social network one again
ShanJieshi2
bahia blanca Veteran
for many years and with interruptions I have had different places for meditation. Only on a basic level and with the permission of my teacher.
Those were other times.
Now with the rise of social networks I noticed that there were many more possibilities to spread any activity, but such is the saturation that what social networks achieve is that the person enters into an apathy to anything that does not fit into the minimum space they have between their daily obligations. Zazen and Dharma remains only as an option of low priority before everything else.
On the other hand, the few people who express any concern, do so only if it coincides with their preconceived ideas or practices (most of them delusional, pseudo-mystical). And finally, they only give value to what they can afford and what happens on a weekend.
They expose themselves to a flock of dubious instructors squeezing money out of their wallets...with a smile on their face.
Comments
It’s true that the field of meditation teachers is largely unregulated. But really the focus should be on how you inspire people to do something worthwhile. Just Zazen is a tough sell, and the Dharma is hard to specify, but still the Buddha managed to teach it.
I've spent a fair bit of my time trying to understand and worrying about the ways social media is impacting our lives in negative ways.
There's this aspect that I think your post highlights where the positive aspect of being able to be very selective about what we choose to engage with has this dark lining to it where anything outside of those specific parameters gets devalued. And the idea of sacrificing for something you value can lose out.
And it is also not uncommon for many practitioners, students and teachers alike, to mistake a myopic focus upon the surmised failings of others, as something helpful to the addressing of our own attachments when in fact it does little more than perpetuate them. While such a focus, partakes of an ego's adversarial basis to establish the separation between self and others, actual Buddhist meditation and the Dharma should illuminate the ethereal nature of all such surmised separations.
As the failure that @how mentions, I oppose all opposition.
Wait … No opposition … I will be on that side …
Meditation, esthetic or non, religious or philosophical or just reflection, takes on a myriad of forms and methods. Some require elaborate preparation - those are often of the religious types. Each step is to enable better focus or "clearing of the mind". Some are instant, set back, down or whatever and laser focus on the point, issue, item of attention. Then there is the quiet meditation, (lying, sitting, standing, walking), singing, chanting, dancing and such.
Most forms of serious meditation, religious or otherwise, at least initially,needs a Master, Teacher, Mentor, Instructor, Guide to move one into the true meditative state. Ego aside, one is encouraged to have only one such Teacher at a time as multiple master, teachers, guides could lead to conflicting means and methods, confusing the traveler. This could then result in the failure of the meditative process, leaving the would be student/acolyte in an unstable, potentially agitated or negative mindset.
all that said, remember that, in philosophy or religion, it is always the student who chooses the Teacher.
[and , of course, it helps to have friends]
Good Hunting.
Peace to all