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Keret posted:So, the main thrust of what I've been considering and questioning myself about is: how do we, as practitioners of buddhadharma, work to help alleviate all of the immense suffering to come in the context of a climate system spiraling out of control, perhaps to the point of near-term extinction? What are some skillful things that other practitioners have been doing, or are in the process of doing, to help? How can practitioners prepare ahead of time to best provide stability and calm to the beings around them who have not had the chance to do the same? And how do we navigate all of this as predominantly lay practitioners? Should we think more deeply about right livelihood in a time in which our choice of work impacts the Earth so severely? My brother is a climate scientist. He has ghost written books on the subject, he's read all the reports. He can tell you all the ways in which things are going to be hosed very soon. He hasn't been very happy, as you can imagine! He's been downright miserable. He's been angry, and depressed, and so on. Despite all his anger and frustration, however, I notice it hasn't changed a lot. So my first thought on this is that we should absolutely be aware of climate change, the realities of it, and so on. But we shouldn't let it upset or distress us too much. This is, I realize, going to be an incredibly fuckin' hot take, but when we as individuals try to shoulder the immense burden of something like "global climate death," it doesn't work. It's like trying to stop war, poverty, and so on. We should absolutely try to solve these things when we can and certainly should advocate for policies that materially improve the lives of people by resisting war, by advocating for living harmonious lives, and so on. But we can't make it our all or let us disturb our own progress on the path and our own enjoyment of this precious human life. A living bodhisattva, His Holiness the 37th Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, also administers a nonprofit called Go Green, Go Organic. I personally think these are opposing views somewhat (I think that GMOs are incredibly important for going green as well as for general sustaintability) but that's neither here nor there. Protecting the environment is important because we all live here, and we can reduce suffering by not fuckin' on the environment just as absolutely hard as we possibly can at all times. This is like how by being vegetarians we probably won't end the murder of animals for food, but we can at least in a very small way reduce market pressures supporting that industry. Another living bodhisattva, His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, routinely does bicycle pilgrimages across India where he and his disciples put on rubber gloves and pick up trash along the entire way. This is another demonstration of how we should be working towards protecting our environment. So those are examples of what practitioners have been doing to help, but those are obviously great practitioners with tremendous resources at their disposal. For my part, I solarized my house to where I am generating enough electricity for myself through the year, and I take measures to recycle and so on. These are things within my control, so it makes sense to do them. And I think that's the important point of what I was trying to say before with that spicy take. It's not that we should just be self-absorbed and not worry about the world, but it's that we shouldn't worry about the world. We should do what we can do ourselves, and not be upset that we can't do more. We have to realistically assess our own capabilities and act accordingly. Mindful living also applies to preventing climate death, but it's very easy to fall into "oh but you also use a cell phone made by wage slaves so you must not support socialism" kinds of traps. "You are using solar power but you drive a car wow you're not really concerned." The fact is that all composited things are impermanent. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to, like my brother, be taken by despair at the imminent death of our planet or so on. It is a composited thing, it will end! This has never been a question, it's just like our own lives in that regard. But while we're here, we should be good stewards and try to our best within our limited capabilities to keep the world good and enjoyable for all sentient beings. If this means recycling because that's all we can reasonably do, then recycle and try not to use lots of styrofoam and just generally be mindful. If we have the means to do more, then going solar, using less electricity, driving less, and so on and so on is possible. Politically, if we can be engaged with it, then we should obviously act because those policy decisions are where any real hope for not having climate death comes from - we could all stop driving cars and it wouldn't make up for a single Consol Energy or plastic cracking operation. But yet that doesn't mean we should all do nothing. We can do both.
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Apr 30, 2019 23:53
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Bunch of other replies to this thread I want to catch up with, but RE the Jewish and Buddhist upbringing, unless it is an extremely strict jewish denomination, spending a few months as a practicing Buddhist wouldn't necessarily contradict being a good Jew, though some things would be hard to observe temporarily. If anything I'd suggest talking to your rabbi about it. If you're on the lefter/more reform side of Judaism they'll likely just say, 'that sounds interesting and like a good way of understanding a culture you have connection to.' Like if your Jewish faith is important to you and you feel grounded in it, a few months of living simply and communally (tbh being a monk is probably closer to a kibbutz experience than almost anything else) probably will just re-enforce it. That said, if you really don't want to do it, just don't do it. No real reason to be a monk if you think it sounds pointless or like it isn't for you. Just be a decent, upstanding person whether you're a buddhist or jew or monk or not-monk. IMO if you're that hesitant I'd probably suggest you don't do it. Now on a secular level, I don't know your mother, but it sounds strongly like she agreed to let you be raised in a way that largely lacked a grounding in her cultural background and to her this is both a good, honorable thing, but also (likely more importantly) a chance to understand and gain some connection to Thai culture and tradition. Wanting to impart your culture to your kids is a really huge drive for most parents. Also, iirc, sending your kid to live in a monastery was a way of preparing them for the hardships of adulthood and marriage and of making sure that they aren't too entitled and spoiled. WRT Thai Buddhism, I'd suggest looking into Thai Forest tradition if you want something a little more freeform and superstitious and folky (albeit probably somewhat more ascetic), but given how poor most rural Thai monasteries are, it will all likely be pretty austere. If you want to read some scripture to get a feel for what theravadan buddhism prioritizes and considers important, check out the Dhammapada. It's not super light reading, but it's not especially dense either. This dude, Ajahn Brahm, is a pretty good speaker and regularly talks about his years in Thai monasteries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jniaUr_7438 Ajahn Jamnien is another Thai Buddhist (Forest Tradition, specifically) I've heard some good talks from over the years: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/7/talk/43106/ Disclaimer: I'm not a thai buddhist, I've just found seeking some of it out to be rewarding. Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 11:25 on May 1, 2019 |
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May 1, 2019 11:14
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Also remember - despite reincarnation views, Siddhartha was a man who had an idea on how to escape suffering, and that the 8 fold path aligns pretty much side by side with Jewish law. Being a monk at a sangha does not necessarily mean that you will be forced to worship other gods.
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May 1, 2019 14:52
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Senior Scarybagels posted:Also remember - despite reincarnation views, Siddhartha was a man who had an idea on how to escape suffering, and that the 8 fold path aligns pretty much side by side with Jewish law. Being a monk at a sangha does not necessarily mean that you will be forced to worship other gods.
