Best Of
Re: The Guru Papers discussion
@Dakini said:
Well, as Stephen Batchelor said in a meeting between Western Dharma teachers and the Dalai Lama, "Why would we follow teachers who are much more flawed than we are?"
It’s an interesting question, because Osho was… very unique. I hesitate to call him flawed exactly although he was far from perfect. But many people felt something special in his presence, they were drawn to him.
I remember reading a little about Ram Dass and his guru Neem Karoly Baba, that Ram Dass had said that his guru had taught him how to love. I thought it was a beautiful expression at first, but later on I kinda came around to the idea of a transmission.
It is often said that when a disciple who is ready sits by his guru, it is like an unlit piece of wood being placed near a burning piece of wood. Eventually the unlit piece catches fire. Which is how Rupert Spira said it happened between him and his teacher Francis Lucille.
It is a brave man who says with certainty what is a flaw, is how I’d put it.
Jeroen
Re: Living from the Heart
I feel this is a healthy direction.
I have a particular affection/attachment (attachments have their higher form) to Metta-Ray or Maitreya, who is into that sort of thing …
Metta 4 All … a sort of spiritual composting …
lobster
Re: Living from the Heart
I'm not that familiar with the subject but I hear people talking more about the distinction between happiness and meaning in living a good life. That you can have one without the other.
Just saying it may be an avenue to go down.
person
Living from the Heart
From another topic…
For me, it made me ask whether I had lived enough from the heart. I’ve always been quite into planning and strategizing, living from the mind, and have done very few things that were spontaneous. That means I’ve been very ‘sensible’ and non-impulsive, very safe, but also that I haven’t lived from the heart very much.
I’ve been thinking about what it means to live from the heart, and where I have lived from the heart in my life. Early in my life I loved living from my imagination, every book I read was like a world that would open to me. Later in my life I loved making things, software and ceramics especially. I love the young pear tree that I am growing in the garden.
But is living from the heart just concerned with love, the things that speak to you, that are emotionally meaningful to you? Or is there more, inspiration, enthusiasm?
Jeroen
Re: Applications for Buddhism
My contribution I guess is to do what I can. I have material needs like food, exercise, a roof over my head, etc met and spiritual and social ones I keep stretching out and that's a good sign. The world wasn't what I expected 
. I reckon I could play sad music from my youth but it only makes me cry
Jeffrey
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“I found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard ‘new things’: that is, things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new.”
—Ouspensky
Jeroen
Re: Applications for Buddhism
Work off bad karma, try not to generate new bad karma, continuous re-dedication.
My offering is continual effort toward uncovering, disenchanting, and renouncing the wrong views which lead to attachments and grasping.
My practice is in prudently letting them go as awareness of grasping arises.
Maybe with enough practice I will see what this being's contribution to others will be. It's clearly not art or making deep social bonds.
