Best Of

When a conflict arises within me, I already know seeking others to fix it will do no lasting good. The solution must come from within. We are all observers, investigators, and scientists after all!

What use is dwelling on the end result of the experience when the result itself is a trailhead ripe with potential adventure into understanding our own psyche! Who doesn't want that? Understanding our minds more clearly allows us to see the layers in which we have yet to pull back.

When I maintain a mindset of excitement and intrigue around conflicts within me, investigating them can be as fun as my favorite hobby. In resolving them, they tend to not arise often after that.

One less distraction!

@Shoshin1 said:
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I like this quote, I think it highlights much of my disagreeableness around this topic. When the standard is the intention of the speaker there is some sort of obligation on their part to have a good intention, and if not then its justified in calling them out or holding them accountable.

In a world where impact is the standard I'm thinking there needs to be some sort of obligation for good faith on the part of the recipient. Without it anyone is free to practice predatory listening and turn offense taking into an art form without any ability for accountability on their end.

From what I gather ( I've been known to gather many things ...including dust )....At times when first hearing/reading what's been said , one might misinterpret it and take offence, That's not right...How dear they say that... but later on there may come a realisation that what's been said is pointing to the truth of the situation (bearing in mind words are not the truth, they are tools which can only point to the truth or its opposite)....

Also at times an unsettled/disturbed mind may be looking/itching for a fight, so will continue to twist the words/truth to suit the mood...

I guess it all depends on the frame of mind of the hearer/reader

...as to what reaction the words produce...

When all is said and done....

@person said:
Spending time in the Tibetan tradition I did see plenty of skillful means being implemented, and that is what I'd say is adjusting language to meet the recipient. I also saw people having certainty in their position, which after initially trusting later found to be either wrong or simply opinion presented as fact. It caused me to lose trust in what was being presented on the whole. So the attempt at skillful means in the long run ended up being unskillful. I do think honesty is better.

I believe if the skillful means and recipient were in a bubble, the implementation of various methods would have a potentially more successful outcome. However we are in a dynamic world full of many views and many skillful and unskillful means circulating about knowing and unknowing to various depths. It is confusing and fragmented enough as is. We may not always be able to discern the wheat from the chaff. Of course this is simply my single perspective.

@lobster said:
https://www.lionsroar.com/if-you-meet-the-buddha-on-the-road-kill-him/

I have been exploring a few realms of information regarding the topic at hand. This article wrapped it up nicely.

A few lines I enjoyed the most.

“You don’t need to call anybody your teacher. Shikantaza is your teacher.”

This teacher was not rejecting me at all, they were showing me a true path. It was my attachments that caused me to take this as a failure rather than see it for the blessing it was.

“The most important things that each man must learn, no one else can teach him. Once he accepts this disappointment, he will be able to stop depending on the therapist, the guru who turns out to be just another struggling human being.”

Rather than seeking a teacher to show me the way, I needed to become the way myself, through my own practice, through deep contemplation, through Shikantaza.

We are each our own teacher and simultaneously each our own teaching.