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Stopping
taiyaki
Veteran
The hardest thing anyone can do in life is to just stop.
Just stop. We're always moving about, moving to the next thing, on and on and on.
So we miss it. We miss the very essence of what life is about. Which is a peace that is independent of everything else.
The greatest disease is striving. It is the game of a personal will. Everything is already in motion, even you. But the will, the owner is extra. It is this subtle grasping, which perpetuates the cycle of moving without an acknowledgement of stillness.
When that is seen through then there is only the dynamic stillness called life. And you are not living life, but life is living through you.
So for a moment please just stop, rest, have some peace.
Then we can all forget again because I sure as hell will until I remember to stop and rest.
Just stop. We're always moving about, moving to the next thing, on and on and on.
So we miss it. We miss the very essence of what life is about. Which is a peace that is independent of everything else.
The greatest disease is striving. It is the game of a personal will. Everything is already in motion, even you. But the will, the owner is extra. It is this subtle grasping, which perpetuates the cycle of moving without an acknowledgement of stillness.
When that is seen through then there is only the dynamic stillness called life. And you are not living life, but life is living through you.
So for a moment please just stop, rest, have some peace.
Then we can all forget again because I sure as hell will until I remember to stop and rest.
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Comments
I think maybe one of the best ways to learn what you say even means is meditation practice. Ajahn Chah called it a holiday for the heart.
Thanks for your reminder.
Abu
So i am just sittin around doing nothing. Not bored, no plans. Just sitting.
Then i realized that this was the true function of sundays. Just resting.
Have a good rest folks. And even if you must go through hell, the rest is worth it.
The fortunate ones rest always. Maybe thats buddhahood.
But why wait? Just stop.
Good day.
I have had maybe two moments where everything was pretty much still, where the weight of attachment and everyday life was let go of, but it was a fleeting moment totally ungraspable.
If not then maybe one needs help.
In society they call it laziness.
But when I look around, what are people trying to achieve but their fantasy?
True depression is following ones fantasy, while never acknowledging what is in front of them. You could say boredom is not seeing this instant in its clarity.
Let go, then let go of the letting go.
Thanks for the reminder.
And NO, depression is not the same as laziness!!!!!
Nor is boredom.
I didn't mean to say depression was laziness.
Depression is a serious condition, which I agree needs to be recognized.
this is all my opinion based on my experience:
but even depression can stop. depression is clinging to pain. but its pain that we see in the future. when will this pain end? it will never end. its always looking towards the future.
if we stop and face our depression in this instant then we can open up to it. dropping the future we enter this instant. and investigating depression in such a way brings about its liberation.
but thats not going to work for most people.
buts its a suggestion because in my opinion we've tried it all. we've tried the self help, the drugs, etc.
why don't we drop trying and rest in this moment?
and this isn't to say drop trying forever, but only for a moment to just test it out.
just my opinion.
On the other hand, there is something to be said (as @taiyaki suggested) for stopping to smell the real roses.
I suppose everyone sorts this out for him/herself.
Maybe stopping and going are not so different after all?
Thoughts trigger emotions. For instance I can have a nice thought, which brings a joyful sensation to the body.
Lets say I feel tired because I got no sleep last night, then I feel very agitated and my thoughts are of aversion.
Notice the correlation of thought expressing itself in body and body expressing itself in thought.
I'm not going to get too esoteric because it doesn't help anyone if it isn't based on their experience.
Depression is not purely chemical. If it were then we would solve the issue of depression in a heart beat.
Depression at its core is existential. Thus Buddhism teaches the four noble truths.
By being born on this reality, we already are in grave ignorance. Meaning we already are in dualism. We construct this and that, subjects and objects.
In my opinion all problems arise from this objectification. And the only solution is stopping. Which in essence is the heart of ending depression or suffering.
But we can agree to disagree as well.
http://www.psycheducation.org/mechanism/MechanismIntro.htm
I am not a doctor so I do not know, but I have read before that it can be purely physiological eg. mothers after birth sometimes have post natal depression, other times it is hereditary ie. lower levels of serotonin the happy chemical, and I suspect as usual the mind affects/creates chemical functions in the body.
For example in meditation or in just normal life, one can see what effect one's mind state has on the physical body. Sometimes I can literally feel my body getting heavy if I do not want to do something etc.
Just thought I'd throw that in there
Abu
I sit in my relatively new apt, alone. My 2 year old son is in bed. I am a newly-single mother...
For me to just sit, I need to watch myself.
Am I sitting to enjoy the silence?
Or am I sitting because I'm lonely & dwelling in negative self-pity? ...and even if I am, I know to sit with it & let it runs its course.
...but not let the course run me...
Should I force myself to get busy? Goodness knows there's plenty to do...
I've boxes to unpack & a new (proverbial) nest to build... yet I stall & procrastinate.
Should I work as I can? I'm tired on so many levels that it's ridiculous!!
