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How to best use the time in walking the spiritual path?
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
Hi All,
How to best use the time in walking the spiritual path? Considering that days are just passing by, without much spiritual practice. Also considering that except my family members which includes my father, my mother, my wife and my daughter, there is not a single external person who I am helping, I am not even finding any beggar to whom I can give some coins in change on the street (where I catch a local transport to commute between house and hospital) . What to do to advance the spiritual practice? Any suggestions. Thanks.
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What are you hoping to have as a result of the spiritual path? Knowledge? Then read? Good feeling then become mindful of feelings. but maybe start and see what you are hoping from the spiritual life.
Interesting that you appear to want to help others for your own advancement, that is perhaps worth reflecting on.
Want the final goal of spiritual path.
Well, my motive behind trying to help others is also selfish because the idea is to create good karma for me.
Different people look for different things. Some want ultimate truth, others want bliss. If you just want good karma, then why not look for a job where you will be caring for others?
This selfishness seems to be a continuous theme in your threads, and I have remarked on it more than once.
It's not 'also' selfish. It is PRIMARILY selfish.
Good grief. You have missed the point entirely.
It has been said many times before - to you - but you seem to have forgotten: Every day IS spiritual practice. Every day is an opportunity to walk the path. LIFE itself, is Spiritual practice.
The identity of the people you help, those within your vicinity is irrelevant.
It's what you do for them, and how you do it - in what frame of mind.
Your intention to create Good Karma for yourself is completely and utterly negated by that very motive.
The Action towards others should be selfless, and uniquely for them.
And any action (be it verbal of physical) for the sole benefit of others creates ripples, and generates Metta and Karuna.
STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR ADVANTAGE.
Absolutely @federica, it is the intention behind any act, good or bad, that counts more than the act itself.
OK you have shouted at him, can I kick him now ... in a kindly way?
Some people are totally unsuited to the spiritual path. Just so you know ...
Who are they? The heedless? The infantile? Non sentient life forms?
(Great Link, @lobster!)
I want to experience the ultimate truth.
...Which you will most definitely not do, if you carry on as you are doing.
One way to attain 'Ultimate Truth' is to wholeheartedly practise the Brahma Viharas: Selflessly, unconditionally and spontaneously.
That would be a step forward.
Oh look - Practice, entails Compassion, Unconditional Love, Equanimity and Sympathetic Joy.
All of which concern... what?
That's right.
CARING for OTHERS.
Help a monk? Help a nun? Donate to a local monastery? Offer food? Volunteer?
Those are just a few things that come to mind.
Start small, you don't need to be an ascetic yogi to have a spiritual practice and be on a path to truth or love. Start with the 5 precepts and a simple, short meditation practice that you commit to daily. It doesn't have to be long, just a minute to 10 minutes if you want to start, the important part is developing the habit, then as it feels natural you can extend the time, but you don't have to.
Developing concern for others also doesn't have to be a sudden leap into selflessness. Start with the understanding that you, yourself are more self interested and realize that giving of yourself to others is the better way to find happiness for yourself. As you start to do things for others you will come to think of others too.
Think of the spiritual path as exercising a muscle, it's not something you just get all at once. It comes about as a result of regular small efforts over time, but you do need to make the effort. It may be hard at first, so start small like I said, but as it develops into habit the results snowball.
Ultimately in my experience, we don't always get what we want ...
https://www.treeleaf.org
We can try ...
Do your practices. And meditation. And remind yourself as often throughout your day as you can, to try to remain mindful.
Make the 5 Precepts Vow and follow it, as best you can. You won't always be able to, but the purpose of keeping them is that it makes us be self-aware, and gives us the opportunity to practice relaxing when we have an urge, and also to observe how our desires/aversions push us around.
As for helping others, practice whatever is in front of you. If all you have is your immediate family, try to put them first and practice both patience and compassion when they are difficult. And when they trigger your annoyance, regard them as your kind teachers because they are giving you the opportunity to learn about yourself and to practice mindfulness.
