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Tools
lobster
Crusty Veteran
How to grind yourself up. Buddhist mortar and pestle ... eh wait it might be a singing begging bowl ...
From another thread
I attended a meditation retreat this weekend. I think it was really good for me, I got a lot out of it. It helped to strengthen my practice and new tools to use and I was truly thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow with a bunch of really nice people.
New tools? A bigger cushion? Do tell.
Everyone is a tool. 
Until they start building ...
https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/green-koans/
3
Comments
Meditation techniques vary by how well they work to relax the mind, while allowing the awareness to stay sharp. For example mantra’s can be a certain self-hypnotisation and can allow awareness to dim, while the breath can give you an object to focus on but this can also slip away from you as the mind suggests more thoughts.
But practicing meditation in the presence of others can be a very beautiful experience. Being together on a spiritual path gives a certain wonderful feeling.
Well, @lobster, you're just one great big tool, aren't you...
I mean, you have your uses...
@Kerome
[yawn] wait ... I am sure I never yawned at the wonderfully beautiful ...
This is positive reinforcement, fine for a while.
However can we meditate whilst surrounded by ugly, ill thinking, selfish me-me demonic sheeple?
In other words are we independent of the spiritual luvvies?
'Today the fear of invasion is more one of psychological and social breakdown than of external invasion. instead of Theosophy, there is now the New Age, another resurgent Gnostic/Romantic fantasy that claims Buddhism as its own, just as Mani did in the Third century and Mme. Blavatsky in the 19th. But the Dharma will remain unheard as long as its voice is drowned out by the clamour of these irrational and eclectic yearnings'
http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol1/new_age.html
But you’re a naturally wrathful person, @lobster... It depends what your mind tells you is all around. People see a reflection of themselves, of their own thinking trends. If you are angry within, then maybe that is what you see, and you need the energy of a meditating sangha to help you become free of that.
A harder road is to try to change your thinking, to give up on long-held beliefs, to make space inside by thinking in different ways and altering ones way of viewing the world.
Likely true, but the dharma does not exist in isolation. The New Age movement can also be seen as an ally of eastern religions, that those who need more than a lite spirituality will find their way to the Buddha.
Here in the Netherlands we have a magazine called Happinez, which has all kinds of new age and spiritual articles in it. It’s generally a very upbeat presentation of how to look at the world.
One of the tools that I referenced was instruction on meditation. I also met new people, learned that there are others interested in or practicing Buddhism in my little area and we're looking at starting up regular meetings. Things are groovy, my wise crustacean!
Hmm, the only mediation tools I use are the cushion, the bell and a big dose of "patience"...(without it...all is lost)
They seem to get the mind turning over quite nicely...
Groovy eh? @ajhayes
You seem to have available:
dharma (tool instruction), sangha (like minded cushion squashers) and regular meets with Buddha mind. That is a good plan. One of the best ...
Bonus track ...
One of my favourites... and my daughter loves them too... I could listen to S&G all day... Them and the Bee Gees.....
Dammit lobster, stop spying on me!!
Here are some tools ...
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/top-meditation-iphone-android-apps
It’s tempting to see all these things as tools that we can use, isn’t it, but in fact many monks do without all of that. They just have a body and a brain, and access to a teacher. We e-Sangha practitioners perhaps have more of some forms of resource, and often less in the way of access to a real teacher.
But that’s also part of the path of the western lay practitioner. We do not have the time or dedication of the monks, but we do meditate, and some are quite knowledgeable in the sutra’s. It’s a different way of approaching the dharma, which maybe comes a little closer to a monk’s practice than the traditional Eastern lay practitioner...
I seem to be in a musing mood tonight
Meditation. Just sit quietly and observe/contemplate/be.
To my amazement, Buddhist meditation is simple. The mind complicates.
Be a patient patient. The worldly is unwell. The Buddha sits ... still ...
warning: pic may be Shiva, so named because she felt a shivver up her spine ...