Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: Bridgetown Botanicals CBD Concentrates   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Bulk Cannabis Seeds   Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   PhytoExtractum Buy Bali Kratom Powder   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1 | 2  [ show all ]
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Metta (kindness meditation) * 2
    #26567501 - 03/30/20 02:48 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

I think I have a sort of bitter world view. Growing up, a handful of bad apples in my family and personal life had inflicted pain on me with a sense of clear malicious intent.

When I was given glaring examples of how humans are flawed and broken the lens with which I viewed the world became colored gray.

I think the first step in healing this is recognizing the problem. Step 2 would be taking grounded steps to relieve it.

Metta meditation is a practice where the individual does the following:


The practice gradually increases in difficulty with respect to the targets that receive the practitioner’s compassion or loving-kindness. At first the practitioner is targeting "oneself, then loved ones, neutral ones, difficult ones and finally all beings, with variations across traditions"


I am using a specific guided meditation from the app "waking up". It has been helping quite a bit over the past week. I keep to about 10 mins metta, 5 mins mantra, 10 mins of meditation. the metta being the recent addition. check it out if you haven't. Anyone into this?


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRJ Tubs 202
Male


Registered: 09/20/08
Posts: 6,016
Loc: USA Flag
Last seen: 26 minutes, 40 seconds
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26567542 - 03/30/20 03:07 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

topdog82 said:

I think I have a sort of bitter world view. Growing up, a handful of bad apples in my family and personal life had inflicted pain on me with a sense of clear malicious intent.




Maliciously causing others pain is a symptom of suffering, and remembering that can help support metta practice. Once we realize there are no "bad apples" - only suffering - we can see things more clearly and not take the harm others have caused us personally. It's a challenge to abandon the habit of taking things personally. But it can be done. It's a little hard on the ego :-)


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinespirit_shadow
Feature not a bug
I'm a teapot User Gallery


Registered: 08/15/11
Posts: 25,665
Last seen: 1 hour, 17 minutes
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: RJ Tubs 202]
    #26567561 - 03/30/20 03:15 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

There is no bad apples? That is a good thought. But I dont believe it. There are people on this planet who enjoy hurting others for no reason. No prior "suffering".


--------------------
ERROR 418 IM A TEAPOT.....(this account is automated, all posts related to illegal activities or advice thereof are strictly from numerous online sites and are for informational purposes only)- Circa 2011
Ban lotto


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRJ Tubs 202
Male


Registered: 09/20/08
Posts: 6,016
Loc: USA Flag
Last seen: 26 minutes, 40 seconds
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: spirit_shadow]
    #26567598 - 03/30/20 03:35 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

All people have purposely harmed others. Including you and I. You aren't denying that, are you?    Our egotistical craving for condemnation inhibits us from seeing all people as suffering.


Edited by RJ Tubs 202 (03/30/20 03:42 PM)


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinespirit_shadow
Feature not a bug
I'm a teapot User Gallery


Registered: 08/15/11
Posts: 25,665
Last seen: 1 hour, 17 minutes
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: RJ Tubs 202]
    #26567628 - 03/30/20 03:47 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

Yes in retaliation. I have NEVER gone out and said you know what? I'm going to hurt someone because I want to.


--------------------
ERROR 418 IM A TEAPOT.....(this account is automated, all posts related to illegal activities or advice thereof are strictly from numerous online sites and are for informational purposes only)- Circa 2011
Ban lotto


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisiblezZZz
jesus
I'm a teapot User Gallery

Registered: 12/28/07
Posts: 33,478
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26567637 - 03/30/20 03:49 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

:okay:


--------------------
https://discord.gg/NHHd5y2Uyv


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRJ Tubs 202
Male


Registered: 09/20/08
Posts: 6,016
Loc: USA Flag
Last seen: 26 minutes, 40 seconds
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: spirit_shadow]
    #26567645 - 03/30/20 03:54 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

You've never decided to do something you knew would likely cause pain or suffering?

I believe all humans deserve to be seen as human - including Osama bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmer, Hitler, etc.

