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Hiro Protagonist posted:I watched this video on this guy who created a cult by claiming to be an enlightened being (cw: sex abuse, manipulation, all the regular stuff you'd expect from a cult): Atrocity Guide is always an instant click for me when I see an upload. I love her work. On top of the obviously unzen nonsense of the leader (emphasis on enlightenment as a superpower, attachment to wealth, etc), something that I found interesting from the perspective of the deprogrammed ex-member was his mention of wanting to be special and uniquely capable of attaining enlightenment. It's a funny trick of the ego, wanting so badly to achieve a connection with everything that you ironically make it all about yourself and what a good special practitioner you are. I can relate because I have tons of moments during zazen where I feel like I'm approaching some kind of profound spiritual insight, and it feels great in the moment like I should remember this! This is so deep! but then I realize that even this is a kind of gainful thought that I'm getting attached to and using to prop up this internal image I have of myself as a spiritual person. I always just flick myself on the forehead when this happens to make myself laugh at my own delusion, reset, and get back to just sitting there and focusing on my breath. But that desire seems to be what "Rama" exploited in people, that reaching and wanting for spiritual ecstasy that feels great in the moment. It's sad how much suffering he was able to put them through because he took advantage of this vulnerability; one a proper teacher would check someone on and try to liberate them from as a need.
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Jun 28, 2023 05:14
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Cephas posted:What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula Thero is a good introductory book on Buddhism. I've been reading through this and enjoying it a lot (because of your recommendation actually.) There is a lot of technical language in it though, so I would follow the introduction's instructions on what order to read things in rather than going through it linearly. Another popular entry point (and mine personally) is Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, which introduces the basics of practicing meditation as well as some thoughtful and easy to read lectures which I found helpful for opening up my mind and inspiring me to be more compassionate to myself and others.
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Nov 8, 2023 18:18
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Huxley posted:Hello, Buddhism thread. Ever since my religions of the world class in college I have been interested in exploring this. We are going through a very tough family time right now (everyone is safe and loved and cared for, just tired frustrated unhappy) and literally my only memory of "what Buddhism is about" is the idea that the basis of all unhappiness is a desire to be happy, which I assume is somewhere between way too simple and outright wrong. But the idea itself doesn't turn me off and is in fact fairly comforting. I started practicing zazen with a similar word-of-mouth understanding of Buddhism as you, what with the root of suffering being desire quote many of us have heard before. The longer I've been with my teacher and the more I've read though, I've seen that Buddhist teaching is often not "just so" or possible to package into a single sentence. The reason why we practice, learn about the noble truths, or follow the precepts, it is about cultivating awareness of ourselves and our surroundings rather than grokking lessons and carrying them in an inert unchanging state. So if you think the idea that desire causes suffering is too simple or outright wrong, I actually think that you're well primed to throw yourself into this and really interrogate what suffering is, what your suffering originates from. I hope that it helps you, and that it extends to your family. I'll be happy to see you post again if you do
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Nov 8, 2023 18:40
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Virgil Vox posted:
Seconded. My teacher does Kong an with me for no charge and has told me one of the reasons it's important to have a recorded lineage of who taught who is to make sure somebody isn't using Buddhism aesthetics to scam you
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Nov 8, 2023 19:59
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I can relate to the constant demoralizing self evaluation that comes with being a practitioner with ADHD. When I was reading Gabor Mate's Scattered Minds (which actually had a Suzuki quote that got me started on Buddhism in the first place), something that stuck out to me was the ADHD proclivity for shame, and how the consistent inability to meet people's expectations deeply sets a neurological connection between guilt and your sympathetic nervous system- meaning that when you feel ashamed, your sensitive nervous system actually starts to respond and attempt to defend you by inducing a numb lethargy. So it seems that part of our karma is our mind and body's relationship to expectations and shame, and how extra painful it is to fall short for our minds. Now that I know about it, I can see it cropping up. I actually think of the voice of guilt in my head as My brain's misguided attempt to help me: "not measuring up Is dangerous! People will hate us! Be disappointed! You can't let this happen!" It wants to help just... Maybe hasn't figured out the best way. To bring it back to Buddhism though, something that my teacher emphasizes to me is our intent. We are all going to fall short, but like the proverb goes: "fall down seven times, get up 8." Even if we gently caress up (and trust me I gently caress up!!!) we are practitioners. I love this sentiment that another poster shared with me over in the UFO thread: Perry Mason Jar posted:Two notions that helped me recently when it comes to practicing: the practice is enlightenment (Dogen); if you meditate, you are a meditator. So from reading your post Hiro, I can see your demoralization and I empathize with it. But I still see that you have the intent, and I think that's one of the most important parts of your practice. You are a meditator.
