Best Of
Re: What music are you listening to?
Sometimes the river flows but nothing breathes
A train arrives but never leaves, it's a shame (Dukkha )
Oh, life like love that's walked out of the door (Dukkha )
Of being rich or being poor, such a shame (Dukkha )
But it's then, then that faith arrives ( In Buddha Dharma )
To make your feelings alive
And that's why, you should keep on aiming high (Dharma Practice )
Just seek yourself and you will shine (Meditation )
You've got to search for the hero inside yourself
Search for the secrets you hide
Search for the hero inside yourself
Until you find the key to your life
In this life, long and hard though it may seem (Samsara )
Live it as you'd live a dream, aim so high ( See through the illusion)
Just keep the flame of truth burning bright (Hold the Dharma )
The missing treasure you must find
Mmm-mmm-mmm
Because you and only you alone
Can build a bridge across the stream
Weave your spell in life's rich tapestry (Practice the Dharma )
Your passport to a feeling supreme ( Enlightenment-Buddha Nature )
You've got to search for the hero inside yourself
Search for the secrets you hide
Search for the hero inside yourself
Until you find the key to your life
You've got to search, inside yourself
Deep, deep down inside yourself, yeah
You've got to search, inside yourself
You've got to search for the hero inside yourself (ooh)
Search for the secrets you hide
Search for the hero inside yourself
Until you find the key to your life
Search for the hero inside yourself (oh yeah)
Search for the secrets you hide (all of the secrets you hide)
Search for the hero inside yourself (you'll find a hero)
Until you find the key to your life
You've got to search inside yourself
You've got to search (Meditation )
Shoshin1
Re: Zazen & Metacognition: Beginner's thoughts
very insightful post from @how
Some of us may not be able to just sit still
so sit and relax the tights, the eyeballing, the sniffing, the tension body, the memorising, the planning, the feeling
Karma yourself right down to bare minimum changing focus, attentive hearing etc
lobster
Re: Zazen & Metacognition: Beginner's thoughts
My own mind routinely designs credible pathways to give credence to the dream of it's own fiefdom.
An average mind's lifetime of dream design speaks a lot for just how much innate momentum has been established that never offers a path where "waking up" from it could actually be a likely possibility. It is no accident that all of the mental solutions to the dream that the mind has offered, turn out to be another run through a maze, and while occupying, ends up being without its promised exit.
To challenge your own mentality on its home turf is a losing proposition because that action in itself simply gives more credence to the validity of its dream.....
when not much more needs to be done, in any moment, than to offer all of the other sense gates (what we see, hear, smell; taste & feel) a fully equal share of that throne.
Here, all that is needed is to return a usurping mental monarchy and the dream it created to defend its position, back to an unmolested & collegially shared sense gate experience of all arising and passing phenomena that is no longer edited and ordered according to the limiting conceptions of a self verses other.
how
Re: Share the knowledge of wholesome deeds
@person said:
I remember one time driving to the food shelf to donate some food. I became aware of a thought/emotion along the lines of "what a good boy am I", "I'm better than all those who don't do this". Seeing that arise in me as a result of doing this was so repulsive. I absolutely hated that feeling of smugness.I mean if I'm honest, I generally like myself more than is probably warranted. But I think its just that I'm comfortable and happy with myself instead of thinking I'm better than others, the comparing mind doesn't seem to be there much. In the case above it was and I hated it.
It is always interesting to see what is beneath these things, to follow them to their roots. You know the saying ‘that your irritations, your hates are your best teachers’? Maybe there is a certain insecurity at the core of this, that the ego needs to have a justification for donating things? If you’re mindful and ask yourself the question, ‘why does this thought visit me’, then your insight sometimes will supply you the answer in a flash.
Jeroen
Re: Share the knowledge of wholesome deeds
I remember one time driving to the food shelf to donate some food. I became aware of a thought/emotion along the lines of "what a good boy am I", "I'm better than all those who don't do this". Seeing that arise in me as a result of doing this was so repulsive. I absolutely hated that feeling of smugness.
I mean if I'm honest, I generally like myself more than is probably warranted. But I think its just that I'm comfortable and happy with myself instead of thinking I'm better than others, the comparing mind doesn't seem to be there much. In the case above it was and I hated it.
