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What if I am mad?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Dear friends of the anxious and depressed,
My sister suffers with these two, plus paranoid delusions. Maybe in the future she will be well enough to meditate again. Thought this might be helpful. It deals with how anxiety and depression can be helped by cushion therapy.
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/science-addiction/2014/10/mindfulness-and-meditation-two-steps-toward-better-health/
In some dharma everyone in ignorance is seen as part of a degree of being crazy, which with many Tantrists seems to be the norm. Mentioning no names or celebrity dharma crazies . . .
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha
Personally the outside the norm consciousness is not something I find skilfull, I am kinda crazy that way . . .
:crazy: .
5
Comments
What if you are mad? What if we all are?
Sometimes I look back at all the different lives that I have lived in just one lifetime, the different persons I have been, the glory and the hell of our reality, and the madness of it all brings the concept of sanity into question.
Who can claim to be altogether sane "up there" when we strive after nirvana's carrot with our feet plunged in samsara's mud?
Ha! And what blame or responsibility can be found in the desire for the carrot? It's like we are 'charged' to orient toward Nirvana's Carrot. Gosh that is starting to sound like a concept :buck: Nirvana's Carrot. Nirvana's Carrot . . .
@Lobster and regarding the first link; I've utilized, not as often as I could, the "ACT" technique. I highly recommend it for it's inarguable practicality. It is about as non-woo woo as it gets. No faith required, ifn's you lack it or pay no attention to things like 'faith'. I recommend the books written about ACT. Being Buddhist (or whatever we are) practitioners, the parallels are almost perfect. It's just like visiting a next door neighbor. The tools are excellent and concrete, and could easily benefit a perfectly UNdepressed person as well.
What if I am mad?
You don't have to be mad to post here (on the forum that is)...but if you are it helps .
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Mental Awareness Disorder
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@Lobster, don't worry. Count me in.
What is the defintion for mad?
Yes, maybe we all are mad, with craving, defilments etc...but what is the opposite off mad? Craving for wholesome things instead? I dont know, we are just here, and we can just try to do the best out of it...mad or not.
Thanks guys.
Good question.
I feel it is about balance in the Middle Way. We might talk about a practice induced tendency towards clarity, wholesome and helpful non suffering mind states.
It is different for all of us.
For example I feel it is quite skillfull to act the loon in La-la land that @federica mentions, without drinking the kool-aid . . .
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
Many aspects of Buddhism seem crazy. For example, people report how difficult sitting still and doing nothing is. The non Buddhist norms wonder why bother . . .
In the Buddhist tradititions we have practices such as the Tendai mummification or marathon monks that are . . . how can I put this politely . . . a little extreme . . .
http://www.japanese-buddhism.com/buddhist-selfmummification.html
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni41a2.htm
When you get in that condition, you've meditated for too long. Those blood clots can be murder!
Was it ever in doubt?
I feel that right speech also involves being able to distinguish what would cause good or bad outcomes towards oneself and others, and if that IS the case then that makes a lot of people wrong, or in some cases can be considered "mad".
That makes sense. In so many ways we are a monkey mind of potential labels and affiliations. Child, parent, partner, practitioner, Buddhist, atheist and so on. My sense of Buddha Nature is independent of this inner crowd.
Perhaps this inner schizoid is not dependent on the emotional content of many other internal beings? :buck: .
I possibly could be. I've given up caring about it. I'm focusing on living
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Good plan. I am totally discombobulated by dharma craziness. I love it because it is so beyond sense.
. . . however skilfulness is not about encouraging mad monks or crazy monk-ees. We may have to find a middle way whilst in extreme situations.
. . . for example this local potential meal, was doing its best to avoid my thoughts of fried rice and crispy mandarin duck . . .
If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?
John Cleese
I kinda doubt that, @lobster . It's probably more like you want us to think you are, and that's ok. Some of us will and some of us won't.
Nice picture of a duck btw.
@lobster
WHAT IF I AM MAD
Perhaps the word "MAD" could use some definition.
I tend to use the term "MAD" for any behavior that is socially unacceptable.
This means that it is just a social reference to describe behavior that does not align with our tribal identity or predictability
but does not automatically refer to good/ verses bad or right verses wrong.
^^^ Mad can mean angry, outside the box, delusional and so on. Sufis are sometimes called 'the madmen of God' because their devotion is crazy . . .
In a Buddhist sense, I would suggest as in many spiritual paths, the goal is not to be outside of conventional mental health but if possible to start from it. It is clearly difficult to move towards clarity if ones mind is clouded by drugs, illness or fantasies . . . I would have thought . . .
It is why we come off drugs but not medication.
I would also suggest and many can attest, that regular practice has many experiential improvements in our mental and emotional being.
The lunatics are in the hall;
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor;
And every day the paperboy brings more.
-Roger Waters