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homemade retraite...
ZendoLord84
Veteran
Every two hours, my timer goes off. I stop doing what I do, and sit for ten minutes or so.
This is my second day. My last proberly for while,
Tomorrow I got re-schooling again.
I really don't get it, why I need to pay a lot of money to do this somewere else...
sidenote:
I still live like a hermite, however, stopped feeling lonely all together quite a while ago.
This is my second day. My last proberly for while,
Tomorrow I got re-schooling again.
I really don't get it, why I need to pay a lot of money to do this somewere else...
sidenote:
I still live like a hermite, however, stopped feeling lonely all together quite a while ago.
0
Comments
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Or do you distract the world?
Best wishes,
Abu
I haven't been on a retreat yet, but I'd imagine that the structure of the retreat and the atmosphere would be more conducive to practice.
And as @Floating_Abu said, there's a lot of value to be found in a good teacher.
Everything was going fine until we got to a quite energetic chant -- The Kanzeon Ten-Clause Sutra -- which begins quietly and then gets louder and louder and faster and faster. Our only problem was that about halfway through, both of us got to laughing uncontrollably. We couldn't stop. There we were, a couple of dyed-in-the-wool, straight-arrow, strict-as-a-school-marm Zen students laughing until the tears ran down our faces. To this day, I don't know how we ever managed to stop. Each time one of us would serious up, the other would burst out laughing again.
How we stopped and how we made it to nine o'clock that night I'm not sure. It was a good day's sitting, but that laughter was certainly the highlight.
It has something to do with..
Finding stuff inside yourself.
metta,
Thank you..
I'm listening to Ahajn Brahm right now...
He is making me laugh out loud with pure joy.
Well I was responding to your initial words: "I really don't get it, why I need to pay a lot of money to do this somewere else..."
The meditation environment of monasteries and retreats have been much more focussed for me than I could ever be at home and my teacher's guidance valuable. That's my own experience.
oke...understanable.
But I just don't get it, still....:) Why they pay money for a retreat
Without attaching judgment
guidance and teachers...sure.
midnfullness is about being focussed everywere all the time,
so in my humble opion it just doesn't matter were you are.
Besides. I'm a lay-practisioner...a monastery is an.....
how to say this.
escape from living in a society.
The word itself says it;
retreat.
Mindfulness needs to be cultivated. Retreats, in silence, builds up a strength that cannot be comparable to a daily 10 minute sit in my experience. Although daily sits for the lay person is of course good and part of our natural practice.
A monastery or a retreat environment is an opportunity for more intensive practice and cultivation, and with many other people usually so you can test your own practice.
It is not an escape, it is a reality hit.
Best wishes,
Abu
the last munk I met was telling me all the stuff I allready knew.
This is not vanity.
So now I'm connceting the knowledge in my head,
With my hart.
This proces.
Nobody can help me with that.
Also do not box yourself into being someone who can not meet a teacher who can help them ... or being any other label either.
" It " will change, if we let it.
REALLY gotta work on the speech thing.
Just can't seem to get my point acros.
Best wishes,
Abu
Freedom can mean being able meditate where ever you find yourself. The Buddha most often gave his monks objects of focus in meditation that were the complete opposite to that monks particular strength. Because a wheel is only as strong as its weakest spoke, training solely with our natural strengths has limited value. What I am really trying to say is that someone who is a natural extrovert can clearly benefit from a hermit path just like someone who is a natural hermit will usually benefit most from practising in the world.
Perhaps the return to school is really the perfect place for your meditation to roam.
Just a thought to consider..
What most seem to forget is,
Buddha was a self-made spiritual man.
He did it on his own for most part.
One could also argue that he lived in a time with fewer causes for suffering, less conditioning from society that encouraged suffering, etc.
he was just a man...who sat a long time under some tree and he reached a continious calm state of mind wich gave him the strength to deal with life.
nothing more. and nothing less.
we all have buddha nature inside of us.
that makes all of us buddha.
but even tough we don't find the key to open the lock of ego.
buddha nature still resides in us all.
And whilst I respect your path, and how you choose to live it, I would not assume either that is the genuine Buddha way - or the full penetration of the Buddha's knowledge.
Best wishes,
Abu
Not that I believe he actually did those things (and many modern Buddhists don't), but the point that I'm trying to make is that he was certainly extraordinary, and the texts try to depict him as such with embellished language.
Not everyone achieves such a high level of attainment. That's why he's special, and "more" than a man, IMO.
Also, in Asia, the Buddha may be treated more as a deity, this is true. However, I wouldn't say that it's a "big mistake." That would be unskillful. If the myth/deification of the Buddha encourages people along their practice (which, personally, it does for me), then why denigrate it? Just because there is Buddha-nature potential doesn't mean that we are all Buddhas.
A piece of bread has the potential to become part of a sandwich, but the bread alone isn't a sandwich - you have to do some preparation for it to become a sandwich.
You said it yourself - Siddharta Gautama was a man who sat under a tree for a long time to become a Buddha. If you follow the Mahayana line of thought, he probably had Buddha-nature as well, but he still had to sit.
to each his own.
you are not fooling yourself..
is there an exam for non-foolishness somewhere..?
or a club one can join to be exclused from fools all around?
is it something determined by birth, by gender, by age, by skincolour, by hair colour,
or are you bald?
how do you know you are absolutely right?
May I ask you a sincere genuine question?
How old are you?
And how many years have you been into Buddhism?
Namaste :-)
You can also tell by the feedback sensible, and well meaning people might give you.
A good fool proof way to assert your own truth is to only seek agreement/validation from yourself.
You might also ensure that key Buddhist teachings are fully penetrated - not through analysis or understanding because that is surely a fool proof way of being wrong. A good measure is also the genuine sense of compassion and openness one's heart might feel including to those whom might annoy you.
When you are the only one in agreement with yourself, this is usually a good sign you are off the beaten track.
etc etc.
When you are the only one in agreement with yourself, this is usually a good sign you are off the beaten track.
Yes, but a track that is well beaten only says that many folk have walked it before you.
Shared delusion can create a beaten path just as much as anything else.
loved the rest of the post though.
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
African Proverb