Best Of
Re: Life events triggering a spiritual search
Hi I started meditating and reading about Buddhism with a faith component maybe 24 years ago? I was in graduate school studying chemistry and I started having a psychotic episode. I remember seeing thumb tacks on the bulletin board of the chemistry building. To me the thumb tacks were sending me messages by their formation. They would change and then I would reinterpret them. Quite a lot of variety to my mental changes but the thumb tacks were one occurrence that I still recall.
After I got my diagnosis my brain kind of shut down relatively and it was hard to even read a paragraph of my mail. As I got stronger again I sought out ways to cope with he shut down or depression. Meditation was one and I started buying spiritual or Buddhist books.
Jeffrey
Re: Life events triggering a spiritual search
Life events triggering a spiritual search
Thus have I experienced:
When one starts asking the question why?, when a major life event or crisis happens, this is, in a sense, the beginning of one of many spiritual paths, the journey of (no) self-discovery, the search for understanding and meaning. This can happen at any age, at any time.
Take, for example, the flower power era of the '60s and '70s, when ganja and psychedelic drugs set many off on the spiritual journey of (no) self-discovery. But it could just as easily be grief, depression, anxiety, fear, the list goes on. Life has many ways of shaking us awake.
This search often begins not with the expectation of answers, but with the need to make sense of the ever-changing world we live in. It’s not always a loud or dramatic shift, but more often a quiet turning inward. Sometimes it’s grief, sometimes shock, or simply the stillness that follows disruption, something opens the door.
And from there, the journey takes shape. Why? is, in itself, a way of reaching for something more than what is immediately visible.
And in saying all this, here on a Buddhist forum, the nutshell answer might be: “When the student is ready (karma ripens), the master will appear”, in whatever form it takes. For example: daily Dharma practice, meditation, the Eightfold Path…
Shoshin1
Re: New Pope on her way...
@marcitko , I actually believe his election as Pope to have been quite a calculated move. He has the intelligence and gravitas to speak eloquently, but in a way that appeals to the masses (pardon the pun) and has already demonstrated an individual mind by contradicting Vance's take on loving our fellow men, in some specific order or levels of degrees. "That's not how it works," he responded (I paraphrase). If Trump sincerely believes he has a staunch ally in the Vatican, I believe time will show him to be greatly mistaken. This is a man of 2 nationalities - North and South American - and is no amateur fly-by-night. I believe him to be acutely aware of the reasons he was chosen, and think he will administer his authority quite shrewdly.
We shall see....
federica
Re: The Plant Medicine Path
The thing is, there is a whole area of human experience which modern life has excised. Humans used to live in tribes or villages, small community groups where you worked with and knew people, where there were Elders and Curanderos as people in charge.
In a modern suburb, everybody goes off and does their own work, you hardly speak to the people you live next to, and you spend your evenings in front of the television too tired to do anything else. The only person you know who is in charge is your boss at work, and he hardly has your best interests at heart.
It strikes me that the original, tribal way of living was a lot more social, a lot more human, than the post Industrial Revolution setup designed for us by engineers.
Jeroen
Re: Kindness is Contagious
I had a thought that there may be a distinction between helpfulness and kindness so I asked AI and it claims there is. Though I hear more and more that AI hallucinates a lot, so it may just be giving me an answer because that it what it does, but the distinction makes sense to me.
Yes, while helpfulness and kindness can overlap, they are distinct concepts. Helpfulness is primarily about providing aid or assistance, while kindness encompasses a broader range of actions, attitudes, and intentions, often involving empathy and a desire to do good for others.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Helpfulness:
Focus:
Providing practical assistance or aid to someone.
Example:
Offering to carry someone's groceries, helping someone fix a flat tire, or lending a helping hand during a difficult task.
Motivation:
Often driven by a desire to make things easier for others or to alleviate their burden.
Can be detached:
You can be helpful without necessarily being deeply empathetic or emotionally invested in the person you're helping.
