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 Tranquil Toad
A.I. Living Inside the Internet
Registered: 04/17/09
Posts: 773
Last seen: 2 years, 8 months
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Quote:
fivepointer said:
So you think that "me" (yourself) is an imaginary character. This is absolute insanity.
It seems insane if you don't really understand. A person exists as an individual in one sense, but this "individuality" is transient and in flux (you are not the same person you were a moment ago,) as well as being more a result or mirror of the world than an actual independent entity. I can't remember the source of this metaphor, but it was comparing a person to a hole in a piece of wood. Yes the hole exists, but when you try to explain what the hole is (its round, empty, has such and such a diameter) you are explaining the wood as much as the hole. A person is the same way; they only really exist on a relational basis to the world.
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 The Chronic
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 12,003
Loc: 
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Its pretty simple, if you meditate & go into a state where you are using NO imagination, then individuality falls away, so individuality is nothing but imagination
The thought that says 'this is absolute insanity' is just as much imagination
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fivepointer
newbie
Registered: 08/03/02
Posts: 1,110
Last seen: 18 days, 15 hours
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So you are using mind games to fool yourself into thinking that you can reach "nirvana" through meditating, but isn't "nirvana" just a figment of your own imagination?
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The Chronic
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 12,003
Loc:
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Nirvana is the only thing that is in no way imagination or the product of mind games
thats the whole point ofit
ifit was another creation then it could just as easily be destroyed
Nirvana is the ever perfect nature of Self
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Man in the Box
Registered: 03/15/07
Posts: 352
Last seen: 12 days, 12 hours
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Chronic777 and howtodissapear, the real question is why does samsara exist in the first place, why did we build this projection for ourselves if only to free ourselves from it? and on a side note have either of you reached nirvana? I ask you two because you both seem the most educated about buddhism here. I know I'm not using proper terminology either for buddhism with words like "I" or you", but bear with me.
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The Chronic
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 12,003
Loc:
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 Re: Downfall of Buddhism?  [Re: Smitington]
#11751408 - 01/02/10 07:10 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Smitington said:
Now I do not claim to be an expert on Buddhism by any means, but I have learned enough about it to have some opinion of it. The biggest thing I get out of Buddhism is the pursuit of selflessness. If you think about it, this is really what alot of drug users experience when they speak of ego death. I have also read that Ayahuasca Shamanism has a huge focus on silencing the Ego and ones basic wants and desires. It seems that Buddhism maps a very detailed and accurate path for those looking to better themselves through supressing their desires and ego, which is honestly one of the best ways to better yourself. Think about it, if you truly start looking beyond yourself, what happens? You begin listening to others and learning new things, and devoting your life to making positive changes in the world rather than fulfilling your selfish desires. Now, this sounds great, but here is the point I'm getting at: How many Buddhists truly seek to better themselves through bettering the world, and how many seek to better themselves through constant meditation and seperating themselves from the world? I rarely hear about Buddhists being active in making the world a better place. It seems to me that the very thing Buddhism preaches against, selfishness, is the very thing that happens when you seperate yourself from the world to try to save your own soul.
Buddhism speaks of individuals called Bodhisattvas, who devote their existence to helping others find the way instead of seeking to exit the reincarnation cycle through meditation and seperating themselves from the world. Maybe if more Buddhists became Bodhisattvas, and Buddhism focused on people becoming Bodhisattvas, Buddhism might be more effective at helping the world.
Right now I feel that the only way Buddhism spreads its word, is through putting the knowledge out there for those who are ready to discover it, but it focuses so much on the individual bettering themself through nonaction rather than individuals bettering the world and those around them and in turn bettering themselves.
Its not so much supression of desires & shutting yourself off from society to meditate, its more about seeing through what the mental process of desire is & seeing through the futility of the egoic mind, some buddhists dont even need to sit & meditate, their mind is already attuned to the Buddha nature
If you realize the ever perfect reality, you may not be such an activist, but thats cause you see the futility of it all & just chill out, then you can help in a different way, your silence blesses every single being in existence. Isit a benefit you can go & brag about? No, and thats the whole point.
nature then being a bodhisatvva naturally follows
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 14,950
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funnily the idea of there being a game in which the players must find their way home, or perform some hide and seek (where the creator is hiding in all of creation) restoration of heavenly order, is common in religions and mythology.
the focus on suffering and compassion in buddhism is streamlined, and the practice of meditation where mind watches mind is the most direct or least complex of all games.
I like that nothing is constructed between the prime questions and the seeker's approach to working through it.
what I like most about native american culture is the term "medicine" which applies to things that are not just drugs.
A combination of medicinal acts really does treat the pain and sufferring of samsara. We don't have to look to the east for this, just look within.
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explosiveoxygen
Prophet of TGMM
Registered: 07/10/09
Posts: 1,253
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Losing the ego and silencing desires are not even close to the same thing. Living is a desire and causes some basic desires that it is not possible to live without.
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The Great Mycelium (TGMM) is more than you and me, we are all part of One.
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zoomfan
doubt 'er
Registered: 07/16/09
Posts: 460
Loc: eastern Canada
Last seen: 10 hours, 5 minutes
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Imo the real teachings of the buddha are lost in translation. you cant put into words what can only happen in the moment. the buddha reached nirvana or however you wanna say it, but words always fail. enlightenment IS the realization that words and concepts fail. words can point this out but ultimately they fail. The directions to enlightenment can only be implied. the best advice i could ever give someone to awaken would be to reject belief itself. thought is nothing more than the brain dreaming. what is there behind thought is reality and thought happens within it. choose your identity. you already have once.
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Thinking is dreaming wake up and enjoy the dream.
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andrewss
precariously aggrandized
Registered: 08/17/07
Posts: 8,698
Loc: ohio
Last seen: 8 days, 22 hours
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Re: Downfall of Buddhism? [Re: Silversoul]
#11752917 - 01/02/10 03:05 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Silversoul said:
Quote:
fivepointer said:
Buddha is just some dude with bizarre teachings.
Says the guy who believes that an all-loving, perfectly just God creates people for the express purpose of damning them to Hell.
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Jesus loves you.
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