Keith108

Out in the desert Knots on a monks prayer rope Moved in solitude

I would start with someone claiming enlightenment as an easy red flag. The best way I think though, is to observe the community around the master, and trust your intuition. 🙏

No, “they” don’t all love their guns. I hate guns. Guns are a cancer of society. Before anyone @‘s me, I am a former US Army Infantry Sergeant, and an expert marksmen, and have used all kinds of weapons.

Uh-oh… 🤪

Poets do inspire. A frog jumps in old pond, plop! Basho waking up.

Is there life on Mars? Or, maybe even the Moon Look! Ryokan's window.

I had the same though!

Already appeared. ❤️🙏

My tradition (Buddhist) uses mantra as an object of focus for meditation, and mantras are embedded in the chants we do. So maybe, a little of both. For instance, at the end of the Heart Sutra, the mantra "gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha" is repeated three times. I know someone who uses this mantra for practice. My son uses the Great Dharani , which is pretty common among mantra practitioners in my tradition. The most common is kwan seum bosal (Guanyin, Kannon), which is said to help with excessive thinking. Personally, I don't practice that way, but it's a really common method. _/|\_

I suppose the obvious answer is not everything has a rational explanation. One my favorite expressions about practice, and applies here I would think, is to just practice and see what happens.

Today I managed to get through all 108 prostrations I do daily with strictly nasal breathing. It's 10-15 minutes of pretty strenuous effort, so that was a good development. I notice if I do them later in the day, it's all huffing and puffing. 🤪 If you win the morning, you win the day!

Who’s to say what’s real? Winter’s cold, fireplace crackling Just now, Yin and Yang

I think this one is Stephen Mitchell’s translation. Just read it this morning. 🙏

I love reading different translations of source materials. This one is quite wonderful. 🙏

This is fun! By kintsugi gold The begging bowl is repaired Now, where did it go?