Best Of
Re: Bodhisattvas?
Having taken the Bodhisattva Vows, I'd say they are important to me.
The Four Great Vows gatha (not the same as the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts)
Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way in unattainable, I vow to attain it.
In truth, when all beings have awakened, not a single being has woken.
Re: Using thoughts to direct the mind
I use this technique every now and then. I do find it useful, however the title had me wondering if it's the other way around. That is just my bias though as usually during silent illumination meditation, if I catch myself entertaining any thought at all, I return to the breath.
Re: Bodhisattvas?
I am preparing to undertake Jukai (precept takings under the Zen tradition) and have found the Bodhissatva ideal a bit conflictive because of my Theravada and Vajrayana past. In both teachings I was warned about this because a wrong doing could cause endless rebirths and, some of them, will not be as lucky as my current one.
Right now, beyond those metaphysical questions, I am concentrating on the present moment and vow to help those I can, including myself. Like Marcitko mentions, help momma with the dishes, clean yo' shit up, don't be a jerk, keep training! Stay hard!
Kotishka
Re: Buddhist Economics
These are all great answers. I do recycle my plastic as I believe it actually does get recycled here but I also make sure not to get single use stuff. For example, we get stainless steel straws and refuse the plastic ones that come with drinks out.
I also don't eat meat or animal products and limit my time on social media. The only real social site I use is likely the worst (Facebook) but I have a lot of family, friends and fellow Buddhists on there.
I also try to buy that which lasts when it comes to clothing and tech.
But where would Buddhist economics be without the first Paramita, Dana? I find less and less people are giving to the monastics that sustain the practice these days. Every pay I give what I can to my teacher and a Temple a few cities over. Then we also give to SOS which pairs parentless children with childless women in certain countries around the globe. Ours goes to a boy (now a preteen) within a group of I think eight. It pays to really research the organization and SOS is a very good and on-the-level charity. I don't make much money myself but it is a part of the practice.
Re: The worth of things…
There is a Netflix series, I believe, called 'Hoarders'. It actually makes for tragic and horrific viewing. I then found this information:
"Hoarding is a neuropsychiatric disorder.
It is usually triggered by an emotional incident, episode or experience, and is not laziness, unwillingness to cooperate, or indifference to cleanliness.
In 2013, The (American) Psychiatric Association re-classified Hoarding as a distinct disorder, separate from OCD.
The centres of the brain in the frontal lobe areas, which were much less stimulated in hoarders than in other healthy volunteers or those with OCD, were the areas responsible for focused attention, motivation, choosing between multiple options and regulation of emotion. 50% of the factors are hereditary, so hoarding often runs in families.. "
Hoarding is an attachment primarily to things that are of great sentimental value, due to their relevance or connection to a person or a time period of significance. Other stuff then accumulates to such an extent, that the original desire to 'keep hold' of something, is utterly and completely obliterated, and buried under tons of completely useless 'stuff'. My daughter's partner Mark, had to clear his mother's house, to sell it. Just clearing away the extraneous stuff, took months (his mother is still alive) and the huge storage locker (think cargo shipping container) he hired, to store what she insisted on keeping, is ⅔ full. My daughter finally managed to gently convince her to dispose of 47, variously-sized glass jars, she had stored away, for jam making. She hasn't made jam in over 15 years. Their jars were all stored in the fridge. That is hoarding. I am determined to never succumb to such an affliction!
federica
Re: The worth of things…
Yes, for my mother and me we have realised we had everything we actually needed in our own home, and in going through the boxes with the things we kept from my father it’s a question of what we would like to keep, and what we can find room for. The same also with the boxes of my old household goods from many years ago.
Going back over our memories, my mother and I recalled a number of instances where my father had asked us for help with organising his home. It became clear only when we took stock of the apartment after his death that every piece of storage space was filled to the rafters with ‘things’. Clothes, linnen, fancy crockery, papers, foto’s, he had kept everything. And it was also clear that this had become a burden to him, that living in an apartment so full of stuff was choking him — there was no room to breathe.
This is what led us to the realisation that although we had a larger home, it was also full of things we didn’t need, didn’t use and didn’t appreciate. There are many things here we are just holding onto because they were of use in the past — papers, old computers, old coats and shoes. I said to my mother, it can all go.
Jeroen
Re: Zazen is good
" They have not lived in vain who dies the day they are told about the Way."
It's Confucius but hey.
I'm not sure progress and improvement conflict with the practice as much as a set goal may. It sounds like you're on the right path for you, but then, could it be otherwise?
Re: Buddhist Economics
I personally believe recycling plastic to be pointless. Here in the UK, only 12% of plastic thrown out, ends up recycled. The remaining 88% is either incinerated, or exported. To whom, or where, I do not know, but fewer and fewer countries are willing to take on OUR rubbish...I used to take my own containers to the supermarket, to transfer my purchases into. This fell by the wayside when I moved in with Mother. It is difficult to organise one's own life when you occupy space in that of another's... but we do recycle paper, card, metal and glass.. plastic bottle tops go to a local organisation, who somehow turn them into useable items like benches, chairs, tables and play equipment for children/schools. Our famous British Pharmacy, Boots, collects medicine blister packs, to salvage the aluminium. Given that my mother is on a good quantity of prescribed medicines, they do OK by us.
I knit, but sadly use acrylic yarns, because using real wool, is costly.
Managing both my, and my mother's finances, is a constant juggling process... I honestly believe teaching kids how to deal with money is a sound objective, and should start early - but I digress.... my scant presence here shows my much-reduced use of the Internet. Social Media isolates, it doesn't conjoin...
federica
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
After fielding some questions on another forum why I remain so interested in the whole question of which films enduringly changed some aspect of my self, I think it is because the question invites you to explore yourself and your growing up through the lens of cinema. It is self knowledge, and having an understanding of which films triggered in you the concerns of depth.
For example, earlier I spoke a little about the film The Exorcist. It caused a big furore on its release, people queueing at the cinema, not being able to take it and leaving halfway through, and then being interviewed by the press once outside. For me, seeing the most scary scenes at age 11 was shocking. It gave me a lasting dislike of horror. And it’s only now that I can say, horror is the exploration of fear and shock, and to take into your own mind other people’s dreams of fear and shock is psychologically unhealthy.
Take as a contrast Buddhist films. They are filled with respect for elders, meditation, ideas of wisdom, the circular patterns of life. As an example take Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring (available on YouTube here). It’s a beautiful movie which doesn’t rely on violence to get its point across. But these kinds of films are much closer to real life than a horror film, although it takes a certain maturity to realise it. I think horror films are what you get when an immature mind explores fear and shock, and it’s only as you get older that you can start to discern what is real and what is illusion in life.
Perhaps that is why I love Hayao Miyazaki’s films so much. His movies are animated masterpieces talking about spirits, bathhouses, dragons, gods and moving castles on giant legs, so fantasies, but on an emotional level they are pure gold, each one is the expression of multiple life’s lessons about friendship, openness, courage, connection — real emotional truth. Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo are among my favourites of his.
Jeroen
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
@lobster said:
You have an electric chainsaw @lobster ? What an extravagance…
I used to be a gardener. It is battery operated. Reserved for natural tree fall. You will be pleased to know I am kosher, halal and vegan. In my dreams. In real life I eat what is available, a Maitreya speciality/necessity (like the olde Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni did)...
It is all perfectly fine… I understand the tantric impulse to go chain sawing the undergrowth!
Jeroen