doc benway

I loved the film! It's about time someone put something out mainstream to highlight our collective insanity. I preferred the heavy-handedness of the film. Not because I think it is an effective way to change anyone's mind or teach anyone a lesson, I no longer consider that achievable through media in our post-fact, social media age. For me there was a feeling of - my God, what an outrageous and exaggerated nightmare these characters are living through! followed by a terrifying acknowledgment of - my God, what an outrageous and exaggerated nightmare WE are currently living through!! I don't think subtlety would have been as effective, or entertaining, for me. I watched it a second time and appreciated the many subtle layers and adornments speckled throughout the film, none more entertaining for me than... *SPOILER ALERT*

Extra E

I can relate to so much of what you posted, thank you for sharing your experience! I had a similar heart opening experience. Attending a retreat, I was asked to see someone who seemed very sick. The person was indeed extremely ill and required emergency hospitalization and major surgery. While waiting for the ambulance in a remote area (over an hour and a half), I could do nothing but sit with her, hold her, be with her during her very painful and frightening ordeal. Something I'd never really done before in my role as a Western health care professional. Something opened in me that I was able to bring back and integrate into my job. Prior to that, I was in a place of deep burnout. This experience transformed my relationship to my job and my patients and remains perhaps the greatest lesson I've been blessed with in caring for people. Trees have so much to teach us and offer us! All of life does... All we need to be able to do is be very quiet and open, to listen and feel and allow something new to arise, unbiased by our expectations and beliefs. Sometimes it seems like empathy can be the entire path, in a word. The only thing preventing us from overcoming the fundamental ignorance that is at the root of our difficulties is connection. When I attend retreats with my teacher, the message he consistently reinforces is that we get together not simply to gain more information or learn new techniques, but rather to open to each other, to connect with each other. Mastering the skills of opening, listening, and connecting are what we need to overcome ignorance and grow into our ultimate potential more than anything else, IMO...

late-r

dream-time

I just came across this quotation from John O’Donohue that seems related and worthwhile - Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, you return having lost some of yourself. Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness, the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging, with which you will only become empty and weary. When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. In a sense this is the endless task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world. No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. You no longer need to covertly scrape affirmation from others or from projects outside yourself. This is slow work; it takes years to bring your mind home. JOHN O'DONOHUE Excerpt from the book, Eternal Echoes Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

I am

I think these experiences help us to understand why there are so many traditions and practices within each tradition. There is no best or most accurate system. One practice or system can not be said to be better than another. That which brings us closer to the truth of our fundamental nature depends largely on us as individuals. This is because what we need to connect with the source depends on what specifically is blocking that connection. edit I'm always amused when people talk about practices and systems in terms of what is best or better, this versus that. Questions and judgements like that are meaningless without individual context and cannot be generalized, IMO.

Toot!

In reading Rovelli’s Helgoland, I came across his use of quantum mechanics to describe our fundamental condition. His relational model of quantum theory is essentially a mathematical exposition of interdependent co-arising and, concurrently, emptiness of self and other. Some ups and downs in the book for me but excellent overall for those interested in the areas where science and spirituality intersect.

"Why is nothingness/emptiness/lack of ego the desired state?" There are probably as many reasons why such a state is desired as there are people who desire it, but the Buddhist teachings on emptiness are not about desiring such a state. In fact, desiring such a state can be the greatest obstacle to connecting with it. The teachings on emptiness are about having a deeper understand of reality and of ourselves. If we understand ourselves better, we can experience more freedom and possibility, life can be more fulfilling and more productive. Emptiness is the very essence of our being. Not only is this an important tenet of Buddhism, discovered through experiential practices dating back millenia; the truth of this is borne out by experimental observations and consistent with contemporary physics in terms of identifying the fundamental nature of things.If we have a deeper understanding of the truth of emptiness, we gain deeper insight into ourselves and everything around us. Developing a deeper experiential relationship with these teachings and practices is the only way to understand its value. Having a conceptual understanding only is fraught with misunderstanding and is generally of little value from my observation. One of these misunderstandings is the idea that this sort of practice is an attempt to run away from the pains and pleasures of life. It's not that at all. Working towards a deep understanding of emptiness requires facing life head-on, without distraction. It is the chasing of desires and getting embroiled in the conflicts and unsatisfactory nature of things which are the distraction. If you feel that desire is fine and adds spice to life, then by all means pursue it! Enjoy it! Relish this rare opportunity, human existence, to indulge in it. If you ever find that you tire of chasing desires or struggling with fears, anxiety, conflict, and so forth, then there may be value in pursuing the Buddhist teachings.

"Nights are not old nor are the days they come and they go. Yet the coming and going of day and night whispers into my ear to wake up. So that you and I could dance with the miracle of each moment in this journey of living life before we return." *Tempa Dukte Lama Rinpoche*

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

I do not intend to say it is the same for all. It is more subtle than that. Any conclusion one may reach is not it.

When people have enlightening experiences, the nature and quality of their experience is determined by the obstacle(s) being released. It is not so much that the revelation, or the “endpoint,” differs from one to another. It is the unique way in which each of us is separated from Enlightenment that determines the revelation, the experience of awakening.

It comes back to perspective. edited I like manitou’s response better than mine.

My teacher often emphasizes that the reason we come together in retreat is not particularly to learn something new, not to add to our knowledge, those things can be done anytime, anywhere in our digital age. We come together to connect, to share, to be close. We are increasingly isolated in our lives and there is little more harmful to the human organism than isolation. Here is a beautiful quote I found on FB that speaks to this topic…

Happy New Year Luke! May all your dreams come true in 2022!

There is also the phenomenon of "self-secret." An entire method or system can be freely available to all but not everyone will get it. For millenia, the dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon were kept highly secret. There was a time when one master would transmit the teachings to no more than one qualified disciple in each generation, at least that is the history that is handed down. It was the piece that was left out, as referred to in the OP. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, it was decided to open up the dzogchen teachings for fear of losing them permanently. Now the integrity of the teachings is left in the care of the protector deities and their inherent "self-secret" nature.

Charity is mostly enlightened self-interest. In the samsaric sense, it is giving ourselves the pleasure and benefit of helping others. There is nothing wrong with it when truly, or nearly, self-less but it needs to be seen for what it is. Especially when we give others what we feel they need rather than what they truly need, which is a toxic form of charity. We first need to tend to ourselves and be extremely open and healthy to truly know how best to help others. In the absolute sense, it is authentic Bodhicitta which perhaps can be called Self-interest, or Self-awareness. Realization of non-duality, non-obstruction of primordial empathy and compassion.

DaoBums is a good mirror.

And when they don’t or can’t (assuming one believes in free will, of course), then countless innocents suffer. A stiff price to pay for a lesson in morality and ethics.

There is another way to look at it as well. One that, for me at least, doesn't require quite so much uncertainty and rationalization. We can stop separating divinity from ourselves, stop creating an external conceptual construct about what God is and isn't. We can take personal responsibility rather than delegate. We can realize ourselves as the manifestation of divinity in this very life and allow that to inform our every action. Our ideas and expectations related to God are far more likely to interfere with finding a deeper and closer connection than they are to support it. The most direct path is through inner silence and openness because everything else gets in the way in the beginning. If God exists, we can find no greater understanding, no closer connection, than through our own hearts. For me the spiritual path requires us to remember our birthright, the truth of our divinity, in a deeply personal and direct way; and to bring that alive, here and now. (...sorry to sound so preachy...)