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Buddhist Failure
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Zen recommends, sitting in full lotus (not the car) absolutely still. In mantrayana (aka vajrayana) without a teacher you are likely to go Nichiren or mad.
https://www.sgi.org/about-us/buddhist-lineage/nichiren.html
Tsk, tsk. I consider full lotus a potential mark of spiritual constipation. The zeniths can shout all they want. SGI elders too always seem angry about something or other. However we must not throw the baby buddha out with the tea water. There are goods in every bathing
https://tallahasseechan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ChanM-Winter-2018-pp-4-17.pdf
How can we make a success of our failures?
1
Comments
You know what they say, every challenge reveals something about our deeper nature, and every failure in particular tells you about which klesha you still have strong ties with. These things reveal pointers for tomorrow’s practice.
In fact we should be grateful for challenges and failures, because without them we would remain untested and our practice might just be at the surface.
Indeed, @Kerome. In fact, dear @lobster, I would go further:
If you distinguish between success and failure, you've failed, right there.
"IF you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same... "
There is no Success. There is no Failure.
There are merely different results, but if one were to judge them as 'good' or 'bad' the path to defeat yawns ominously before us.
Evaluate each result as a learning curve. A Lesson in what decision to make in future.
But do not condemn, or commend.
Learn.
Thanks guys. Seems like a plan. @Lionduck seems to have a practice of Nichiren chanting and drinking hot chocolate. Seems to be working out OK.
My tendency is towards a critical nature rather than the equanimity Buddha Nurture @federica suggests.
As well as learning Wisdom and Compassion, I am going to increase in focussed slacking ...
Sod the full lotus I say! Or even the half way lotus, I cannot understand what the twisting of legs into a pretzel has to do with anything!
Meditation is all about Looking within
Theoretically, this lotus posture comes from Yoga (Hindu) philosophy. Has to do with facilitating the flow of energy along the chakras (in Tibetan Buddhism, "the winds") which supposedly leads to samadhi when the crown chakra is opened. Although samadhi is not enlightenment, according to Buddha.
Similarly the yogic practice of forefinger-to-thumb completes the circuit.
So they say.
Now I HAVE NO IDEA if this is blah-blah-blah or if there is any truth to it.
And in 69 years* of being around those who practice rajah yoga, I can't see that it has changed them much. Unlike Buddhism, where I have observed change in others over my 18 years among Buddhists.
*If you want to start counting at age 7, the start of abstract reasoning, then it is only 62 years of exposure to those who practice yoga.
Buddhism changes people?
[Lobster faints]
So it’s true? Who would have guessed? For most of us it should be discernible ...
I like yoga a lot. After a few months of daily practice (only ten minutes), I am healthier, stronger, calmer, more supple. Very worthwhile for me.
Yoga got me into meditating daily, which was a good grounding for Buddhism. There was a study at a University recently @FoibleFull that seemed to prove that yoga makes you more egotistical. which would account for those smug buggers sitting in the lotus position, smirking
Thank you for posting the modernist info @kerome, I like the term a la carte Buddhism, could start a trend. I dislike Hierarchical structures and formalised ritual, which is bad news for my Zendo attendance! It seems I am a life long truant after all 
Sorry, got my threads twisted there! Never post before you're second cup of coffee Dawn! I give myself good advice but like Alice seldom follow it
Smirking yogis eh?
Can we herd them with:
and others, including ourselves, when we have all the answers
http://www.hipsteryoga.com
Hipster yoga, dig it. Trying to visualise the Virginia Woolf pose, presumably you don't fill your pockets with stones and head for the nearest bridge? (bad taste, with apologies to Ginnie. )
Does it make you more capable of chasing fish or laying eggs?
Don't forget he does everything backwards.... He's just an oversized prawn, really.....
I practice Hatha Yoga, which as a form of Tantric practice is primarily concerned with the body affecting the mind. Which it does.
Tension, stress, dukkha has two primary residencies. The mind and the body. We can then find that immediately expressed in the 'emotional body' and our immediate karmic environment.
Finding a way to relax/let go/dissolve as many aspects of dukkha as possible is functional/pragmatic.
That yoga or indeed Buddhism does or does not work for us is our primary concern. If it works, this becomes apparant.
https://buddhists.org/study/why-do-so-many-buddhists-do-yoga/
... and now back to the enlightenment success failure ... out breathing ...
I am just here to be ridiculed. Which of course is richly deserved ...
There are more mainstream Buddhist failures:
The genocide of the Hindu majority by state sponsored 'Dharmaists/'monks' in Sri Lanka
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence
Burma 'Buddhist' Atrocities
http://salem-news.com/articles/july202012/burma-genocide-tk.php
Lama Cultists
https://extibetanbuddhist.com
I do not want to be associated but of course I am ...
Long live the three unflawed gems
~ Chamtrul Rinpoche
The Eight Worldly Concerns:
Attachment to gain, pleasure, praise, and fame.
Aversion to loss, pain, blame, and bad reputation.