To call people evil monsters (or "bad apples") is a symptom of our collective diseased egotistical mind. It keeps us from understanding and appreciating how similar these people are to you and I. And yes, we all are much more similar to Jeffrey Dahmer than we'd like to admit. No doubt about that.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisiblefeeversM
Male

Registered: 12/28/10
Posts: 8,546
Loc: Flag
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26567651 - 03/30/20 03:57 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

Ive found metta meditation is the most effective way of turning a bad trip into a good one. It's a great way to redirect "negative" energy


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: RJ Tubs 202]
    #26567653 - 03/30/20 03:59 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

spirit_shadow said:
Yes in retaliation. I have NEVER gone out and said you know what? I'm going to hurt someone because I want to.



Pretty much

I think every human is capable of harming. I don't think that any 4 year old goes out and decides that one day they will rape and inflict incomprehensible damage on others.

But regardless, it happens. I think that people grow and somewhere along the way they realize that maliciously inflicting pain on others is a way to gratify their ego.

I think that people who do horrendous things should be punished. And that self defense and a willingness to preemptively strike is needed. declaring you will never harm someone else is a silly choice. The second you make that promise is the second you put yourself in harms way of everyone who choses to not follow that same philsophy

but key is to avoid toxic people, and forgive as much as you can. should it be needed, strike in self defense. Always be willing to harm another. its always important to have that. But staying bitter your whole life (like me) is just silly. Its really a hard balance
Quote:

RJ Tubs 202 said:
You've never decided to do something you knew would likely cause pain or suffering?

I believe all humans deserve to be seen as human - including Osama bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmer, Hitler, etc.

To call people evil monsters (or "bad apples") is a symptom of our collective diseased egotistical mind. It keeps us from understanding and appreciating how similar these people are to you and I. And yes, we all are much more similar to Jeffrey Dahmer than we'd like to admit. No doubt about that.



this too. I think that its important recognize that certain bad apples are really the exact same as you and I. they want to be happy and they have their ways of getting that done. I am not saying never strike another. I am also not saying that bad behavior is justified. That is silly. Its just important to never forget that a human is a human. Forgiveness is a recognition of that fact. hostility and condemnation often times charges us emotionally to where we forget that we are person just like the ones we despise so much


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisiblePatrickKn
I'm a teapot

Registered: 07/10/11
Posts: 20,563
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26567680 - 03/30/20 04:13 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

I don't do any exercises like that in the OP, but I do have something similar. Sounds kind of out there, but in most conversations I imagine anyone I'm talking to as being able to read my mind even though I am unable to read theirs. I don't believe that this is the case as a fact of the matter kind of thing, but the concept is pretty ingrained into my mind regardless whenever I talk with others, and the thought really started to be prominent after a few mescaline trips where the thought that others could read my thoughts was the primary direction of each trip.

That kind of guides the way I think of people internally. I suppose I've ingrained the idea into my head as a good thought exercise and whenever I have a negative thought about someone, my mind immediately responds consciously that the whole room is reading my mind at that moment and I start to immediately rationalize the negative impression, stereotype or pessimistic vibe I get in conversation.

I suppose it's kind of a self-fulfilling realization, because even though people can not read my thoughts, everyone can read emotions, facial tells and more to an extent. I think it's a good practice in general to assume everyone can read your thoughts, because even if they cannot, then you still kind of guide your thoughts towards a direction where you might wish them to be to achieve the kind of relationship you are going for. A bit like a stoic kind of reflection exercise I guess.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinespirit_shadow
Feature not a bug
I'm a teapot User Gallery


Registered: 08/15/11
Posts: 25,665
Last seen: 1 hour, 17 minutes
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: PatrickKn]
    #26567731 - 03/30/20 04:38 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

And when I say bad apple I am meaning someone who was born with part of their brain fucked up to where they dont feel it. So I guess you have a point as to it is still not their fault though.....but still does not change that they exist.


--------------------
ERROR 418 IM A TEAPOT.....(this account is automated, all posts related to illegal activities or advice thereof are strictly from numerous online sites and are for informational purposes only)- Circa 2011
Ban lotto


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: spirit_shadow]
    #26567733 - 03/30/20 04:41 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

spirit_shadow said:
And when I say bad apple I am meaning someone who was born with part of their brain fucked up to where they dont feel it. So I guess you have a point as to it is still not their fault though.....but still does not change that they exist.



