Best Of
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
Re: The inspiration in Buddhism
The way Buddhism just makes sense.
A religion focused on actually doing something.
Open to and embracing of rationality and science.
Non-dogmatic or ritualistic.
Inclusive of all people and not hostile to other religions.
Robes! 😃
marcitko
The inspiration in Buddhism
It occurred to me that we all have different things that inspire us about Buddhism. It might be nice to build a list of these, so that we can help inspire eachother, and maybe find new sources of inspiration. I’ll give you a few of mine…
- The slow, peaceful pace of Thich Nhat Hanh’s walking meditation
- The spacious way a sitting Buddha statue radiates medativeness
- The mindfulness bell
- The look of a buddhist shrine, often with flowers and nature
Jeroen
Re: The interplay of language and memory
I find the Two Truths doctrine a useful lens to look at this sort of thing through. Ultimately language is an abstraction, an interdependent construct and thus empty. At the same time that doesn't negate the conventional aspect of language, that the word red points to something in the world that we all generally agree upon.
I think its how the physics of Einstein's General Relativity doesn't really negate Newtonion physics at our day to day level. GR is important to keep in mind because it does affect things like GPS satellites, but to be effective in the world using Newton is mainly where its at.
person
Re: the Broken Buddhas
It is good to remember that a statue, a mandala, or any external symbol is only a point of focus, a means of centering, concentrating. No matter how sacred, they are only a means for you, me, us to draw that Buddha out which is residing within. We all have that innate nature of Buddha within - buried, covered in the muck and muck of our own arrogance, doubt and karmic baggage. As we reach out to teach, aid and enable others and reach in through the muck to draw out, enable and empower our Buddha within, in that awakening, that precious gem sparkles and shines lighting our life our world in the bright-soft glow of our true selves.
Peace to all
P.S.: The eagle is not bothered by the turkeys.
Lionduck
Re: the Broken Buddhas
In some understandings of dharma, 'it ain't broken' … so no fixing required.
Does that mean we do nothing? It is perhaps more correct to ask, 'what is useful and what is helpful?'.
I spend my time trying to break myself into manageable chunks. Relaxing them into nothing. Being ordinary.
lobster
Re: The inspiration in Buddhism
It's always still there, no matter how many times abandoned.
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
A bit long, but worth a read...
"On the day I die a lot will happen.
A lot will change.
The world will be busy.
On the day I die, all the important appointments I made will be left unattended.
The many plans I had yet to complete will remain forever undone.
The calendar that ruled so many of my days will now be irrelevant to me.
All the material things I so chased and guarded and treasured will be left in the hands of others to care for or to discard.
The words of my critics which so burdened me will cease to sting or capture anymore. They will be unable to touch me.
The arguments I believed I’d won here will not serve me or bring me any satisfaction or solace.
All my noisy incoming notifications and texts and calls will go unanswered. Their great urgency will be quieted.
My many nagging regrets will all be resigned to the past, where they should have always been anyway.
Every superficial worry about my body that I ever labored over; about my waistline or hairline or frown lines, will fade away.
My carefully crafted image, the one I worked so hard to shape for others here, will be left to them to complete anyway.
The sterling reputation I once struggled so greatly to maintain will be of little concern for me anymore.
All the small and large anxieties that stole sleep from me each night will be rendered powerless.
The deep and towering mysteries about life and death that so consumed my mind will finally be clarified in a way that they could never be before while I lived.
These things will certainly all be true on the day that I die.
Yet for as much as will happen on that day, one more thing that will happen.
On the day I die, the few people who really know and truly love me will grieve deeply.
They may feel a void.
They may feel cheated.
They may not feel ready.
They may feel as though a part of them has died as well.
And on that day, more than anything in the world they will want more time with me.
I know this from those I love and grieve over.
And so knowing this, while I am still alive I’ll try to remember that my time with them is finite and fleeting and so very precious - and I’ll do my best not to waste a second of it.
I’ll try not to squander a priceless moment worrying about all the other things that will happen on the day I die, because many of those things are either not my concern or beyond my control.
Friends, those other things have an insidious way of keeping you from living even as you live; vying for your attention, competing for your affections.
They rob you of the joy of this unrepeatable, uncontainable, ever - evaporating 'Now', with those who love you and want only to share it with you.
Don’t miss the chance to dance with them while you can.
It’s easy to waste so much daylight in the days before you die.
Don’t let your life be stolen every day by all that you’ve been led to believe matters, because on the day you die, the fact is that much of it simply won’t.
Yes, you and I will die one day.
But before that day comes: let us live.
John Pavlovitz
federica
Re: The inspiration in Buddhism
The insight and perspective the philosophy and practice offer
The kindness and openness of a monastic
person
social network one again
for many years and with interruptions I have had different places for meditation. Only on a basic level and with the permission of my teacher.
Those were other times.
Now with the rise of social networks I noticed that there were many more possibilities to spread any activity, but such is the saturation that what social networks achieve is that the person enters into an apathy to anything that does not fit into the minimum space they have between their daily obligations. Zazen and Dharma remains only as an option of low priority before everything else.
On the other hand, the few people who express any concern, do so only if it coincides with their preconceived ideas or practices (most of them delusional, pseudo-mystical). And finally, they only give value to what they can afford and what happens on a weekend.
They expose themselves to a flock of dubious instructors squeezing money out of their wallets...with a smile on their face.
