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I am new
I grew up my whole life being a christian.
But, there are too many things that contradict each other.
And I dont just mean in christianity either.
All things do when we look close enough.
Therefore I am lost, I don't know where to turn.
I need religion in my life just the same if not more than everyone else.
There are some perspectives where I find that christianity makes more sense, like what it does and feels like.
But, buddhism makes at least as much sense.
I don't even know what I am trying to say here.
Maybe nothing.Never nothing.
I see too much and it hurts on several different levels and places.
Maybe I should look more to the things that don't make any sense.
But in doing so I would probably find that they do...:(
But, there are too many things that contradict each other.
And I dont just mean in christianity either.
All things do when we look close enough.
Therefore I am lost, I don't know where to turn.
I need religion in my life just the same if not more than everyone else.
There are some perspectives where I find that christianity makes more sense, like what it does and feels like.
But, buddhism makes at least as much sense.
I don't even know what I am trying to say here.
Maybe nothing.Never nothing.
I see too much and it hurts on several different levels and places.
Maybe I should look more to the things that don't make any sense.
But in doing so I would probably find that they do...:(
0
Comments
even though we greatly worship buddha, he did not claim he was a leader or say he could do things that were considered "not-human". Infact most people started recognizing him as a "teacher" after he died.
It pretty much started with him realizing that there was alot of suffering in life and he went out on his way to find out how to rid of suffering to live a enlightened life.
Its a great way to live and theres no threat saying bad things will happen if you don't believe in me.
I feel i have been ranting on christianity a bit too much but those are my thoughts
we are not always aware of this,
and so it doesn't get flushed!
you know how stinky an unflushed toilet is? a whole swamp of smells, and it looks pretty stinky too, and it stinks on your eyes
try to flush your toilet and not think at all, a little
seeing things is poop
thinking things is poop
listening to things is poop
try to flush all those things down, and gain the original tranquility of your clear water mind
ha ha HA
good day
Baldmonkey. Articulate what ails you. ....what are you looking for?
Its kind of like that but you don't know where the flush lever is....:p
another thing that reminds me of what enlightment actually is is when im meditating...your being trained to focus on breathing and to not think at all
after lots of training with meditation you can easily just kind of "shut off" your brain as your awake (a trance), if you meditate properly..you feel like that you physicly and mentally have dissapeared and never even existed.
when im in a trance like that you feel like you lose your physical being at first...that all you are is thought...a life without physical forum.
then after that you start to lose the feeling of having thoughts or having a spiritual being and you can't even think
you have 2 parts that make you a human with life
physical/mental
and they get "flushed"
what alot of people have felt during this enlightment is that everything around you is nothing.
so yeah, alot of people misunderstand this enlightment
what i mean is basicly a mind flush and seeing things without a "ego-lense"
i kind of went off on the subject of enlightment but that is how i feel during deep meditation
I may be making assumptions here and apologize if I have..... but it comes to mind.
Nice to meet you. Dharma name is Kojip. ..Soen
proper meditation does provide a taste of nibbana. Proper meditation is about insight and wisdom. Meditation is not about the cessation of thought or going into trance but about mindfulness. The Buddha certainly continued to think after his enlightenment. What ceased was ignorance and clinging.
though since i dont actually have the quote, i have no idea. GOOD DAY!
"Dropping off of body and mind" eh? Take your meditation experience to a qualified teacher. Tell Him/Her what you think it is....
:buck:
:-/ :eek2: What?
Nibanna is Pali.
Nrivana is Sanskrit.
Foreign doesnt apply since both languages are Indian and are speaking of the same thing.
Pali is an Indo-Aryan prakrit or vernacular, there is no support for an argument that it is somehow foreign in regards to other Indic languages.
No one was being dismissed. He just pointed out a fact. You can call yourself a Buddhist and sit in full lotus and wear a robe and that doesn't mean a whole lot. Thinking that the cessation of thought and a state of trance is the purpose of meditation and is what the Buddha sought i.e. Nibbana is, frankly, misguided. There's nothing wrong with that being pointed out. It's a common misconception and the sooner it's clarified the better. Becoming a vegetable won't get you far in any respect.
sometimes a direct hand can be the most helpful kind.
When we are giving advice to someone who is new to Buddhism we must be very, very sure the advice we're giving is correct according to mainstream Buddhism. I have to agree with Richard, Mundus, and Shenpen. They are pointing out clear errors in some of the advice given by eric and they're doing so because it's very important. Newcomers put their trust in the people on this board to know the basics, for good or not, and glaring mistakes need to be pointed out and corrected even if it means stinging someone's ego. It's not fun to be contradicted. But it's times like this when we get to practice working with our ego by putting aside our own feelings for a moment and looking at the situation from as objective a perspective as possible.
Basic Buddhist meditation practice for beginners needs to be just that; basic. Picasso didn't create a modern art masterpiece the first time he picked up a paintbrush. He had to learn the basics first. He had to copy the masters. He had to learn about perspective and colour and light.
It's no use starting somewhere in the middle when it comes to Buddhist meditation. It takes years for many of us, especially those of us without teachers, to move past simple breath watching meditation. It takes careful and thorough understanding and training to establish a helpful sitting practice. We don't just sit down in a quiet room and play with our minds, trying to have an 'experience', 'trance out', or any of the other things our minds like to do when they're untrained. That's not Buddhist meditation, as Shenpen pointed out.
So, back to the original post.
Hi, baldmonkey. (I love that name, btw.)
Welcome to the board. It's lovely to meet you.
Feel free to tell us more about what you're experiencing. There are some very wise people on this board and they may be able to point you in the right direction.
If you don't feel like elucidating, that's fine. Just know that you're welcome here and I hope you find the site as warm and friendly, not to mention useful, as I have.