Or is being relaxed in nest-building a sign of giving up/depression?
Or is it being lazy?
But I know I shouldn't "should" myself...
See, depression *can* be a hormonal/chemical imblancement, or it can be habit, or situational, or triggered by a thought (which triggers emotion), or triggered by emotion (which triggers thought). Or a combination. Or a domino effect. For each person it's different.
But remaining observant of one's mind doesn't change. I need to know that I'm doing the best I can.
...just need to make sure I go about that in the best way, as well...
Building (and doing) doesn't create suffering.
It was always getting caught up in stories about the pain and especially about the pains duration. It was hell and its going to always be hell. Its never going to go away and I want it to go away. Even an identity was formed around depression.
It took a long time to realize I was approaching it in the wrong way. I should of examined and inquired with my depression rather than being in aversion or attachment towards it.
Depression was the door, which brought me to this instant. Depression was my avoidance of dealing with reality. It was holding onto the good times, all while deeming this moment as not worthy in comparison.
Clinging to anything causes depression. Because it is clinging which brings about the distance between reality and what we want reality to be.
The solution to that isn't so simple. Sometimes its just stopping and letting be. Sometimes its doing something about it. Either way the process of healing requires much patience and the willingness to die into it.
Just my thoughts. Sorry about the tension.
I think this won't happen to you because you are not a energy craving.
Daedalus was a genius engineer of the labyrinth of Crete based on Greek mythology. He designed the labyrinth that King Minos put his son who had turned into a Minotaur. Genius. Daedalus made his son wings made out of wax, but his son flew high in the air too close to the sun and the wings melted.
The energetics of vajra energy escape the perspective of scientific materialism thus I cannot talk about it without myth. So.. sorry if this does not make sense. I don't mean power hungry in the sense of political power so much.
You mean "power" as in energies... of ourselves, others, the world, universe, et cetera.. right? Or do you mean "power" as a generalized "in control of" sense? (Which encompasses mental, emotional, physical, financial, so on.)
No worries about bringing in mythology!! If it helps to explain, I say rock on!
Just trying to understand
Manipulate the subtle energies within us and then that in turns manipulates the movements of thoughts, emotions, etc.
Depression is certainly a world of torment, but in my experience it has always had a sort of snow-balling effect, and meditation as well as paying attention to how my body and thought-triggers play together has been helpful in just letting that shit stop once it starts rolling down the mountain.
In talking about the 5 aggregates (or 'heaps') that make up a person, one of the aggregates is 'mental formations' and sometimes I have seen this rendered as 'mental fermentations' -- if you think about stuff fermenting, it takes a while, it sits on itself, becomes more potent. I started noticing that in the background my mind could be riding a worry-pony, which seems innocuous at first trot or gallop, but if you ride this pony for a minute or two then suddenly a whole herd of worry-cattle and worry-buffalo start stampeding with you and your worry-pony. So I taste this shift a little better these days and I move my mental focus to calmness, to the vastness of the sky, or of space, to a memory of my mother's laughter, or to a memory of my grandmother lulling me to sleep at night.
In Tibet they call it Mind Training, but I tend to think of it more as reflex polishing.
When I saw in my everyday life that joyfulness can actually be planted, watered, cultivated,, a lot changed =D
very beautifully said.
Not sure if this is quite on topic, but this reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day.
We were talking about how in our society, it's "cool" to give the appearance of being busy. Even though we value free time and vacations and all that, I've noticed that many times people (and myself) will respond to "What have you been up to lately?" with a bunch of things to sound like we're not just sitting on our asses. "I've been studying French, walking my friend's dog, running, yknow... keeping busy."
It's not cool to just sit around. But why is it cool to be busy, even if it's busy doing things that aren't equated with "success?"
I've had friends who "didn't feel like going out" on a Friday night, but felt like they "had to" because "It's Friday and you have to do something on a Friday night."
I don't really get it.
That said: Aren't we supposed to sit & think? I call it "mental mastication"... a la the cow who chews cud. I know the extreme is no good - when thinking becomes dwelling. But... maybe it's just my bad old habit...
My mud puddle. Idea bubbles rise into consciousness. Most I pay no heed, because my brain thinks *a lot*, & not everything is worth the time/effort. But if the idea rises again & again
... that means there's something there. Out comes the pony, & I let my brain mull it over. Sometimes I realize something... sometimes I don't.
Not saying 1 way is better than another... but I cannot let myself think that you mean: Don't think about stuff!
Hey IC, I saw your other post but didn't read it in detail. I just wanted to say that over time you can use things which present yourself to yourself, in a practice way. This definitely does not happen overnight but if you continue to practice is you can start better distinguishing between the environment and yourself, so those things that throw you back on you are all like the projcetion of the mirror. Anyway I just wanted to say if things present you with your (so called) ego you can also use these as opportunities for reflection and insight ie practice.
Best wishes,
Abu