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Dec 4, 2023 16:30
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On the topic of feeling like you're doing it wrong, something that helps me is approaching it with curiosity. My teacher calls it "seeing what you are up to". For instance when I'm sitting and I get impatient and want to check the timer, that does feel like I am loving up and being impatient, but I try to observe that feeling in my mind and approach it from "why do I want to know? Is there something that I want to get to next? If I'm bored, what does boredom even mean?" That usually brings the sensation back to a value neutral place and I can calm down and return to my breathing. Another thing that I've heard, which honestly makes me laugh, is "opposite thinking, instant suffering!" Good practice or bad practice, at least you're practicing or trying to practice.
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Dec 4, 2023 20:39
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It's funny, whenever I feel like I have a strong grip on upholding the 5th precept, I'm presented with an opportunity and immediately find myself bargaining, wanting to grasp and make excuses (to be social, today was stressful, etc). It makes me feel like The idea of mastery is a misleading concept, at least for me. The word mastery evokes this idea of completion, or a set immutable quality. It's early on in my practice to say this but I feel that I'll always be starting again and again, and the real work is consistency that I'll always be striving for
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Dec 5, 2023 22:23
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Thirteen Orphans posted:What kind of philosophies and practices do you all have for fear of death/death anxiety? How do you frame it intellectually and what practices confront and transform the anxiety in and of itself? I'm not skilled or wise enough to give a good answer, but I know that my teacher would try to nudge me out of the intellectual framing mindset. Coming from the Zen perspective, I personally appreciate Suzuki roshi's metaphor of life being the experience of a drop of water
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Dec 19, 2023 23:47
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Achmed Jones posted:
Herstory Begins Now posted:
I like these responses because they touch on something that I believe can help us in all aspects of our practice: curiosity about what underlies our feelings and how they arise / continue. The reason that I posted the Suzuki lecture is that I think it expresses beautifully something I think we all can relate to concerning death which is the end of our selfness. What we currently are is an amalgamation of conditions and matter and karma which form our temporary bodies and minds, something we have to eventually give up when conditions no longer support these forms. I think intellectually we all like the idea of "being one with everything", but really it's actually quite pleasant and interesting at times to be separate and individual. You get all these nice feelings, opinions, an identity, descript and specific love from others- All possible because we have this "self". Of course everything that I just described as nice probably exposes attachment- which could underlie why I'm scared to die. There are many things that I love about being this one, and there are many things I love about others that I would be sad to see dispersed and repurposed in the grand scheme of things Anyway this is all a lot of rambling, but TLDR my school always encourages us to "see what we are up to" and I often find that helpful for trying to understand my feelings, rather than solve them. I hope something in this thread can help you and give you peace
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Dec 20, 2023 02:58
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Herstory Begins Now posted:your rebirth is also quite literal on earth in the form of the inevitable decomposition and then recomposition into the local flora and fauna, which imo is pretty loving nifty in its own right Agreed I think that's  .
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Dec 20, 2023 03:03
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I'd like to go to one of the meditation retreats the Kwan Um school holds. Go sit for a couple of days as one does
Tea Party Crasher fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Dec 20, 2023 |
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Dec 20, 2023 17:14
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Looking through his rap sheet he seems to get regularly probated from FYAD So I wouldn't take him All that seriously
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Dec 28, 2023 16:28
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Went back and read space grass' previous posts in the thread, it does seem they want to learn. I apologize for making fun
Tea Party Crasher fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Dec 28, 2023 |
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Dec 28, 2023 17:04
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Mushika posted:Shen Yun is poison and Falun Gong is the root. They make my life a loving living hell for one week every year and it always falls in a huge dearth of work, so it's difficult to refuse to do the lighting work for them because if I don't work, I don't eat, but I'm getting too old and I can't justify perpetuating this bigoted, insane poo poo. I can imagine that would be extremely conflicting, and I'm sorry that circumstances / money are forcing your hand here. It reminds me a bit of working for AT&t and being the envoy of bad news to the customers they were actively loving over. You're frustration is understandable but I think you have the right mindset about it: supporting yourself is important, and that allows you to do a personal kind of good in other areas of your life. After all, if you didn't do the lighting it's not like their show would shut down. I'm glad you brought this up honestly, because Shen Yun has been getting aggressively advertised where I live, and my mother wanted to take me to see it because she's into traditional Chinese Han Fu fashion on YouTube. It was only when I got their dire "before communism..." Ad that I did some digging and found out that they were a homophobic, misogynistic anti-vax cult. I've been trying to think of the gentlest way to tell her that I don't think we should go and support it, because it seems 8,000 types of insidious.
