Best Of
Re: Top 5
Top 5 Buddhist teachers that have approved my Final and Complete Enlightenment:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
marcitko
Re: Some troubles with new sila efforts
You can think of each difficult interaction as a type of training or sparring. You may lose, but you'll learn something that will prepare you for next time. Being challenged on your views offers incentive to better understand and communicate why you value what you do. What also occurs to me is that similar to martial arts skill the more familiar and skilled one becomes the less forceful one needs to be.
I think this is harder with those close to us, not just due to our history, but if you've been rebuked once it makes it harder to assert yourself later.
Thinking on my own interactions with my mother on something like killing insects. I'll generally just deflect or avoid a confrontation in the moment and continue to act in the way I feel appropriate.
I can relate a bit to your tax conundrum. I work in renovation, while in my experience the roles have kind of been reversed, I get asked occasionally by my customers if I offer a cash discount. I'll just say no, sorry, its all the same to me. This has always been enough though and I've never been challenged on it. My feeling on avoiding taxes is that even if I feel like I'm being taxed too highly, to take action myself, rather than advocating for a lower tax rate, or more tax breaks, is the same as stealing. I think taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society.
Edit: On a bit of reflection I think using "I" statements, talking about how you feel, what you value rather than making a claim about some objective morality helps avoid escalation. So say something like, its important to me to pay taxes or follow the rules rather than "avoiding taxes is stealing!" The first someone may scoff or think you're a fool, but they won't feel threatened like in the latter.
person
Re: "Buddha's Teachings" - in 1,000 years, how will they know?
@Ren_in_black said:
@Jeroen said:
But perhaps online archives like Access To Insight will stay the course and provide the authentic words of the Buddha to LLMs.Your other thread about control reminded me that whatever happens to Buddha's teachings in 1,000 years is what happens, regardless of how much I worry about it. 😄
While this is true and a helpful attitude to take. I think its valuable to also understand we can act in our lives in ways that help preserve the teachings. Something like double checking what you pass on or take in to make sure what you've heard is authentic. You can control that, you can't control the ultimate outcome.
person
Re: "Buddha's Teachings" - in 1,000 years, how will they know?
I remember there being a prophecy in the writings about Maitreya, the next Buddha, that Buddhism would be almost completely forgotten before the next Buddha would come to turn the wheel of Dhamma again.
Jeroen
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.
Your other thread about control reminded me that whatever happens to Buddha's teachings in 1,000 years is what happens, regardless of how much I worry about it. 😄
Re: Top 5
Top 5 Buddhist books
- The Complete Teachings of Ajahn Chah, by Ajahn Chah
- Buddhist Scripture, by Edward Conze
- The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche
- The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings, by Thich Nhat Hanh
- In the Buddha’s Words, by Bikkhu Bodhi
Jeroen
Re: About control: to pursue it or not?
In art, in painting, without control you just make a mess. If you exercise too much control, you make a different kind of mess. Life seems much the same. You must discern how and when to exercise control, and when to just let things flow as they will. There is no instruction booklet for this, no verbal formula, there is only mindfulness. No instruction manual for that either?
Fosdick
Re: The Plant Medicine Path
In my earliest formal Buddhist Path... Food/nutrition was medicine.
https://elissagoodman.com/lifestyle/eating-for-spiritual-connection/
Now as I eat the best I can (time for a late breakfast soon), I remind everyone:
- Cooking is practice
- Eating slowly and mindfully is practice
- Sharing with the invisible realms is practice
https://buddhaweekly.com/who-is-medicine-buddha-king-of-lapis-lazuli-light-and-how-can-we-attain-healing-blessings/
lobster
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“The journey is long because we do not take the first step.”
— Indian saying
Jeroen
Re: About control: to pursue it or not?
@marcitko said:
Coming from a background of being too lazy and unfocused, I much prefer control and the phases of my life when I was systematically "winning over myself" a.k.a. learning to control myself.Free will can be trained, like a muscle, and ever more things can be controlled.
@Jeroen said: An illness, a death in the family, a car accident… life doesn’t seem to lend itself to control.
Life, not. But our response, yes. Body, emotions, speech, thought: all of these can be controlled. And what a difference they can make!
There's that saying "go with the flow". Sure, if you're already blessed with wonderful habits. But if not? I vote for "go against the flow" a.k.a. "win over yourself" again and again and again and again. It really does work.
"Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions." Eliud Kipchoge (Marathon GOAT).
PS. If someone has a different background, maybe an A-type personality always on the gogogo that tries to control everything, maybe they will have an opposite view to the above.
Agreed, its all about the balance and direction. Disciplined towards what? If you're too loose, tightening it up a bit is good. If you're already tight, more discipline isn't the way. And then what are you disciplined about? Disciplined to meditate daily or eat better is different than being disciplined at the gun range or poker table.
So it isn't like discipline or letting go are good or bad in themselves. They're skillful or not as medicine in relation to what any individual needs at the time.
person