Best Of
Re: What movies are you watching?
Back to the individual agency aspect. In D&D necromancy was the sort of thing that was thought of as evil, and still is. But in a much greater way today enchantment magic is also considered pretty evil. Taking away another human's agency, controlling their actions. This is an essential part of the hive mind's imperative, to absorb others into it even in the case of Carol who explicitly says she doesn't want it. Someone like the Peruvian girl who voluntarily joined is different than being forced into it, and then once in it the hive mind can decide you'll be a janitor even though you've spent your life pursuing your passion for music, or maybe be a sex slave to Koumba.
I also found the idea that it was these two very disagreeable people in Carol and Manousos who may end up being responsible for saving humanity. In their before life it probably caused them much conflict and difficulty, but now in this new context its extremely adaptive and beneficial.
person
Re: Being a light unto yourself
I think “being a light unto yourself” is less about rejecting teachers and more about learning to see for yourself.
The Buddha can point toward the moon, but I still have to look. A teacher can teach mindfulness, but I have to breathe. A teaching can speak of compassion, but I have to meet another person's suffering and learn how to respond.
This is where I think listening becomes important.
We listen to the Buddha.
We listen to the Dharma.
We listen to our teachers.
We listen to the people around us.
But eventually, we must also become quiet enough to listen to what is happening directly within experience.
That doesn't mean trusting every thought or feeling. The mind can deceive us. It means developing enough presence to observe, test, practice, and learn.
So perhaps being a light unto oneself isn't:
“I don't need anyone else.”
Nor is it:
“I should simply believe what I'm taught.”
It is:
“I will listen deeply, practice sincerely, and learn to see for myself.”
The teacher can point. The Dharma can illuminate. The Sangha can walk beside us.
But no one else can take the next step for us.
And perhaps that is where the light begins; not in the certainty that I already know, but in the willingness to listen.
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“If every human being was happy, comfortably happy, then religions would disappear.”
— Bertrand Russel
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Do not demand that the day unfold according to your wishes.
Train yourself to meet whatever unfolds with a mind that remains your own.
~unknown (Posted by Helpful Stoic Teachings on Substack)
ginab
Re: Perfect things and what is real
What you have perhaps stated @Jeroen in other words, is the First Nobel Truth?
lobster
Perfect things and what is real
It seems to me that humans can imagine that which is perfect, but it doesn’t exist in reality. For example you can teach a small child that two parallel lines will never meet, but even a gifted artist cannot draw two lines which are perfectly parallel. They are going to meet at some point. Or take Euclid’s description of a line, which is that which only has length. What line drawn on paper does not have thickness?
Similarly the human mind contains many concepts which are these ideal visions: God, justice, fairness and so on. These are things which either do not exist or exist imperfectly only. It seems to me once this is understood, ones whole relationship to the ideals changes.
Jeroen
Laughter and the sense of being
I wanted to talk about the experience of being while you are laughing. It is difficult to be mindful while you laugh, but after you have had a good, deep laughter, immediately afterwards you can examine the memory of it and get a glimpse… Osho once said that this is what it is like to be a buddha.
So what I experience is a kind of absence of mind, and a space filled with light, and cheerfulness, a living, jolly, tinkling place of the sense of song and bells. Pure joy, sheer dance, overflowing energy. Not at all serious but playful.
It was my mother who occasioned this. We were eating dinner, and she had put on her spoon an amount of powdered Parmesan cheese. Just as she brought this to her mouth to eat, she suddenly drew a deep breath, as if in preparation for a sneeze, with as result that she sniffed up a good amount of the Parmesan cheese! She was hacking and coughing for a good ten minutes, and I had to laugh so hard…
It was afterwards that I started to recall how great it felt. Laughter is a wonderful thing…
Jeroen
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
"Our local Tibetan Lama says that there is no enlightenment without developing both wisdom and compassion."
Quite right.
The emergence of enlightenment is a product of and concurrent with the development and growth (expansion) of wisdom and compassion. That is a foundational determinant.
In example:
Devadata was most knowledgeable, but lacked the base of both wisdom and of compassion, leading him upon an evil, path.
The Buddha was, naturally also most knowledgeable. This arising from his base of infinite wisdom and infinite compassion which enabled him to teach and share his enlightenment - to the teach and share Dharma for all people.
Peace to all
Lionduck