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Which Buddhist teaching have you found most helpful?
DairyLama
Veteran Veteran
I think for me it is the principle of conditionality ( pratityasamutpada ), which underlies the teachings on not-self, emptiness, The Four Noble Truths, and so on.
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I'm not sure that this is a Buddhist teaching per se, but placing my attention on my breath when I am agitated, nervous, angry, etc is a wonderful way for me to get recentered and stop reacting to what I perceive is bothersome.
Definitely, it's an example of Right Mindfulness, a factor of the 8-fold path.
The Middle Way. It applies in a lot of situations and decisions.
I agree with @row37 . I'd be lost without my centering exercises. The benefits are immediate!!
For me at this point, hands down, impermanence. It was something I always knew, but could not put context or meaning to in my life. Now I can. Just knowing it won't last forever, whatever it is, has been lifechanging on the account of dealing with both the worst and best moments in life. I appreciate those small joyous moments more for what they are. And I know I can survive the bad ones. And that when you come out the other side of something difficult, there is joy again. To be able to teach that to my children as they go through the rigors of adolescence and early adulthood has been priceless. It has also been a huge help in my running, lol.
I have not quite gotten past wishing for more of the good moments and being able to just accept whatever is. I have a serious love affair with summer, for example. Last night I was standing outside in the breezy night at twilight, half moon and all the stars out, just enjoying all the sensations and smells of summer. But it's always joy tempered with a bit of sadness knowing winter is always around the corner here.
The meditation instructions.
Buddhism is about experience ... just as no words and no teaching can convey what sugar tastes like, or what an orgasm feels like ... so too, no words and no teaching can convey the experiences we gain from our Buddhist practice.
We worship intellect in our society ... left-brain cognitive functions. Research has found that meditation increases our right-brain functions, and that is where the experience of Buddhism lies.
"From birth to death, it's just like this."
It's the koan/mantra I was meditating on when I finally got it.
There have been a few... The doctrine of no-self was good, as was the role of seeing one's suffering in finding compassion. But I think for me the most impact was from Thich Nhat Hanh's explanation of inter-being.
The mindfulness and not getting into intellectual debates about this or that aspect of Buddhism, etc.
You had got it?! Sheer luxury, we never had got it, we could only dream of getting it!
Yeah, I know. As I recall I thought it was pretty funny at the time, too. Still do.
Thanks@Cinoger. One time Rinzai observed that many came for advice on how to find their head. Not realizing it sat on their shoulders.
Impermanence. It's a lesson we all go through every day, yet for a good long portion of it, we completely forget it.
That must be tough given you live where you do!
I wonder though if you moved somewhere with longer summers and more mild winters if that love affair would still be as passionate?
Buddhism as a philosophy. The five precepts in general.
I don't know...I'm still looking for the mind
On a more serious note "The Cushion" has been the most helpful....
It's hard for me to pin one bit down without seeing how another fits with it in just the right way.
For practice, recharging and even metta projection there is sitting and walking and whatever-else-I-may-be-doing meditation.
For navigating the extremes, there is the Middle Way and the Two Truths.
For defining and reconciling the extremes there is the Heart Sutra.
I'm not so sure what I'm getting at but it may be certain ways things are explained that help me most.
Non-attachment --- "letting go" helps at times to put things in perspective.
@Bunks I have wondered the same. Last spring when we went to FL while we still had snow on the ground, I could have cried at having to leave. I think I would do well as a snowbird who leaves for a few months of winter to a warmer climate, lol. I do like our change of seasons, and I like the things each distinct season brings. It's just that 7 months of it gets old for me and our summer is only a matter of weeks. The main trouble with moving to a warmer climate is that most of our warm states are way too conservative for me or way too populated. I do better with peace and quiet and liberalism lol. So I stay, but it doesn't stop me from pining for summer when it's -20F out for weeks at a time. It just is what it is. Just an example of understanding impermanence but not always being able to apply it.
My Zen teacher said "Nothing I say can help you."
Most helpful teaching ever, seriously!
I don't think I'm smart enough for this
I hope you asked for your money back.
@seeker242 said > My Zen teacher said "Nothing I say can help you."
Direct pointing to the unconditioned. The unconditioned is to me the most helpful, the most important, teaching of Buddhism. All the other teachings are elaborations for the confused, baby steps for the congested mind.
Emptiness...
Begin.
Continue.
Perhaps is the teaching of " no teaching"......perhaps there was never any form of teaching .......perhaps as one awaken to Buddhism , one realize he is the mind and will no longer hold the mind.......one will have no reason to teach others as there is nothing that he holds ...learning is no longer out of desire to discover instead learning is a condition of mind readiness of change ..........
Gosh. There are a lot that I wouldn't even know where to start. This one caught my eyes.
Four Establishments of Mindfulness
It's a good overview of practice.
If one holds anything as referral to Buddhism ....perhaps one will always choosing a path of confusion and suffer of own emotion
I like this.
A lot. So simple.
The more flowery worded Sufis say:
'Find a well [of Truth/genuine teaching], drink deeply.
... talking of flowers ...
people are at different stages of blooming. What for some to say is trite whilst for others may entail deep wisdom. So in that sense we should not underestimate or overestimate the factor of saying the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, to the right person ...
paradoxically this might sound like the wrong thing, trite thing ... and completely innapropriate. Ay caramba!
Try and be wise ... but don't be a dick about it. Iz plan!
There are a lot to choose from, however I have found this (attributed to Bodhidharma) being most helpful in stopping or nipping the mind games in the bud before they get out of hand.....
"The most essential method which includes all other methods is to behold the mind! The mind is the root from which all things grow! If you can understand the mind-Everything else is included! "
I guess there's that connection with the "Twin Verses"
So if I consider the Buddha as a referral to Buddhism - I'm choosing Confusion?
What do you mean by 'suffer own emotion'...?
You are discussing more aspects of nihilism in your posts, than Buddhism, with all this 'nothingness' nonsense....
In my current mind , Buddhism is a natural process of realization not determination of the knowledge that you hold so if you created emotion to believe and to have faith in whatever you belief , in my current mind you are creating more emotion , desire/love/hate/anger/fear/worry will increase in you .....your mind will increase as such you will travel longer journey into realization of your emotion and suffering is the nature of this path .......in short , if you hold on to what Buddhism should be , you will always in circle of knowledge but in my current mind Buddhism is not knowledge ....so you are not only confused with your own choices but will also suffering of your path
You are emotion and human indeed suffering of holding to own emotion ...human suffers of desire / love / anger / greed / fear etc and suffer trying to hold on to this emotion
You are welcome to debate with me for my own learning process...Indeed I learned from you
gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. Oh what an awakening! All hail!
http://opcoa.st/0Q3Bc
[too wikid?]
Which Buddhist teaching have you found most helpful?
There is birth and death, things are impermanent.
And to accept things as they are in the present moment, if its sadness, anger, fear, and so on, they will not be there forever. Suffering is impermanent aswell
MN 61. Simple, yet infinitely valuable in my experience.
Welcome back. You have been sorely missed.
Thanks. I've been lurking, but not much posting.