As for ultimate truth, I'm not sure Buddhism provides that. It may .. I'm not enlightened, so I cannot speak to that. We only know what we know from firsthand experience, and Buddhism will change you. You will become better able to live richly and vibrantly in THIS moment, and to accept and relax into whatever is happened, even if you don't like it. Peace. A quiet joy. Not every moment, but that comes with practice, they say.
This is a beautiful and profound ‘vajra poem’. It was given spontaneously by Gendun Rinpoche, a late Tibetan Buddhist rinpoche (teacher), during a talk to his disciples. A book of his teachings called Heart Advice from a Mahamudra Master is highly recommended and teaches all the essentials of Tibetan Buddhism from someone who has a genuine experience of the truth that lies behind the words.
Pay attention and take responsibility.
Stop imagining any such thing as "good karma." That will just provoke bad karma. Remember, just because you are indispensable to the universe does not mean the universe needs your help.
As a Zen teacher of mine once encouraged, "There is birth and there is death. In between there is enlightenment." When you set aside the notion of "in between," life will become easier.
Oh man, life zooming faster than an F1 car. Simplify things. You need to focus on meditation and generating the altruistic attitude. If someone were to say "insight into selflessness" is this a relate-able experience?
@Jeffrey: Thanks for the above insightful poem. When I read poems like these, somehow something inside me feels nice. Some of such poems include Hsin Hsin Ming and there is a poem by Nio Tau Fajung (hope I am spelling the name correctly) namely Song of Mind. The poem Song of Mind by Niutao Fajung is at URL https://terebess.hu/zen/xinming.html. I love Song of Mind by Niutao Fajung more than Hsin Hsin Ming. Then there is a poem by Layman Pang and a poem by Bankei.
Layman Pang's verses https://terebess.hu/zen/pang.html are below:
Bankei's poem https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/bankei.html is below:
But what I feel is poems like above ^^ or instructions like above ^^ do not lead anywhere - saying things like there is nothing to do - so then should effort be put at spiritual practice like meditation or not? If we put effort in meditation, then the above instructions are not getting followed, but if we do not put effort in meditation, then how can we experience the ultimate truth?
@misecmisc1 said:
That's the kind of points you need someone who can take the role of teacher for you. It's not necessary to live in same city as them these days because you could phone them or write them. And through that they could clear up those points. Like there is such a thing as 'right effort' but you would have to ask someone who takes the role of teacher with you what that means in Mahamudra in case of my quoted passage or Zen or whatever in the case of another passage.
Just myself thinking about right effort if you had no effort you would never read a vajra song from a buddhist teacher. Or you would not have a daily reading. You would not put any effort. So obvouisly that contrasts reading Buddhist teachings that help you let go of effort as a harmful thing.
My second point would be that these poems and things aren't just peaceful sounding words rather they are actually teachings. They are part of the context of people giving and receiving teachings in the dharma. So if some teaching in particular appeals to you then you could pursue it further and try to find a teacher teaching that teaching that appeals to you.
Another idea is to really try to practice one of those songs poems. Try out not grasping any particular way. As Gangaji says her teacher told her "just stop".
'alive or dead
I'm in it for
The poetry'
One of Cid Corman's 'famous blue aerogrammes.'
'alive or dead
I'm in it for
The poetry'
Me and me so
Miso so so so ... Up
No me
Know soup
?
and now back to walking around an empty bowel
These kinds of poetry are as @Jeffrey teachings. The Buddha said “nothing whatsoever should be clung to”, and these poems just make it specific, the things we usually cling to and where we ought not to be clinging.
If you don’t cling there is nothing to do. But you stack the odds in your favour with continuing to meditate as well, perhaps you will reach a breakthrough and learn something of ultimate truth.
Those poems seem to be describing more the enlightened view or what it is like to be enlightened rather than giving instructions on how to get there. They are useful as guideposts and signs to show us if we are on the right track or not, but actual practice requires an effort.
@misecmisc1 : You could read every Buddhist text in the world; every sutta, every koan, every haiku poem, every chapter of every worthy, credible, authentic, authoritative and reputable book that has ever existed.
If you don't stop reading, and start doing, you will forever be questioning the theory, and completely missing the practice. And the point.
"He who deliberates fully before taking each step, will spend his entire life on one leg."
Simplify.
Stop wondering.
Start walking.