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Well , in both Nikaya and Mahayana canon, the historical Buddha both revealed his practice in Bodhisattva path for many lifetimes before he has accumated such a merit and condition to demonstrate his enlightenment in ancient India.
the Buddhist canon is treated as the relic of the Buddha's wisdom and finger & foot prints to direct his disciples in the latter generations for their practice
even mediative buddist masters needs to validate their wisdom and level of progress with the wisdom in the canon
they are matter of fact for the majority of Buddhist practitioners
unless you could show us there are another valid alterative ??
Well , in both Nikaya....the historical Buddha both revealed his practice in Bodhisattva path for many lifetimes before he has accumated such a merit and condition to demonstrate his enlightenment in ancient India.
Quotes please?
unless you could show us there are another valid alterative ??
Nibbana is here-and-now peace. Not everyone is interested in Nibbana and the Buddha recognized this. If someone doesn't attain Nibbana... so? You seem to be trying to give some ultimate meaning to all life (the meaning being: attaining Nibbana) and looking at it as annihilation.
they are matter of fact for the majority of Buddhist practitioners
With respect, that is Their Path. I am on My Path.
The Pali Canon is, at the end of the day, a bunch of words. Some great words in there, to be sure, but merely a guide, not The Answer, IMO.
This reminds me of the creationists who believe that, if you believe in evolution, you will act like it (ie the strong shall concur the weak, leave disabled people to die, immoral etc) but we know this is wrong. Many many compassionate people believe in evolution (and many uncompassionate people believe in creation )
I apply the same to your idea that, if people who believe in rebirth are more relaxed and less likely to live a decent and moral life because they can always try again. Rather than, if they believe this is their ONLY life they will work as hard as they can to be good and attain enlightenment.
However, we can easily flip this over and say, "those who believe this is their only life wont see the point in living a decent and moral life, because they just want to have fun. "
Now, I want to make this clear as possible, I don't believe either view is the case. There are some fantastically compassionate and moral people who believe this is their only life. And there are some fantastically compassionate and moral people who believe in rebirth.
Like I have said to you before, it's not what you believe, but what you do with that belief. Your actions, your intentions.
If you read the suttas, rebirth is never catagorically stated as "right view", rather it is implied. So looking for a passage where it says "one must believe in rebirth to attain nirvana" is fruitless.
I think a good number of people prefer to be good to others simply because it makes them feel good to do so, and not because of any fear of karma or an avenging God.
Q: “Who you are is your destiny.”
How you act, and what you intend, will flow naturally out of who you are, just like an apple tree will form apples. : ^ )
I think a good number of people prefer to be good to others simply because it makes them feel good to do so, and not because of any fear of karma or an avenging God.
S9
Oh yes totally. There are many reasons why someone would choose to be good to others. I was merely using the two extremes (rebirth & non) as that was what we were talking about here. I didn't mean to suggest that that is the reason for all.
<CENTER><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="60%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">A HANDFUL OF LEAVES The Blessed One was once living at Kosambi in a wood of simsapa trees. He picked up a few leaves in his hand, and he asked the bhikkhus, ‘How do you conceive this, bhikkhus, which is more, the few leaves that I have picked up in my hand or those on the trees in the wood?
‘The leaves that the Blessed One has picked up in his hand are few, Lord; those in the wood are far more.’
‘So too, bhikkhus, the things that I have known by direct knowledge are more; the things that I have told you are only a few. Why have I not told them? Because they bring no benefit, no advancement in the Holy Life, and because they do not lead to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. That is why I have not told them. And what have I told you? This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering. That is what I have told you. Why have I told it? Because it brings benefit, and advancement in the Holy Life, and because it leads to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. So bhikkhus, let your task be this: This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’
[Samyutta Nikaya, LVI, 31]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER>
anything besides direct experience and the four noble truths are merely flights of metaphysical fancy. the kalama sutta states as much.
what does speculation (and it is just speculation) about rebirth have anything to do with cessation of suffering? and if there is no permanent self (anatta), what is there to be reborn?