Not sure what I'm getting at. I am more of the mind, just do the deed because its the right thing to do. I can't really say you're wrong about the promoting of good deeds. I guess I have a strong emotional reaction to smug, self-satisfaction.
I've been writing this slowly and reflecting I do mention things I do that promote a healthy lifestyle, psychologically and physically. And I can do that in humble or arrogant ways, so I suppose promoting good deeds is pretty similar.
person
Re: Letting thoughts come and go
This mornings haphazard musings.
Forms, sensations, thought, volitional activity and consciousness are simply
the Buddhist descriptions of the components of our existence. Most identities seem constructed by our chosen preferences of some of these components over others, of this collection. Deconstruction of an ego or a break up of the patterns that predetermine how we habitually respond to any phenomena is simply us learning how to stop favoring some of these components over others.
This is what I think meditation...is.
Less about the descriptions of which of these components are our favorites, and more about an actualization that lessens such preferences.
how
Re: Buddhist quotes
"Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice."
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Kotishka
Re: Letting thoughts come and go
Generally you're taught to anchor the mind to the breath. So you count and pay attention to the breathe and what you notice that you get distracted by thoughts. often we are absorbed into a thought story day dream and then we snap out of it, like waking from a dream. that is a the gross form of thoughts. but there are also very subtle undercurrents of thoughts and stories that are fragments, which are very difficult to see unless we have a very refined attention. one can also attend to proto-thought patterns which deal with sensation, which is not really a thought as image, but as felt sensation. it still carries the same object fixation of there being "something" there.
in mindfulness you come to a point where attention moves out but simultaneously you are aware as the watcher of those thoughts and perceptions. it feels very much like a fullness or a sensation of centeredness, in which thoughts arise, abide and cease. what remains is the mind/watcher/cognitive quality. this is still dualistic in nature, but is indispensable training of the mind.
if you're looking for non dualistic teachings on mindfulness then you have to seek a teacher, who can point out to your mind how to discern the liberating principle apart from thoughts, sensations and perceptions. then thinking won't be much of a problem because there will be no more link between a subject and object, hence no continuity of karmic impressions.
taiyaki
Zazen & Metacognition: Beginner's thoughts
When sitting, you just sit. It sounds so simple, but the exercise becomes quite considerable particularly when you try longer sittings.
From what I've learnt, you sit and allow all sense gates to enter a state of calm awareness without letting any become intensively overloaded, especially if this sense is the Mind, the great pilot of this human skeleton.
While meditation practice should not be orientated towards Enlightenment nor self-improvement, there is certain aspect in self-improvement which helps to get rid of the self. Though my question is, when is this dangerous as in "creating or feeding the ideal of illusory self" which will then just prolongue suffering? Maybe this is just the way it should be. A positive well-round self-concept will more likely engage in constructive thoughts which will lead to mindful acts in real life. Then, someday, just like from what I understood the Bodhissatva Path "project" consists of: when we are all "freed" or aware of this freedom, we can drop and renunciate and reach the other Shore completely.. but, to then re-start this cycle again?
If it is infinite, then why to completely renounce, why not simply continue on the path accepting certain attachments which are intrinsic to human nature, while accepting the Four Noble Truths?
This is why I sometimes like to understand zazen in terms of metacognition.
"Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner."
This aspect has definitively helped to be able to continue following precepts and wholesomeness.
Peace!
Kotishka
Share the knowledge of wholesome deeds
In the past I learned from my christian friends that a good deed disclosed is a wasted deed in the eyes of God. That a good deed should be done and never spoken of. This is a fairly widely held belief in my area of the world.
I now understand the reasoning behind this belief. The doing of the good deed is not for the purpose of bragging. The fear is that incentivizing this disclosure leads to an expectation of praise as the sole purpose behind doing good deeds. It becomes a trade of sorts rather than a wholesome deed and loses some merit as result of desire for praise as payment.
However keeping good deeds to oneself reduces the number of good deeds witnessed by others. Good deeds witnessed by others inspire others to carry out good deeds. It amplifies good deeds and proliferates the idea of doing good deeds. More people do good deeds as a result. I've experienced this just recently with the sharing of picking up trash while hiking.
Knowledge and expression of good deeds should be shared as it amplifies the reach of the good deed. If the concern is bragging and desire for praise, simply check the intentions of the expression for this desire and remove it to the best of ability before expressing the good deed to others.
Happy deeding.
