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Re: About Thangka
@RobinH said:
Well a lots of parts are still confusing to me about Buddhism. One's not supposed to think of these depicted as deities, some independent, outside being who will bring fortune or misfortune, right? Yet I can't shake the feeling that's how one would naturally think about them depicted like this.
Yes, you are right. And you are also right that naturally we ALL hope some higher/outside power can fix our life for us so that we can be "happy". This IS human nature. But not our true nature. Something good happens and we get a little "perk", and we assume that if "a little is good", then "MORE will be better!". And so we create our "addictions". But since nothing lasts, whatever we get doesn't last either. And our brain will adjust to any newness and the "high" this newness generates will die out.
The local Tibetan Lama/Geshe who teaches us tells us that the deities are self-created visual metaphors representing qualities we are trying to develop within ourselves. Not actual "beings".
He also says that trying to avoid misfortune, or gain fortune, is the primary cause OF our suffering.
That it is our ability to learn to NOT be swayed by our emotional reactions, but to relax and accept and shrug our shoulders, that allows us freedom from suffering. The omre we focus on the qualities of this moment, the more we relax. Asking a 'deity" for anything is in the realm of a religion .,.. not Buddhism.
“If you walk with true awareness of every step, without having a goal to get anywhere, happiness will arise naturally. You don’t need to look for happiness”. Thich Nhat Hanh
“Everything is always changing. If you relax into this truth, that is Enlightenment. If you resist, this is samsara (suffering).” Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You (Not) a Buddhist”
Re: Buddhist Sadhana — what is it?
If one is a Buddha or Bodhisattva (that is enlightened) everything good, bad or incomprehensible is a teaching. There are no restrictions. If still tied/tethered/restrained by a teacher (a good thing in most cases) then advisement, methods and directives can be very useful.
An example in Theravada (and Tantra) is monks setting fire to themselves in protest. This is an extreme form of violence against oneself and is condemned.
Obviously in some religions violence including burning heretics or shooting, violating people is one of the 'perks' of the perverse...
Think I will just try and be goodly 
lobster
Re: Buddhist Sadhana — what is it?
@person said:
I remember this in some of the TB tantric initiations I attended. The red meat and alcohol was just a small piece of jerky and a bit of some sort of alcohol poured into the palm of your hand that you sipped. It kind of reminded me of Christian communion with the bread and wine. They're symbolic of something greater, but honestly it felt rather ceremonial and ritualistic.
I agree it is ritualistic, but I don’t think I agree with the modern scientific interpretation that ritual is somehow hollow and purely physical. There is this belief in science that things that can’t be measured don’t exist, and that the effects of ritual are nonexistent. But as a counter example there are cases of people suddenly being cured of diseases like cancer.
We do a lot of things because of reasons we believe in, not what the science tells us. Like the Hindu’s choosing to die at their holy city of Varanasi, or bathing in the Ganges to become purified of sins. You could call these things ritual, but for the true believer they have an effect on the body or on the spiritual state.
I think there is very little understanding of man’s spiritual nature. Scientific man is largely cut off from his spiritual nature, which leads to a kind of madness in the spiritual world, and a mental health crisis in the physical world. My experience is that the spiritual world is very real, and that in order to maintain good health, wholeness and harmony of both our physical and our psychic aspects we need to be more aware of our spiritual lives.
Sadhana is a key aspect of that. What is meaningful to one person may not resonate with another. It’s something we all need to explore.
Jeroen
Re: Buddhist Sadhana — what is it?
I remember this in some of the TB tantric initiations I attended. The red meat and alcohol was just a small piece of jerky and a bit of some sort of alcohol poured into the palm of your hand that you sipped. It kind of reminded me of Christian communion with the bread and wine. They're symbolic of something greater, but honestly it felt rather ceremonial and ritualistic.
person
Re: Noble Eightfold Path versus 6 Paramitas
Given what has been written in the prior entries, we can say that The Eight Fold Path and The Six Paramitas are two explanations (views if you choose) of the same bundle of concepts viewed from slightly different perspectives.
Lionduck
Re: About Thangka
Thanks @FoibleFull that is pretty much as I understood it but had kind of forgotten.
The images at the centre of the thangka stand for a Buddha, arhat, deity or lama from history or story, and his or her attributes which are visually represented. If you know how to read it, it is a visual guide. The areas around the edges are evocative of place or retinu.
Jeroen
Re: Taking Oneself Too Seriously = Suffering
There will always be an element if I. We are, after all, Independent beings.
That said, We can move from "I" - "You" or "I - "They" to "We and "Us" united to blend our differences, cognizant of our own separate uniqueness but creating a greater oneness. In another way, we learn and grow to love ourselves with the kind of live that embraces others with the same love. We expand this love to love of all life. Oh, we still carry all the other emotions, states of life, but our core is the Selfless Self Love.
Thus does the "I" become the "WE", the selfish becomes the selfless.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: About Thangka
The thing about Thangkas is that each is a visual metaphor representing the qualities we hope to develop as we progress to enlightenment. For instance, the qualities of Chenrezig represent compassion and each details in the image is a symbolic representation. of compassion If you understant the metaphors in the Thangka, focusing on it helps your mind focus on the inner changes you are seeking to develop within.
Its value does like in the "art" of it, but in how you respond to it. Buddhism is more about mind-training than about "awe" or emotion. You train your mind to be aware, and you learn from your own developing awareness. And, as psychology says, "Learning is shown by a permanent change in some kind of behavior."
Re: What books are you reading?
I was reading Only Fear Dies by Barry Long. It was an interesting book, the early chapters were about how personality is formed by mimicking the responses of parents in childhood and how emotional pain forms almost a separate kind of body inside one’s energy.
It reminded me a lot of Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now, which contains a lot of similar ideas, which is not surprising because Eckhart Tolle learnt from Barry Long at one point in his career as a spiritual teacher.
Later chapters in the book contain a history of the world in terms of the mind of unhappiness. Barry holds that primitive man was a lot happier and largely free from likes and dislikes, and that the rational mind evolved almost like a parasite and contains a powerful mechanism taking it towards unhappiness.
Jeroen
Re: An online approach
Good for you! Perseverance is a very important attribute in the world of meditation.
Jeroen