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Self improvement and the search for enlightenment
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
omni wrote:If i find answers for myself, possibly after years of thinking as clearly and objectively as I can and have reached conclusions about the subject..such as becoming vegetarian, or non-violent or whatever... how then do i disassociate myself from a feeling of ownership and identifying with the position?
I don't personally believe that disagreements with my viewpoint are direct attacks on me as a person, but they are clearly (?) attacks on the conclusions I have drawn. Arguing to defend a position is fruitless but isn't it appropriate to share information about the decision process as an opportunity for the other person to learn? Do I keep silent or try to share knowledge?
Or, is it most appropriate for the other person to find answers on their own when they are ready to look for them?
A perceptive question, Omni! How hard it is for us to realise that even our most deeply-held beliefs and convictions are only local and temporary mental formations.
It always surprises me that spiritual/religious debate becomes so entrenched in oppositions, the fundamental premises depending, as they do, on unprovables. Even though we, as Buddhists, invite people to test everything they are told, the Turnings of the Wheel supply language and structure for the adventure of the Dharma. This is not so different from the Christian invitation to come and taste.
I was at a new meditation last weeks. It opened and closed with sung 'prayers' - English translations and droning settings, sung from laminated cards, resembling nothing so much as a Non-conformist prayer meeting! This was followed by a deep relaxation bringing us to focus on the breath. The teaching that followed, loosely based on Shanideva, concerned patience. Time and again we were told, "the mind does thus and thus", until you may be sure that it did!
This method of teaching worries me. It is almost certainly going to result in right/wrong dualities.
The mistake, IMHO, is to start from a theory whereas the truest spiritual teachers start from the individual's experience. Of course, this is far harder than preaching to the multitude.
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Do what the Buddha did, teach those that have a little dust over their eyes and keep silent to those that have too much. It's a waste of time and breath trying to share your ideas with an individual who is very wrapped up in his/her own opinions. Without someone who has an open mind it will become an argument and what is the point? Most people make their "selves" out of their labels, and like an addict, will fight to the death to keep them whether they're healthy or not. But find a peson who has genuine curiosity and let them know what you know about the subject.
Here lies the foundation of our being. We make appropriate decisions for ourselves. Only. As they say, "if we want world peace we have to create peace at home." we have to understand that the steps we take are only for us, not in a selfish way, but who else’s steps can you take? As soon as we make a moral and profound choice where is the conflict? 1+1=2 shall we argue this? If our concern lies with our subject/object seperative mind we will never rest comfortably with it. As a recovering alcoholic I can give you an example from my personal experience. After all what other "experience" could I offer?
I make no attempt to mask the fact that I am clean and sober, regardless of the company I keep. Never do I say, "drinking is bad" or "you should not drink". I only walk the walk and don’t drink, someone offers and I say, " No thank you I don't drink." In this way any conflict belongs to the questioner. Now by being transparent in my life (right actions, right speech etc.) If someone has a problem with their own drinking they may see me and think" how does he do it?" If they find it in themselves to ask me I will gladly give them the practice that worked for me. Not some theory out of a book, not some intangible, just my path. This is truly the path of the teacher walk the walk and only answers the asked question. Remember the path you walk is of your own design. Make it yours and how can it be uncomfortable? Thank you for your thoughtful and provocative questions.
A deep and profound ^gassho^ to you
Is it not useful to walk before running...
before coming to the realisation that all is actually still?
But if you run before you walk doesnt that push you?
Slow and steady wins the race, the tortoise said so.
^gassho^
After giving up meat. one of the things you might notice is that your taste buds seem to be more sensitive to non-meat tastes as the enzymes decrease. To me, it was like going from a regular radio to a hi-fi and veggies tasted much bettter.
