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Everything posted by Apech
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lesser banishing ritual/the middle pillar
Apech replied to sunchild's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Oh so he had a criminal record! I see. LOL. -
As I understand it the Buddha introduced the monastic approach because at the time he lived in Ancient INdia the duties of a householder were many and onerous. So if you were a lay practitioner your societal duties left you little time to practice. So the life of a monk left time to study and meditate. In other words it was not a preferred life style per se but just a practical solution to give people the opportunity to practice. I would suggest all hermetic life styles are the same ... the asceticism, celibacy and so on are by products of the need to devote as much time as possible to practice. Nowadays as we are so much more prosperous it is possible to live within society and still have time to practice. So you could argue it is not so necessary to think about being a monk. I saw a video on youtube (which I won't link to according to my own rules ) of a conference on Buddhism in London where the two guest speakers were Stephen Batchelor and John Peacock ... they were both advocates of the 'modernist' approach (which stems at least in part to the work in Oxford by Richard Gombrich - a Sanskrit scholar who seeks to deconstruct Buddhism back to a supposed pure original form. When asked if they were enlightened (the two speakers) they had pause for thought as they thought they might well be. Such is their insight that they have reduced the Buddhas awakening to something quite mundane and ordinary. In their view it seems all actual practicing Buddhist in the world (apart from them) have got it wrong, so that cultural influence, Hinduism and so on have corrupted the Buddha's original pure message. A nice way to wipe the board clean of 2,500 years of thought and practice based on their own preferences. So their Buddhism is probably a rational atheism. But then I suspect their Buddhism isn't Buddhism at all but something have created fro their own enjoyment.
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Do it one patch at a time maybe. My neighbours all have mechanical tillers but I don't have enough land to justify so I use one of these you wack into the ground and soil goes everywhere ... great fun ...
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Ah I get you ... it just runs off ... so the sandy subsoil is compacted. You probably need to break it up then, deep ploughing for instance ... but you can't do that in an established garden. I grow vegetables so there's always an opportunity between crops. I think maybe just put a load of peat or similar on top and edge it in so it can't float off. Do you get torrential rains like storms?
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There is no self - article from Tricycle Magazine
Apech replied to Apech's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Ah! but have you immersed yourself in the teachings to become a complete idiot? -
Have you tried a mulch like tree bark on top to hold the water ... or mix in a lot of compost ... I've got sandy soil too and one end of the garden dries too quick ... so I am going to try this this year. I water with sprinklers in the summer when its very dry and hot ... its a must every two days or so in July August. Pine needles are good as mulch too if you can get them.
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Of course reverence. texts are not supposed to be placed on the floor or walked over and are regarded as valuable possessions (in the spiritual sense) ... so in that sense it is indeed similar. It may be also that some regard sutras and so on almost as spiritual entities and worship them. The way I like to think is drawn from a book I have been reading called Buddhist Thoughts in which dharma is defined in two sense 1 ) as meaning the truth as in how things really are and 2 ) as the path to seeing things as they really are as taught by a Buddha ... (Note. 'a' Buddha not 'the' Buddha). So when we say we take refuge in the dharma we mean exactly this ... that we seek refuge in seeing things how they really are and in the path towards that seeing.
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The Moors re-civilized Europe after the fall of Rome
Apech replied to Harmonious Emptiness's topic in The Rabbit Hole
In Marbleheads defence people use that word as part of street language ... I wouldn't use it because its so loaded. -
Posted a link. Never mind I'm sure it was good one.
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Go and sit on the naughty step!!!!!!!