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May 2, 2019 06:57
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Nessus posted:Especially if it's Theravada, right? Theravada almost certainly won't make you worship other gods, although the Buddha is kind of an edge case here. He's not a god, but he is a very revered, sort of supernatural being. And some gods appear in the sutras afaik, although you're not supposed to worship them. The thing that could be a problem is, some Buddhist philosophers have strongly emphasized that there is no creator God, which does kind of contradict the whole premise of Judaism and Christianity. Many modern people have a different interpretation and combine the religions easily, but it's something to be aware of: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creator_in_Buddhism
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May 2, 2019 07:35
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pidan posted:Theravada almost certainly won't make you worship other gods, although the Buddha is kind of an edge case here. He's not a god, but he is a very revered, sort of supernatural being. And some gods appear in the sutras afaik, although you're not supposed to worship them. Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought what buddha rejected was worrying about the creation as that was the distant past.
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May 2, 2019 08:08
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it pretty much depends on the school. i know zen can be really atheistic, which is why a lot of zen scholars didn't like japanese catholic theologians trying to incorporate zazen into christian spirituality. they were like "what are they gonna do if they go to a zen retreat and encounter koans about there being no god?" which is fair
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May 2, 2019 09:26
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Senior Scarybagels posted:Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought what buddha rejected was worrying about the creation as that was the distant past. Or so I have read. Most of what I was thinking is that while I don't think Mahayana or Vajrayana practice is exactly "worshiping gods" in the sense that the Torah talks about, Vajrayana in particular does in fact have "deities" floating around, conceptually if nothing else.
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May 2, 2019 10:03
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Nessus posted:I have heard conflicting stories, but I think the man himself said "it's irrelevant to the project" repeatedly when asked, and generally refused to answer questions that didn't address the project of enlightenment. I am not sure where it slid in but I think it is generally held that the cycle of things existing rises and falls; I think Shakyamuni himself was supposed to be the fourth Buddha of this universe while Maitreya is going to be the fifth. Amitabha may have been from a previous system of worlds. I think in most Abrahamic religions offering a path to salvation (or the end of suffering) is enough to be considered a god for the purpose of determining if you're an apostate or not. Judaism, Christianity and Islam consider their God as the highest being in the universe and a perfect one to the boot; saying "you can end your suffering without him, also he probably suffers greatly because of dukkha" undermines this notion. Even if you considered him a bodhisattwa (and why would you?), this would be suggesting he is one of many and that's a big no-no in all these religions in itself. I don't think even the most liberal branches of Christianity would permit simultaneously being a Buddhist, at best they would wish you luck but still hope you would change your mind. I'm not sure how liberal both Islam and Judaism can be, but probably also not to this point.
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May 2, 2019 11:08
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It's complicated because Buddhas and bodhisattvas are definitely occupying a role that effectively would be considered some sort of rival divine or quasi-divine, revered salvatory force. In theory that would conflict with cross-religious practice that is strict about not showing reverence for the sacred figures of other religions or traditions. In practice though, there is a substantial amount of crossover among contemplative traditions, even between religions. Practically speaking most contemplative traditions don't appear to find living and practicing in a different religions places of worship/practice to be particularly detrimental. In fact it was specifically encouraged in a lot of cases. The common theme of it as an officially orchestrated thing was that it generally was people who had already deeply committed to their primary tradition. Senju Kannon posted:it pretty much depends on the school. i know zen can be really atheistic, which is why a lot of zen scholars didn't like japanese catholic theologians trying to incorporate zazen into christian spirituality. they were like "what are they gonna do if they go to a zen retreat and encounter koans about there being no god?" which is fair Considering a lot of catholic monastics spent time in Zen monasteries over the last few decades, it didn't seem to be much of a problem. By the time someone has spent a bunch of time in a Christian monastic order, encountering atheistic zen stuff isn't going to really shake anyone's belief. Christian monasticism takes the requirement of a profound calling very, very seriously. I mean, I can see why they might find that interest unwelcome at times or potentially intrusive, but at least in the American contexts I've heard about personally, it's been a very non-intrusive thing. Some people I knew found out that they had some catholic brothers at their center only after the two seemed surprised to see eachother and someone asked where they knew eachother from and they mentioned that they were both members of a benedictine order. That said, that's pretty different from an effort to, say, theologically appropriate zen practice into a catholic framework. Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 11:51 on May 2, 2019 |
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May 2, 2019 11:43
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a lot of this discussion pre-supposes that op is both devoutly jewish and wants to participate in the 3 month monastic training as, like, a buddhist at the same time, which might not even be the case like we can talk all we want about how judaism (or christianity which has come up for some reason) is incompatible with buddhism but the fact of the matter is, there's tons of jews who are both culturally or even religiously jewish and practice buddhism, so clearly it's a matter of personal idiosyncrasy (tho usually it's stripping buddhism of its own cosmology and incorporating meditative practices into their own tradition without really appreciating that buddhism is more than a philosophy or meditation class but like that's a western problem in general imho and not isolated to syncretists) so like the best advice that op can get is "talk to a rabbi and talk to a thai temple about your thoughts and concerns and know that there's a lot of people walking that path (albeit not always with your background obvs) if it's something that your current lifestyle allows and it's something you wanna do, even if it's just to make your mom feel better about her rebirth" cause ain't none of us gonna be able to give advice nearly as good as the real deals on both ends can give
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May 2, 2019 11:55
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Herstory Begins Now posted:Considering a lot of catholic monastics spent time in Zen monasteries over the last few decades, it didn't seem to be much of a problem. By the time someone has spent a bunch of time in a Christian monastic order, encountering atheistic zen stuff isn't going to really shake anyone's belief. Christian monasticism takes the requirement of a profound calling very, very seriously. nah man dude was leading zazen retreats for lay catholics (admittedly in japan, so like... not very many lmao) not monastics. like sure there's a ton of priests and monks who are like, zen roshi (i personally am not a fan of that but whatev i guess) but that's kinda different from encouraging lay catholics to engage in it, especially in a part of the world where it's like... not american buddhism
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May 2, 2019 11:58
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Senju Kannon posted:nah man dude was leading zazen retreats for lay catholics (admittedly in japan, so like... not very many lmao) not monastics. like sure there's a ton of priests and monks who are like, zen roshi (i personally am not a fan of that but whatev i guess) but that's kinda different from encouraging lay catholics to engage in it, especially in a part of the world where it's like... not american buddhism Yeah agreed, that's very different from what I was talking about.
