Best Of
Re: An online approach
Good for you! Perseverance is a very important attribute in the world of meditation.
Jeroen
Re: Taking Oneself Too Seriously = Suffering
@Jeroen said:
I had a dream… I was sitting in a train which was going fast, and the desire arose in me to see the train from the outside… so suddenly there was a view from the side of the train, several hundred yards away, watching the train rushing past… and suddenly I realised my body was still on the train! I became aware that the watcher was not the body.
This reminds me of our ever-present friend Awareness
Awareness is fundamentally non-conceptual before thinking splits experience into subject and object. It is empty and so can contain everything, including thought. It is boundless. And amazingly it is intrinsically knowing.
Shoshin1
Re: Taking Oneself Too Seriously = Suffering
@RobinH said:
Interesting. Since I started readig about Buddhism again I'm having a series of dreams in which I go on trips or interact with people from my past in casual manners. I wonder how Buddhists interpret dreams. Are they useful in diagnosing what weighs on one's mind more or should one just let them go on the spot?
I think dreams are significant, that they have something to tell us. It is said in Buddhism that dreams can give one insight into ones karma, among other things.
Jeroen
Re: Can the mind be conditioned into enlightenment?
Holy bread/sacrament crumbs...
Samasara = Nirvana?
I read that on a fortune cookie or was it all a dream...
A shooting star, a clouding of the sight, a lamp,
An illusion, a drop of dew, a bubble,
A dream, a lightning's flash, a thunder cloud— This is the way one should see the conditioned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Sutra
lobster
Re: Change is Inevitable ...(Levels of) Suffering Optional
True. We spend so much energy trying to fix the world back into that old 'comfort-zone' version, but that ship has sailed. Realizing the practice is actually built for the chaos, not just for the quiet moments, makes it feel a lot more like a survival skill than just a philosophy
IAMFINE
Re: Change is Inevitable ...(Levels of) Suffering Optional
It’s curious how despite frequent reminders we still get caught out by the desire for permanency, for cozy habits in a place where nothing changes. We had several very mild winters here, and were a little caught out by a foot of snow and ten freezing days during which we had to go and collect food shopping on foot.
Jeroen
Re: Does reading about spirituality make any sense?
Reading about spirituality does not produce sprituality.
Spirituality is NOT an intellectual, cognitive, nor verbal activity. It is an activity that arises from mindful awareness of THIS moment, Here and Now ... only. The purpose of meditation is to train our mind TO be mindful, but the insights come when we can recapture that mindfulness when NOT meditating.
But meditation is WORK and if reading about spirituality helps motivate you TO do your meditation, then reading about spirituality is helpful .. even though it doesn't do anything itself.
“Nirvana is beyond concepts.” Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You (Not) a Buddhist”
“There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.” Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be enlightened is to be completely here and now, completely alert and available for the Present, because that is the only place you are ever going to BE in”. Alan Watts
Re: An online approach
ALL insight, ALL growth, ALL movement towards enlightenment comes from training your mind, through meditation, TO become and reside in open awareness. That is just the start.
“You have to do your own work; Enlightened Ones will only show the way. Those who practise meditation will free themselves from the chains of death.” Dhammapada 20.276
The actual change starts when you begin to recapture that level of observational awareness when NOT meditating. It can take as long as 5 to 15 years to start to have the first wisps of insight which generate minor inner change. From there .. it just builds over time as you continue your daily meditation practice and work at developing non-meditative awareness. It IS worth it, but it's not a quick fix.
For a partial and quick fix, try cognitive behavioral therapy. You can change a negative reaction pattern in just weeks, depending on the nature and cause of the problem and on your own efforts.
For slow but thorough inner change .. Buddhism is the path. If you no sangha or teaching, do Vipassana meditation. It is the only form of Buddhism designed to work witout a teacher to coach your practice. I recommend "Mindfulness in Plain Engnlish" by Bhante Gunarata. Often available on amazon (although the back of the book asks you to GIVE it way when you are done with it .. and NOT sell it for profit!). But it is the best written guide I have run across in my 25 years of doing Buddhism.
However, a local teaching monk is ALWAYS the best coach. It doesn't matter which Buddhist discipline the monk has been trained in .. they all work, when done properly.