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Positive?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Dear Friends,
Are you positive? As we may have noticed some dharma focuses on the miserable Noble Truths or practically never ending samsara for non path walkers. Despite this, in practical terms, practice makes us more inclined to changing and solving and transcending. Nothing to transcend types not withstanding. 'Samsara is Nirvana' is fine when experienced and empty when apart.
Improving the key components of our being, generates a space for positive expansion. Which usually means practice makes perfect or at least a brighter shine ...
Am I positive? Yes.
https://brightwayzen.org/changing-reality-with-positive-thinking/
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Comments
I'm with ya lobster. The few months I've been investigating contemplative practice, the only thing that really makes sense to me any more is compassion and positivity. Meditate, love, and smile. Some zenizens say you should kill Buddha when you meet him on the street. I say give him a hi5 and a hug, say "thanks bro," and go have lunch with your mom.
I makes sense @ScottPen - hooray ...
Awakening/unfolding can be an obstacle, should we be so lucky. This is why quotes, wise, experienced and intense practitioners may be about as much use as our unhelpful/unskilful thoughts. They can be just an adopted veneer beyond our present understanding, until they come into fruition ...
We need a working template for where we are or a bit beyond. Contemplative practice is fundamental.
The developing of positive mind, body, emotions, physical presence is a realistic method ... Why do we take refuge in the three jewels?
Because they resonate:
Long live the three jewels.
@lobster, due to circumstances both in and out of my control, I've been away from my kids and wife for a week. I've used this time to do some very concentrated contemplation. I've seen some truth that I've said I knew - but I don't think I really did. I think I feel a stream-of-consciousness coming on. Hold on tight. Dunno where this is going.
Sure, dissatisfaction can be caused by the inevitable pain associated with loving, really loving people. You'll find them, you'll lose them. They will help and hurt. You will help and hurt. But here's the kicker- you'll suffer when they suffer, because love is empathy and empathy is love. And they will suffer when you suffer, because love is empathy and empathy is love. If being "awakened" is better than that, I really don't care.
My religion is compassion... yeah, I like that.
Went to a service this morning before which practitioners were comparing the methods by which they micromanaged their prayers. Bead counting seems like bean counting to me. Notebooks and spreadsheets. Karma micromanagement. I don't think compassion or the people who benefit from it give a damn about my circumambulation. I'm not at all convinced that this is any different from gathering possessions. I don't wanna keep score.
My religion is compassion, but my life is my love for my family, and their love for me. I'd rather suffer the pain of loving empathy then loving emptiness. I'm tired of reading 2500 year old instruction manuals on how to nitpick one's life into predictable outcomes. I'd rather suffer the pain of insecurity than the monotony of predictability.
So yes. Buddha-Positivity! Dharma? Sure the lovey dovey stuff, and the don't be a jerk stuff, and the accepting that shit is what it is, and the ambition doesn't lead to happiness stuff, and the paying attention to right effing now stuff. I dunno about the rest of it. That Sid guy was talkin and talkin and talkin for 45 years. He said a lot of stuff. Sangha? Well, I'm pretty sure that my Sangha is here in this forum, in my family's love for me, and all around me all the time. Because if you aren't learning from the people around you, you're not paying attention.
I dunno what works for me, but I'm gonna keep watching my breath and realizing what's actually important. I don't need to wrap my head around my impermanence to stop thinking I'm the center of the universe. I just need to be away from my kids for a week.
Paying attention? Seems like a the plan.
In the Hinayana tradition, the tightest wheel we have positive attentive awareness for is the Theravadin elders responsibility for
ourselves firstly
Some of us, mentioning no names except my own, don't like what we come into awareness of. The empathy towards others is directly related to what we find through practice. Most of us seem more caring/kind/positive towards others and a little harsh and unforgiving towards our smallest wheel of encounter - ourselves. Oh wait, that might just be me again
tsk, tsk ...
How can we learn to be kinder and more positive about our rascal selves? Metta Bhavna.
http://dharmawisdom.org/teachings/articles/forgiving-unforgivable2
... two monks who encounter each other some years after being released from prison where they had been tortured by their captors. "Have you forgiven them?" asks the first. "I will never forgive them! Never!" replies the second. "Well, I guess they still have you in prison, don't they?" the first says.
Be kind.
Ruthlessly (if you are a Mahayana infidel)
::snip::
My bodhi buddy, the Maitreya or 'Metta Ray' as I call her, is unceasingly positive and kind.
https://www.thoughtco.com/maitreya-buddha-449794
Some people eg. Benjamin Creme fruit cake, think Metta Ray runs a sweet shop ...
Tsk, tsk ...
Wow that dude ain't gonna get scurvy
(And his clothes don't fit either.... The incredible Buddha-Hulk. Known to his friends simply as 'Bulk'.)
Hotei or Siddhartha, it is not very important, it is the intention that counts. I find positivity is great when it happens, but often meditation just leads to stillness and emptiness. Negativity can be interesting too. The key thing is not to let your positivity or negativity carry you away on a spiral of thoughts, papanca doing its thing when motive energy pushes you forward.
"Bulk SMASH" ... afflictions
I see what you did there
We are the center of our universes but no need to be a dick about it ... (cue human family, others centering, Mahayana idealism etc) ... good post @ScottPen
Returning to the gentle breath is one of the most ancient, simple and infinitely expandable life techniques. The dead are not so good at it. Positive Reframing (brain/mind training) plus breath, that is potential ...