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May 2, 2019 12:13
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Thank you very much everyone for the thoughtful replies.Nessus posted:The second is more personal. You are well informed on the topic of climate change... and I do not know if your professional life touches on it. However, even if it should, I have noticed among many of my peers a sort of paralytic masochism, as if they feel obligated to read each and every story and article on the topic, as if there is some salvatory power in the mere reading, in the experience of negative thoughts and sufferings in anticipation. So basically what I would say there is: Be moderate in your consumption of these things, if they do not provide you with meaningful new information, and merely cause you suffering. (This may address an issue which I recognize falsely but I feel obligated to say it, because I have had to express this to people in my personal life in similar mental loops.) This is definitely accurate, and something that I would benefit from taking to heart. As with SpaceCadetBob's situation below your post, I often feel that I must know what is being mentioned in that D&D climate thread, and end up being caught by it all too often — for what purpose, I don't think I truly know. As you said, what is being posted over there is not changing the reality of things, and the endless pessimism and despair ends up clouding my practice. This digs into a much deeper aspect of my habit energy that I've been looking at recently — this endless, neurotic ruminating that I cycle through everyday in my head. It's very strongly ingrained from all of the years of being anxious and desiring to figure things out and be knowledgeable. These days, I've noticed that all that neurotic thinking is doing is blocking me from being calm and present, and thus from realizing the dharma. I'm getting a bit better, over time, at identifying when they present themselves, but these loops of thought are so habituated that they are hard to even notice a lot of times. Have any of you had success with letting go of ruminative thought, and could offer some guidance? Paramemetic posted:My brother is a climate scientist. He has ghost written books on the subject, he's read all the reports. He can tell you all the ways in which things are going to be hosed very soon. He hasn't been very happy, as you can imagine! He's been downright miserable. He's been angry, and depressed, and so on. Despite all his anger and frustration, however, I notice it hasn't changed a lot. Thank you Paramemetic, this post acted as a bell of mindfulness for me. Sort of ironically, in my concern for these enormous issues, I lose myself in the hypothetical and become very anxious about solving problems far beyond what I can reasonably approach. Putting it in perspective and bringing things back to the immediate is a big help, and as you said, it's a grave mistake to let such unknowable things distract us and pull us away from the path. This reminds me, now, of a story from Tolstoy that Thich Nhat Hanh mentioned in one of his books, called The Emperor's Three Questions. It's far too long to get into here, but the jist of it is that Emperor wants to know answers to the following questions: 1. What is the best time to do each thing? 2. Who are the most important people to work with? 3. What is the most important thing to do at all times? He goes to ask a hermit and a lot of things unfold, but out of this the hermit leaves him with this statement: "Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life." So thinking on it, I suspect that in internalizing the dharma, the Eightfold Path, the Truths, and so on, and having the courage to let go of doubt, we can just intuit what to do in any moment, even at the point of death. I'll have to paraphrase because I don't have the book with me, but in a commentary (also Thich Nhat Hanh) of Rinzai's teachings I've been reading, the master says something to the effect of: "If the heavens and earth should turn upside down, I will not give rise to feelings of doubt." That was a really powerful phrase for me, and I've been working with it a lot recently.
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May 4, 2019 21:30
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It doesn't come from an awakened place, but I'm greatly relieved when other people (but especially goons) cite Thich Nhat Hanh. I can't tell how he's received outside of the Plum Village tradition and its supporters. He says he's confronted detractors before, so they do exist. The Plum Village monastics aren't reluctant to talk about God, but they don't ever really talk about any person as a dualistic, distinct entity that is separate from anything else, whether that person is part of the trinitarian godhead or just one of the everyday people. And a minority of all the practitioners who've come out of the Hebrew prophetic tradition have found ways to practice this non-dualistic insight. They typically form the contemplatives of their religions, and I think there has been a minority but persistent interest in recent history for the contemplatives of different traditions to understand and admire one another. It's my personal experience, and it think it will be common for many people of the Book who try to learn from the Buddhist path, you'll find yourself wanting to unfetter from a purely dualistic way of approaching God without becoming resentful or contemptuous of that dualistic tradition and how it was transmitted to you. It's not unlike how the notions of retribution and rebirth were older than Siddhartha and already well established in his time, and he was able to use those notions skillfully to help his contemporaries suffer less even as he also had the deeper insight into the reality of no birth and no death. Our notions of retribution and afterlives are also older than the best of the prophets, who also used the conventions of their day to spread their radical message.
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May 7, 2019 09:12
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Okay! First time poster, lately considering Buddhism more seriously because of both personal, individual circumstances and general thoughts similar to the posts up there on climate change--recognizing that a lot of my problems in life are coming from attachment (in the sense of worry but also in the sense of distracting myself with pleasures), and feeling that I should try the one obvious big way to get free of attachment that a lot of people seem to trust in. When talking to and evaluating centers, temples, etc. in your area, what should, in particular, be sought out and avoided? What are big red flags? In terms of centers/temples near me, I'm seeing some big variance in how they go about things--for example, there are two zen places in close proximity, but one only runs on donations and the other asks for membership dues when you become fully part of the temple--is one of these a red flag, and the other not? How much weight should I be putting on the tradition or sect of the individual temple, compared to how their practice and community feels to me? Mister Olympus fucked around with this message at 19:54 on May 7, 2019 |
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May 7, 2019 19:38
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a big red flag is if they teach something other than nembutsu practice, but i think the biggest red flag is if it says "soka gakkai international" anywhere on or in the building
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May 8, 2019 02:38
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Keret posted:This digs into a much deeper aspect of my habit energy that I've been looking at recently — this endless, neurotic ruminating that I cycle through everyday in my head. It's very strongly ingrained from all of the years of being anxious and desiring to figure things out and be knowledgeable. These days, I've noticed that all that neurotic thinking is doing is blocking me from being calm and present, and thus from realizing the dharma. I'm getting a bit better, over time, at identifying when they present themselves, but these loops of thought are so habituated that they are hard to even notice a lot of times. Have any of you had success with letting go of ruminative thought, and could offer some guidance? I also tend to say mantras instead when I am able to spot that I'm doing the thing.
