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Wot I haz gained from New Buddhist

As we all know, NewBuddhist is a meeting between beginners, the experienced, the hardened mid core, dharma waifs, etc . . .

As someone of limited capacity and choices, like many, I try to listen, learn and be as skilful as my scandalous skandhas allow . . .

Here is what I have learned:

  • be patient with the advanced practitioners, they forget how hard it is for us dharma plebs . . .

  • be civil to the ignorant, one day they might be wise

  • kindness is better than theory

  • people change

  • don't give up, everyone's situation can improve

  • examine your buttons when pressed

  • listen to the message, not the messenger

What have you gained, learned from New Buddhist?

anatamanCinorjerkarastiJackoClingnotVastmindBuddhadragonJeffreypersonHamsakaToraldrisupekkaGlowStraight_ManDandelionKeyousemisterCopeWonderingSeekermisecmisc1mmoyagr

Comments

  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited April 2014

    All of the above. and.....

    I 've learned alot of vocabulary.

    I've also learned people can be very accepting and open minded to people different than them, if I give them the chance. Now....what they do after the chance is another ball of wax....hahahaha

    I've learned the internet can be a very loving and supportive place.

    I've learned the art of edit and proof reading.

    I've learned to cut out/cut back on my cussing. .. :lol: ...

    WonderingSeeker
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran

    I've learned to be less angry, and am learning to deal with irritating people, but I sometimes forget, even now... Thankfully, there are people who offer guidance which is accepted with humility

    I've learned not to SHOUT...

    I've also learned I'm not always right, but neither are other people.

    I've unlearnt to take my knowledge as wisdom, and that other's wisdom is often just knowledge (no matter how they convey it)

    I've also learned that people are infallibly human, even if they have buddha nature...

    I've learned one other thing, but will keep that to myself as I cannot share it...

    VastmindBuddhadragonupekkaStraight_Man
  • I've learned that I don't need to get the last word.

    I've learned about different ways to practice than my Lama teaches.

    BuddhadragonToraldrisupekka
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    edited April 2014

    I'VE LEARNED THAT TYPING IN ALL CAPS DOESN'T HELP MAKE MY POINT

    I've learned that there is no i in denial

    BuddhadragonupekkaKundo
  • I've learned that talk is cheap.

    VastmindlobsterHamsakaBuddhadragon
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran

    I've gained practice in restraint in speech. :)

    ToraldrisupekkaBuddhadragon
  • KeyouseKeyouse Explorer

    @lobster said:

    • examine your buttons when pressed

    I like that! :D

  • Thanks guys,

    Tried to get Mr Cushion to explain what he has learned but he just sits there all smug and cosmic looking . . . going 'Attention, attention, attention' . . .

    Further things I have learned from the enigmatic Cushion:

    • A cushion cover needs support otherwise it is empty
    • An empty practice results in everything but 'Nothing'
    • Thinking with your mouth is not Right Speech
    • Trust what you don't know more than the already known
    • An untrained mind blows up until deflated

    and now back to your far wiser insights . . .

    Hamsakaanataman
  • wangchueywangchuey Veteran
    edited April 2014

    I see people coming and going just like in real life. Some people are more open than others. Some are just wary and keep their identity hidden like me. I am slowly incorporating everything I've learned from Buddhism, Newbuddhist or wherever else, towards a better life. I am very far behind as a lay person, but I pray everyday for change.

    metta to all

    lobster
  • I forgot to mention that overall it's a positive experience seeing people coming and going, and not necessarily a bad thing. You learn a lot by watching others. Being watchful has its upside.

    Vastmindupekka
  • @wangchuey said:

    I am slowly incorporating everything I've learned from Buddhism, Newbuddhist or wherever else, towards a better life. I am very far behind as a lay person, but I pray everyday for change.

    Interesting.

    In many ways I feel many of us accumulate:

    A practice, wisdom, experience, behaviour etc. There is benefit in that. However I also feel that a big part of the path is what we leave behind. The commitment and intent to change really does come from knowing how far behind we are . . . and in a sense always will be . . .

    wangchueyVastmindHamsaka
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran
    edited April 2014

    I have learned to shut up and learn, so that my half-truths, added to the others' half-truths, hopefully add up to one glimpse of real Truth. I have learned that the more you talk, the more you realize how little you know.

    anataman
  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    I learned how to forgive, still learning on how to forgive myself though.

    BunkslobsterBuddhadragon
  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    @Hamsaka said:
    This is the first sangha I've joined and felt comfortable and stimulated enough to let it hang out (and then hang out as in daily checking in to read, whether or not I post).

    So it's sort of like I've learned here what one might learn in any kindergarten. I've learned that people who call themselves Buddhist (or not) are SO wonderfully, interestingly, and bafflingly (at first) different. There's a refreshing lack of group-think here.

    I visit other Buddhist oriented forums, but here I don't experience pressure to conform to some proper view; there are no overly cherished teachers or traditions we must not question; even the folks trying very hard to resist "Buddhism" are welcome and post often.

    There is a lightness and a live-and-let-live atmosphere here, in my experience. I keep saying 'in my experience' because I don't assume what I experience to be the same as others.

