Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

alternative practices

lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
edited November 2012 in General Banter
Now that I am not-buddhist, I am open to alternative practices . . . Are crazy wisdom teachers all Buddhist or dharmically tangent? Is Zen best to a void? Actually those are still a bit too Buddhist . . .

Is it possible to avoid enlightenment, which seems a lot of fuss about Nothing . . . ?
Which is the best deity to placate/worship/avoid?

Hari krishna :om:

Comments

  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    lobster said:


    Is it possible to avoid enlightenment, which seems a lot of fuss about Nothing . . . ?

    This is funny! "Enlightenment: much ado about Nothing". Love it! ^_^

    "Alternative practices" to what, exactly? Do you need much more than meditation, mindfulness, and compassion?

    lobsterTosh
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Read solitary realizer occultist blogs. This almost always results in enlightenment. Results may vary. See store for details.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    occult blogs? Never found anything really occult, be better off with meditation, mindfulness, and compassion . . . :clap:

    Could try paganism? my teacher always described tantra as ‘witchcraft’ . . . might not have to go too far . . .

    Blessed Bee
    Sacred Wasp
    Holy Moly
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    Dakini said:

    Do you need much more than meditation, mindfulness, and compassion?

    Just an ethical life!

    (Sorry, I'm a smarty pants)

  • MaryAnneMaryAnne Veteran
    Why do I get the feeling time and time again that Lobster uses this forum as a trial venue for his stand-up 'comedy' routine or his Carlin-style performance art?

    Well, always interesting, even if sometimes tedious. :-)
    tmottesInc88DaftChris
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    Some forms of Druidry are fun, you get to wear a dress, drink mead and do hippy stuff in the woods.
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    Hey Lobster
    Don't let MaryAnne dis ya.

    Oh and best regards to Joaquin Phoenix.
    tmottes
  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    While raking this morning...I thought....
    "Is Zen void?" I let the thought pass.
    I just kept raking.
    You will need gills to read the message that
    Cod sent.
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    I like watching waves break on the shore, very soothing... ;)
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Guys weaning myself off the performance of Buddhism is proving harder than imagined. I may be too attached.
    The rekei raking might be a halfway house.

    I have joined a Hindu forum and am practicing yoga, which should help.
    I may also return to the dog cult I am official cructacean for:
    http://208.109.22.214/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=176116&sid=3a21e8e8c2d840e8478aacf5e6bc479c#176116

    a mead drinking religion, maybe . . . appreciate the suggestions
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    Running long distance. You get to work with your mind and see how impermanence works at a bodily level. First your knee may start hurting, then in a bit you're focussed on your right calf niggling you, and then after a bit your feet start playing up.

    You almost welcome each new pain as a fresh distraction from the old.

    And when you stop, you get that sublime 'in the moment' experience.

    I'm positive that if the Buddha donned a pair of running shoes and Lycra, he would've gained Enlightenment a lot faster.
    Bunks
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    I did try that last year. The suffering nearly crippled me. Only just starting to walk again without experiencing the pain you mention, amongst others. Must admit I did not wear lycra . . . Also found it difficult to focus on anything other than running, relaxing and breathing. Always felt good to stop.
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    edited November 2012
    1st Noble Truth of Running:

    Do not beast yourself silly, it leads to frustration, injury and despair. Take it easy, google for a "Couch to 5k program" and follow the wise path it shows.

    Here endeth the Runner's First Sermon. :p

    Running does have it's spiritual followers btw; there's the Japanese Marathon Monks (aka nutters) and the Tarahumara, a Native American people of northwestern Mexico. Both run extraordinary long distances. They make my last weekend 20 miler look like a walk in the park.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Take it easy, google for a "Couch to 5k program" and follow the wise path it shows.
    that is the one I did. Runnng is just not for me . . . was not really doing it for me anyway. Got to 30 mins running . . .
    :-/
  • RebeccaSRebeccaS Veteran
    Housework is a great spiritual practice.
    Zero
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    RebeccaS said:

    Housework is a great spiritual practice.

    I like hoovering, but not when it involves moving furniture....

    :D
  • RebeccaSRebeccaS Veteran
    I actually hate housework :lol:

    But it really does work. It takes you out of your head and if you feel shitty it's a good thing to put all of that negative energy into... Housework is just 100% positive.

