Best Of
Re: Healthy Habits
@lobster said:
The French Paradox
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradoxAh ha! Makes sense.
- Rather than butter in the summer I like to use coconut oil for spreading on toast …
- The French love their food. Metta again …
- Some other tips worth acknowledging.
It's a fallacy. The cause of coronary problems is not those fats. It's carbohydrate/starch sugars.
The Body produces both HDL and LDL Cholesterols.
Both are essential for the adequate and correct function of the brain. Your brain is fed by cholesterol.
Your Body isn't going to produce adequate amounts of a compound that is bad for you/going to kill you.
Now, according to doctors, LDL is "bad" cholesterol.
Why? because if a person consumes high levels of sugars, the sugars, normally stored in the liver, are diffused into the bloodstream. When you eat too much sugar, your liver makes more LDL while lowering the amount of HDL in your body. The extra calories from a sugary diet also leads to more of something called triglycerides, a type of blood fat that plays a role in your cholesterol health.
LDL Combines with the triglycerides and creates the destructive and unhealthy platelets that line arteries and thicken to inhibit, block blood-flow. You can have high levels of LDL and HDL, without either level affecting your health one little bit, AS LONG AS YOUR TRIGLYCERIDES ARE AT NORMAL LEVELS.
Take it from me. Been there, done that, put my Dr in his place.
federica
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"Assuming the worst in others, will show our worst character, assuming the best in others is always the best course of action"
Superior Judge Timothy Walmsley
Kotishka
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
— Socrates
Jeroen
Re: Buddhist Slogans
Shit happens ( Dukkha & Karma)
Here we go again (Rebirth)
I'll be back (Rebirth)
Many happy returns ( Re-birthdays)
Shoshin1
Re: The inspiration in Buddhism
Kindness that @Kotishka mentions is the ultimate relaxation/peace generation practice.
Be at peace with:
- Breath
- Mind
- Body
- Surroundings
Gently, gently does it …
lobster
Re: the Broken Buddhas
@lobster said:
I spend my time trying to break myself into manageable chunks. Relaxing them into nothing. Being ordinary.
Perhaps this will help.
“No thought is truthful, or carries a part of reality.”
— Adyashanti, The End of Your World
All thoughts are about models, like language an approach to the truth without actually being it. The name ‘glass of water’ cannot be carried to one’s lips and drunk, the label ‘red’ is not the actual colour. Like mathematics it is an abstraction which cannot truthfully describe reality. Mathematics says one plus one is two, reality says one is just unique, there is ultimately no two.
Once this is understood, your relationship to mind and to reality will change dramatically.
The mind also defines our sense of self. Once you realise that thoughts are basically untruthful, you realise that ‘thinking that you are something’ is akin to seeing an abstraction again, something representative of real being. You are not that which you think you are.
Jeroen
Re: Fear of Existing
Hi @ravkes,
Welcome to the boards! I am no expert on Buddhism, nor on mental health, but having gone through similar experiences to yours here are my thoughts/suggestions.
If you have read or will read some Buddhist sutras, you will notice that the Buddha always uses negation around all possible positions around big intellectual ideas such as "is reality a simulation?".
I don't know if he addressed that very question, "simulation" was not a concept they had at the time, but I imagine his answer would be something like "reality is not a simulation, nor is it not a simulation, nor is it both a simulation and not a simulation, nor is it neither a simulation or a simulation".
This sounds like heady stuff difficult to understand, but to my mind it just means: such thinking (any of the positions), especially if it is rampant, will only make you fearfull, anxious, confused, not at ease.
I am sure that at times you feel at ease, in the moment, natural, spontaneous, just OK. I am likewise sure that at such times you are not thinking whether reality is a simulation or not, which is your hint that such thoughts, as the Buddha would say, are trouble.
Hence, to my mind, the Buddhist approach to this issue would be to aim to put down such thinking and just live a simple, moral, active, compassionate, joyfull life to the best of your abilities. Simulation or not, we still go on with our normal ordinary daily activities. I am sure you have some activities that ground you, bring you calm, lessen the "monkey-mind" and the resulting turmoil - these are your remedies, your medicine.
There is actually a zen-story that illustrates this point (paraphrased). A man comes to the monastery seeking relief from a heavy dose of monkey mind and agitation. The teacher in residence tells him: "I am going to town, in the meantime, please sweep the whole monastery." The man is perplexed, since he thought he would be taught meditation, but does as the teacher says. While he is sweeping, a grounding simple activity that bypasses the troubling thoughts that brought him to the monastery, his mind calms down, and when the teacher returns, he teaches him about meditation.
I am a big proponent, both in my life and in advising others at times when their minds get out of hand, not to underestimate the power of a healthy, balanced, grounded lifestyle. Such a lifestyle brings positive results, a better mind, a better life. Troubling thoughts become less, and finally just fall away completely. It's always a work in progress, something to be worked at, kept going. I do not know your circumstances, but if you know which habits and behaviors do not help you be well, stable, at ease aim to lessen or remove them completely, slowly, step by step. Can't do it overnight. This is a powerful remedy and brings much better results than we might conceive of at the beggining.
Regarding meditation, I read good advice from Adyashanti recently: "practice what works for you, not what does not". So, do not feel pressured to practice the exact technique you think you "should" practice, try a few, and practice the one(s) that you find that bring you results and feel in line with your intensions and psychological makeup.
Wishing you well and keep us posted on how things are getting along.
marcitko