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May 8, 2019 05:57
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Mister Olympus posted:Okay! First time poster, lately considering Buddhism more seriously because of both personal, individual circumstances and general thoughts similar to the posts up there on climate change--recognizing that a lot of my problems in life are coming from attachment (in the sense of worry but also in the sense of distracting myself with pleasures), and feeling that I should try the one obvious big way to get free of attachment that a lot of people seem to trust in. The most important thing is personal benefit and not theological purity per se. Obviously if they are saying things that seem to contradict the teachings of the Buddha or the aims of Buddhism (i.e., "here's why we need to do more genocides" or "here's how mantra accumulation can make you extremely rich") then that is a red flag. There are a lot of different approaches to Buddhism and Buddhist practice and they are all, for the most part, legitimate. Tibetans are fond of saying that the Buddha taught 84,000 heaps of Dharma, and that we have to work on the particular part that we have a karma for. So, red flags are basically if they are teaching you some extremely weird things on a center level (a lot of Buddhist communities have some extremely hippy types hanging around, but don't judge a center based on that necessarily) then that's not good. If they're teaching you things that make you more anxious, or telling you that there are singular perfect solutions to your problems, that's not probably great. If they have a teacher with good bona fides, that's a good thing. If they can point to a particular lineage, that's a good thing. Within the Tibetan circle, New Kadampa Tradition teaches mostly authentic Buddhism but are (or have historically been) funded and controlled by Chinese government interests as part of a broader political agenda against the Tibetan Government in Exile, so they aren't great. I think as part of this they also advocate the practice of a particular demon and that's also not great. "Diamond Mountain" is not good for similar sectarian reasons (they do something akin to prosperity gospel). But mostly I think the best bet would be just to ask in here about specific things! As for things like donations versus membership dues, it just has to do with the realities of running centers, and some centers have done better than others at being donation based and so on. Donating and becoming a member of a center should be an act of devotion, in my opinions, and not something you're obliged into - but becoming a full part of the temple is also part of that. Personally, practice and community is probably more important than having a "big name" teacher or somesuch, but any teacher should be able to tell you at least who their teacher was. The best test though is if they're able to give you meaningful and helpful advice. Sometimes that takes time to figure out, though, and that's the benefit that comes from a lineage or so on.
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May 8, 2019 14:15
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Keret posted:Have any of you had success with letting go of ruminative thought, and could offer some guidance? This is what basic concentration practice (eg mindfulness of breathing) is for. When you notice your mind is distracted or has wandered, disregard the thought and redirect attention more appropriately could apply on the cushion or off. The "hard" part is the ability to notice, which is trained in meditation and will rub off in the rest of life. It sounds like this is already happening so just keep going!
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May 8, 2019 19:33
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zhar posted:This is what basic concentration practice (eg mindfulness of breathing) is for. When you notice your mind is distracted or has wandered, disregard the thought and redirect attention more appropriately could apply on the cushion or off. And this is me not being that good at formal practice!
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May 8, 2019 21:25
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I don't want to bring things back to the climate change issue too much, especially if the discussion has more or less ended, but I did feel like my own experiences may be helpful. I was also a frequent lurker in the D&D climate thread, and it caused a lot of problems for me. Like, frequent nervous breakdowns, needing to go to therapy expressly to deal with it problems. I still generally avoid news on the issue now, as it can sometimes bring me into mini-spirals if I'm not careful. My own Buddhist practice has helped, but I know for me I feel like I could only gain comfort from people within the greater climate science community. With that in mind, I might recommend Inheritors of the Earth by Chris D. Thomas. In many ways, the book, while being primarily an ecological science book, felt like it reflected the Dharma quite well. He takes the approach that, instead of despairing at the changes that are an unavoidable and clinging to a pre-industrial ideal nature, we can find beauty in the changes that inevitably result from the Anthropocene. For instance, while humanity has been responsible for immense suffering and the extinction of many species, humanity has also increased (local) biodiversity throughout much of the world through invasive species, even while we lower global biodiversity significantly. While that may sound bad, Thomas argues that the vast majority of invasive species are ultimately beneficial, with the local ecologies finding places for the new comers. I don't know the wider reaction the ecological community had to this book, but I did see other scientists recommending it, so I think it's more on the "optimistic" side rather than the "denial of basic science" side. Hiro Protagonist fucked around with this message at 06:37 on May 9, 2019 |
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May 9, 2019 06:04
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Mister Olympus posted:When talking to and evaluating centers, temples, etc. in your area, what should, in particular, be sought out and avoided? What are big red flags? In terms of centers/temples near me, I'm seeing some big variance in how they go about things--for example, there are two zen places in close proximity, but one only runs on donations and the other asks for membership dues when you become fully part of the temple--is one of these a red flag, and the other not? How much weight should I be putting on the tradition or sect of the individual temple, compared to how their practice and community feels to me? Hello there - Baby Buddhist here. Haven't taken refuge yet, though. I've been practicing Tibetan Buddhism off and on for a few years now, and when both my practice and financial situation got stronger, I decided to spring for a yearly membership at the place I practice at. For me, the 'membership' model works well as my financial situation is hardly ever stable, and when I get an influx of cash, I can pay for the membership once a year, and then forget about it until the next year comes around. I also feel good in being able to pay back financially for some of the teachings I got for free, when I was a broke 2nd time around college student. I also volunteer there, when time and energy permit. (I should add - I also have chronic illnesses that make it hard for me to go to the Sangha regularly; knowing that I've paid up in advance relieves some of the guilt I unnecessarily feel for not attending sometimes. But - this is my Karmic load, if I understand Karma correctly; I will deal with it, and try to be compassionate to all living beings to help the next cycle around.) Qu Appelle fucked around with this message at 21:38 on May 9, 2019 |
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May 9, 2019 19:43
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Hello friends, I come bearing a great curse, because I guess Dark Buddhism wasn't fashy enough. https://twitter.com/PerrxSalvaje/status/1127403248963411968
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May 12, 2019 18:56
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Reene posted:Hello friends, I come bearing a great curse, because I guess Dark Buddhism wasn't fashy enough. This is pretty hosed up. But this tweet is what confuses me https://twitter.com/thelettuceman/status/1127623376846098432 I'm guessing they are criticizing Orientalism but it feels like a weird generalization or stereotype. I don't think people interested in Eastern spirituality hate Asians or that this is at all common.
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May 12, 2019 19:30
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NikkolasKing posted:This is pretty hosed up. Seems like it might be less about orientalism and more about appropriation in general. Pointing to the general trend of taking anything that we (white people) find novel or exotic and in some way making it ours while then turning around and telling the source of that novelty that they're bad for doing it/doing it wrong/are just less than us in general.
