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Buddhist quotes - discussion
marcitko
Veteran
Hello everyone,
Thought we might enjoy a thread for discussing the Buddhist quotes we post in the "Buddhist quotes" thread.
@Jeroen posted:
“Don't seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions.”
— Zen Proverb
I wonder if the "cherish" part is important? I ask this because it seems to me that even very advanced and/or realized practitioners/teachers still hold opinions, just maybe in a light and non-attached manner?
Anyway, just a thought to get us started.
3
Comments
This could also be a generic quotes discussion thread, if you can still alter the topic title, @marcitko…
I think opinions that are lightly held, that you are ready to let go of when the need arises, are less harmful than those that you will passionately defend. But still, the personality is a patchwork of opinions, and it is ‘the coloured glass through which we perceive reality’.
The kind of thing I think or say, is if "I were king of the world, such and such". Meaning, yeah this is what I may think about something at the moment, but I'm just one person with a limited understanding and perspective. I'd never say what I think goes, I've simply been wrong or changed my mind enough times now to realize it makes no sense to have strong opinions.
But I suppose I do try to seek the truth, at least in terms of worldly information. Maybe the truth this quote is talking about is more of the spiritual realization sort. In that realm the idea of letting go to allow an underlying luminosity to come forth makes sense.
Sure. I can't seem to change it any more. I've asked the mods to change it, hope they will see it.
Also, as my avatar says, "how something appears, is always a matter of perspective" and "Don't believe everything you think"
Felt the need to say a few words. As an examination of the poles of human existence I find this accurate and encouraging. I've argued to people who want to join the military for noble reasons (to protect others) that being a peacemaker is noble as well.
What I wanted to say though is the thing that bothered me a bit about the quote. It's that it is very polarized and dualistic. The majority of people exist on a spectrum somewhere between those two poles. The world isn't divided up into saints and sinners.
It’s interesting, but it speaks to goals as well. The number of actual winners is small, but the number who idolise winning and wish to be winners themselves is much greater. It is almost a default in our society, especially in America, where a big part of Donald Trumps appeal is to be seen as a winner.
When I effectively ended up retiring at age 40 I was confronted by this, that when you let go of this goal suddenly most of society becomes uninteresting to you. It’s as if you discover that your own interest has been secretly largely in a form of power and self-expression through power, and that giving that up has removed a driving force that has shaped your actions.The winning mentality had entered by the back door that self-expression created.
This was really when I found out that I had been on the wrong track; that entertainment was largely dissipation but could be redeemed though what it had to say about larger ideals, but that games as a medium was largely unsuited to this. Which was when I became interested in writing.
I think this is an area where our similarities diverge. I'm very much not about ideals, but balance and integration. I see winning as yang energy and the other as yin energy. Regarding winning, if you look at it in terms of comparison with others, yes there are only a few at the top. If you look at it in terms of comparison with yourself, then anyone can "win", external vs internal. I also don't generally look at it as a zero sum competition, though I recognize that much of the world does. My attitude in general is much more process oriented than goal oriented, just worry about doing the things that improve your mind and life, let the outcomes take care of themselves.
I’ve found that any attempt to ‘see things as’ becomes a projection of ideas by the mind, not clear seeing at all. In my experience it has been best to leave such complications and live in a simpler way, waiting for the urges of normal life to drop away.
‘The mind is like a glass of muddy water. Sit still doing nothing for long enough and all the mud settles to the bottom and clarity arrives.’
Be warned though, it may take a few years or even decades of solitude.
The end result for me was to leave the mind and start observing more my feelings. I discovered that ‘I’ and ‘mine’ were just thoughts, that possession was illusion, that the primal feelings were kindness and love, that fear and anger were more distortions caused by the mind.
I will end my mornings musing on a cat-related note of kindness and patience… cats make me happy.
I suppose I do have a goal, which is driven largely by circumstance, if I were in similar shoes to yours I might have a different goal. I don't have the ability, or at least don't want to abuse the system and attempt to claim disability, to retreat from the world. So my goal is to 'be in the world, but not of the world'. That being the case it seems like a bad idea to abandon all striving unless I want to be homeless and destitute. So I'm not sold that your approach is the superior way.
I’m not sure there even is a superior way, given that we all seem to walk our own paths 🙏
Perhaps all we can do is talk about what helps us on our path, what has made us successful in striving for inner peace, clarity, and kindness. In the hope that perhaps we inspire someone else to try one of our techniques.