I sort of imagine it as being a bell curve. most people are in the middle. Some are overtly caring and kind hearted. then theres a solid 14% of the spectrum that just has a tendency to harm others for no reason. Its up to that group to manage their lack of empathy and compassion


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleTantrika
Miss Ann Thrope
Female


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82] * 1
    #26567948 - 03/30/20 06:59 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

pick yourself up a copy of this book
https://www.amazon.ca/Life-Milarepa-New-Translation-Tibetan/dp/0140193502

Milarepa is an amazing and intriguing figure who is famous in Tibet for becoming the first Tibetan to achieve enlightenment without going to India to find a teacher
but his life story is one of revenge, murder, atonement, and redemption
as he goes from killing most of his extended family to a Buddhist Saint

extreme sentiments of compassion through meditation -- if you can find a copy like the one linked the book provides extensive footnotes as to where to find the various teachings he talks about following

his story played a huge role in me finding my way back out of a deep and toxic hole



Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleEternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance
Male User Gallery


Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: Tantrika]
    #26568034 - 03/30/20 07:46 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

I've been practicing metta meditation on and off for over 10 years now. My favorite guided meditation is one done by Sharon Salzberg. For the past two weeks or so I've been doing 20 minutes a day and I find it a lot easier to let go and come back into self kindness when I'm disappointed or upset with myself.

It changed my life when I first started doing it. I remember one of the first times I did it and I was imagining my family members one by one and wishing for them the happiness I would wish for myself and then becoming suddenly grateful and appreciative of them. It also helps me feel some compassion for my enemies.

It is easy to hit a wall though. You can't reach nirvana doing it or anything like that (at least that's my point of view) but it's great for keeping your heart open and feeling kindness.


--------------------


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: EternalCowabunga]
    #26568166 - 03/30/20 09:24 PM (3 years, 9 months ago)

MAT: Nice! I have got the kindle sample just now. its on my list

EC: nice dude! I mean I doubt that metta has the same progression as meditation.  for people who are bitter (like me) its a great tool. But for others they may reach a point of dimishing returns


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82] * 4
    #26693880 - 05/24/20 10:21 PM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Its been almost 2 months of daily metta. This shit is life changing


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineVajraWarrior
Stranger


Registered: 05/21/20
Posts: 34
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26693907 - 05/24/20 10:36 PM (3 years, 8 months ago)

I tried that kind of meditation in the past but it didn't really work out for me. I ran out of kindness for the world at large but it wasn't replaced with contempt or hatred, just indifference.

Plus I'm of the belief that Metta is more of an idea and less a practice. It's easy to visualize and believe it during practice but rarely is it truly tested and from what I gather it usually breaks, in my experience with others.

I don't have hate for humans though, more like just sad or disappointed. It's like a parent watching their child learning the hard way, that's how I would put it.

History shows us that humans don't learn and we repeat the same mistakes ad nauseum. We really can't see what's right in front of our faces, too busy running here and there to stop and really look and listen.


--------------------
Soooo nothing's real and everything is real?

Exactly.

UGH! Then what was the point of any of this? -O.K KO


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineLogicaL ChaosM
Ascension Energy & Alien UFOs
Male User Gallery


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 05/12/07
Posts: 69,333
Loc: The Inexpressible... Flag
Last seen: 1 hour, 12 minutes
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26693961 - 05/24/20 11:27 PM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Wow, thats awesome.

How has it changed your life? Is it best medicine for the mind?


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleThe Blind Ass
Bodhi
I'm a teapot User Gallery


Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 26,657
Loc: The Primordial Mind
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: LogicaL Chaos] * 1
    #26693985 - 05/24/20 11:47 PM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Of the Brahma Viharas, abodes, or dwellings; Metta, or loving-kindness -or- compassion expressed as good-will, is 1 of 4 “sublime attitudes”.  Set into the greater systematic framework of the whole of Buddhist teaching & practice as an antidote to 1 of the 5 hindrances (mental factors that obstruct Buddhist meditative practice), namely,  I’ll-will. 


