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Less
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Clarity, transparency, simplicity means for me leaving behind a lot of things. I always feel the spiritual path is about leaving the detrimental and unskilful and adopting 'better practice'. So for example I find bird song, nature sounds or silence the best music. I do listen to contemporary music but rarely.
It is almost as if 'less is more'. Do you find practice is simplifying things?
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Comments
I might have said that simplifying things is practice...but your way works well too.
Strange thing about "less:" it always relies on "more."
Well, of course. When you're talking relative measures, there always has to be a comparison. You cannot have something relative, if you have nothing to compare it with.
But thats not all zenny and inscrutable @federica.
D'oh!!
I must say that I prefer my own company to pointless chit-chat and a wide open space to walk in much morse satisfying than other more crowded past experiences @lobster.
I wish my practice could help my credit card bill to be about less than more, and my husband's complaints to be less than more...
My life can actually be very simple, except that I can't help spending a fortune on books every month. Like Amazon would go broke without my humble contribution...
I hear you about the music thing @lobster. I used to be obsessed with music but, since discovering the dharma, I pretty much listen to no music at all.
I never realized how overpowering music can be until last night.
I mean, I like to listen to music, but not all day, especially not when we sit down together to eat or when I'm chatting with friends.
Last night, our neighbour (a single man in his late thirties) invited us for a barbecue.
He suffers from tinnitus and apparently, having background music all day (I don't know how he handles the situation in his sleeping times), is the only thing that keeps him from going crazy due to the constant buzz in his ears.
We had the boom box in our eating table relentlessly pumping out music. Pavarotti.
Since he lost a lot of weight, at a given moment, he proposed to my husband trying on some trousers that he would not use again and that he thought would fit hubby well.
We entered the house, and the radio was on, pumping out some sort of house music this time, again relentlessly.
You step in, Pavarotti, you step out, house chipoon-chipoon.
All of a sudden it was too much. And so it was till two in the morning.
Carrying things from inside to outside and outside to inside was the creepiest experience.
I'm sooo not listening to music today. Nothing. Prefer mind chatter to that.
Less gossip and less judgement, yes.
Less worrying about woulda, coulda, and shoulda, yes.
Less chatty Kathy? hahahah Yes...No....maybe, hahaha. I've just learned how to talk less in different places. I don't think my goal should/is to become a shy reserved person if that's not my personality....but....
For example....I carry around a word search puzzle book, and when I feel the need/craving to just talk to strangers about nothing really (idle chatter) I get it out. I do this at work too. I've had people at work say I talk too much and they don't want to be bothered...so this little trick is what I'm currently using to help me do less talking....and move my brain.
Less music? No way! I love it and always will. If anything I appreciate it more now...because I'm able to pay attention to the notes and the lyrics and music can 'force' me in the instant moment almost like meditation....
Music ministers to me. ..
...
Trying to be less in control.....yes!
I'll mail you my neighbour's boom box.
Chipoon-chipoon-chipoon...
As a sufferer of Tinnitus myself, I can equate with your neighbour's discomfort - but I am the opposite. If I put music on too loudly, to ostensibly combat the effect of my affliction, my tinnitus actually 'competes' and just gets louder....
It's very difficult to convey precisely the effect Tinnitus has, particularly if (as I do) you are conscious of its presence, 24/7.
It varies in intensity, and try as I might, I cannot connect it to any influence, such as diet, fluid intake, environment.... It just...'is'.
Thanks guys.
For those of you who have fasted, 'bland' food can be hedonistic. Part of turning off the 'monkey mind' requires . . . well we all know Mr Cushions answer . . .
In dervishism, the unfashionable path of Islamic Bodhis, Sufis train to be independent of the outer simplicity or complexity. In a sense, like advanced genuine Tantrika, they are empty of form . . .
Too advanced for me. I like simple things. I have preferences . . .
http://www.beshara.org/principles/talks-and-articles/the-beshara-lecture-2014.html
:vimp: .
I think it depends on what you are doing that day or that week..
I find listening to music can prepare me for meditation..depending on the music and the situation.
But I once listened to the Beach Boys ' Good Vibrations ' just before doing a Vipassana retreat, and had the fugue at the end going round my head for two days..
" Da de da de dah DAH da da " over and over and over...and over and over...
My philosphy teacher said that we are so full of imposed thoughts that it takes us 3 days of media silence before we start having genuine thoughts of our own...
Your philosophy teacher may well be right, but I think it must vary according to how much a pupil is exposed to the auditory media.... For example, my PC is the only bit of communicative technology operating in my environment right now.... and that's usual, not out-of-the-ordinary.
I think that part of having a balance, one must become aware or familar of the spectrum of what one needs balancing. Kind of like knowing the tune each string makes to be able to tune it correctly. Without the experience of less, it would be hard to say that one is in the middle.
Music is one form of falling away. What about simplicity of attire? Simple living? Is part of the reason the uniformed branch of the sangha is one of the three jewels because of simple lifestyle? Are they an example or a stage of dependency on restraint?
definitely