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Hi Buddha-chums, Just going to get a few things off my chest while we are here chatting. Belief in Buddhism. I read a lot of times that people struggle with certain ideas, like for instance rebirth (reincarnation) and karma. Some people especially Zen people want to junk these ideas right away. I think that people fall into the idea that these are part of some kind of creed and that they have to struggle to accept them (or reject them) to move forward. I think again this is a side effect of looking at Buddhism through the lens of Christianity. In Christianity believing is the thing. In fact doubting Thomas got a rough ride for even daring to ask to see Jesus' wounds (a perfectly reasonable thing I would have thought when faced with a walking dead man). From my experience its not like that in Buddhism. There are beliefs like in any spiritual path ... but they are not as important as practice. Or perhaps you might say not as important as living the right way ... or similar. Sure rebirth and karma are presented up front ... but they are more like working praxes than a creed. In fact it is said that you can't really understand karma and how it operates below the level of a Buddha. So whatever working model you are given ... is just that ... a working model. I think it all comes down to Bible studies. In Judeo-Christian thought the Bible is the word of God either written by him or by human's inspired by the holy spirit. So the words, the laws given, the quotes have a special status over and above normal discourse and conversation. Hence all the shouting in Church about fire an fornication and so on. Its all a bit out of control. But people still want to bring this kind of thing to Eastern paths. We are trained from an early age to read scripture in a special way ... as if the written words themselves are unassailable and powerful. then we come to read the sutras or the TTC this same mentality somehow takes over ... when it is entirely inappropriate. Discuss. Please still no block quotes or links. Thanks.
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lesser banishing ritual/the middle pillar
Apech replied to sunchild's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Very interesting ... and there's me assuming he was Indian. LOL -
lesser banishing ritual/the middle pillar
Apech replied to sunchild's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Mouni Sadhu's Concentration was the first book on meditation I ever read. -
No but you said you didn't care about it ... so I wondered why you bother to discuss it here or on DW. Just a little confused about where you are coming from.
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The Moors re-civilized Europe after the fall of Rome
Apech replied to Harmonious Emptiness's topic in The Rabbit Hole
Seems you were right all along -
Thanks for setting up the I Ching forum and thanks to everyone who moderates for your time and effort.
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I know this is the received version ... but I was taught otherwise for good reason. if you are interested you can read his ideas here: http://eugenehallidayarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/THE-IDEA-OF-SIN-Feb-1969-EUGENE-HALLIDAY-1969.pdf
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Then why do you feel moved to comment on what Buddhism is or is not? Just curious.
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I think that we could state that the term atheism is a redundant term to someone who never considered that a god existed in the first place. Since it is a negative of theism. Buddhism can inhabit an environment where there may be a world view which includes a god or many gods ... it doesn't matter since they may well exist in some sense or not but either way the Buddhist does not rely on them. Its certainly true that in every culture so far (historically) apart from the west the existence of gods and other entities was taken for granted. Even in Japan with Zen there was Shinto and therefore kamis. So Buddhism is not atheist in any sense that would have meaning.
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I was taught by a Christian mystic teacher that to sin means to aim. Which means that you depart from your original wholeness by pursuing the aim of either gratification or power ... and this is all it means. When you sin you 'fall' which means you descend down to the grosser levels of being ... the lowest being complete identification with matter. You end up (as in the parable of the prodigal son ) eating husks with the pigs ... before you turn round and seek unity again.
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There is no self - article from Tricycle Magazine
Apech replied to Apech's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Nice to be romantic. -
I agree with him to a large extent. There are various obsessions with westerners which are actually Christian theology plus some scientific empiricism.
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This I like a lot.
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Naughty! That's a link. You loose 5 points. Current score -4.
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Just as a matter of interest what is a 'western PL club'? On the topic of western Buddhism .... I think its 90% lost in translation. Either fluffy bunny focus on compassion by the emotionally disturbed ... or the focus on escape from suffering by the elitist rationalists (who throw in atheism because they don't want to appear soft). Sorry if this sounds hard ... but that's how I feel today. The thing is Buddhism (like Taoism) was part of alternative culture of the 1960's etc ... and so was taken up by certain groups seeking a different way ... so for instance if you were a disenchanted Christian who had lost faith in big G then a religion without big G would be very appealing. Someone reacting to rationalist science might read "the Tao that can be spoken ..." and think ah something beyond the rational ... great. But in the origin countries ... Thailand, Tibet, China ...Buddhism and Taoism are the orthodoxy and the young are more likely to rebel by eating big Macs and wearing Nike trainers. The audience ... us ... have eaten Buddhism and spat out something in our own likeness ... some kind a neuroscience, mindfulness cognitive therapy, atheist meditation, lifestyle choices to do with saving the planet, low cholesterol Buddhist cuisine, Zen furniture ... whatever ... Right got that off my chest ... so carry on ... (no links so far ... well done !!)