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Jan 5, 2024 16:11
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I've been reading On Becoming A Person by Carl Rogers, and I found his insight about acceptance being a powerful motivator for change relevant to my own experience practicing Zen. Particularly this line: "I find that when I can accept another person, which means specifically accepting the feelings and attitudes and beliefs he has as a real and vital part of them, then I am assisting him to become a person: and there seems to be great value in this." A recurring theme in my discussions with my teacher is about being awake to the present, and seeing things as they are, without the "It should be like this" or "I don't like this" That comes from thinking. I believe that these teachings have assisted me in recognizing how to be compassionate to my brother, who is deeply troubled with schizophrenia and alcoholism. He's 11 years older than me, and he's been this way for the majority of our lives together under my mother's roof. His disorganization, delusions and trouble with being a conscientious cohabitator has caused our mom a lot of stress over the years which I feel I have karmically inherited, or adopted and perpetuated. So often I've gotten frustrated at him over little things, like dumping out a full kettle I was going to use for tea so he can fill it up with a mugs worth of water for coffee, feeding my dog human food I thought was unhealthy, or melting plastic utensils in pans. I would fly off the handle at him, get immediately mad, demand that he listened to me and change change change for me. It led to a lot of alienation and him hiding away from both my our and I in his room. It wasn't until I started practicing that I interrogated My feelings of frustration and saw them for what they are, this expectation that he should be different. I was looking past his disease and his struggles and setting this standard for being lovable that he couldn't reach, and using it as a license to get righteous with him. For me compassion was being able to look at the things he does and see it as a result of what he's going through. Filling up the electric kettle with just a mugs worth of coffee means he knows there's exactly enough water for what he wants, and he doesn't have to worry about overporing and making a mess; it's difficult for him to maintain a laundry list of all the things it's bad to feed a dog, and he just wants some companionship; he just wants to eat some pasta and grabbed a utensil to move things around and again is not so cognizant of his surroundings that he can be aware of all their materials. To him the world is a confusing chaotic place and his mind is not so fully cooperative, and I can't have a good relationship with him or liberate him until I see that and accept it. So I've made an effort to quit being such a hard rear end with him, and talking down to him whenever he makes a mistake. I try to make more of our interactions about offering him food, trying to spend quality time, or just talking about college with him which he seems to love and is nostalgic for. Does some persnickety energy still arise in me when I see him use a sponge and not squeeze it out? Yes. Does it help anyone if I get pissed off at him and go "God drat it, squeeze out the sponge!" In my experience no. I can just squeeze out the sponge myself. So that's what I think compassion is. Recognizing who people are and that they are complete, and taking action from there. Maybe sometimes you help them, maybe sometimes you do get stern with them if they can understand. Maybe you disconnect knowing that you can't reconcile who both of you are, and you aren't going to be a monkey on their back screaming at them to change.