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May 12, 2019 22:17
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It's pretty much in line with my hot takes about Western philosophers talking about what Buddhism is really about and how it's actually about psychodrama to create psychological actualization because it's impossible that a 2500 years ago non-White guy came up with some poo poo that's good but disagrees with our psychology. This is just the fascist flavor of that. Anyhow I like how these guys have found a really roundabout way to like Nietzsche, especially because they're probably oblivious to it. Edit: revised some poo poo Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 12, 2019 |
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May 12, 2019 23:06
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Buried alive posted:Seems like it might be less about orientalism and more about appropriation in general. Pointing to the general trend of taking anything that we (white people) find novel or exotic and in some way making it ours while then turning around and telling the source of that novelty that they're bad for doing it/doing it wrong/are just less than us in general. Ah, that makes sense. I agree then.
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May 12, 2019 23:28
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i wonder how those guys are gonna take the monastic rules for qhen a monk spontaneously becomes a nun and vice versa cause that’s in the pali cannon
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May 12, 2019 23:36
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zhar posted:This is what basic concentration practice (eg mindfulness of breathing) is for. When you notice your mind is distracted or has wandered, disregard the thought and redirect attention more appropriately could apply on the cushion or off. Good points. The Dharma is vast and expansive, but it's also so simple at the end of the day (especially in Zen). I keep finding myself thinking "there must be something else, or new, that I can find or practice to help," and running after stuff — but in the end, it's just going back to sitting zazen and letting go of my ideas and views about all of these things. Though, of course, the sutras and dharma talks help a lot, too. Some days I feel that I'm much better able to notice my thought patterns and thus let go of them, but other days I seem to have forgotten how to do it. Yesterday, for example, I managed to get into a really nice state of being — relaxed, calm, aware of what was around me and appreciative of it. I felt like, "ah, yes, this is the Dharma, I get it." But then today, I woke up feeling really tense and anxious and generally having forgotten my realizations from yesterday, and despite going to the zendo and sitting and practicing the usual things I do in the world to maintain mindfulness, I haven't fully been able to shed that anxious, distracted state, and therefore the loops of thought which animate it and are animated by it. This back and forth, and forgetfulness about the reality of things, from one day to the next, can be quite distressing sometimes. Speaking about distraction, I was recently (about a month ago) diagnosed with ADHD, and started on medication for it. It has really clarified a lot of things about issues I've had in the past, especially with focus and concentration, but does feel disheartening in how it limits my practice. Is anyone here a practitioner with ADHD, or might know someone who is/has dealt with ADHD as a Buddhist? Being that focus and concentration are so vital to developing mindfulness, having a deficit of both is problematic. The medication helps a good deal with this (though it can make me more anxious), but I'm unsure of if it would be considered a skillful substance to be using or not, from a Buddhist perspective. It seems like a skillful thing to be using, in the same way that glasses are, but I don't want to cling to it, if I come to feel that I can't successfully meditate and focus without it.
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May 13, 2019 00:38
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Keret posted:Speaking about distraction, I was recently (about a month ago) diagnosed with ADHD, and started on medication for it. It has really clarified a lot of things about issues I've had in the past, especially with focus and concentration, but does feel disheartening in how it limits my practice. Is anyone here a practitioner with ADHD, or might know someone who is/has dealt with ADHD as a Buddhist? Being that focus and concentration are so vital to developing mindfulness, having a deficit of both is problematic. The medication helps a good deal with this (though it can make me more anxious), but I'm unsure of if it would be considered a skillful substance to be using or not, from a Buddhist perspective. It seems like a skillful thing to be using, in the same way that glasses are, but I don't want to cling to it, if I come to feel that I can't successfully meditate and focus without it. Hi, yes, do not be disheartened! Do not have your practice limited! I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a kid. Combined Type, you know, that good rear end poo poo where I can't sit still. But my parents opted not to medicate me, so I suffered pretty badly through middle and high school blah blah. When I got to undergrad, I started on ADHD medications, and i was good. I haven't been on medications for a long time now, because I moved again and don't have someone to prescribe it. I also don't really need it probably? Who knows. So, yeah. I am a practitioner with ADHD. Focus and concentration are vital in mindfulness, but don't be scared of the words and their applications. ADHD is a deficit in directing attention, more so than in sustaining attention. People with ADHD have trouble regulating what we're attending to. That doesn't seem like a difference, but it is. We can meditate. Lots of thoughts might come. When lots of thoughts come, stop meditating. Don't meditate when it's frustrating, because this creates negative associations. Work within the reality you are afforded. I have a hard time sitting still during long ritual practices. The solution is to have me involved in the practice. Get me up and ringing bells and tending the shrine and playing a drum and carrying the offerings and doing all that stuff. This helps me tremendously. Over a long time and a lot of practice, I can sit for a good while in meditation - but if I can't, if my leg is just gonna be moving, and so on? That's okay too. I get up and go do administrative work around the center. The deficit of attention isn't problematic, it's the very thing you need to be mindful of. None of us are born without a Buddha nature, all of us have the possibility of attaining. We need to look at our conditions as they are. Our mind is scattered an distracted and we can get sucked into things or we can slide off of things. For us, directing our attention is much harder and we cannot necessarily meditate as easily as others. Okay! That's okay. Because the truth is that thoughts don't come from us, but they happen to us. The thoughts that happen to us might be a bit more so or more often than other people, but they are still thoughts that just happen to us. We can practice and be aware of that. Dharma practice in and of itself is beneficial for ADHD, both in that I've learned that many things I thought were ADHD problems are generally problems for people, and many problems I thought were insurmountable in ADHD can actually benefit from Dharma practice. My Lama has noticed this, and he didn't even know I had ADHD. (His low-key slam on me one day was "you're like a 12 year old in a lot of ways" lmao) On the topic of medication: it's explicitly permitted by the Buddha. Take yr meds. How can a medication cause heedlessness when it literally is meant to treat heedlessness? Be aware of the differences between how you feel on and off the medication. Apply mindful awareness when you're on your meds, too. In meditation in particular, I think ADHD meds could hurt more than help - they help focus, but they also create a feeling of pressure to do something with the focus, and I would probably find it really hard to just sit in calm-abiding while on medications designed in laboratories to make me more productive. In truth, when I prioritized productivity like a good worker drone, Ritalin was amazing, but I don't think it would be helpful for mindfulness because of the pressures it creates inside the brain towards analyzing. Okay, quickly because lol writing a novel again, with meditation in particular: there is a text called Shamatha to Mahamudra that teaches calm abiding in my lineage that had the best advice for me as an addlebrained ADHD spazboi and it was this: don't try to meditate for long periods. Length in and of itself is not important. Far more important is the quality of stability. Length can come later, and being stable for a long time is good, but that happens automatically. Instead, meditate really well for a short period. 