Best Of
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
Chuck Schumer calls on Benjamin Netanyahu to step down over war on Gaza in Senate speech
The fourth major obstacle to peace is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has all too frequently bowed to the demands of extremists like ministers smotri and Ben gavier and the settlers in the West Bank. I have known Prime Minister Netanyahu for a very long time. While we have vehemently disagreed on many occasions, I will always respect his extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man. I believe in his heart, his highest priority is the security of Israel. However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel. He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Minister smotri and benir, and as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has also weakened Israel's political and moral fabric through his attempts to co-opt the judiciary, and he has shown zero interest in doing the courageous and visionary work required to pave the way for peace. Even before this present conflict, as a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me that the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel. After October 7th, the world has changed radically since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.
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Shoshin1
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Q: How do I go about teaching the mind to be peaceful in practice?
M: Whenever a thought or emotion of desire or fear comes to your mind, just turn away
from it.
Q: By suppressing my thoughts and feelings I shall provoke a reaction.
M: I am not talking of suppression. Just refuse attention.
Q: Must I not use effort to arrest the movements of the mind?
M: It has nothing to do with effort. Just turn away, look between the thoughts, rather than at the thoughts. When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet — you just find your way between.
(Questions asked of Nisargadatta Maharaj)
Jeroen
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
@Shoshin1 said:
Interesting discussion on UpFrontIs this a watershed moment for Jewish solidarity with Palestinians?
Why are you surprised? Not all Jews are fans of Netanyahu. To be completely honest, the constant need for people to have Jews distance themselves from the Israeli government, especially non-Israeli Jews is fucking EXHAUSTING. As I stated in previous posts, the approval rate (which is falling) is/was 14% for Netanyahu. If the media and society in general gave a rat's ass about what Israelis and Jews REALLY think, the reporting might be a bit more balanced, but where's the fun in that. The media can't spin that.
And yes you'll likely write me off as overemotional or some other thing, and to be honest, good for you. Since October 7th I've had death threats, my car vandalised and harrassment in public with no support. I'm at the point where I don't wear anything to identify me as Jewish. I'm against the war, the occupation of the West Bank and am no fan of Netanyahu, but that means nothing to the majority of Pro-Palestinian supporters because I'm a coloniser (never set foot in Israel though I have family who have been in living there since at least 1901 when it was referred to as Palestina of the Otttoman Empire - the British Mandate was in 1920), an automatic genocide supporter - even though I am adamantly against the war and have been told by numerous people Hitler didn't finish the job etc. People like me just can't win. And that extends to here apparently.
I'm going to take a break from here because frankly my sanity and safety is more important than an online site that judges the whole by the few - especially since I posted a video and shock horror didn't check the website it's on. I might add that video has done the rounds on Insta, Facebook etc etc with no source but I digress.
Anyway, take care peeps. See you maybe further down the track sometime.
Re: Buddhist quotes
Listen to the news every day.
Listen many times.
Not the news on a screen or in the Newspaper but the new of your body and mind.
This is the most important news.
What is happening right now?
Observe how your actions and speech affect your mind.
Observe how your mental states condition your action and speech.
This is how we investigate the law of kamma in every day life.
- Ajahn Jayasaro
Bunks
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
According to some teachers, you are doing the right thing when there is
awareness of awareness or according to the Thai Forest Masters, you have realised the Buddho, or 'The one who knows'.
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/25357/like-oil-and-water
How do you know you are aware of awareness?
Direct your attention away from the objects and towards the subjective knower.
What does the knower know?
The knower knows that everything that arises passes away, everything without exception.
Like a dream, a mirage, a bubble, and emptiness.
ANICCA
The following verse is attributed to Bodhidharma, the first Zen Patriarch.
A special transmission outside the scriptures,
Not founded upon words and letters;
By pointing directly to one’s mind
It lets one see into one’s own true nature and thus attain Buddhahood.
"In the same way, friends, even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters, he still has with regard to the five clinging-aggregates a lingering residual 'I am' conceit, an 'I am' desire, an 'I am' obsession. But at a later time he keeps focusing on the phenomena of arising & passing away with regard to the five clinging-aggregates: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such is feeling... Such is perception... Such are fabrications... Such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' As he keeps focusing on the arising & passing away of these five clinging-aggregates, the lingering residual 'I am' conceit, 'I am' desire, 'I am' obsession is fully obliterated."
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.089.than.html
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
It is very useful to not label as in:
- "I am not meditating"
- "I am bored"
- "My leg has gone to sleep"
- "Hoping the meditation gong is being heard soon ... is not meditation"
- "Funny thing happened on the way to the cushion. Still thinking about it"
- "Why am I torturing myself. This is dukkha"
- "Nothing is happening"
Before you know it you will be just sitting around like the rest of us ...
lobster
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
I feel that true meditation should not be tiring. If meditation demands such focus and concentration that afterwards you feel tired, then something is not right. Part of this is finding a meditation that fits with you. There are many.
Jeroen
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
I don't think you're actually meditating. Your expectations may be a bit out of line.
Keep this in mind. Shakyamuni didn't meditate to relieve stress, or relax or exercise mindfulness. He meditated to find the solution to birth, old age, sickness and death, and became Buddha.
Why do you meditate? Maybe you should start there.
Re: Have I ever truly meditated?
@IdleChater said:
Why do you meditate? Maybe you should start there.
It seems to me that meditating with a goal in mind is to set yourself up for a mind-generated hallucination, it builds a certain tension. The mind will generally try to give you what you want.
That is why I meditate with ‘just sitting’, it means you let your mind empty of all things other than sitting. No goals, just letting the sensation of sitting be in body and mind, and watching that.
@how said:
There is just about every possible feeling in the world that will arise at some time or another in a meditation practice. Judging our meditation in response to such visitations shows where we have chosen to shift back into a habituated mentality over what the meditation process offers.
Indeed, judging means you have stepped back into the mind. If you can let things come and go, and watch quietly and dispassionately then you have gotten somewhere, you have gained a measure of peace and separation from the mind.
It is not very different from what the Buddha sat through under the Bodhi tree, a succession of fears and temptations made by your mind especially for you.
Jeroen