Best Of
Re: Getting better "blog"
I made a half-of-year analysis of my exercise and weight:
Exercise (days I exercised):
January-June: 41.1%
January - March: 28.9%
April-June: 53.3%
The overall percentage is OKish, but my target is for it to be higher. However, the trend is increasing so I'm happy and will continue pushing for it to increase further.
Let's say that in exercising 41.1% of days I've accomplished my C goal - to have a consistent exercise regimen. The B goal would be to exercise in the 70-80% range - which is "every day except for some exceptions". The A goal would be to finally become someone who can "walk a straight line" which would mean exercising pretty much every day regardless of how I feel, what I'm doing, the weather, etc.
Since November 2022, which is 8 months, I lost 5.1kgs. This too could be better, but it's definitely a sizeable move in the right direction. I can and should look more into how I eat - which is the most important part of weight-loss. The problem is that I order lunch. I could cook more and/or look into eating less when I eat. I am not too keen on skipping meals, since it seems to impact my state of mind negatively. The other problem (which I cannot change currently, so it's not really a problem, just part of the scenery) is that I take some medication which increases appetite.
Both exercise and weight-loss could have been better, but I'm happy with the results so far and will continue pushing. I do believe it's a training and a process, so for starters this is good enough.
I also analyze my substance-intake:
With alcohol, I have continued doing what I've done for the past few (5? 7?) years - which is to mostly never drink except 1-2 beers on very rare occasions. During this time, I probably drank twice while at home and twice while travelling in London, so four times in 6 months. Since it does not really help me in any way any more, except for a VERY brief time period, and comes with a great cost even for 1-2 beers (being hungover), I don't know why I continue drinking even this small amount. I think I get tricked by the mind/old habits which says "do it, you will be happy". But it does not really work that way.
With the anti-anxiety medication, I've tapered down to 1/4 successfully and to 1/8th yesterday. I hope to ditch it for good at the weekend. This would be a motivating win, some measurable thing I've accomplished.
With smoking, I remain at 1 packet/day. Stopping smoking is my most important goal but I've not been able to move on this yet successfully. Even tapering down to a smaller amount would be a significant move in the right direction.
With coffee, I drink my morning coffee and sometimes another one in the day. The second coffee impacts me negatively so I'm often fighting the urge. Drinking the second coffee is an example of directly hurting myself - since it has no positive effect (alcohol at least has a bit of a positive effect for a while). Currently, I am not drinking the second coffee. I would like to quit coffee altogether - in order to have a clean and natural mind.
marcitko
Re: Getting better "blog"
Yesterday I was active and productive with the post-travel chores but again did not manage the whole list (also because I did some things outside the list). For this reason, going forward I will rank and prioritise the activities for my daily task-lists. This way at least I will do the most important stuff and can move some less important items to the next day.
Today I will go to the library and work. I will not set a fixed time-limit, since it's my first day, and I think enough of a goal is to just show up. Afterwards I will go the gym and the shop. These are my priorities for today.
marcitko
The rarity of the spiritual life
I went to a high school reunion the other day, there were a few people from my year and many from earlier years. A lot of the talk was about careers, comparing how far people had gotten, it was very materialistic.
I was surprised to find that these were not my kind of people anymore. Very few of them had a spiritual life, and those I tried to talk to about Buddhism didn’t seem inclined to listen. I also noticed that the things that they respect I didn’t feel anything for.
I was surprised that they all seemed to be like that… all young people made to fit society’s mold, grown into old people with unfortunate habits.
Jeroen
Re: The rarity of the spiritual life
My experiences with school reunions were pretty similar but I think its because this particular form of gathering tends to better represent the conditioned views of our ego's past, than how we have actually moved beyond them today.
The herd gathering of such reunions tends to re-link us to attitudes that we largely held and shared during those formative years of early socialized behavioral conditionings.
It's not quite as dramatic as the mob behavior of a lynching but it partakes of some of the same shared absence of true equanimity.