    We have all these colorful 'manifestations' of the Buddha's prescription in the persons here, from serious monastic-to-bes and . . . and tantric Lobster (thank gawd), and Christian Buddhists just to name a few. This diversity is not tolerated in any other religious tradition I've explored, and this forum is a bit unique because of this. What that teaches me is that it is a slice of life, rather than a 'flavor' of the month Buddhism forum.

    I haz also learned tons about 'right speech', and what it LOOKS like (and what it doesn't) on a sangha-forum. Not so much other's speech but my own, and to become aware of what motivates me to say anything in the first place, not to mention the content of what I say. And lord, how LONG of a say I end up taking, sheesh :D

    How can a website be a sangha?

    anatamanChaz
  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    @bookworm said:
    How can a website be a sangha?

    It can't. The people writing posts and participating on the website are a kind of sangha.

    Invincible_summer
  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    Oh ok thank you @Hamsaksa, I was a bit worried for a moment lol

  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited April 2014

    Some prefer to call a lay group of practioners a gana as oppossed to a sangha.

    Call us what you want. Take refuge. .. :) ..

    I'm curious...@Hamsaksa...what are the different 'kinds' of Sangha?

    It has been my understanding, some schools save the word for monastics only and some use it to include the whole community...laymen and laywoman inlcluded.

    EDit: It can also refer to only noble ones ( stream enters) ...so you can even be monastic but not a sangha....right?.....Depending on who's criteria you use.....

    Just me personally....I use it around NB as a reference to the group/people who have taken refuge....and continue to take it.

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator
    edited April 2014

    I use the word Sangha pretty interchangeably. When I am with (either in discussion online or in person) the students who are studying under my teacher, they are a Sangha. But so are the people here. I guess to me, it has more of a global sense of people who are studying/following/interested in the Buddhist path in some capacity. That includes people online and in person. When I take refuge every morning, it is the Sangha in a global sense that I am considering. The actual refuge my teacher uses (and so what I usually use) refers to the Sangha as the "supreme assembly" and to me that implies more than simply the few dozen people in our physical group, it implies a global sense.

    Vastmind
  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    @Vastmind said:
    Some prefer to call a lay group of practioners a gana as oppossed to a sangha.

    Call us what you want. Take refuge. .. :) ..

    I'm curious...Hamsaksa...what are the different 'kinds' of Sangha?

    It has been my understanding, some schools save the word for monastics only and some use it to include the whole community...laymen and laywoman inlcluded.

    EDit: It can also refer to only noble ones ( stream enters) ...so you can even be monastic but not a sangha....right?.....Depending on who's criteria you use.....

    Just me personally....I use it around NB as a reference to the group/people who have taken refuge....and continue to take it.

    I had no idea the word 'sangha' was so exclusive, but then again I bumble around in general without much respect for 'exclusivity' until I am told LOL . No idea about the different kinds of sanghas. You all are teaching me, here :)

  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited April 2014

    Some schools/traditions use it as exclusive...some use it as inclusive .. ;) ..

    I personally use it as an inclusive global term as karasti described.... I thought you meant something different...Sorry...I wasn't implying you needed a 'teaching' .. :o ..

    Did you mean the people can be a sangha, but not the site? ..... Maybe I should quit while I might be ahead ....lolololol...I think I just misunderstood your point...

    Hamsaka
  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran

    What have you gained, learned from New Buddhist?

    In all seriousness, that I am not a Buddhist, but a wannabe Buddhist.

    In metta

    lobster
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran

    We are all in reality monastics - who goes through their life not in the solitary confinement that is their saggy flesh and bones.

    Heres another cushion for your collection:

    HamsakaVastmindlobsterBuddhadragon
  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    @Vastmind said:
    Some schools/traditions use it as exclusive...some use it as inclusive .. ;) ..

    I personally use it as an inclusive global term as karasti described.... I thought you meant something different...Sorry...I wasn't implying you needed a 'teaching' .. :o ..

    Did you mean the people can be a sangha, but not the site? ..... Maybe I should quit while I might be ahead ....lolololol...I think I just misunderstood your point...

    I am always up for a teaching :) and it's good to know how one word can denote very different things, I like to speak AND understand the language being spoken wherever I go.

    You weren't the only person confused by my use of 'sangha' to describe us here forum members on NB. That's a teaching all on it's own . . .

    How Lobster said it here:

    Sangha is traditionally the monastics. However a community of practitioners may include those more serious than many who are monastics. It is often used to denote practice members supporting and empowering each other's path.

    That's what I meant inside my head when I used the word above :)

    Vastmind
  • Sangha can mean in a sense exclusivity. The sangha could be restricted to those beings who realize the kleshas are essenceless.

  • misecmisc1misecmisc1 I am a Hindu India Veteran
    edited April 2014

    how to agree on a topic in the end with the thing that - we agree that we disagree. :lol::)

  • mmommo Veteran

    I am a new member here on new Buddhist. As much as I want to learn about Buddhism on newBuddhist, I also want contribute. I joined because

    • I want to be part of a community which bring cohesion and unity.
    • I want to see the experiences of others with Buddhism.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Welcome.

    You'll get plenty of that here.

    But be warned - 'variety is the spice of life!

    Nice to have you aboard!

  • mmommo Veteran

    Plus, the website looks good on my mobile as well. So a lot of love for those making this forum happens and those who are sharing their knowledge on here. :)

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