There are objects causing aversion; frequently giving unwise attention to them — this is the nourishment for the arising of ill-will that has not yet arisen, and for the increase and strengthening of ill-will that has already arisen.


Metta is like an antidote counteracts a poison or venom after it has already taken effect in the body-mind, but it will not stop it happening occurring in the first place; though, but by cultivating Metta, it will be temporarily allayed; however, there is a Buddhist practice which deals with cutting off the nutriment, or roots, of ill-will. 

It’s good to have the antidote to poison, but it’s better to learn how to avoid that which administers the toxin - certain “foods”. 
The saying “man is what he eats” also applies to his mental/psychic/psychological nourishment .  The mind also feeds - but it feeds on external sensory impressions, on our experiences, and on the content of the store-house consciousness  & on our own memory.  Just like how external food becomes internal -  after being absorbed and digested - so to does external “food” become internal and “part of one’s own self ”.


* What cannot be absorbed by the system is discarded, and thus, in the body as well as in the mind, there is a constant process of grasping and rejecting, assimilating and dissimilating, identifying with oneself and alienating. When we look closely at this process of nutrition, physical and mental, we shall notice that it is not only the eater who consumes the food, but, in the course of assimilation, also the food devours the eater. There is thus mutual absorption between them. We know how much people can be changed (for better or worse) by ideas they have absorbed and which finally have absorbed and consumed them - Nyanaponika Thera.



This is Psychic Alchemy, Buddha Dhamma (dharma)

If you want to know whether or not the teachings really work, then study the suttas (sutras) and put their teachings into practice and find out firsthand.

:heart::mushroom2:


--------------------
Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps


Edited by The Blind Ass (05/25/20 06:04 AM)


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: The Blind Ass] * 1
    #26694251 - 05/25/20 05:54 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

LogicaL Chaos said:
Wow, thats awesome.

How has it changed your life? Is it best medicine for the mind?



I have insane amounts of anger against a number of personal/family situations. This metta thing is beyond forgiveness. With forgiveness you let go. Metta you envision them as happy and you find joy in their happiness

So I have been slowly just catching myself every time I find myself irritable at someone from the past. with meditation, its been a slow process over the past couple years. The amount of progress I have made with about 2 months has been equal to about a year

I don't think it will help everyone. Some people are inherently loving. but it has helped me


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinetopdog82
Death Spirit
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/16/10
Posts: 7,992
Loc: California
Last seen: 5 months, 2 days
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82] * 1
    #26694451 - 05/25/20 08:25 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

It’s made me more caring to those in my life. It’s made me less irritable. Less judge mental. More peaceful, and more happy. Weirdly when you aren’t so emotionally charged by someone who is causing you an issue, you are less intimadated by them. So you can stand up for yourself more easily


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleThe Blind Ass
Bodhi
I'm a teapot User Gallery


Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 26,657
Loc: The Primordial Mind
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26694461 - 05/25/20 08:30 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

:kenthumbup:


--------------------
Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineVajraWarrior
Stranger


Registered: 05/21/20
Posts: 34
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: topdog82]
    #26694534 - 05/25/20 09:15 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

topdog82 said:
It’s made me more caring to those in my life. It’s made me less irritable. Less judge mental. More peaceful, and more happy. Weirdly when you aren’t so emotionally charged by someone who is causing you an issue, you are less intimadated by them. So you can stand up for yourself more easily



Don’t people who practice that tend to be doormats? Buddhism doesn’t strike me as the religion to go out and fix things, but at least they don’t start trouble.


--------------------
Soooo nothing's real and everything is real?

Exactly.

UGH! Then what was the point of any of this? -O.K KO


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleTantrika
Miss Ann Thrope
Female


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: VajraWarrior]
    #26694558 - 05/25/20 09:34 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

VajraWarrior said:
Quote:

topdog82 said:
It’s made me more caring to those in my life. It’s made me less irritable. Less judge mental. More peaceful, and more happy. Weirdly when you aren’t so emotionally charged by someone who is causing you an issue, you are less intimadated by them. So you can stand up for yourself more easily



Don’t people who practice that tend to be doormats? Buddhism doesn’t strike me as the religion to go out and fix things, but at least they don’t start trouble.