Kindness:
Focus:
A broader range of actions, attitudes, and intentions that demonstrate caring, compassion, and a desire to improve others' lives.
Example:
Listening empathetically to someone who is going through a difficult time, offering words of encouragement, volunteering your time, or making an effort to understand someone's perspective.
Motivation:
Often driven by a desire to connect with others, create a positive impact, and foster genuine relationships.
Involves empathy and compassion:
Kindness often involves understanding and sharing the feelings of others, and making an effort to improve their situation.
Key Differences:
Scope:
Helpfulness is more focused on providing practical assistance, while kindness encompasses a wider range of actions and intentions.
Motivation:
Helpfulness can be driven by a desire to alleviate burden or make things easier, while kindness is often driven by empathy and a desire to improve others' lives.
Emotional Connection:
Helpfulness can be detached, while kindness often involves a deeper level of empathy and emotional connection.
In essence: Being helpful can be a component of being kind, but kindness is a broader and more encompassing concept that goes beyond simply providing practical assistance.
person
Re: Death
I sometimes return to these nine points, called Atisha’s death contemplations. He wrote them in the eleventh century AD.
The contemplations are these:
1. All of us will die sooner or later
2. Your life span is decreasing continuously
3. Death will come whether you are prepared or not
4. Your life span is not fixed
5. Death has many causes
6. Your body is fragile and vulnerable
7. Your loved ones cannot keep you from death
8. Your material possessions cannot help you when death comes
9. Your body cannot help you when death comes
Strangely appropriate because my father had a stroke on Thursday and is lying in Intensive Care.
Jeroen
Re: Death
Death is just a term we use to try to describe something we know little about, something we have no direct personal experience of and cannot return from to tell the tale.
Shoshin1
Re: Kindness is Contagious
@Jeroen said:
What would it take to make a long-lasting difference to this man’s life?
Applying pressure on the government by whatever non-violent means possible, to invest more in lifting people out of poverty and supporting mental health services, is crucial. Real change often comes from persistent public pressure.
Yes, giving to worthy charities is important, but that alone is just a band-aid on a festering wound. Our taxes should be used to support the many, not to enrich a privileged few at the expense of those struggling to get by.
Shoshin1
Re: Kindness is Contagious
@person said:
@lobster said:
Being kind is a wonderful direction @Shoshin1
It does not make us a doormat (though in a sense that is the ideal)
Rather it is the capacity to recognise that our contrary and opposing nature is harming no one but ourselves.And yes, I find picnic tours of the hell realms have no element of fear for the truly brave, empowered, human...
Remove the blindfold and imagine a list of people and wrathfuls that are the enemies of good as we perceive it. Now hug them horribles.
That is the essence of Tantra.
https://buddhaweekly.com/tantric-wrathful-deities-the-psychology-and-extraordinary-power-of-enlightened-beings-in-their-fearsome-form/For some reason the idea of wrathful forms brought to mind the saying the emperor has no clothes. I asked AI if it was kind and it said no, but it also said it may sometimes be more appropriate. Then I'm wondering what IS kindness exactly? Is it fundamentally sweet and gentle? Is it kinder to let a friend walk around with spinach in their teeth or kinder to tell them even though in the moment it causes them embarrassment? Can telling someone they have spinach in their teeth be done kindly or cruelly? Can not telling them be more about our comfort than our friend's? What kind of hierarchy of values exists? Kindness, honesty, integrity, beauty, patience, equality, discipline, justice, courage, creativity, balance.
I'd say kindness is a feeling of warmth, friendliness, and closeness towards the other from which kind actions/words then naturally emanate.
In your example, being kind or unkind is not directly related to commenting or not commenting on the spinach issue. It is the "field" from which the comment emanates that is kind or unkind, not the exact wording/statement.
The other will pretty much always know from which "field" the comment comes.
The same applies to humour. The same statement, depending on the "field" from which it comes, can be either deeply offensive or hilarious to all involved.
Just my POV.
marcitko