10 seconds. 2 minutes. 5 minutes. Not 20 minutes. At least not at first. Between those sessions, don't stand up - but do relax yourself a bit. Like, meditate for a bit, really well, then when you hit the stable state (not when you lose it! When you achieve it), relax and check your phone and roll your shoulders and bounce your leg or whatever it is you need to do. Then repeat this. You want to stop when you achieve the stable state, not when you lose it, because you're trying to train achieving it, not losing it. You'll do what you practice. Regarding the anxiety in particular, i used to struggle to meditate because decades of conditioning have taught me that if I remember something I need to do, I need to do it right now or I'm going to forget and never do it and be a failure and a disappointment (because I'm a failure and a disappointment, right!?) and everyone will be mad and it won't even be uncommon because this always happens and ugh I have to stop meditating and go do this now or else I am destroyed blah blah blah. ... and none of that poo poo is true. Mindfulness has helped a lot with that. Being realistic with myself and my capabilities has helped a lot. My Lama has joked that most people's 3 day task is my 3 months task, because once I stop working on something I tend to not pick it back up again for a while. The thing is... that's okay. Who gives a poo poo? That's a societal thing where we have to be punctual producers and blah blah blah, not real. It's just some capitalism bullshit. But also, social screed aside, you will definitely remember to do poo poo again. If a thing comes up in meditation, it's in there. We don't control our thoughts, they happen to us. If they're coming up in meditation, they're in there. If we can't remember, we can just meditate again, they'll come back up, right? Like maybe we forget to send an email, but then we meditate. In the space that we create by meditating, we remember we have to send an email. Okay, great. Let that go. Later we might go "oh man something I needed to do I remembered while meditating, poo poo" but if we need to remember it, we can just, you know, do the same thing we were doing and it will come back up. Because thoughts happen to us, not come from us. If thoughts came from us, we wouldn't have ADHD, or we'd be able to just discipline ourselves into it like they always told us to (gently caress you middle school teachers, my Buddha says I can't just choose to focus get hosed  ). In the end, everyone else is also driven by thoughts that happen to them, but which they don't control. For us, it's just a lot more obvious. So, I guess we're kinda lucky? Heh.
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May 13, 2019 13:13
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As someone who was just diagnosed with ADHD myself, thank you for this. It was something I'd also been struggling with, and I'm glad for your advice
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May 13, 2019 20:40
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Paramemetic posted:Hi, yes, do not be disheartened! Do not have your practice limited! It was surprising, and very encouraging, to see you post this, Paramemetic. I had sort of subconsciously baked in some very negative and pessimistic expectations about what I could (or, more acutely, could not) accomplish and do with my dharma practice after being diagnosed, and felt in a way that, perhaps, people with ADHD did not have a place in the sangha. So, to see you — an individual so involved in dharma practice, and so often a conduit for such skillful and helpful observations in this thread — dealing with the same issues, was quite a realization. Your post was exactly what I needed to read, and I am deeply grateful for it. I'd like to expand a little bit on it all, since there are now multiple of us in the thread, and maybe it can be of help. I was likewise diagnosed with Combined type, though now, at 29, instead of as a kid. So, I had more or less the same experience with school as you did, I imagine — except, I ended up dropping out of university because I couldn't overcome the anxiety and depression stemming from that whole milieu of ADHD-ness. In retrospect, though, I think that the dukkha that came out of my undiagnosed, unmedicated state into my twenties — the inability to succeed in school, finish personal projects, or find fulfillment in any sort of career — is largely what brought me to Buddhism in the first place, about 5 years ago. It's such a break from the non-stop, high-stimuli, cutthroat productivity society that exists in our time (which is overwhelming for many people, but even more so for ADHD folks), and was the first thing to bring the idea of slowness and letting go into my life. Walking the path has done a great deal to start to untangle all of the intense self-deprecation I've built up from all of the perceived failures over the years, and to unwind my crushing perfectionism that I never live up to — after all, there is nothing to become, and no self that is becoming. So, what you said about simply working within the reality we are afforded, and about being realistic and compassionate with our (erroneous) perceived shortcomings, really resonated with me. At the practice center that I have started becoming more and more involved with (Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, which a goon in this thread recommended, many thanks to you), everyone is really into working with Dharma Gates, and looking deeply to see them everywhere. I think, then, that ADHD could be a wonderful Dharma Gate for me to explore, and perhaps be able to see it with eyes of compassion rather than eyes of disappointment or frustration. Regarding meds, it is likewise encouraging that you have found a way to be calm and upright without using them. I am finding them to be very helpful in terms of productivity, as you mentioned, but I would much prefer to be able to live a skillful life without them at some point, and I do not want to cling to them. That they could actually be a hindrance in meditation is something I had not fully considered, but I do notice that my body is generally slightly more on-edge when on meds, so perhaps they are not actually so useful for sitting. What you mentioned about various skillful ways to meditate sounds quite helpful, so I will try it out and see if I can put it into practice when I sit. The hardest thing, prior to meds but still to some extent, has been just getting into a steady state with attending the practice center and getting up to sit in the morning. People in general have issues with this, but it seems especially tough with ADHD's lack of energy, distraction, and deficit in thinking contextually. You've done a great deal of work and practice in your tradition; if you don't mind me asking, as someone who is very interested in doing the same — in the Soto Zen tradition — how did you get yourself into the habit of keeping engaged, to the point of managing a practice center, and has it gotten easier over time to maintain? Thank you, again, for your words and your encouragement.