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<CENTER> ...and if there is no permanent self (anatta), what is there to be reborn? </CENTER><SCRIPT src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> _uacct = "UA-98400-2";urchinTracker();</SCRIPT>
What is reborn moment to moment, or day to day? The same question applies.
i agree. what is reborn moment to moment or day to day (anicca) the same question applies but not after physical death. if you cannot know it by direct experience it is just speculation and is not remotely relevant to the four noble truths.
i believe the kalama sutta would help to clarify what i'm saying.
basically it says:
Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.
no one knows for certain about rebirth, they can only speculate about it. it's kind of like believing in heaven. people will give similar reasons why they believe it exists
I don’t believe we can know anything for certain with our minds, not even after we personally witness it with our minds. : ^ (
This is because our minds crank out imagination just about constantly. We could easily ask ourselves at any time, “Am I dreaming, hallucination, am I brain damaged, am I psychotic, am I dead and in a bardo, or even in a coma?”
When Socrates was asked, why he was said to be the wisest man alive by the Oracle of Delphi, he said, "It is because I know, that I don’t know.”
This a very similar to Zen’s, “Don’t know Mind,” Or even ‘Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind’ by Suzuki Roshi, a classic.
I believe that there is 'Certainty,' but it transcends the mortal mind or outside of the mortal mind. It comes like a flash. Once it is found, it is never lost. Like Buddha, with Liberation FROM the mind, you are 'Awake.'
no argument here. especially with seung sahn's "don't know mind" and suzuki roshi's "beginners mind'. i don't know if certainty always comes in a flash (rinzai zen's sudden enlightenment). suzuki roshi's soto zen (sitting meditation) is another but not conflicting way. as to the uncertainty of our chattering monkey minds, that's what, i believe, practice is all about. to see, not just intellectually, reality of impermanence, no-self and suffering (anicca, anatta, dukkha). but i'm just a dilettante in the spiritual market place, so i'll shut up.
very best wishes,
armando
i believe the kalama sutta would help to clarify what i'm saying.
This is just one sutta. There are many other suttas which contain repeated references to the cycle of birth and death and the realms in a very literal way. So how selective do you want to be?
i agree. what is reborn moment to moment or day to day (anicca) the same question applies but not after physical death. if you cannot know it by direct experience it is just speculation and is not remotely relevant to the four noble truths.
My point is that arguing against ( literal ) rebirth because of anatta is a false argument because the same problem exists with the idea of moment-to-moment rebirth. What is reborn moment to moment? It isn't atall obvious.
P: What is reborn moment to moment? It isn't at all obvious.
S9: No it is not obvious that anything is being reborn moment to moment. It only seems like something similar is happening, and appears to be similar enough to the previous moment in time, so that we assume that it must be the same exact thing continuing.
Our ego self seems to be consistent and ongoing. But, if our whole life is only held together by one thread of a single mental story, which we both tell ourselves and believe, much like a dream, than what?
Is it one ego self, or is it many, many similar ego selves, or no substantial ego self at all? Where is any foundation to stand on, and declare which is which?
Is each chapter, or flash of imagination taking place in our dreams a genuine birth and consequently a necessary death, which follows in all actuality? Who can say for certain?
P: What is reborn moment to moment? It isn't at all obvious.
S9: No it is not obvious that anything is being reborn moment to moment. It only seems like something similar is happening, and appears to be similar enough to the previous moment in time, so that we assume that it must be the same exact thing continuing.
Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits. So perhaps it's our habits and tendencies which are reborn moment to moment, day to day and life to life.
The traditional view is to say we're a process of dependent arising based on the aggregates.
P: Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits. So perhaps it's our habits and tendencies, which are reborn moment to moment, day to day and life to life.
S9: What makes you believe that these memories are so powerful as to show up from life to life, when 9 /10ths of them are not even recalled the very next day? Even Alzheimer’s can whip out a bundle of memories.
P: The traditional view is to say we're a process of dependent arising based on the aggregates.
S9: There are many traditions, which say exactly the opposite things. Perhaps we are a bit like Skinner’s pigeons hopping around, and trying to figure out what to do next with very little, or no information to build on?
I believe the Buddha was trying to point out that our human minds were not the best tool for understanding anything permanent or eternal. I think he was diligently pointing out their insufficiencies, so that we would loose faith in the mortal mind and look elsewhere.
