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.
The hard and the soft
lobster
Crusty Veteran
in Mindfulness
The hard and the soft are a couple of approaches to dharma. The hard is found in 'right concentration' or focus and the soft in the gentle or kind attention that leads there.
I first came across this method of 'hard' in candle flame concentration used in yogic meditation. The soft into hard came from Buddhist martial arts and enables much to contemplate in the yin/yang of Taoism/Zen.
The Great Yin is a softness but again it centers on a core attention.
https://accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/suwat/concentration.html
What would you class as your hard and soft lessens/lessons?
0
Comments
Soft: The Lama Surya Das trilogy.
Hard: Life in general.
I had to think about this for a little while @lobster it’s not so easy, life dishes up lessons but on the whole they are not so easy to categorise. In the end I ended up going with suffering on hard, because suffering tends to confront you at various points during your life with being tough and unavoidable. For soft I’m going with sleep, because you never know when it starts, you just gently drift off.
Indeed... That's why I added the 'in general'...
No it doesn't. 'Suffering' is a constant, whether the experience is perceived to be negative or positive. It's all dukkha, and we live it daily. Without interruption...
Your dreams also carry Kammic messages; what happens in yor Mind, is also dukkha.
Well, yes, there is a bit of background unsatisfactoriness. But the suffering you really remember tends to be life events which hit you: illness, depression, major sports injuries, break ups for example.
We're back to debating the etymological origin/meaning of Dukkha, aren't we? 'Suffering' has by now been found to be seriously wanting in the 'accurate interpretation' department...
One of the hards is tightening/focussing/winding into the 'dharma fist' or viagra ... eh I mean vajra 🤗 and the soft is a release of the frenzy/rigid unrelaxed attention.
In other word the hardness is a softee zen slap.
@federica mentions this, the tightening grasping around dukkha is the hardship.
... and breath out ... better ...
In meditation the hard precedes the soft. In life we can become set in dukkha or unsettled by the passing landscape. Peace/calm/ease is a hard practice and the achievement of repose ...
Oh I can stand some ...
At least if we were Zooming, we'd probably be hearing a lobster porn sound track just about now.
The cushion...
That cushion is both hard and soft @Shoshin
It works for me.
For some consistent study (discipline/hard) and contemplation/insight (soft) may lead to breakthrough.
An example of a soft hardness may be something like a simple mantra. Here is one I am doing ...
https://buddhaweekly.com/amitabha-buddha-infinite-light-whats-name-merits-vast-name-amitabha-practice-synonymous-compassion-happiness/
Extending this into life lessons:
We may find more clarity through listening (soft) and understanding than trying to change the hard headed (especially us reflected in others).
hard and soft are mind sets.
Hard = I have o do this
Soft = I get to do this
I have had times when 10 minutes was SOOOO HARD! I could not concentrate, I could not focus and it seemed to be a very long and difficult time.
I have sat down, began my formal practice and found that in just a short time, two hours or more have passes.
in both extremes, as everywhere in between, my environment reflected my practice of the moment. When I allowed my mind to control me - hard practice, hard life condition.
When I controlled my mind - soft practice, "soft" life condition - strong life condition.
Same rock - stub your toe or use it to grind grain - your choice.
Peace to all
Thoughts come easily to many of us. Un-thought or no-thought spontaneity not so easy. We may have differences or turn arounds from time to time ...
This movement or yo-yoing between easy and hard may be dependent on a variety of factors. So for me I can call these easy and hard over time:
I feel the important qualities emerge through this time journeying ...
I like this answer, it is very non-dual. It reminds me of the first few lines of the hsin hsin ming van Sosan, make but a single distinction between hard and soft and heaven and earth are set infinitely far apart.