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May 15, 2019 01:20
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When I was a kid everyone wanted to make me learn habits. The story went that if I learned to make something a habitual activity then I wouldn't need to be coerced/compelled/forced to do a thing. Of course, when I was a kid I was a little jerk who wasn't going to be compelled or coerced into doing things by making it so I didn't need compelled into doing things, so that never worked back then. But as an adult I realized that if I wanted to do things, I had to find ways to accommodate for my poo poo. That, in itself, was a big part of my learning to work with ADHD whatever. In truth, I don't like psychiatric diagnosis much. It's a really fancy way of saying just, "how a person is." I have (most of) a master's in mental health counseling, so this is kind of something I learned by really actually learning it. As a derail, I practice Tibetan Astrology. One thing people are always asking is "what is my (animal sign) like." And Tibetans think this is the dumbest possible question. They want to know if they'll make money, and how, and when, and how much. They know how they are, you don't need divination for that!! Just talk to the person!! And in a lot of ways psychiatric diagnosis has just become our Western scientific way of divining someone's behavior. This is a big derail, sorry. Y'all know how it is. So anyways, we're a certain way, right? And we have to accommodate for that. Part of that accommodation is allowing myself a little derail. If I don't type it out, it's just gonna bother me. I end up writing a novel that you need a map to decipher, but at least I have it in an organized way, right? So another part of that is recognizing that... yeah, they were right. We need to form habits. That's what meditation is, in the first place. In Tibetan, "to meditation" is "gom gyap" which means "to press a habit." You're taming the mind, right? So, how to establish a practice routine? I have basically two suggestions here. First, is be realistic and compassionate to yourself. If you can't meditate when you wake up, why not after breakfast? Or so on. You can train yourself to wake up early, that's fine, but if you set up too many obstacles in the front, you're making things harder than they need to be. Don't be too hard on yourself when you "miss," but don't let yourself off the hook, either. The second thing was I started using one of those routine board things. I think I used an app that lets you tap it to say the task is done, and does reminders. But then the app changed and started giving me daily inspirational quotes or something stupid and I turned off notifications so whatever. You don't need that - but the "don't break the chain" method is really handy for developing those habits. Just do the thing every day, whenever, even if it's just before bed for like 30 seconds because you forgot all day. Don't break the chain tho! Make it something you do every day even if you just half-rear end it to get it done. The reason for this is that eventually your brain will form a habit, and it will want to do it every day. It'll feel weird to not do a practice. It'll nag at you, the way so many things do. Managing a practice center is something I can do now because I have taken stock, recognized what I'm weak at, and accepted it. I should've made an advertisement flyer thing for an event in 2 weeks ... I didn't do that. Welp. Okay. Fortunately the event has been advertised via normal channels, so whatever. It would have been better if I'd done that thing, but I didn't do it. That's the reality, and getting upset about that or beating myself up about that is a silly thing. It ultimately makes us less productive, even. We get in these negative thought loops about ourselves and so on. Buddhism is in many ways about responsibility and accountability - but that doesn't mean bearing some kind of burden of guilt. It means accepting the responsibility of our actions. I didn't make a flyer because I've had my attention on a lot of other things. That's too bad, and a bit unfortunate, but nobody is really injured from this. If someone comes to the center and says "oh, I didn't know about this event, there was no advertisement," I'll say "oh, I'm sorry, that's my fuckup. I'll try harder in the future but I am bearing a lot of responsibilities, so sometimes I will make mistakes. If you'd like to volunteer to help, that would be great!" After all, nobody else made the flyer either, right? So a lot of it has just been about bearing responsibility for my actions, but that means both sides of the thing. In the past, I thought that meant "feel really guilty and feel like poo poo when you gently caress up," but actually it means "be realistic about what you can and can't do, what you do and don't do, and acknowledge the consequences of those actions." It's like the climate change thing, right? Like, I can't stop ExxonMobil from turbofucking the earth, but I can try not to use a plastic bag, and when I use a plastic bag I can go "wow I wish there were better bags" and if there are like, paper bags right there, then maybe I should use that? Unless it's water. Shame that samsara is like this, so I make a firmer resolve to escape samsara and liberate others as well. And that's kind of the big thing - I'm not really familiar with this concept of Dharma Gates but I assume that it means methods of tying the Dharma into your lives. One of my kind teachers, the late Gyalpo Rinpoche, once taught me about making offerings - he said we should practice generosity all the time, even when we poo poo and piss. Lots of spirits and bugs and beings eat poo poo and piss. When we flush the toilet, mindfully offer that poo poo and piss to those beings. Don't waste it by mindlessly flushing it away. Similarly, whatever we're doing we can make part of our practice of benefiting sentient beings. That should be primary in our mind - whatever we can do, if we do it mindfully, it's dharma practice. I'm carryin' dudes through Monster Hunter World right now but hey, if it's making them happy then this is part of my practice, even if it's the stupidest part (and I could be making a flyer instead, but I'm not, and that's just kinda what's happening). This will get super long if I just rant forever, my Lama has actually suggested I should write a book about meditation as an aid for ADHD, as something I can do with my dumb degree in Western meditation. I am considering a book about practicing Dharma with ADHD and how to benefit ADHD with that and apply Dharma tools blah blah, but at the end of the day I don't really know much. But I'm happy that I can help people in this thread, or at least help them feel helped, and I've helped some other people I know with ADHD by giving a little advice. I am a little amused that you were surprised, a lot of people might be. I think one thing a lot of us do when we're starting Dharma practice is assume all these people we're seeing very happy and calm and peaceful and so on are Buddhas already and so we feel out of place. Maybe they are Buddhas - it's good practice to treat everyone like a Buddha! But maybe they're just having a good day. I can be extremely calm and handle many crises with no problem, but then I can have a hard time ordering Chipotle because the website is misbehaving and I just decide it's time to die instead and give up and my long-suffering wife (my Lama calls her Yasodhara because she puts up with me) has to pick up food coming home from work because I forgot to eat until my mood crashed and welp. We're all still struggling in this samsara, and the important thing is recognizing it and striving to do better.