Factory farming happened since most of us don't have chickens running around so we can harvest our own and enterprising suppliers try to grow as many as possible as cheaply as possible to supply those who stopped raising them. Everyone should visit a factory farm when the animals are being uncerimoniously killed. It is a horrible sight filled with screams of fear and pain and there is no honor or reverence or any consideration given to the taking of a life. Raw material is being converted into a consumer product as cheaply as possible and no one gives any thought at all to the lives being ended.
We should all have MoonLgt's good fortune to be able to look at the animal we kill for food and share its fear and pain and be able to thank it for sustaining our life a little longer. Most of us do not have that intimacy with our food source and we have become too far removed from the earth that nurtures us to remember that we have no monopoly on feeling.
How can we be better?
this has been the hardest/easiest part of zazen(living meditation).
Have you ever come across a wonderful text called Nan-jang ("Refining Apparent Phenomena") by Dudjom Lingpa (published as Buddhahood Without Meditation)?
Although it is pretty technical and uses a lot a 'foreign' words, it is an extraordinary text to study. It is a Dzogchen, or Great Perfection transmission. Here is one extract:
For myself, reflection and meditation on this text and on the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures as sources of great optimistic enlightenment.
I agree that the notion of all-pervasive Buddha Nature is particularly hard for those of us who were brought up with the notion of "striving for the Kingdom" or some such. Unfortunately, in order to grasp, intellectually, what the Great Perfection teaches, we need to reflect on notions which are quite alien to the dualistic mind.
The Uttara Tantra Shastra describes Buhha Nature thus:
and, in his commentary, Thrangu Rinpoche, explains: "Other religions and belief systems describe the final fruition of practice as the attainment of something new which arises from some other source. In Buddhism, this is not the case. Because dharmakaya (the body of complete enlightenment) is all-pervasive, the end result of complete enlightenment is already present within oneself."
This does not mean that we do not practise. Gampopa taught that we should study, reflect and meditate all at the same time. But we should do it in the knowledge that we are simply blind, deaf and unaware of our true nature. Buddha Nature is one of the four "inconceivable vajra (firm or certain) points", inconceivable because they are not constructs nor are they contingent phenomena of mind.
Once again, this is seriously difficult stuff as well as being blindingly obvious once grasped! In my own practice, I find pictures, poetry and music help much more than the treatises and, above all the material, the "Ten Ox-Herding Pictures" have helped me to some small understanding of the inherent nature of pure, untainted, changeless and compassionate Buddha Nature.
Bingo!
I split this thread off from the to meat or not to meat... thread because it ventured way off topic. The content of the posts was very enriching, thus the entirely new topic for it. If the title doesn't apply, please let me know, and I'll change it.
In the century or so that Buddhism has been studied in the West, we have only scratched the surface of the vast treasury of works of all sorts on all aspects of the Dharma.
If I look at the way that brought me to my small understanding today, it has led through many related events, people and authors, including the training I received in hermeneutics and Biblical study. Perhaps the most 'revelatory' piece of writing - and the one i would save first from a fire - is T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and, particularly, the fourth.
With all that Buddhist literature, from cultures spread across the whole of Asia, we are presented with nearly insurmountable problems of translation and of basic concepts.
When a Tibetan Buddhist speaks of, say, the Realms, they refer to something that is known and understood without thought, just as a Westernere understands the word "God" in a way that is incomprehensible to the Tibetan. An old geshe once told me that he couldn't become a Christian (not something we had discussed but he was a mischievous old sod!) because he would have to learn a whole new language.
We ask each other questions and share insights here. What makes this a special place is that all are serious about the Dharma. But, to steal a description of that wonderful Fourth Gospel, the Dharma is shallow enough for a child to paddle in, and deep enough for an elephant to swim and so vast that there is no other side.
At each Turning of the Wheel, the Buddha Shakyamuni stretches his hearers' understanding beyond normal limits, beyond presuppositions and assumptions.
Thank you, Simon, for pointing out to 'Nang-Jang'. I ordered it, and started reading it today. Wonderful to read.
-Narda