    I'm sooooo glad to have a dishwasher now though :p
  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator
    I am not a fan of housework, either, but I agree it can be a great thing to aim mindfulness at. I still don't enjoy it, I try hard to focus on "I'm making the home comfortable and nice for my family" but I really don't buy it. I'd rather have a little house on the prairie cabin with one set of dishes per person, a couple pots, and not nearly as much crap to have to clean and put away. In the spring we have a freecycle rummage sale where 90% of the stuff is just free to give away, just to get it out of the house. It works well, people take anything if its free.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    I worship my dishwasher :bowdown:
  • RebeccaSRebeccaS Veteran
    @karasti that's exactly what I do! "I'm doing this for my family so that we can be comfortable and happy and to make my husband's life easier and my kitties lives more pleasant" but it doesn't really help much :lol:

    I'm just going to hire a maid when I'm back at work.
    karasti
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited November 2012
    @PedanticPorpoise
    All of out furniture has a 4" clearance off the floor so that our Roomba robo vac can do all the floors while providing some fantasy for my Ragdoll cat to think she's a velocirapter. From the collected hair and cat scratches across the Robo vac its a pretty even match.
    Jeffrey
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    Go volunteer at a hospice.

    seeker242
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Go volunteer at a hospice.
    :)
    I will do that when I am dying . . .

    . . . For now not compassionate enough to do anything like that . . .
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    lobster said:

    I worship my dishwasher :bowdown:



    :thumbsup:

    I just got mine fixed.......hallelujah!!
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    lobster said:

    occult blogs? Never found anything really occult, be better off with meditation, mindfulness, and compassion . . . :clap:

    Could try paganism? my teacher always described tantra as ‘witchcraft’ . . . might not have to go too far . . .

    Blessed Bee
    Sacred Wasp
    Holy Moly

    HOLY MOLY, I have a kaballah tarot deck. It actually works. I looked for a sign from three cards and drew them from the deck. I got all three blank cards which are used if you lose a card. So my future is either blank or it is the emptiness of mind: clarity, openness, and sensitivity.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Tosh said:

    Dakini said:

    Do you need much more than meditation, mindfulness, and compassion?

    Just an ethical life!

    (Sorry, I'm a smarty pants)
    True, the precepts are the other ingredient. But one could argue that compassion and mindfulness would lead one to the precepts, anyway.

  • mfranzdorfmfranzdorf Veteran
    Tosh said:

    1st Noble Truth of Running:

    Do not beast yourself silly, it leads to frustration, injury and despair. Take it easy, google for a "Couch to 5k program" and follow the wise path it shows.

    Here endeth the Runner's First Sermon. :p

    Running does have it's spiritual followers btw; there's the Japanese Marathon Monks (aka nutters) and the Tarahumara, a Native American people of northwestern Mexico. Both run extraordinary long distances. They make my last weekend 20 miler look like a walk in the park.

    Im gonna do that in the Spring. 5k not far for some folks, but I'd run in one.
    Tosh
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    I think starting to run is a bit like meditating. Do too much too quickly and you'll get frustrated and think "This may work for other people, but not for me!"

    Like meditation, I started small and built up. Like meditation I can go through periods where I don't want to run. Like meditation, I can have good runs and bad runs (though I know we shouldn't judge our meditation as 'good' or 'bad').

    I try to meditate while I'm running though; there's various ways I do this; or would this be more mindfulness than meditation?

    And after a long run there's not much better than sitting on my back steps, eyes closed, not moving and doing a bit of meditation; it's almost sublime - just still - in the moment with all those endorphins helping me stay present.

    There is something spiritual about running.
    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    I find the Tendai marathon runners very inspiring
    http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/holly.html
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    I got all three blank cards which are used if you lose a card
    Good news. :clap:

    You will see me on some versions of 'the moon' card. I am also available on some old horoscopes were they could not differentiate cancer crabs and lobsters . . .

    Talking of the oggcult and other lesser wheels, I was doing some research on mantra that I had obtained from a strange source and came across almost the identical material at the bottom of this page . . .
    http://buddhaamuletscharmsandtalismans.blogspot.co.uk/2009_06_01_archive.html
Sign In or Register to comment.