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Feb 24, 2024 16:25
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I can appreciate wanting to represent people as innately empathetic and kind especially when there are many people nowadays that try to espouse selfishness or individuality as "human nature" in order to justify inequality or other pervasive issues. I would agree that people want to do good, but our skill in doing so Is something we can always work on. I'm sure most of us have been in a situation where someone is venting to us or complaining about a problem, and you offer "good advice", but they get frustrated because they just wanted somebody to listen to them. The advice is offered in an attempt to help, but it's not what the person needs at that moment. This is what I think cultivating compassion is about, being alive and awake to what people actually need from us. Whether or not it takes a enlightened mindset, I have no idea. What my teacher tells me is "If you see a hungry person, feed them." It doesn't matter what feelings or mind state you have when you feed them, what matters is they get fed. Of course you might not see the hungry person if you are distracted by thinking, or maybe some sort of nervousness about appropriateness will stop you if you don't have much practice with charity. Then there's also the fact that it won't always be as straightforward as them being hungry, it can be infinitely subtle and require you to be quite sensitive and awake to the world to understand the skillful thing you can do to help. All of this is to say that I agree, I do think fundamentally people want to help each other and be good, what we need practice at is becoming skillful at it
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Mar 11, 2024 19:38
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shwinnebego posted:my partner had this experience for a long time while trying to meditate and it probably caused further psychic damage over like 2 years and it was validating to see this post for her, so thanks I personally got started on meditation from the instructions in the opening of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind (there's a link to the PDF on this page). The instructions mostly pertain to posture and position but I found it to be a good starting point. The rest is lectures which I found useful in putting me in a mindset compatible with meditation if I read them beforehand with a little tea. I also understand that plum village has an app with resources that can guide you through it, but I don't have any personal experience with that so somebody else would have to sound off as to their effectiveness. As far as what I've found useful in practicing meditation, the first thing that really cracked it open for me as somebody with ADHD who always hated it when my hippie family wanted me to meditate, is viewing meditation as a practice and not something you can do right or wrong, you just do it. I bounced off of it for years because I would sit and tell myself I wasn't doing it right, so I'd get pissed off and not practice. Nowadays when I sit and my mind is distracted as hell I just sit with that because that's my state at the time and that's just as pure as any sort of good mind state that I desire so badly lol. All of this is to say that nowadays I just call meditation "being myself time", because if I view it as "fixing myself time" I start evaluating it on results rather than focusing on just practicing. Secondly I have found it incredibly helpful to practice with others. I regularly meditate with my mother, and I attend sangha at my local Zen center on Sundays, and I do think there's something about practicing as a group and wanting to support one another that makes us individually stronger. This will be a kind of goofy story but two weeks ago My nose started running during our 35 minute meditation and I was going absolutely loving crazy over the sensation of it. It was torture just feeling it hang there and not knowing what to do, because what I wanted was to get up and blow my nose, but I would have to walk across the room and make all kinds of noise which could disturb other people. I just sat with it and felt miserable until My mind relaxed and it kind of just... Dried up and everything was fine. I was hit with a bizarre peace that I never knew snot could give me lol. If I was doing it alone I definitely would have just gone for the tissue and immediately try and make myself comfortable and align with my self-image of being never icky or gross. Also hi Shwinn, You probably thought you were safe from my posting outside of the traditional games territories.
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Apr 4, 2024 17:04
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Outpost22 posted:Re-posting this from the Deus Ex thread in games. You're fine. Just make sure if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
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Apr 17, 2024 00:12
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I sure hope so otherwise idk what we would talk about
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Apr 17, 2024 00:27
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Thirteen Orphans posted:Let’s say I get a whole bunch of mantras tattooed around my leg. If I start spinning in a clockwise circle would that make me a living prayer wheel? Only one way to find out right
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Apr 19, 2024 19:12
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Honestly if there are statues of me hanging around thousands of years in the future, having poo poo on my head seems like a fair price
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Apr 19, 2024 22:11
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Nessus posted:Does the bird poo poo have Buddha nature? I'd say so. No matter what is in the universe at this moment, it can't be any other way, that's Buddha nature. I would say something could only not have Buddha nature if it were completely non-existent, not even in the form of thought. That's just my understanding of it though
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Apr 19, 2024 22:14
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FouRPlaY posted:Just wanted to do a quick sanity check: I did my first cross-leg meditation session (I would just sit in a chair before), and sure enough, my feet/lower legs feel asleep. My concern was how long they took to get feeling/circulation back. So is this pretty standard, no danger, and my body will just get used to it, yes? Personally I wouldn't play around with that. There's nothing uniquely special about sitting cross-legged, so finding what works best for your body is what I would encourage you to do. I get uncomfortable in both chairs and with cross-legged seating positions, but then I bought a folding bench with a pad to put underneath my knees that is both comfortable and encouraging towards a straight posture. Best of luck figuring out what works for you
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May 3, 2024 23:57
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