You might also be surprised at how many other people report much of the same disappointment in such gatherings that you found.
What better teaching could you have received on how much spiritual adolescence lurks just below the surface of any of our beliefs in our own spiritual adulthood?
As far as our conditioned propensity to judge self and others through a materialistic lens, It is one of the reasons I see that the "right livelihood" of the Buddha's 8 FP could be more practically represented today as "right relationships".
how
Re: Knowledge of the absolute
What do you think, can we know that something is eternal?
Instead of trying to posit eternity, can we know-see something that is unchanging, not subject to birth and death(arising and passing) aka the deathless?
The five aggregates are impermanent ie. anicca, dukkha, and anatta.
Can one impermanent phenomenon know another impermanent phenomenon?
To see the movement of a train, one has to stand on the platform.
All things are impermanent
when one observes this with insight,
then one becomes detached from suffering;
this is the path of purification.
"This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Nibbana." — AN 3.32
"The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering; the result of the mind sent outside is suffering; the mind seeing the mind is the path; and the result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering."
Ajaan Dune
Nibbana is not an experience but the cessation of experience.
Can 'something' that has no form, no shape, no color, and not a thought, a feeling, a memory but be subjected to 'time'?
The universe itself is not eternal!
Eternity is still time-bound, no?
My own experience is that everything passes, nothing that can be experienced lasts.
‘There is the Unborn, Uncreated, Unoriginated: If there was not the Unborn, Uncreated, Unoriginated, there would be no escape from the born, the created, the originated.'
Yes indeed, for the Buddha was a pragmatist who only taught what he had actually experienced"
Re: Mindfulness practice
A meditation that one applies to this present fleeting moment is a reality unmatched by any planned meditation of another time.
Each nanosecond of awareness of any moment offers a living meet & greet with a Buddha.
Outside of such moments, the offerings of Buddha statues will have to suffice.
Three of the greatest values of scheduling a regular meditation and sticking to it is it's
(1) A pilgrimage that says your practice at that time supersedes everything else.
(2) A Commitment to meditate regardless of wanting or not wanting to do so.
(3) Demonstration that nothing conditioned need limit the possibility of practicing anytime.
how
Re: Mindfulness practice
'Trying' to be mindful involves thinking about being mindful and this is where the problems occur, the trap of becoming pre-occupied with the thoughts about (how) to do/be mindful....
One could always try the reverse way of entering into in, by trying 'not' to be mindful....
"You can not catch hold of it, nor can you get rid of it.
In not being able to get it, you get it
When you speak it is silent
When you are silent it speaks"
~Zen poem~
Shoshin1
Re: Mindfulness practice
Life is practice! [Lobster faints] I am sure I read that somewhere … eh … everywhere. We may have a plan … 🤭👋😉😶
lobster
Re: Modern teachers and money
I think in the western world, the phrase "you get what you pay" is unfortunately embedded in people's minds. New Buddhists who know no better sometimes get taken by flashy fanfair and corporate practice jargon and they are impressed. They shell over thousands and come away feeling a sense of reward. But this reward is hollow much like going to Disneyland or a blockbuster movie, the hype is there but fades because the "thing" they paid for isn't always present; when actually all they needed was a Sangha close to house and a grounded practice based on their own findings and experience. Sharing with others and learning by doing. As it is said "rely on no one for your salvation, for only YOU can save yourself".
Re: Modern teachers and money
I thought that Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in Scotland where I once stayed for two weeks had a very nice system. Donation based but with a clear "suggested donation".
That way (I assume) most people can just pay the suggested donation and those on either extreme of the affluence ladder can either support others or be supported themselves.
Now that others have said that some monks complain that donations do not come often enough, I wonder what proportion of people donated to the Abbey and how much. It might make for very interesting economics research - whether it might be possible to implement such a system elsewhere in the wider economy.
marcitko