Buddhism was about starting trouble from the outset ;D

One of the "problems" of Buddhism as a religio-philisophic tradition
is that parts of its formative philisophy are a response to other traditions

tho it was not what we would consider "Hinduism" by todays standards per se (but will refer to it as such for convenience in this post)
Vedic Hinduism controlled the society the Buddha was born into
he was a prince by birth, because his parents were rulers, because their parents were rulers
and so forth -- caste system ordering

he ended up walking away from all of that and starting a tradition outside of ordered Vedic society
the "original Buddhism" was not about engaging with society, specifically because society was seen as the ordering principal that needed to be broken away from

Vedic society made a couple of presumptions
that the Brahman (an Ultimate God) was Real; and that the Atman (the personal soul) was Real
everything else was represented as an illusory world that the Atman travelled through
in the Hindu lens -- Karma is something we generate in this lifetime that controls what we are reborn as in the next life time in a causal way
that also meant that only people born into the Priest caste could achieve Freedom/Enlightenment
and that women could not achieve enlightenment
so there is a sort of embedded view here as well that transitioning from male to female is subjecting oneself to extremely negative karma that may even cause one to (gasp!) be born as female in their next life

Buddhism threw basically all that out the window
Brahman wasn't worth discussing, nor what happens after death
the Atman was not real because it was actually impermanent
anyone from any caste could attain enlightenment if they left the Hindu system
even women were considered capable of attaining enlightenment if they adhered to the the 8-Fold path
Karma influenced events in future lives, but did not control future lives
and, indeed, since the Atman was not real the Buddhist idea of "reincarnation" is different from how Hinduism portrays it
in Buddhism, reincarnation is described as a candle lighting a candle lighting a candle
they share a flame because each one used its own flame to light the next
but the flame is both the same as the first flame and different from the first flame
and persists for its own duration even when all subsequent or pre-existing flames have been extinquished
so, in a sense, "you" as an Atman/Soul never come back -- but "you" as a personality complex will arise in the world again, because a future being adopts all your personality traits left behind
unless you are like the Buddha and achieve Nirvana, then people may try to mimic you but clearly there will not be another Buddha until the teachings are completely forgotten

this may also be a good opportunity to point out another unusual bit of translation
"Compassion" comes up a lot in Buddhism
and, in teachings that originate in English language they do tend to mean what compassion is suspected to mean
but Compassion has also been utilized in a number of translations as a substitute for "skillful means" which is known as Upaya in Buddhism
it is still compassion, in that it is an energy and enactment of action that is concerned with alleviating suffering for others and bring them in line with the Buddha's teachings

but, well, the common example in Zen of how skillful means actually plays out
a monk asked his teacher "what is enlightenment" so the teacher slammed the gate on him, breaking the monks leg

that's it -- you are expected in Zen to glean the lesson from that, not from further information about the situation

the more mundane Therevada example
is a father comes home and finds his house is burning
he realizes his children are still inside
so in order to get them out he yells "Children! Come Quick! I have brought you the most wonderful gifts!"
the children rush out and find nothing
but if he had told them the truth of the burning house they were in, they may have panicked and not escaped
the skillful means; the compassion
is the lie


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineVajraWarrior
Stranger


Registered: 05/21/20
Posts: 34
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: Tantrika]
    #26694571 - 05/25/20 09:45 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

That Zen stuff sounds like abuse to me, reminds me of the lengths people will go to so they can rationalize such stuff as wisdom.

But that doesn’t sound like the usually starting trouble more like just saying NO to the existing system. I meant like the crusades with Christianity or the witch trials.


--------------------
Soooo nothing's real and everything is real?

Exactly.

UGH! Then what was the point of any of this? -O.K KO


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleTantrika
Miss Ann Thrope
Female


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: VajraWarrior]
    #26694604 - 05/25/20 10:01 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

VajraWarrior said:
That Zen stuff sounds like abuse to me, reminds me of the lengths people will go to so they can rationalize such stuff as wisdom.
...