~ Mingyur Rinpoche
'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' - Lord Acton made that comment about the Vatican but any organisation is capable of going downhill to hell in a wagon, as my old granny used to say. It goes even faster with money greasing the wheels! Give any person a sense of superiority over others and watch them burn. One of the reasons I admire HHDL so much is his amazing humility and innocence, Thich Nhat Hanh the same
Been fighting some karmic battles of late so haven't been around for some days. Definitely confirmed that al obstacles are opportunities. Life threatening and life altering challenges enable us to reach out true potential and prove the Law. After the specialist told us to accept the inevitable and nothing could be done, we are proving him wrong. Instead of deteriorating mentally and physically, my wife is improving noticeably. we are on a trip of recovery instead of decline.
when you follow the Law and not the person, and do not blame others for your shortcomings, have gratitude for all that comes your way and all your friends and enemies, it is amazing the return you get from your environment and your own life.
Buddhist fails are not failures of Buddhism but failures of people to practice Buddhism.
Yes, I am a Nichiren SGI Buddhist. I chant Nam myth range kyo. I am not perfect in any sense of the word. But, through my practice I prove the Law. Joy and suffering are of the same coin. We make our lives as we are. Victory is in getting knocked down and getting right back up, as often as it takes. The eight winds can buffet you and knock you about like a sail-less, rudderless boat or you can use them to travel across the vast sea to the tranquil harbor. As for me, my sails are unfurled, my compass true, as I man the helm in this great ship to sail across the sea of suffering. It is a wonderful adventure, life, pain and joy alike. and, yes, that harbor is beautifully tranquil.
Peace to All
I had an interesting weekend (sarcasm font) though I'm not sure if it is fitting in this threads category. All and all it was a success in terms of keeping in this world but a test of refuge and mindfulness. I had a problem eating dinner with my Dad and brother and I got a piece of meat stuck in my esophagus though could breath (not larynx). Wasn't improving so went to the hospital emergency room and eventually had it removed by the endoscopy team. But I remember being wheeled to the room where the procedure would be done and just thinking about refuge and what my life meant. I didn't feel a conclusion but somehow the experience was like underlining (or underlined) the idea that life is fleeting and though I'm pretty comfortable in my shoes with my family in my city etc that sooner or later "I" will be moving on.
Death slaps you in the face and you know it. Emotional success ... not fun. Glad you survived this time.
I feel @Lionduck explained it well. Nobody wants hardship but she is our fiend friend.
Failure is success. Who would have thought it ...
Daft as it may sound, I think we should all make certain that if something happens to us, we would have a close friend or relative who could access the site and inform members of the incident.
There are too many past members who no longer attend, and it bothers me to not know how they fare....
In the old days Buddhists would make rainbows and eagles appear in the sky! But I suppose a family member could do the job too.
Yeah, well...I can walk on water but it makes bath time awkward. So, yeah, my H has got my back....
Saw the title of this thread and thought it was about me.
I'll just move along, I guess.
Don't move along. That means you're jumping the queue. Get to the back. We Brits are very particular about our queues....
https://gph.to/2x7acOM
(Ok. Someone teach me. How do I post a Gif...?)
When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, we ran into a British couple. The girl was a wee-bitty little thing, and someone cut ahead of her in line. She piped up, with a voice that belied her size saying, (imagine my badly done English accent) "BACK OF THE LINE!"
All of my 6'4, 260 lbs was afraid of that girl.
That could well have been me. It's something I am not afraid to do, no matter who the 'pusher' is. If they creep in under the assumption that nobody will say anything, they're very much mistaken.
Two occasions:
One, in a fairly long queue of shoppers (I had at least 5 in front of me, and at least 3 behind I knew of,) when one of the ladies (2 people in front of me), was seen by an obviously good friend she hadn't seen for a while. Said friend approached - wheeling a FULL trolley, and greeted said friend-already-in-line enthusiastically, and proceeded to stand and chat. However, as the queue moved forward, so did she... To which I loudly said "Excuse me, but much as I am thrilled you to have met up and got together, you weren't actually thinking of jumping in this queue - were you?" The question (she totally knew) was rhetorical. She looked at her friend in the queue, as if to say "I've been rumbled - you gonna help?" but her friend merely said, 'comfortingly', "I'll see you later..." And off she was forced to push her trolley, to the end of another queue....
Secondly, again, I'm in a queue at a supermarket checkout, and this elderly lady, Whom I have already seen once or twice, in passing, quite capably walking round the shop - quite briskly, I might add - ! steps in front of me, saying plaintively, with that 'poor little ol' me' look on her face, and says "You don't mind me pushing in dearie, do you? I'm an old lady...." "Yes, I know," I replied, "but I've also seen you happily waltzing round this shop for the last half hour with no problem at all, so I think if you can do that, you can line up like the rest of us..."
Thankfully, the lady behind me, agreed and voiced her objection too. To which the 'old lady' picked up her basket, and moved along to the next queue, trying her luck. Sadly for her, the guy there had also heard the discussion and merely jerked his thumb towards the end of the queue. At which point, the lady crossly plonked her basket of goods on the floor, and walked out of the shop. Briskly.
Yup.
That could well have been me....
I love being on retreats where humility training is causing a blocked doorway ...
“You first!” ?
“No after you!” ?
I like to waltz through to clear the constipated humility ... [here to help]
Tee Hee ... ??
There I was meditating on this wisdom, in the queue to be a Buddha ...
... when I realised that condemming and commending is the whole of my being ...
how then to unlearn? ... 
I'm not good at queues, there's something about being in a line that makes me want to start a konga..........