Zen: “Don’t look at my finger (AKA words), pointing, look where I am pointing.”
Or:
“The moon, (AKA mind), is only an impermanent reflection of the sun, (AKA Ultimate Truth).
P: Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits. So perhaps it's our habits and tendencies, which are reborn moment to moment, day to day and life to life.
S9: What makes you believe that these memories are so powerful as to show up from life to life, when 9 /10ths of them are not even recalled the very next day? Even Alzheimer’s can whip out a bundle of memories.
If you read what I said more carefully you'll see that I suggested it was habits that were reborn.
P: If you read what I said more carefully you'll see that I suggested it was habits that were reborn.
S9: P, these are your words: “Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits,” although it matters very little whether you said only habits , or included memories, because a habit is only a deeply entrenched memory anyway.
P: But everything is experienced in the mind.
S9: See this is my point, or where we differ. I don’t believe that every experience IS a mental experience. Pure Awareness is an experience transcendent of the mind. But it needs to be noticed in order to realize this. : ^ )
S9: See this is my point, or where we differ. I don’t believe that every experience IS a mental experience. Pure Awareness is an experience transcendent of the mind. But it needs to be noticed in order to realize this. : ^ )
Warm Regards,
S9
So where is this Pure Awareness experienced, if not in the mind? And is there actually a basis for this idea in the suttas or sutras?
‘Pure Awareness’ is one of many ways of referring to our true, integral, ultimate nature and it’s here already- fully and perfectly, always. It can’t (not) be here. It is what we truly are.
See:
Anguttara Nikaya (Citta)
Tathagatagarbha Sutra (all beings are eternal and unchanging although covered with all sorts of klesas remains unsullied). Buddha nature; as the womb.
Became extremely important in Ch’an, Zen, Tantra, and particularly in Mahamudra and Dzogchen schools, (i.e. ‘rigpa in Dzogchen teachings, Buddha nature in the Great Perfection, Mahamudra, Indestructible Heart Essence, and so on).
Its realization consists in our absence or dis-identification with the ego self.
If you look closely you will notice that although the names of this essential self changes often, the description of what it is remains quite consistent
The good news is that we do not need to develop it. The bad news is that we do not yet realize this. ; ^ )
Much of the above, and more can be found at the address I printed for your convenience.
‘Pure Awareness’ is one of many ways of referring to our true, integral, ultimate nature and it’s here already- fully and perfectly, always. It can’t (not) be here. It is what we truly are.
Thanks - I've had some experience of the formless meditation described above. However I still don't see how this pure awareness is experienced anywhere else but in the mind.
No, I didn’t understand this for years, myself. Maybe it is because an insight is more like an intuitive breakthrough of some kind, than just one more mental understanding.
: ^ )
All I can say to you is that, I have personally experienced this unique/life altering experience. It is certainly up to you if you want to think what I am saying here is only my imagination. But, I wouldn’t be too quick if I were you, to junk it, because we are all still deepening daily.
Just keep your eyes peeled for what is Present right Now/right Here, which is never changing. No effort called for in this, as it is simply sheer Awareness.
P: If you read what I said more carefully you'll see that I suggested it was habits that were reborn.
S9: P, these are your words: “Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits,” although it matters very little whether you said only habits , or included memories, because a habit is only a deeply entrenched memory anyway.
I don't understand what you mean when you say habit is only a deeply entrenched memory. Could you elaborate?
P: I don't understand what you mean when you say habit is only a deeply entrenched memory. Could you elaborate?
S9: I am under the impression, due to multiple readings on my part, that all memories are retained through repetition. In this way, we set up synaptic roads in our brains from the very beginning called engrams.
Some of these become what we commonly think of as habits, because they include actions of some kind. But some of these certainly are retained more as habitual thinking. Both of these are a kind of memory.
We may not think something directly like “My dad was a tyrant when I was young, “ but it certainly repeats itself again and again, perhaps in the way that we approach men in our present circumstance. In this way, we retain the shadow of a memory in all of our present actions and actually repeat a thought, albeit unconsciously.