For me it began with reading Buddhist books, on the sutras by Edward Conze, on mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh and on the Dhamma by Ajahn Chah. These inspired me to pursue purity, awareness, knowing the mind. That and many beach walks started me on my path. It’s funny how something as normal as reading, when you slow it down, can become a meditation and a contemplation.
Abandoning negative mind states came a little later. It was an improved understanding of what was beneficial to me, that made me consider that negative mind states were, as is said about anger, “like holding a hot coal and expecting the other to get burnt.” They pervert the mind towards negative karma and are of little actual use. It is better to dwell in the Brahma Viharas as much as possible.
Then peace comes, and with peace and solitude clarity and kindness.
Awareness has helped me on the path , that is, through meditation one gradually becomes aware of being aware of becoming aware. Which gives thought breathing space(aka timeout) between thoughts becoming wholesome or unwholesome actions...
"Awareness is fundamentally non-conceptual before thinking splits experience into subject and object.
It is empty, and so can contain everything, including thought. It is boundless. And, amazingly, it is intrinsically knowing."
And
"Every moment is a moment of events and no moment passes by without an event...One can not notice a moment without noticing events taking place in that moment...Therefore the moment one tries to pay bare attention to is the present moment !"
I've found meditation helps to stop the mind from becoming tied up in (k)nots
One thing that has really benefitted me is short spans of vipassana meditation. I do this lying down on my back, watching the rising and falling of a spot a couple of inches below the navel as I breathe in and out. I tend to use a slow tempo of the breath and relatively shallow breaths, as if I was sleeping.
When you do this, you will feel “drawn into the depths” and you may see and hear things that are unusual. It is important to say or do nothing — it will all work itself out, the meditation is there for you to not be a doer. Just remain focused on breathing and watching that spot, as it goes up and down.
The right receptive attitude helps prolong the meditation, and if you do this for a long time or often it will start to end naturally, with a feeling of emptiness or a sudden impulse to get up and attend to some everyday task. Osho once said “meditation is a knack”, and i think this is true, if you can’t get this to happen try varying the shallowness of the breath and the tempo. It’s like searching a room for the right spot…
I remember coming across this quote in Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now where Tolle talks about going deeply into the present moment. Apparently Rinzai often asked it of students to get them to notice how much of their thinking was associated with the mind bringing the past into the present, and so obscuring the present moment, or the mind projecting into the future, and taking the focus away from the here and now.
Indeed, if you contemplate this for a while, you discover that in the now there is nothing lacking, when you let all the things related to the past - like past injustices or injuries - and those related to the future - like worries and fears - drop away. It is a kind of mental hygiene, not binding yourself to thoughts of the past or the future.
Tolle says elsewhere that just one serious grievance, something unforgiven, a feud, can be enough to keep the mind going on its tracks of watching the past. I would suggest reading The Power of Now if you want to go more deeply into this saying of Rinzai’s.
my doggy way be and do;
[
every step is closer to u--know theyself
polly earth to be and do...doggy walk on...
suprising dog nature is human nature,
....imo on topic of that buddhist quote.
we are allowed to an opinion. but as a daoist buddhist we cling not to it. its a fact opinions come and go, changes in time. its like this, opinions change--based on new fact informations--opinions is optional if the truth of a fact rings true
that buddhist quote is the maturity of the seeker. eye on truth because its obvious like the universal truth all die from starz to us. it just fun see other opinion in my opinion but grounded in facts the kin to truth.
awareness middle way we can accept both truth and opinion.
proverbs our wow-mom-derful inheretence. our wealth and keepsake.
our past masters shows us the truth is in us. you are the living truth of dependent origination from samsara. our mom our mom earth matters. dont spending your whole life debating truth but live your life on because opinions is subject to debate.
make up proverb; eat the dirt. mom earth loves you.ie dirt spinach
In secular Sufism Idries Shah talks a lot about unloading. Where we are so clever and already 'knowing' that we have to unload.
Zen explains it this way, in a story often repeated:
A professor went to visit Nan-in, a Zen master, to ask him about Zen. Nan-in kindly welcomed him and began to make tea. He filled the professor’s teacup full and then continued pouring the tea, overflowing the cup.
The professor exclaimed — “Stop! The cup is already full, no more will go in!”
Nan-in responded: “Like this cup, your mind is already full of ideas and opinions. There is no room for anything new. To understand Zen, you must first empty your cup — open your mind and free it from preconceived notions.”
As Epictetus once said,
“You can’t learn that which you think you already know.”
"More tea, Vicar?" - 'All Gas and Gaitors' TV series