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Dana, supporting the Sangha is one way we acknowledge the benefit of what many are fortunate to have - as @Shoshin mentions in the next post ...
Recently in a spate of yogic exhuberance, I decided to not sit on a cushion but directly on a flat blanket surface. Back pain ensued. Oops. Back on the cushion.
The "heart storm" you refer to is part of the condition of being human. Next time it arises, don't try to "fix it" with intellectual argument. In fact, don't try to "fix it" at all. Just see it as part of the first of the Four Noble Truths .. that "suffering exists". Relax into it, because the more we resist or try to "fix" any sort of discomfort, the more we feel it. This is true for both emotional and for physical pain of any sort. Paramedics, childbirth coaches, psychologists .. and Buddhist teachers ... all know this principle.
As an example, observe little children receiving an inoculation ... how they tense up beforehand, and then wail and cry afterwards. But adults, who have learned to relax with it, do not even blink an eye.
In just this way, the majority of our pain is self-induced by our resistance.
“Everything is always changing. If you relax into this truth, that is Enlightenment. If you resist, this is samsara (suffering).”
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You (Not) a Buddhist”
As for defining "love" as involving "heat and energy" .. this is the limerance of attachment that we mistake as being "love". It is a form of self-interest, not a form of true caring about the other person. It acts as a distraction from having to face our own inner fear/pain. We have so many ways of distracting ourselves, from resisting what goes on within us. But as for real love ... it has no self-interest attached to it.
Compassion is love without self-interest, but we cannot love others until we first love ourselves, and we cannot love ourselves until we have first faced and accepted ourselves.
Comments
Tee Hee!
First there was a mole hill, then no mole hill, then we take up mountain climbing.
Dana, supporting the Sangha is one way we acknowledge the benefit of what many are fortunate to have - as @Shoshin mentions in the next post ...
Recently in a spate of yogic exhuberance, I decided to not sit on a cushion but directly on a flat blanket surface. Back pain ensued. Oops. Back on the cushion.
I luvs my zafu.
http://www.buddhamind.info/leftside/lifestyl/medi/zafu.htm
Love is a gift that keeps on giving.... AKA "Dana" ...
The "heart storm" you refer to is part of the condition of being human. Next time it arises, don't try to "fix it" with intellectual argument. In fact, don't try to "fix it" at all. Just see it as part of the first of the Four Noble Truths .. that "suffering exists". Relax into it, because the more we resist or try to "fix" any sort of discomfort, the more we feel it. This is true for both emotional and for physical pain of any sort. Paramedics, childbirth coaches, psychologists .. and Buddhist teachers ... all know this principle.
As an example, observe little children receiving an inoculation ... how they tense up beforehand, and then wail and cry afterwards. But adults, who have learned to relax with it, do not even blink an eye.
In just this way, the majority of our pain is self-induced by our resistance.
“Everything is always changing. If you relax into this truth, that is Enlightenment. If you resist, this is samsara (suffering).”
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You (Not) a Buddhist”
As for defining "love" as involving "heat and energy" .. this is the limerance of attachment that we mistake as being "love". It is a form of self-interest, not a form of true caring about the other person. It acts as a distraction from having to face our own inner fear/pain. We have so many ways of distracting ourselves, from resisting what goes on within us. But as for real love ... it has no self-interest attached to it.
Compassion is love without self-interest, but we cannot love others until we first love ourselves, and we cannot love ourselves until we have first faced and accepted ourselves.
Oustanding @FoibleFull
Unfold like a relaxing lotus/flower ...