Agree, there is a lot that shows up that is likely abuse
and this will come back up in response to your second portion of your post

sometimes it is proportional tho

early in this thread, suggested that OP read the biography of Milarepa
one of the really rough portions to read is after he has murdered his extended family and stuff
he goes to the Buddhist teacher Marpa, who as part of his teachings tells Milarepa to build him a tower
each time the tower is almost complete, Marpa has Milarepa tear down the tower, put the stones back where he got them
then eventually he demands a new tower
the ordeal leaves Milarepa's back covered in cysts and scabs and infection from the unneccesary physical labour (he is forbaded from help or from using machine assistance)

but the lesson isn't that he needs to build a nice tower for Marpa
the lesson is that once you make a change, you can't actually take things back to the way they were
and how that reflects on his various murders that people cannot be brought back to life
and the lesson resonates with Milarepa much more strongly, because of the physical suffering he was put through in learning it

Quote:

VajraWarrior said:
But that doesn’t sound like the usually starting trouble more like just saying NO to the existing system. I meant like the crusades with Christianity or the witch trials.




Well yeah, that is because Buddhism has typically been an "underdog" belief system
it has not had positions of power/control where suddenly the interest becomes erasing competing beliefs to make that control more complete

Buddhists were the witches through history, crucified, burned, beheaded
the Vietnamese monk who lit himself on fire to bring the global eye to recognize how his religion was being treated
Buddhism has a lot of martyrdom -- have to sit for a bit or maybe see if my notes from class have it, but there was a full book on the issue my Zen Buddhism teacher suggested we read

but there are instances in the modern world where Buddhism is the dominant religion
and is associated with violence to Muslim minorities -- tho there is a surreal sentiment that the violence is pre-emptive against inevitable Muslim violence
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22356306

it is really important to understand with Buddhism possibly more than any other tradition
that the philisophical traditions that we read and engage with through thought
can hold a world of difference from the living religious traditions that have been perpetuated to this day
the Buddha wanted to be viewed as just a man who woke up; and who recognized Arhats as being as enlightened as him, just simply not "the Buddha" as he was, because he started the tradition that enlightened them
but around the world people offer incense and gifts to Buddhist deities in wishes for things like a happy marriage, a good child birth, a new job

religious Buddhists pray for help with their problems

also there is a lingering line of thought that interests me to discuss but am too lazy to right now
but the Dalai Lama has cut off "official" recognition of traditional Buddhist lines of worship that are still active
because he was worried that Westerners would see it and misinterpret the violent deities
so basically just throwing a bunch of "lesser" religious Buddhists under the bus like a shady religious leader


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleTantrika
Miss Ann Thrope
Female


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
Re: Metta (kindness meditation) [Re: Tantrika]
    #26694623 - 05/25/20 10:10 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Also, knew your ban was prolly inevitable and that was part of my reason for bringing discussion from PM in to this thread
but feel free to continue this on Thanatos if my presumption as to who the puppet was of is correct

:heart:



*edit* nvm, seems like the puppet was from that account being banned as well

Hope you find peace on your journey, whatever the case :heart:


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1 | 2  [ show all ]

Shop: Bridgetown Botanicals CBD Concentrates   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Bulk Cannabis Seeds   Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   PhytoExtractum Buy Bali Kratom Powder   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Can someone recommend a good book on Buddhism?
( 1 2 all )
MOTH 4,789 27 06/27/04 12:08 PM
by Learyfan
* Metta World Peace gerryjarcia 315 2 06/26/11 09:52 PM
by ShiVersblood
* Idle background noise and meditation freddurgan 1,101 6 10/30/04 09:32 AM
by Vvellum
* How do you meditate properly?
( 1 2 all )
Sketchy105 4,572 21 10/11/11 06:52 AM
by blewmeanie
* meditation, trascendence, deep breathing exercises... SoDak_Stranger 763 6 07/23/16 09:20 AM
by Midnight_Toker
* Meditation, do you? C20H25N3O 2,506 13 07/23/16 09:16 AM
by Midnight_Toker
* How can I calm my eyes when I want to meditate freddurgan 1,355 15 03/16/04 01:28 PM
by peleg
* Meditation...any experts in the Pub?
( 1 2 all )
MOTH 2,208 21 08/03/04 11:37 AM
by SoDak_Stranger

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Entire Staff
429 topic views. 3 members, 38 guests and 26 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.029 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 12 queries.