In watching myself, ever so closely, I believe that I have seen some of these habitual weeds in my own garden/life and been successfully able to pull them out. Often this takes a repeated action of pulling and pulling again until the very root dies from lack of nourishment.
Humans have a "robust" capacity to learn and retain new information unconsciously, retaining so-called habit memory even when conscious or declarative learning is absent, memory experts at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health System report in the July 28, 2005 issue of Nature.
"Humans clearly can acquire and retain knowledge through repetition. This also reminds us that we have this habit learning system that's working all the time behind the scenes, independently shaping who we are and how we behave, in addition to our conscious learning system."
Porpoise,
S9: I am under the impression, due to multiple readings on my part, that all memories are retained through repetition. In this way, we set up synaptic roads in our brains from the very beginning called engrams.
Some of these become what we commonly think of as habits, because they include actions of some kind. But some of these certainly are retained more as habitual thinking. Both of these are a kind of memory.
I don't agree, I think memory and habit are quite distinct.
P: I don't agree, I think memory and habit are quite distinct.
S9: That certainly is your privilege. However, I caution you not to let your present opinions interfere with any further discovery. : ^ (
Let me also add, it is a usual (compassionate) practice to share your reasons in order to aid others on their way. A simple assertion is in no way helpful to others. : ^ )
I can easily promise you that I will try like the Dickens to keep an open and receptive mind as well. Keeping an open/receptive mind is certainly one of the the fuels for this great and adventurous path that we are both on. Travel well.
Comments
Oh, well, if you say so so matter-of-factly and without backing it up, it must be true. :crazy:
the Buddhist canon is treated as the relic of the Buddha's wisdom and finger & foot prints to direct his disciples in the latter generations for their practice
even mediative buddist masters needs to validate their wisdom and level of progress with the wisdom in the canon
they are matter of fact for the majority of Buddhist practitioners
unless you could show us there are another valid alterative ??
Quotes please?
Nibbana is here-and-now peace. Not everyone is interested in Nibbana and the Buddha recognized this. If someone doesn't attain Nibbana... so? You seem to be trying to give some ultimate meaning to all life (the meaning being: attaining Nibbana) and looking at it as annihilation.
With respect, that is Their Path. I am on My Path.
The Pali Canon is, at the end of the day, a bunch of words. Some great words in there, to be sure, but merely a guide, not The Answer, IMO.
Maybe without rebirth many would practice more urgently and consistently.
P
I am not sure that thinking I could reincarnate would change anything in my life at all.
I am not even sure that choosing to be a Buddhist mystic was even a choice.
It is almost like I am drawn to do this path without always completely knowing why.
It is a little like I am a moth drawn to a flame, and I am not separable from my path, or my destiny.
Just my 2 cents on this issue,
S9
I think a good number of people prefer to be good to others simply because it makes them feel good to do so, and not because of any fear of karma or an avenging God.
Q: “Who you are is your destiny.”
How you act, and what you intend, will flow naturally out of who you are, just like an apple tree will form apples. : ^ )
Warm Regards,
S9
Oh yes totally. There are many reasons why someone would choose to be good to others. I was merely using the two extremes (rebirth & non) as that was what we were talking about here. I didn't mean to suggest that that is the reason for all.
Nios.
Yes, I guess we can't say everything at once. : ^ )
Warm Regards,
S9
‘The leaves that the Blessed One has picked up in his hand are few, Lord; those in the wood are far more.’
‘So too, bhikkhus, the things that I have known by direct knowledge are more; the things that I have told you are only a few. Why have I not told them? Because they bring no benefit, no advancement in the Holy Life, and because they do not lead to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. That is why I have not told them. And what have I told you? This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering. That is what I have told you. Why have I told it? Because it brings benefit, and advancement in the Holy Life, and because it leads to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. So bhikkhus, let your task be this: This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’
[Samyutta Nikaya, LVI, 31]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER>
anything besides direct experience and the four noble truths are merely flights of metaphysical fancy. the kalama sutta states as much.
what does speculation (and it is just speculation) about rebirth have anything to do with cessation of suffering? and if there is no permanent self (anatta), what is there to be reborn?
