Best Of
Re: Rebirth as an animal
@RobinH said:
I wonder sometimes what would good or bad karma look like for some animals whose survival depends on killing. Probably measured in very different things than how we relate to our own.
Thus have I heard:
Karma is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.
Shoshin1
Re: Season's Greetings From Down under
I did say I try! You can't get away from it, but you can invest as little of yourself as possible in it. Of course when family and friends are more traditional you go with it rather than spoiling their fun, trying to find a place where you honor your own needs as well as theirs.
zorro
Re: Season's Greetings From Down under
@zorro said:
This is why I celebrate the solstice and try to ignore Christmas.
I’ve tried that too, but have backslid into celebrating low-key Christmasses. It’s hard to ignore a phenomenon like Christmas when everything from public holidays to the music they play in the supermarket revolves around it.
Jeroen
Re: Rebirth as an animal
I wonder sometimes what would good or bad karma look like for some animals whose survival depends on killing. Probably measured in very different things than how we relate to our own.
RobinH
Re: On having an Enemy
On having an Enemy
The mind can be one’s worst enemy or one’s best friend, the choice is up to us.
When we believe every thought, the mind becomes an enemy. When we learn to observe our thoughts, question them, and choose which ones deserve our energy, the mind becomes a trusted friend.
The most essential method which includes all other methods is to behold the Mind.
The Mind is the root from which all things grow.
If you can understand the Mind, everything else is included.
~Bodhidharma~
Shoshin1
Re: On having an Enemy
Most stories we're drawn to revolve around conflict. We imagine being heroic to save someone so we'd feel good about ourselves, but at the same time we also imagine the danger, the threat they're in for this very purpose. We give it a different face and name to keep it separate, but it's us, just like while dreaming. Sometimes we imagine ourselves to be the heroes so we could "get away with" also imagining nasty things that way. Wishing others to feel hurt just so they'd understand us being hurt and would keep us company in our traumatic memories. There is no other people, these roles and stories like stage plays are only tools which we use to embrace parts of us we otherwise struggle to, because we don't have the words to express them or are not conscious enough. I think it's a deeply human quality and I am sentimental about such, but perhaps a more spiritual practictioner like you are talking about completely different things here that you wouldn't describe to be emotional experiences in those hours or minutes between sleep and awake.
RobinH
Re: Poem for the day
Any empire built upon deceit and destruction is no more than a shadow. It may exude power for a time. but power is not greatness. No matter how powerful a nation is it can never be truly great if it does not serve it's people.
look upon the powerful nations - they lack greatness when their own people are suffering,
Look upon the Great nations, be they large or small. Even though they may lack outward power, they serve their people. Denmark is a Great nation, as is Singapore, as is Canada.
Currently, Russia and the United States are powerful nations. But, because they do not serve their people, confusing power for greatness, they lack the grace, the humanism which is the hallmark of true greatness. They are wandering in the hallways of illusion and darkness, their leaders trapped in the blindness of their own vanity and greed.
The truly great person respect both self and others. A Great person celebrates both his or her own successes and that of others, freely. A great person feels others' losses as if their own, comforting them, sharing their pain, honoring and supporting their recovery.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Season's Greetings From Down under
It was an overcast Christmas morning, however the clouds soon dispersed
Season's greetings folks ...
Christmas is a special day, a day to remember Baby Cheeses.....and how nice they are on crackers 
Shoshin1
Re: Experience of mantra practice
I didn't know that there are mantras from centuries ago that have been dropped. I think when you personalise your spirituality, it goes deeper.
Tavs
Re: Experience of mantra practice
@Tavs said:
Is anyone is an experienced mantra practitioner? If so, how has your practice changed over time or your relationship with your practice?
I use it everyday. It has changed from group aloud and gradually become silent internal. Some mantra over the centuries have been dropped. They are not effective. I also have modified mantra and make a great deal of use of a personalised mantra.
lobster