Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
He uses too many words and my questions are more for me to answer than for him.
He is a very sharp academic. I doubt I would understand his answers.
I've begun to journal my questions and, later, I hope my answers.
This forum has graciously indulged my words and helped me understand this and that.
Good luck with your journey. You are wise to first figure out what your questions are. I find podcasts on these topics very useful. Of course it is necessary to find the right podcasts just as it is important to find the right teacher.
As for Buddha’s original teaching and the western slant on Buddhism, Buddha’s focus was on how to live an ethical life. He did not have much to say about metaphysics. It was 200 years after he died that the different schools of thoughts were born, the Realists and the Idealists.
One of the most beautiful flowers ever, a thousand petal lotus, grows out of mud. It miraculously turns ugliness of mud into symbolic beauty.
So can do anyone, who wishes to do so, and dedicates himself completely to the cause.
One of the most beautiful flowers ever, a thousand petal lotus, grows out of mud. It miraculously turns ugliness of mud into symbolic beauty.
So can do anyone, who wishes to do so, and dedicates himself completely to the cause.
Dear Ukrkoz, the mud is still mud, ugly or not. It is all about the Lotus which stays untouched by its muddy surrounding, a metaphor for the way the one should be, untouched by the false world of objects.
Yes, I've been reading that for a few days. And part 2. I think I like it.
When my cup of mud is empty, should I allow teaching to fill it again?
or is the empty cup enlightenment? should I throw away the cup?
is the cup the illusion?
just another question for the journal.
Last edited by highplainsrus; 07-11-2020 at 07:06 AM..
Dear CB, mud is IN beautiful lotus. As it feeds on it and its particles go into it and are transformed. Lotus, just like human, does not live in a bubble, shrugging mud of its cells. it takes surrounding in, from its germ stage to full blossom.
Maybe we are seeing same objective in different subjective ways but, please do not tell me, that lotus is somehow impervious to mud. It IS mud. Plant IS, what it feeds on. Tree is what its nutrients are. Human is, what his food and surrounding and upbringing were and are. Resulting effect is what matters.
Dear CB, mud is IN beautiful lotus. As it feeds on it and its particles go into it and are transformed. Lotus, just like human, does not live in a bubble, shrugging mud of its cells. it takes surrounding in, from its germ stage to full blossom.
Maybe we are seeing same objective in different subjective ways but, please do not tell me, that lotus is somehow impervious to mud. It IS mud. Plant IS, what it feeds on. Tree is what its nutrients are. Human is, what his food and surrounding and upbringing were and are. Resulting effect is what matters.
That is one way of looking at it which is to identify with the body and believe that is all that we are,
which would be the lotus if it thinks it is just the mud, wilt, and become mud again. On the other hand like the lotus that blooms and sits above the mud, letting the mud run off it and not stick to it, we can identify with the spirit, atma, within, and know that is what we are, and see the same spirit that animate all things within the world.
Yes, depends entirely on perception. Namaste.
Who wants to sit in meditation watching their thoughts?
I can do that driving my car if I wanted to.
Wouldn't gently stilling them be 'the thing'?
(Like shewing away a fly. Then, ah, the peace.)
Thanks.
I mostly meditate to concentrate on my breathing and bring good energy and peace into me and my surroundings. I really enjoy that. It's soothing and I find I'm much calmer after doing so. But I think any practice that causes us to pause and be still is a good practice.
That is one way of looking at it which is to identify with the body and believe that is all that we are,
which would be the lotus if it thinks it is just the mud, wilt, and become mud again. On the other hand like the lotus that blooms and sits above the mud, letting the mud run off it and not stick to it, we can identify with the spirit, atma, within, and know that is what we are, and see the same spirit that animate all things within the world.
Yes, depends entirely on perception. Namaste.
Sorry, I did not understand the first half of your statement.
I have no issues with the second half. yes, it's pretty metaphor. Yet, it's a metaphor that disregards one simple fact. Lotus didn't magically appear in its final, silicone coated form, in the middle of a swamp, on Monday morning, at 4:17am.
First, there was a germ of lotus. That germ lived IN the mud and swamp, feeding on it and assimilating it. Whatever particles mud is made out of - and, if mud is repulsive or pretty, is matter of one's subjective opinion - became lotus germ and were feeding it, in its development. It is simple FACT, there is nothing even a most twisted casuist can say otherwise on the subject.
In nutshell, mud gave birth to lotus. Metaphorically speaking, something very basic, primitive, unattractive, gave birth to exquisite beauty.
That is the point. Again, it is internal transformation of low into high. So can a human, starting with coming out of and feeding on everything physical, transform himself into a Buddha.
Otherwise, as I said - one may look at lotus in perceptions various but, fact stays simple and basic. Lotus came of mud, from mud and through mud. It is mud in its essence. There is no way to deny it. It was not created perfect, it developed into perfect.
Not a Buddhist and not a student of it (except for a world religions class in college). My therapist subscribed to it, and I know it informed her approach to therapy. She was a big fan of mindfulness, and I was developing an appreciation of it before I came to her. I meditate as needed. I keep a bulletin journal as a way of managing my ADD. I often step back from my more OCD behaviors to analyze why I’m doing them. I think mindfulness just makes life better by enhancing it. I appreciate things more. Certainly if I had adopted it as a lifestyle at a younger age, I would have realized my mother was an abusive monster before I turned 40.
I don’t come at it from a religious perspective, but I suspect the Buddhists just figured it out and codified their version of it a few centuries before a lot of cultures and religions did.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