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> _uacct = "UA-98400-2";urchinTracker();</SCRIPT>
What is reborn moment to moment, or day to day? The same question applies.
P
basically it says:
Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.
no one knows for certain about rebirth, they can only speculate about it. it's kind of like believing in heaven. people will give similar reasons why they believe it exists
I don’t believe we can know anything for certain with our minds, not even after we personally witness it with our minds. : ^ (
This is because our minds crank out imagination just about constantly. We could easily ask ourselves at any time, “Am I dreaming, hallucination, am I brain damaged, am I psychotic, am I dead and in a bardo, or even in a coma?”
When Socrates was asked, why he was said to be the wisest man alive by the Oracle of Delphi, he said, "It is because I know, that I don’t know.”
This a very similar to Zen’s, “Don’t know Mind,” Or even ‘Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind’ by Suzuki Roshi, a classic.
I believe that there is 'Certainty,' but it transcends the mortal mind or outside of the mortal mind. It comes like a flash. Once it is found, it is never lost. Like Buddha, with Liberation FROM the mind, you are 'Awake.'
Warm Regards,
S9
no argument here. especially with seung sahn's "don't know mind" and suzuki roshi's "beginners mind'. i don't know if certainty always comes in a flash (rinzai zen's sudden enlightenment). suzuki roshi's soto zen (sitting meditation) is another but not conflicting way. as to the uncertainty of our chattering monkey minds, that's what, i believe, practice is all about. to see, not just intellectually, reality of impermanence, no-self and suffering (anicca, anatta, dukkha). but i'm just a dilettante in the spiritual market place, so i'll shut up.
very best wishes,
armando
A: I'm just a dilettante in the spiritual market place.
S9: Perhaps, but the lightness of your step says volumns. ; ^ )
Smiles,
S9
This is just one sutta. There are many other suttas which contain repeated references to the cycle of birth and death and the realms in a very literal way. So how selective do you want to be?
P
My point is that arguing against ( literal ) rebirth because of anatta is a false argument because the same problem exists with the idea of moment-to-moment rebirth. What is reborn moment to moment? It isn't atall obvious.
P
P: What is reborn moment to moment? It isn't at all obvious.
S9: No it is not obvious that anything is being reborn moment to moment. It only seems like something similar is happening, and appears to be similar enough to the previous moment in time, so that we assume that it must be the same exact thing continuing.
Our ego self seems to be consistent and ongoing. But, if our whole life is only held together by one thread of a single mental story, which we both tell ourselves and believe, much like a dream, than what?
Is it one ego self, or is it many, many similar ego selves, or no substantial ego self at all? Where is any foundation to stand on, and declare which is which?
Is each chapter, or flash of imagination taking place in our dreams a genuine birth and consequently a necessary death, which follows in all actuality? Who can say for certain?
Warm Regards,
S9
Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits. So perhaps it's our habits and tendencies which are reborn moment to moment, day to day and life to life.
The traditional view is to say we're a process of dependent arising based on the aggregates.
P
P: Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits. So perhaps it's our habits and tendencies, which are reborn moment to moment, day to day and life to life.
S9: What makes you believe that these memories are so powerful as to show up from life to life, when 9 /10ths of them are not even recalled the very next day? Even Alzheimer’s can whip out a bundle of memories.
P: The traditional view is to say we're a process of dependent arising based on the aggregates.
S9: There are many traditions, which say exactly the opposite things. Perhaps we are a bit like Skinner’s pigeons hopping around, and trying to figure out what to do next with very little, or no information to build on?
I believe the Buddha was trying to point out that our human minds were not the best tool for understanding anything permanent or eternal. I think he was diligently pointing out their insufficiencies, so that we would loose faith in the mortal mind and look elsewhere.
Zen: “Don’t look at my finger (AKA words), pointing, look where I am pointing.”
Or:
“The moon, (AKA mind), is only an impermanent reflection of the sun, (AKA Ultimate Truth).
Respectfully,
S9
If you read what I said more carefully you'll see that I suggested it was habits that were reborn.
P
But everything is experienced in the mind.
P
P: If you read what I said more carefully you'll see that I suggested it was habits that were reborn.
