Best Of
Re: From Seeker to Scholar, and Back Again?
What do you think? Does wisdom and an understanding of meaning come automatically? Does book learning help?
I'm under the impression that karma and rebirth plays a part. For some, wisdom and an understanding of meaning come simply from observing life’s flow. Ancient people acquired wisdom and a sense of meaning without having to read books or study the thoughts of others.
For most so-called modern human beings, we fill our minds with the ideas of others through reading, and then, if we are lucky, meaning if our karma allows, we too begin to study life’s flow using the knowledge gained from the books of others as reference points for our own experiential understanding.
Shoshin1
Re: From Seeker to Scholar, and Back Again?
This was a clarifying question for me. I've looked at teachers and practitioners who have left everything behind and devoted themselves to practice and wondered what was different about them, why did they make that move but I avoided it?
I think perhaps I'm not really a seeker. The reason I got into a spiritual practice was all about getting myself together and then finding I had an aptitude and appreciation for the practice and view. It wasn't about a quest for some ultimate meaning or enlightenment for me, and I suppose it still isn't. Maybe another way of putting it is I didn't pursue spirituality out of a passion, rather I found a level of passion about it after I gained a deep appreciation for the practice. I think these days I find a decent amount of meaning in the attempt to be an example of someone trying to live a balanced, spiritual life in the world. I can say for certain I've made, and continue to make an impact on the world around me.
Regarding knowledge, I suppose for myself I have a generally high degree of curiosity about the world and a passion for learning. But for spirituality I think its accumulation has more value for others than oneself. Its like the Buddha's leaves in the hand, we really only need a small set of knowledge to be able to go within and, as the Tibetan phrase for enlightenment San Gye, enter into a clearing away and bringing forth for ourselves. Knowledge is seen as a sort of skillful means to point the way for others. I see knowledge in this sense as a sort of toolbox, everyone has their own interests and dispositions, what helps yourself along the path might not be helpful for another and what helps one person might be an obstacle for someone else. The bigger the toolbox, the better chance of having the right tool.
One's relationship to knowledge is also key. Someone like the Dalai Lama is very knowledgeable but still deeply spiritual. Whereas there are plenty of examples of scholars with little spiritual development. Its a finger and moon problem, is knowledge concrete or ephemeral in your mind?
person
Re: Life is music, not maths
I am drawn to answer like this:
Sometimes life seems to me like music. I dance effortlesly and well. All is well.
But sometimes my dance seems contrived or poor. And the music seems out of tune.
Sometimes life seems to me like maths. Things seem clear and undisguised. All is well.
But sometimes my mind becomes too burdened with this or that impediment. And then things seem complicated and life hard.
marcitko
Re: What movies are you watching?
Yes, the Strandbeest ‘artworks’ are sometimes seen on the Dutch North Sea beaches. The man who makes them is Dutch, I believe.
Jeroen
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
True and I agree with you that women need to be able to see themselves in the hero role, but I think modern movies are very unrealistic in the archetypes they choose to cast women hero’s in. To cast a woman hero in the same mold as a male hero, punching and kicking, just isn’t true to what most female hero’s are like.
It says that to be a hero you need to be a kick-ass fighter, that combat is the only measure of conflict or is the way to raise tension in a story. I think that that is lazy writing. If you look at most ancient mythology, female hero’s tend to be figures of gentle wisdom.
The Captain Marvel story was an example of a character given extraordinary powers within the Marvel Universe, only to prove massively unpopular with the fan base. The fans like their hero’s flawed and complex, like Iron Man or the Hulk.
Jeroen
Re: Top 5
My top 5 quotes
"A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.' John Stuart Mill
"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.” John Stuart Mill
"Where would I find enough leather to cover the entire earth? But with the leather soles of my sandals, it is as if the whole world has been covered. Likewise, I am unable to restrain external phenomena, but I shall restrain my own mind. What need is there to restrain anything else?" Shantideva
"Everything is a balance, and the problem is, is that because conditions change you have to be continually rebalancing." ~Dan Carlin
"There's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path" Morpheus, The Matrix
person
Re: "Buddha's Teachings" - in 1,000 years, how will they know?
"Buddha's Teachings" - in 1,000 years, how will they know?
Like this:
- as we squash, so does a karmic freedom unfold
- as the river narrows, even if to dryness, it is still crossed
- it us who are authentic or true to our understanding. You will always touch the ground. Even if the Buddha or his following are all goners.
Unsurprisingly they are full of quotes that are not from recognized teachings but are mostly just self-help nuggets.
Ah ha. Yum. Nuggets [lobster drooling...]
...here's some
lobster
Re: "Buddha's Teachings" - in 1,000 years, how will they know?
@Jeroen said:
But perhaps online archives like Access To Insight will stay the course and provide the authentic words of the Buddha to LLMs.
Yes, but how many times, over the last 2000 years was that text copied, recopied, translated, annotated and copied?
ETA: Let's not forget that the Dharma was a purely oral tradition for how many centuries before it was codified?
Authentic? The word is meaningless.
