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What, if anything, are you trying to achieve?
Bunks
Australia Veteran
- Why do you practice Buddhism (if you do)?
- What are you hoping / expecting to achieve in this lifetime?
1
Comments
I always liked the meditative quiet space around buddhist places. The mere look of a sitting Buddha statue carries with it a peace, a contentment, a stillness. That is the spaciousness that attracted me, that told me ‘this you should examine’.
In this lifetime I would like to achieve peace. Enlightenment and cosmic knowledge would be nice, but I think peace is at least as important. Having looked into the Buddha’s path, I don’t think the lifetimes of practice are for me, but I think we can always determine a good next step. The path will take care of itself if you can determine a good next step.
These questions shift like the temporary intersections that our aggregates happen to congregate around in the moment.
A wink shared between two past lovers while crossing a street.
1 - Because I finally got sick and tired of the bullshit and wanted answers. Even if it means "I don't know" was the answer
2 - Patience, Equanimity, Mindfulness, Compassion, Altruism and to leave this world better than when I entered it. Anything else is dressing. Of course, enlightenment would be awesome
Karma = a sequence of causes conditions & effects, which led to Dharma practice...
Deeper experiential understanding...in other words the ultimate answer to life universe and everything AKA 42
To be able to find happiness and contentment within the ups and downs of life, and hopefully pass that on to others.
I have a desire to devote myself to the dharma and eventually teach, at this point though I really don't think I have the needed drive to be able to take that sort of plunge. So I'm happy to leave the world a better place for having been in it while doing ,y best to live a peaceful, stress-free life.
?
As a headless chicken I might not even get to the other side without dying.
Therefore:
Do-do. I iz in it.
Hope to abandon hope. [oops ...] back to the Middle of the Road ... [head missing ...]
...
Tee Hee! Buddhism uniquely does not pretend to have all the answers. It has the best questions.
I'll join.
Great and useful question.
In essence, I’m searching for peace, tranquility and equanimity. I could throw out some comments about enlightenment and understanding, but I’m really of a view that I can and do overthink and over-analyse, so peace and some bliss is enough for me. If something else comes, great. But I’m not chasing anything beyond serenity and a calm place to go. And I’m trying not to chase those things too hard either.
I practice Samatha with the UK Samatha Trust organisation, 2 formal sits per week with them, augmented by my home practice. I occasionally link with Zen, Plum Village or a Pure Land group, all Zoom stuff.
In these dark times, death is also something that perhaps I think about more and I’m getting older, so it naturally begins to have a higher profile in my thoughts. So, a way of being more comfortable with the concept of death and the pathway to dying is a key component of my meditation and behavioural practice, I’d say. This is the stuff that I feel Thich Nhat Hanh handles very well and articulates simply. Perhaps Pure Land has some comforting aspects here, @Bunks ?
Like others have said, I love a bit of incense, a Buddha statue and a temple, with the lovely atmosphere those things can bring. I’m not for poring over manuscripts and doctrine, as Ajahn Chah has said.....bring me your doctrinal arguments and I’ll simply point you to the laws of cause and effect.
I find Buddhism sometimes takes me into complicated territory and my mind gets confused. I like simplicity. Namo Amida Bu.
I can get too caught up in reading. Time to get caught up in inner space.
I just think Buddhism and the practice of meditation is good for me and my mind. That simple.
@person if you would eventually like to teach, what would you like to teach? It’s a lot simpler to teach meditation than it is to teach the dharma. I have known a lay teacher who was affiliated with a temple and who did an excellent job teaching introductory courses, is that the kind of role you envisage?
Not really, I'm thinking of something where I'm able to actually develop deep dharmic qualities and be able to pass those on. So I guess more like teaching the dharma.
I think probably a big hang up for me is I just have issues with groups and the groupish mindsets that seem to go along with them.
I once came across a wise quote that said, “you teach what you know”. It seemed interesting to me, because you then first have to explore what you really know. It’s not as simple — at least for me — as just saying I have read about these parts of the dharma, so I will teach them.
If I really look at the dharma, what parts of it have really worked for me, settled in deeply and shown me things about my life? Those are the things I would be able to teach, and if those things include deep dharmic qualities then so much the better. But I think more often than not they are superficially simple things like ‘letting go’.
Then there is the issue of breadth, different lessons appeal to different students. In the old days of zen, masters would sometimes send a student who had difficulty to another master. In these modern times you’d have to have a network of fellow teachers that you would respect.
But where would you get a student? I suppose you could just go to a Buddhist school and put up a notice offering one-on-one tutoring.