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May 15, 2019 03:44
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Paramemetic posted:Words of the Buddha That's a really apt point about Western psychiatric diagnosis and divination. I still get a bit lost in these terms, looking at the diagnoses and symptoms I'm told about and conjuring up a self there, rather than looking deeply at what is already here in this body-mind and working with that. I suppose that it is, in its own way, an example of the finger pointing at the moon, in that diagnoses are supposed to (ostensibly) tell us how to interact with things happening in us in a skillful way, but instead we end up inverting things, latching onto the words and terms themselves and creating more problems. My hypochondriac, neurotic brain certainly does, anyway. That everything in these skandhas arises from habit energy is something that I have often conceptually understood, but often have trouble internalizing due to distraction, anxious thought, etc. It has really started to click more with me as of late though; seeing others' actions (and my own) as a result of conditions stretching out endlessly in space and time, through societies and ancestors, has made it so much easier for me to give rise to compassion for everyone. Bringing it back "home," I'm working now to be aware of the deeply rooted habits of thought, feeling, and perceptions (all empty) that my own body-mind goes through during the day, and letting them go when I am able. It's amusing and silly to me, somehow, when I discover my mind or body getting caught in these various habits over and over, and I can't help but laugh to myself a little bit. I took your words to heart today about working with the conditions I'm given in each moment, and about being okay with them and just being here with what is going on. This morning, I was having trouble getting into a relaxed state with meditation, and it was getting irritating, but your words came back to me and I thought: "Okay, yes, this is not what I expected this morning. That's okay. My heart is beating disruptively and my hands are shaking and I'm a bit tense, I'll just be here with that." And, you know, that helped. A lot, actually. I calmed down and felt more compassionate towards myself and my body. So I've made that my practice for today, and maybe for this week: to just be here with this and try to be aware of the habits without beating myself up about them. Thank you for helping with this. Regarding Dharma Gates, it's a concept that I myself am still relatively new to, though I've seen it before in Zen contexts (sometimes as Dharma Doors). Basically, it's effectively what you described; Dharma Gates are just a skillful means for describing that all "things" can be a portal through which one can access awakening and view the inherent Buddha-nature of the unconditioned. When we chant the Bodhisattva vow "Dharma Gates are boundless, I vow to enter them," we are reminding ourselves that everything that is manifests Buddha nature, and as such can be a door to understanding and awakening. So, we work with this, and keep it in mind. In Soto Zen everybody loves Dogen, and he often said in various ways that everything in existence is constantly manifesting the Lotus Sutra, which is I think another good way of showing this. For myself, this has shown up in surprising places, like in remembering that I only need to use one little sheet of paper towel when drying my hands, or when I witnessed a big plastic bag lazily flying across the river yesterday evening, somehow staying aloft. Or, I hope, when I look deeply at these ADHD symptoms that I have always been ashamed of or frustrated with. It has been a good practice for me, as of late.
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May 15, 2019 22:42
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What do you all think of this recent left twitter thing of "mindfulness is a scam to get you to not pay attention to how bad the capitalists are making things" It seems very Not The Point but it does come up decently often IRL for me at this point so hearing some insight from some of you would help.
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May 16, 2019 00:17
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Impermanent posted:What do you all think of this recent left twitter thing of "mindfulness is a scam to get you to not pay attention to how bad the capitalists are making things" It seems very Not The Point but it does come up decently often IRL for me at this point so hearing some insight from some of you would help. Now I want to be clear when I say that that I am not saying that these causes are unjust. The capitalists suck rear end. However, I do think that if you are expressing the matter as "you need to be experiencing this emotional reaction," rather than "you need to be undertaking this action or addressing this topic," you are not walking down a very useful road. I have seen some social backlash towards Buddhism, in no small part due to the atrocities against the Rohingya, but my perception is that this is rooted in the popular conception of Buddhism as something wealthy/upper-class-ish white people do at boutique retreats -- at least in America.
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May 16, 2019 03:22
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Leftist thought is largely founded on hostility to religion. Proudhon, Marx, Bakunin, Lenin and probably others were very clear that religion is bad and an impediment to societal progress. You're taking your eye off the ball - the plight of this material world - and looking yonder. And so it's hardly surprising that some Leftists are just as hostile to Buddhists as they are to other faiths. I'm not a Buddhist but I'd bet anything Shakyamuni was closer to the truth than Marx was. A Communist utopia will not make people happy because happiness in this life is fleeting. The best you can manage is minimizing harm. To that end you need to recognize things beyond the material matter to most of the Earth's population.
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May 16, 2019 03:46
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Impermanent posted:What do you all think of this recent left twitter thing of "mindfulness is a scam to get you to not pay attention to how bad the capitalists are making things" It seems very Not The Point but it does come up decently often IRL for me at this point so hearing some insight from some of you would help. Left Twitter gonna respond to the world and @jack is out here goin' "wow I did a vipassana meditation in Myanmar and let me tell u meditating with genocide is great poo poo" and so of course there will be a response. At the same time, mindfulness is being sold to corporations as a way to keep worker drones from shooting their brains out and as a stress reduction and health improvement thing and it's generally being mislabeled anyways because the "mindfulness" that we're being sold in 20,000 BusinessWeek articles a day is actually extremely trash and sanitized of most of the useful things - like, mindful awareness is only really helpful when paired with recognition of things like impermanence, emptiness of inherent existence, the fleeting nature of happiness and how wealth and material success is only a transient relief from the inherent condition of the world as suffering... ...which are all ideas that fundamentally undermine capitalism, but that's neither here nor there. As a reaction to commodification of "mindfulness" I think that Leftist critique of it is legitimate. But unfortunately like with much philosophical critique across fields, it is failing to hit the mark because it's not arguing with the thing itself but rather with a false representation of the thing. Leftists aren't being exposed to Buddhist mindfulness, they're being exposed to the Western commodification of mindfulness that has all the "Buddhist" stuff stripped out of it. Nobody is writing Wall Street Journal articles about how mindfulness can release you from the desire that motivated you to kill yourself on the altar of capital, but they will sure write about how wow, real brain effects happen. And it's extremely dumb. Leftist thought isn't founded on hostility to religion, and the idea that Marx thought religion was an impediment to social progress is itself a misreading or over-emphasis of the point. Hell, the Dalai Lama was extremely excited about communism and wanted to implement it in Tibet after meeting Mao, up until Mao said he'd have to denounce his religious station. Of course, Tibet was a theocratic feudal empire at the time so, you know, there was something to that whole Maoist approach to liberation. Marx was an observer who didn't make claims to individual liberation but Marxist thought and Buddhist thought aren't at odds and can't be at odds as both are simply based on observations and conclusions drawn from that. There's certainly a risk of palliative effect in Buddhism when faced with social oppression, and I think this is firmly Senju Kannon's lane at this point.
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May 16, 2019 04:11
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Impermanent posted:What do you all think of this recent left twitter thing of "mindfulness is a scam to get you to not pay attention to how bad the capitalists are making things" It seems very Not The Point but it does come up decently often IRL for me at this point so hearing some insight from some of you would help. sounds like people who don’t know what they’re talking about and aren’t gonna let that stop them from getting their hot takes out there for the world to see
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May 16, 2019 17:45
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