S9: P, these are your words: “Looked at one way we're just a bundle of memories and habits,” although it matters very little whether you said only habits , or included memories, because a habit is only a deeply entrenched memory anyway.
P: But everything is experienced in the mind.
S9: See this is my point, or where we differ. I don’t believe that every experience IS a mental experience. Pure Awareness is an experience transcendent of the mind. But it needs to be noticed in order to realize this. : ^ )
Warm Regards,
S9
So where is this Pure Awareness experienced, if not in the mind? And is there actually a basis for this idea in the suttas or sutras?
P
‘Pure Awareness’ is one of many ways of referring to our true, integral, ultimate nature and it’s here already- fully and perfectly, always. It can’t (not) be here. It is what we truly are.
See:
Anguttara Nikaya (Citta)
Tathagatagarbha Sutra (all beings are eternal and unchanging although covered with all sorts of klesas remains unsullied). Buddha nature; as the womb.
Became extremely important in Ch’an, Zen, Tantra, and particularly in Mahamudra and Dzogchen schools, (i.e. ‘rigpa in Dzogchen teachings, Buddha nature in the Great Perfection, Mahamudra, Indestructible Heart Essence, and so on).
Its realization consists in our absence or dis-identification with the ego self.
If you look closely you will notice that although the names of this essential self changes often, the description of what it is remains quite consistent
The good news is that we do not need to develop it. The bad news is that we do not yet realize this. ; ^ )
Much of the above, and more can be found at the address I printed for your convenience.
Warm Regards,
S9
Thanks - I've had some experience of the formless meditation described above. However I still don't see how this pure awareness is experienced anywhere else but in the mind.
P
No, I didn’t understand this for years, myself. Maybe it is because an insight is more like an intuitive breakthrough of some kind, than just one more mental understanding.
: ^ )
All I can say to you is that, I have personally experienced this unique/life altering experience. It is certainly up to you if you want to think what I am saying here is only my imagination. But, I wouldn’t be too quick if I were you, to junk it, because we are all still deepening daily.
Just keep your eyes peeled for what is Present right Now/right Here, which is never changing. No effort called for in this, as it is simply sheer Awareness.
Respectfully,
S9
I don't understand what you mean when you say habit is only a deeply entrenched memory. Could you elaborate?
P
P: I don't understand what you mean when you say habit is only a deeply entrenched memory. Could you elaborate?
S9: I am under the impression, due to multiple readings on my part, that all memories are retained through repetition. In this way, we set up synaptic roads in our brains from the very beginning called engrams.
Some of these become what we commonly think of as habits, because they include actions of some kind. But some of these certainly are retained more as habitual thinking. Both of these are a kind of memory.
We may not think something directly like “My dad was a tyrant when I was young, “ but it certainly repeats itself again and again, perhaps in the way that we approach men in our present circumstance. In this way, we retain the shadow of a memory in all of our present actions and actually repeat a thought, albeit unconsciously.
In watching myself, ever so closely, I believe that I have seen some of these habitual weeds in my own garden/life and been successfully able to pull them out. Often this takes a repeated action of pulling and pulling again until the very root dies from lack of nourishment.
Below is an interesting bit of information:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/07/27/12074.aspx
Humans have a "robust" capacity to learn and retain new information unconsciously, retaining so-called habit memory even when conscious or declarative learning is absent, memory experts at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health System report in the July 28, 2005 issue of Nature.
"Humans clearly can acquire and retain knowledge through repetition. This also reminds us that we have this habit learning system that's working all the time behind the scenes, independently shaping who we are and how we behave, in addition to our conscious learning system."
Warm Regards,
S9
I don't agree, I think memory and habit are quite distinct.
P
P: I don't agree, I think memory and habit are quite distinct.
S9: That certainly is your privilege. However, I caution you not to let your present opinions interfere with any further discovery. : ^ (
Let me also add, it is a usual (compassionate) practice to share your reasons in order to aid others on their way. A simple assertion is in no way helpful to others. : ^ )
I can easily promise you that I will try like the Dickens to keep an open and receptive mind as well. Keeping an open/receptive mind is certainly one of the the fuels for this great and adventurous path that we are both on. Travel well.
Friendly regards,
S9