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what have you changed your mind about?
Hi guys,
I recently read a couple of quite interesting articles by Zen practitioners. One of them had recently decided to give away all his Dogen books and practise Theravada meditation instead. Another wrote about how the old monk he'd never seen eye-to-eye with was, in retrospect, the best teacher he'd ever had.
The stories were both so similar and so very different that it got me thinking - what kinds of things have other people changed their minds about since they started their spiritual practices? Did something use to be very important, but now seems trivial? Or vice-versa?
My own example: I've come to believe that early morning is the best time to meditate. This might seem trivial, but for me it's not! I've never been a morning person and I don't think I ever will be either. I never thought I'd be dragging my butt out of bed before 7am on a non-workday, just to sit in meditation.
I recently read a couple of quite interesting articles by Zen practitioners. One of them had recently decided to give away all his Dogen books and practise Theravada meditation instead. Another wrote about how the old monk he'd never seen eye-to-eye with was, in retrospect, the best teacher he'd ever had.
The stories were both so similar and so very different that it got me thinking - what kinds of things have other people changed their minds about since they started their spiritual practices? Did something use to be very important, but now seems trivial? Or vice-versa?
My own example: I've come to believe that early morning is the best time to meditate. This might seem trivial, but for me it's not! I've never been a morning person and I don't think I ever will be either. I never thought I'd be dragging my butt out of bed before 7am on a non-workday, just to sit in meditation.
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Comments
My changes have been to stop saying "You're a this, I'm a that, he's one of those" and accept that we are all seeking the Light in our own ways and usually there will be a certain amount of similarity and we can walk a few paces together on our paths.
However, in late years, my most significant changes-of-mind have primarily involved my thoughts about individual persons with whom I have to come in contact with often. I try not to assume anything at all about what particular manifestations of their behaviour mean, but instead actively make myself go a little out of my way just to spend a few more seconds greeting them in a friendly way every day. Wow, what a difference. People just need a little more attention and affirmation.
In other words, without my giving any concrete examples (which is outside my comfort zone), what I am saying is this: I, by some deep nature within me, take the way others act around me kinda personally. Therefore, if my mental complex perceives that people are "Negative" towards me, I mostly tend to move "away" from them in my thinking/feeling. In the past what this meant was that I would just ignore them as much as I could get away with doing. However, in late years, I just tell myself that I'm really a magnanimous person in essence and I WILL rise above this innate petty tendency that takes hold of a part of my being, and convey thoughtful, positive, and considerate attitudes and expressions to All.
This entails changing my mind every day to think of what wonderful opportunities for friendship lie all around me.
At work in the nursing home I try very hard to talk to and listen to the residents who are lonely, and to make over them and their beautiful voices. To put this in other, better words, it's not that I try out of some kind of imperative to spend more time visiting, it's that I am constantly reminding myself, while working and performing tasks, to visit as much as I can and to do this in a cheerful, listening way. In other words, taking joy in all I do.
I wish everybody there made an effort to interact positively with the lonely souls.
I think it's a sign of development and progress, this moving around. I think we are all guilty of getting caught in our own idea of what the path is. As this shifts, that mould breaks and some of our cherished notions crumble.
The harder we cling to them, the tougher it gets. I've known people who put themselves in an "either-or" situation. Either stick rigidly to the system, or get out of it completely. This is generally a result of following very fundamentalistic teachings and groups, who brook no opposition and consider strict adherence to be a prerequisite to 'success' - however they define that.
It's a pity, as people then feel bound to throw out the baby with the bath water. It's a sure sign that they have never felt ownership of their path, rather have been in a dependent situation, doing what others tell them and relying on the approval and estimation of 'advanced' group members etc. When they get disillusioned with that, usually seeing some hypocrisy or low dealing, they throw in the towel and forget the whole thing.
A Zen koan says, if you meet Buddha on the road, kill him. There is much wisdom in these words. It means you always have to be prepared to challenge your own notions (however precious, or 'correct'). Tear down the edifice and find the open space behind them.
Buddha didn't set up a philosophical system which requires our assent. There is nothing we need to do in order to 'fit in'. We are already there with everything we do, good or bad we are part of that 'suchness'.
Kris
I think it might be easier to state what I'm more resolute and fixed in my Mind, with..... But there again, nothing is permanent.
Certainly the values and beliefs, ethics and Morals I held as a young person have mellowed and modified, to varying degrees.... I am more tolerant and accepting of people and situations.
But I am also quite firm in what I believe to be Right and Wrong.
As my mother once said:
"in matters of Taste, swim with the current. In matters of Principle, stand like a rock."
It's been a good yardstick so far.....
This is probably why, over the past 45 years, I have given all my books away three times.
Palzang
I've changed my mind about god, the everlasting soul, and what I am. I not only thought these things really existed but I used to think I knew what they were. Now I have no idea...except for what I am. I do have an idea of what that is, I just don't understand it fully yet. I was enjoying thinking of myself as being a process but I recently listened to a Dhamma talk in which the teacher said that thinking of ourselves in this way is not actually helpful in the long run. So I'm giving that idea up and just letting myself think of the khandas.
Like others, my ideas of so many things have changed, and they keep changing. Thank heavens! Here's to impermanence! (Raises coffee cup in a toast...)
Hence, extending upon that, an epiphany. If 42 exists not, then we must have invented this number. Thus, mathematical knowledge cannot be a case of rational "discovery", but human invention.
Lovely sentiments. I used to divide my day between the pleasant events/people I enjoyed and the unpleasant ones I'd rather have avoided, thinking nirvana would be being somewhere where I encountered only the pleasant side of life. Then I began to realize there was nothing intrinsically unpleasant about the people or events and all I deemed unpleasant was really a great chance to examine the configuration of my personal preferences and the way they kept me from abiding at the heart of compassion that is our true nature.
As my sufi teacher said, "My friends put me to sleep, but my enemies force me awake."
I used to believe in God... and then when I started looking at Buddhist thought, came to believe that perhaps God as an entity didn't exist, but the longer I went, the more I was confronted with the overwhelming evidence (for me alone perhaps) of a supreme design in the universe.
I now chose to believe that there is some force in the universe (that I choose to call God) that is in everything, even at the atomic level, and while I can neither explain nor comprehend this force, I simple cannot accept that it does not exist.
Hi Les,
I have a notion that you would find stuff written by Kashmiri Shaivites of interest.
Namaste
You know what Eliot said:
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
Thank you for that pointer srivijaya... I'm gonna go Google that right now!
(LesC disappears in a cloud of dust and small pebbles)
And to you Simon... always the right turn of phrase...
"Little Nell". I used to carry the quotation in my wallet.
Palzang
And now you carry it in your heart.
I am so grateful to my parents and teachers that I was forced, when young, to learn great chunks of stuff 'by heart'.
Srivijaya,
I have done some very preliminary searches, and indeed this DOES strike a chord with me. Thank you very much for pointing me in this direction.
at the moment I'm practicing MILD lucid dreaming induction as opposed to traditional dream yoga, a type of WILD, since I find most of dream yoga practices quite intimidating and think I'll wait for a master. I think that'll change and my MILD experience will be more than useful.