Best Of
Re: Information Overload
@Kotishka Hmm maybe I have some difficulty separating the intellectual and practical application at times. Maybe I have difficulty filling my day with things other than intellectual pursuits and pleasures. I see myself returning to the familiar even when the familiar is understood as unhelpful in that moment. Ignorance of what else to do? Blockages on acting? Addiction to the computer and the information readily accessible? Other unhelpful habits? I keep my mind just murky enough to avoid taking action on my responsibility. I sculpted my life around doing quite little lately. So lazy..go practice
@Jeroen I like that advice, reading in chunks. Deliberate reading. I read primarily non-fiction but I am noticing I read it like fiction. I would probably retain much more if I slowed down my spiritual consumption. There is reason my avatar says to remember. Maybe it should say to slow down.
Re: Information Overload
About the computer... and excess information... I try to avoid using the phone using How's tip by allowing it the same amount of time that I allocate to my practice . And using it mindfully of course, not just to down texts/information/YouTube as if they were pints at a pub or cake at an all-you-can-eat. The internet is a buffet, but sometimes being able to enjoy a 3 course meal and a small dessert is better than stuffing ourselves to the point of sleepiness and exhaustion.
Of course....sometimes YouTube and these damned short snippets catch your attention and then you realise you've been 1 hour scrolling down foolishly. Time to atone for my sins...... !
Kotishka
Re: Information Overload
Info overload.
Intelligence and Dharmic understanding are actually accessible and digestible throughout a much more extensive foundation than what an ego enthralled brain would claim as its sole domain.
A harmonization of body & mind can reveal an uncompromised intelligence that is more akin to a wider net than what the computer of our own mind usually offers.
A small amount of Dharma, digested in practice, potentially illuminates all Dharma.
A lifetime of Dharma, if undigested in practice, is just a dreamer doing more dreaming.
how
Re: What tradition (if any) do you follow?
- I am barely Hunuman Human but I do aspire to BuddhaHoodiness
- I mix up everything. I consider Jains, Hindus and Sikhs as almost Dharma Sisters, brothers and cousins. I like Sufi and Gnostic Christianity. I practice yoga and pray to the great Sky Cod God
- My primary Buddhist traditions are Zenith shikantaza, vajrayana and lately hinayana Theravada.
lobster
Re: What tradition (if any) do you follow?
I do consider myself a Buddhist
I started my Buddhism with a heavy dose of Gelug Tibetan Buddhism for many years, then drifted away and when I came back to it I had changed enough that many things about it no longer appealed to me. I then spent a couple years with a western Theravada group but also was allergic to certain aspects. So now I practice a mishmash of mainly western Theravada with a healthy mix of modern positive psychology/spirituality. I'm on my own path now, away from any group, I listen to a few hours of Buddhist and psychology podcasts while working to keep connected.
person
Re: Information Overload
I
I still find the getting away from the reading / intellectual investigation a challenge. The answer to this overload -or frying our neocortex too much (using Ajahn Sona's words) is practice.
You / we / all are on the right track!
Kotishka
Re: The three poisons as effects of the self
Thats true @how, coping with the three poisons is an enduring topic which carries on for a long time.
Jeroen
Re: What tradition (if any) do you follow?
- Yes
- I continue to learn how to mix core Buddhism with all aspects of my life
- Core 4 Noble Truths & Eight-fold Path, the rest is kinda piecemeal or ad hoc right now as I continue to practice
I don't trust. Expanding beyond the core of 4NT and 8FP feels like softer sand as a foundation for now. I feel stable on this footing and trust in it based on my experience so far. I can use it to find more truth for now.