Best Of
Re: How to Teach?
@Jeroen said:
I find that when I look for no-self I go quiet, words desert me as does the compassion which motivates me to teach. Perhaps it means there are layers of my being where the dharma has not yet come.
For me, the most effective route to teaching is compassion and enthusiasm, when those are present in equal measure I am more receptive to other people’s states and questions.
Was just rereading this thread and this really struck a chord with me. It reminds me of Sujata, who saved the Buddhas mortal existence by feeding him rice. He had already seen the truth of things but her act of compassion gave it its full flavour or texture or feel. Without that act of compassion, we would have lost a most precious teacher indeed.
I love Sujata.
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
How very true.
federica
Re: Are metta, mudita, and karuna felt in the body?
@FleaMarket said:
Are they aggregate feelings? Are they felt in the body?
If so, how do they work with the understanding of unclinging to aggregates such as the feelings?I hear it's to be cultivated. How much is cultivated? How much is too little/much?
It's all a matter of being open to awareness ...and developing experiential understanding of the twelve links of dependent origination ....links six and seven seem to be the sticking points, (pun intended) which one needs to be aware of/pay particular attention to ....
Awareness is fundamentally non-conceptual before thinking splits experience into subject and object ...It is empty and so can contain everything including thought...It is boundless...And amazingly it is intrinsically knowing 
Shoshin1
Re: How to Teach?
How to Teach?
I was going to add...
"How to teach your grandmother to suck eggs"
....but thought better of it 
Anyhow....Thus have I heard....
If one puts into practice...what one is more inclined to preach (just thinking about it)
More often than not...it's the best way to teach (actions speak louder than words)...
Shoshin1
Re: How to Teach?
From a parents perspective, by example. Kids don't do as we tell them, they do as we do.
"Teaching is not done by talking alone. It is done by how you live your life. My life is my teaching. My life is my message."
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Re: The darkness within
@marcitko said:
Dear all,A more difficult topic.
Sharing with you because while I do have wise and kind people in my orbit, you are the wisest and kindest group in my orbit currently.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” An often shared quote by Jung.
While I aspire to and train in practice (you'll have to trust me on this one) to grow in goodness and virtue, and while most people will say that I am a kind and virtuous person, I notice a core belief of being, at core, defective, no good, malicious, even evil.
I believe this belief comes from early childhood trauma and is buried deep within, not analyzed, not observed (often), not admitted, not "aired out", not processed, not released. As such, it contaminates much of my thinking and life.
Holding this (mostly sub-concious) belief, I do not think I am special or different to others, and suspect that many have it. I even saw an interview with a realized teacher who said that was one of his last "pain-baloons" that got cleared out and released.
How might we approach such a belief from a Buddhist perspective? Do you also have such a core belief / wound? If yes, how do you deal with it?
Thanks!
I believe that a drop of water is "of the ocean" and so is part of the ocean, and can be ANY part. Like the drop of water, I am of the human race. I have within me the blueprint for the greatest evil (and of course in addition to evil, also, good, wise, whimsical, artistic, etc). I have the vestigial templates for all that humans can be. So, in this life, I have choices to make . . .
Steve_B
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“You are so accustomed to feeling yourself as a center that this habit contracts you away from your wholeness. You go away from a vast nothing in order to be a small something. You go away from your Absence to create a presence.”
— Jean Klein
Jeroen
Re: What can we do?
We can start by tending to the weeds in our own garden.
St Seraphim of Sarov said “Aquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”
Silouan
Re: Healthy Habits
@FleaMarket said:
I have whiteboards on various walls at home where I can write important rememberances, instructions, inspirations, and funny stuff on. Or even just a market list and exercise routine. It's fun cuz I can erase and alter it easily and when I come across something too important for one of my never re-read notepads, I can add it to an increasingly personalized and inspirational whiteboard.
I recently got a small whiteboard and absolutely love it. It's done wonders for my organisation. I write down daily goals, larger visions, stuff that needs to be done in general, quotes that I would like to keep in mind, I test intuitions, etc.
For now, the little one is good enough, but once I get my own apartment I will invest in a huge one, hopefully the size of a school blackboard. But your idea of several medium sized ones sounds also very good.
marcitko