Best Of
Re: Recently Learned...
Anything that involves attachment in the form of "anxious attachment / avoidant attachment" / craving "/ view of "this is how it should be" usually ends up poorly.
Following precepts works best (and sticking to them!) in situations where you try to use logic to convince yourself how it is acceptable in that particular circumstance.
"Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness." Dogen Zenji.
Kotishka
Re: For the coming year
I find that the last few months I have been worrying about selling my dad’s apartment, and I haven’t created as much space for the breath. I had kind of forgotten about it while getting caught up in the day to day.
Then i came across a question on another forum, do you meditate? And in answering that I remembered my year of the breath, and I just picked it back up again. It feels wonderful, so soft.
Jeroen
The mystic sounds
I have experienced…
There are certain mystic sounds, which have the power to touch your heart and take up residence there, as a longing that points the way. For each sound I will give a short description, but if you want to experience them you should seek to hear them pronounced by a native speaker.
“Om Shantih Shantih Shantih” … it means “the soundless sound (or the sound of silence) peace peace peace” and it is the sound that every Eastern scripture ends with. It is meant to give a sense of the whole scripture in just these few words.
“Om Mani Padme Hum” … it means “the sound of silence… the diamond in the lotus”, it is often used by the Tibetans as a mantra though the words are Sanskrit, it is trying to convey the beyond in a way comprehensible to the mind.
“Hari Om Tat Sat” … it means “the sound of silence… this is the only truth”, it is used to connect with the divine, surrender the ego, and affirm that only the eternal is real.
“Sat Chit Anand” … it means “truth, consciousness, bliss”, it is one of those Sanskrit sayings about the mystical experience that echoes the heights of consciousness of those who have gone before.
“Satyam Shivam Sundram” … it means “truth, godliness, beauty”, it is a reflection of the mystical experience of ultimate reality.
Jeroen
Zazen is good
As my practice becomes deeper and more dedicated -two daily 30 minute sittings; maintaining contact with Treeleaf Zen sangha & NB forum- I have noticed that so many of my issues were demands due to preferences, none of which vital or essential for me to pursue a healthy and kind life. For example, not having internet in my room and simply accepting I had to go to another room to use my iPad. Also, noticing how many hours I spend on the internet / behind screens, absorbed in idle chatter. I sometimes feel that I've joined the Path a bit late because of how slow my progress has been. I know progress and improvement are conflicting terms in Zen, but I cannot deny (and I doubt anyone could) that zazen and Buddhist study has provided a lot of peace to me, my loved ones and my community. It has taken though a few years of starting, abandoning and repeating for it to really start to flourish.
Isn't Right view realising of this blessed opportunity, to do good and be kind, to not accumulate for garbage -materially, mentally, behaviourally- and to notice how the 4NT permeate this existence. It seems Buddhism sometimes is going a bit against your usual current: against what your biology has provided you to begin with (temperament & pre-conditioned preferences), our impulses, our self-satisfaction via self-indulgence, against the mass psychosis implemented by the news, ideologies, market, etc.
This without rejecting certain technology and pleasant treats (eating dark chocolate with sea salt as I write).
Good day to all!
Kotishka
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"I am just a very persistent figment of my own imagination"
Who said that ? ~I did~
Shoshin1
Re: The AI tsunami
A fun little story about how overpaid and out-of-touch executives and outsourcing killed a business while blaming everyone else but themselves, with special help from AI!
Still, even then it seemed from the outside like Antonucci was cooking up a future for Providence Health Plan. On Linkedin, Antonucci styles himself as an expert on emerging technologies. “I write about what’s actually happening in AI and health care—not the hype, the operator reality,” he writes in his bio. “If that’s useful to you, follow along.” And through much of last year, he and his team worked to outsource a major Providence Health Plan line of business to a Silicon Valley company that touted its AI technology.
The company, Collective Health, was founded in 2013 and reports “success managing claims, eligibility, and benefits administration for the employer health plans we serve.”
But five current and former Providence Health Plan employees privy to the partnership tell WW it quickly became clear the company had had little experience actually adjudicating and processing health insurance claims, but that when they warned their bosses that the contractor was not up to the task, health plan leaders ignored them, plowed ahead and, in many cases, laid off those who raised concerns
www.wweek.com/news/2026/05/27/inside-the-collapse-of-providence-health-plan/
Jason
Re: Recently Learned...
That goes especially for that wierdo in the mirror.
Tee Hee!
That is the one I can not trust to have anything but opinions masquerading as wisdom. The worst thing is not knowing which side of the mirror I am in.
I think I might be in... nah we have AI to offer us a distorted reality these days...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_mirrors
lobster
Re: “502” error on this site
@lobster said:
I have Privacybadger and Ublock Origin on my browser (from the EFF). Will not turn them off.
Those wouldn't have any bearing on accessing this site. The things they block aren't used here.
Linc
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
@Bunks said:
Good morning folks, thought I'd pop by and say hello.
It's been a while.
hope you're all well?
Hey @Bunks! It has indeed been a while, good to hear from you although you don’t say much about how you’ve been…
For me it has been a tough and emotional couple of years, marked by the death of my father and stepfather, and the illness of my mother. There has recently been some light at the end of the tunnel, but it hasn’t been easy…
Jeroen
Re: Recently Learned...
Yes… a friend of mine, who I have a chat with on WhatsApp every morning, suddenly stopped answering all her social media accounts. She wouldn’t pick up the phone either when I rung her up. That was a real exercise in letting go, when someone you are that close with, suddenly drops off the radar.
It turns out she had suffered a psychotic episode and was admitted to a closed psychiatric ward, she is now slowly recovering and letting a few people know what happened. She was gone for nearly a month… she is still there but now considered stable enough to communicate.
It is a shock when habits are disturbed.
Jeroen