brazil in three weeks, he has found a job there and is going to live there. So this thought just seems to have come on my way.
Some time ago, when I was waking up one morning, a voice said to me, “you have not experienced enough of the world” … maybe it was right?
Jeroen
Re: The No Self Teaching
A Dharma teaching I listened to today emphasized a modern philosopher's TED talk on the topic of self that I remember watching at some point. We understand that when 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine a molecule of water is produced. We don't think that there is some essence of water already out there that then attracts the atoms to it. The self is the same way, there isn't some essence of self that attracts the aggregates, the aggregates come together to form a self.
person
Re: The No Self Teaching
@Shoshin1 said:
And from what I gather the "aha moment" of a teaching can come at anytime, anywhere a long the Path ...hours, days, weeks, months, years... Where pieces of the puzzle come together...or depending on how one sees it, are dismantled...
It’s true that different people connect to different teachings, I found Ajahn Chah taught in a very accessible way by emphasizing letting go initially. Easy to understand and put into practice. Then you eventually start to see no-self once you have let go of enough inner junk, and you start to suspect that once everything is let go of there might not be much left.
Jeroen
Re: Funny Stuff
the most ignorant generation is the one thinking itself the most knowledgeable. That shifts from time to time.
Lionduck