Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Are you Different?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
As some of us experience and hopefully all eventually know, Dharma practice makes a difference.
We change. Our mind to start with. Perhaps our awareness, emotions and opinions. We don't have to but the fact is we can.
Things we barely understood, ignored or thought irrelevant or [insert former being right] can be let go of ...
For example from my experience:
- Diet includes all forms of input
- Exercise includes many movements
- Language has many forms
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment
Are you any different?
1
Comments
Everyone is 'unique' so much so that being 'unique' is nothing special.
Wanting to be a 'unique individual' comes from an identity view.
We all have a unique starting point but if dharma makes a difference, to what extent are we still different after a long immersion in the dharma?
I think we do all have different strengths and weaknesses. I was born with quite a lot of equanimity although rarely I could get very angry as well, but nowadays that almost never happens to me. My emotional state now varies from neutral to sometimes unsettled or fearful.
So we all walk different paths through the dharma, and perhaps it is only luck if we end up at enlightenment. I don’t think we all end up in the same place, either...
Yes & No
[Yes]..."I am" not who "I" was before the Dharma
[No]...But "I am" no different to who "I" was before the Dharma
This sense of karmic self ( psycho-physical phenomenon that "I" have grown up with) goes with the flow of change, though its presence becomes weaker as the Dharma grows stronger.......
Thanks everyone.
We start from various karmas but we end up in a similar placement ...
The not-identifying being that becomes ordinary is a good point from @pegembara and @Shoshin.
Some paths are more conducive, moving us to the common grounding in Christ, Buddha Nature, I AM, unfolding, enlightenment, actualisation, self awareness etc.
The path is not the goal, the raft is not the far shore, the chicken crosses the road ...
Long live the Buddha (just some guy) ...
Here is something from one of my old web pages that may be relevant ...
Higher knowledge can be transmitted in a varied manner. Enabling solutions whatever the nature of the interaction. Alignment is a mode of thinking that recognises that process and provides the capacity of allowing movement towards truth.
The quality of service becomes perceptible to those extending similar behaviour.Calmness, consideration and common sense are essential. Perception and means of assessment are widened and stabilised to those prepared to profit in the sharing. Those requiring surrogate parents and nurse maids soon settle for the required interaction where limiting insight provides acceptable degrees of frankness. It is by observing our own reactions that we may gain the capacity to overcome trivial tendencies within aspects of ourselves. By understanding how the inner effects the outer we are able to gauge the relevant facts and decide their consequences. It is this recognition of how internal qualities effect outward behaviour that enables a unique and genuinely honest interaction.Objectivity is a crucial capacity. With it we are not taken in by the assumptions and lesser ideals of a group or our own conditioned responses. We engage in meaningful actions and opinions which share the varied understanding and allow changes and self assessment.Supposed insignificant events may have importance and generate understanding for those involved or informed of them. Outer events also illustrate the inner nature of the dynamic.Real human beings and real qualities are a rarity. We become prepared to hear more and digest more and find new meanings at different times without dependence on absolutes. Most people are still partly operating on infantile behaviour patterns that we all exhibit but learn to supersede. That anyone moves through the initial stages to anything higher is almost a miracle.It may take an extreme situation to bring out the true nature. People are constantly through life experiences being exposed to their actual and imagined nature. The attraction to excitement and triviality must be diverted, utilised skilfully or placated.We assume that rebuttal is not as good as acceptance and encouragement. In fact the function is more important than the form. When we demand easy answers to complex situations we find some who provide this charade.Developed behaviour depends on the requirements of the potential, the particulars of the sharing and the possibilities of the situation.The interaction between ignorance and wisdom is a daily occurrence. Those purporting to defend and uphold morality or spiritual teachings are often amongst the most deluded. It is however through interaction with extremes that we may learn of how our own capacities need changing.Opportunity and lucidity is provided by mature function and work within the community appropriate to the situation and individual strengths. The wish for wisdom is the motivation to learn the process of attaining. When the conditions of learning and development is complete, the capacity to integrate is enabled.The heedful learn from events and situations that the heedless dismiss as irrelevant.
"Yes, we're all individuals"
"I'm not"
Thanks @Kundo
For those who wonder which Messiah preached this message, it was Brain Brian
Oh wait Brian 'is not the Messiah, he is a very naughty boy' ...
Being unique has nothing to do with being special and everything to do with being useful.
Pretty useless if we all saw from the same perspective.
Yes, the practice has changed me. Hopefully for the better.
"perfect"
i want to be funny bone.shoshin gif yellow bone string manican was pure win.
That's one way to look at it. Another is that individuals are all already unique by default and that wanting to be the same comes from an identity view.
Wanting to be a 'unique individual' comes from an identity view.
Yes.
Real progress does not come with attachment to identity but with the unfolding of the 'Special Nothing' ... eh ... nothing special ...
This spacial special space is more Bodhi than not.
It is why we are not adding, patching, comforting our inflations but dissolving our persona and attachment to ourselves ...
That I believe is the plan of most paths.
John 3:30
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-3-30/
or in Buddhism:
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/emptiness-in-buddhism-empty-of-what
That's group identity for you. The more you want to be different, the more similar you become!
Here is one of the different Buddhas ...
Warning my contain references to Holy Buddha Dong used to subdue demons ...
http://badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=176117624362
^^^ * facepalm *
Seconded....
Tee Hee.
The link is (rightly so) completely OTT
Here is a lovely Buddha Babe for balance
http://vajranatha.com/teaching/Simhamukha.htm
Here to help