doc benway

That has been my experience, this advice was given when I first started so hard to know.

pining for Basho mooning for Arthur Rimbaud poets do inspire

For now, I recommend you resize images or link to a url. Making changes to permissible upload size is above my pay grade. I will tag @Trunk and @sean to see if they want to weigh in on the question.

My Daoist meditation teacher also recommended we not practice meditation during thunderstorms. His reasoning was that it was potentially too much of a shock to the system, though whether he was referring to the electrical effects, the general effects of the sounds and light, or all of that and more, he was never very clear. He is not the kind of teacher who encourages a lot of questions or offers detailed explanations.

No idea how that happened... I simply highlighted and quoted from LL's post. My apologies. I've corrected the attribution, thanks for pointing that out Mark. So wonderful to see those of you who shared photos! You all look radiant and wise to my tired eyes.

Liminal Luke said - It's odd that sharing a picture of my physical presence would seem so challenging when I've shared so many other details of my life here over the years. I think is that precisely why?

Seems as good a place as any. This is an astute and insightful observation. Most behaviors seem to be conditioned responses. The sense of self that claims to be the one who makes choices is simply an observer. There is some fascinating research that bears this out. Why? Why? Why?! The mind is very curious, always looking for explanations, often looking for someone to blame. It is a wonderful and powerful tool, it put the keyboard and screen in front of us so that we can ask each other these questions, free of restrictions of time and space. It is also the cause of so much pain and misery! The mind is insatiable and unrelenting. I suspect the answer to the question why is because these specific characteristics have given us an evolutionary advantage. Yes, so much time and energy spent in endless loops of rumination. We’re even thinking and talking about thinking too much! When we begin to see the endless, often pointless activity of the mind it can be exhausting, even frightening. Sure there is some degree of analysis and reflection that is beneficial and important but so much is unnecessary, even dysfunctional. This is the basis of a simple meditation practice - sit quietly and reflect on the activity of mind. Look back as far as you remember and slowly work forward in time, noticing just how much time, energy, and effort have been spent in thinking, worrying, over-analyzing, not finding a solution, disengaged from life and loved ones. How much time is spent lost in unproductive thought each hour, each day, over a decade, over a lifetime. Stay with this for a while, feeling that sensation of being lost in thought, how it pulls, disconnects, controls and amplifies problems through fears, judgments, criticism, … all of it. When you begin to feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it, let it all go completely. Like coming home from a long arduous journey and dropping into your comfy bed you’ve been missing for so long. Feel how good and necessary it feels to just give the mind a rest. Release into the spaciousness of inner silence, allowing the thinker to rest fully and deeply. Not only angry or frustrated with it, also grateful and concerned for its well being, it is an important and beloved part of us after all. Feel the comfort and support of that space and openness and stay with it as long as you can. As more thoughts arise, let them come and go as they will but keep returning to the open, restful space that is the source . Thoughts and questions are wonderful and the clear, spacious awareness that gives rise to those thoughts has infinitely more potential than the limited sense of me that refers to itself as the thinker. The best, most creative answers and ideas come spontaneously, from nowhere, from simple presence and openness, the source of true creativity. My practice involves cultivating trust in the silence, in the openness of clear presence. We tend to always feel the need to fill this space but when we get more familiar with it the possibilities are limitless, not only for ourselves but for everyone around us. We’re never more supportive for others than when we are present but quiet, listening to what they are saying, to what they need, rather than anticipating, projecting, and pushing on them what we think they need. Anyway, enough of a rant. I trust in the source of thoughts more than the thoughts themselves. The thoughts are often reactive and misguided, though sometimes brilliant. The source is pure and brilliance happens mostly when we’re quiet enough to allow the source to speak with our voice and act with our hands. This is where the various spiritual traditions converge for me.

Both and I prefer practicing mantra with others whenever the opportunity arises. Online, not so much. Everyone chants aloud and the result can be very powerful and transcendent..

Off topic, this is a technique my Bön teacher recommends when trying to understand an abstruse teaching or concept. I recall him first suggesting it when teaching on the 21 Nails of Bön which is a very esoteric series of descriptions of different characteristics or aspects of the nature of being. Negate the statement and consider the meaning of the opposite, then return to the meaning of the original. It can be surprisingly helpful. And now my mind is also softly repeating "irrational-non-explanation''.... I'll let you know if it ever stops.

In my work, I deal with people facing pain and fear on a daily basis. Generally speaking I find women to be "tougher" than men in terms of dealing with pain. Big, strong, tough looking men often have the most difficulty, as do adolescent and young adult men. I think that "tough guy" mask is precisely there to help the person convince themselves, and others, they are tougher than they feel. Another clue to how someone will handle pain is how they view their own pain tolerance. When someone tells me they can take a LOT of pain, they generally cannot. When they tell me they don't do well with pain, they usually do just fine. We never see ourselves more clearly than when we see ourselves through the eyes of others.

The whirling is done with the head still relative to the body and the eyes unfocused, similar to the resting state of the eyes among those who meditate with the eyes open. This lack of focus blurs the background and reduces the sense of external movement, helping to reduce dizziness.

I think it's worth looking at the survey/scale itself and think about whether this seems to be a valid way of measuring the happiness of populations. Also worth considering the population surveyed to see who is actually being evaluated. This survery looks specifically Muslims living in Germany. I wonder how this would compare for example to women living in Somalia or Pakistan... Difficult to extrapolate the results to populations outside of Germany or Europe as living conditions elsewhere are quite a bit different. Here is more info on the Satisfaction With Life Scale that was used to generate the data. https://novopsych.com.au/assessments/well-being/satisfaction-with-life-scale-swls/

@Elysium @Keith108 You are both set up. Enjoy

@silent thunder Yes, an intentional change. PPDs have been set up a bit inconsistently over the years by different mods. The general rule here is that nothing is deleted so that has been adjusted to PPD permissions.

I learn more about myself and the other members than I do about anything else here. That and my friendship with a few really lovely folks are what keep me coming back. There are a few folks here with a lot of knowledge and experience of Buddhism but you do need to be a discriminating consumer.

While Buddhists may not use the word grace, they often speak of blessings which I think are closely related to grace.

I’m relatively certain that the Bönpos and Nyingmapas both teach the prasangika madhyamaka view, although I will try to confirm that when I have some time.

In my experience, the realization of absolute emptiness is indistinguishable from the realization of absolute completeness. They are one and the same. I’m not eloquent or scholarly enough to put it into philosophical terms and I don’t ask anyone to take my word for it. Just thought it worth sharing my experience. I think this relates to my earlier comments regarding what is emphasized in Bön and Buddhist teachings regarding emptiness, clarity, and union.

Welcome to the DaoBums!

As far as I am aware, the Bön and Buddhist teachings and practices in sutra, tantra, and dzogchen are very similar. Buddha Shakyamuni is respected as a Buddha in Bön but not the first, last, or only. The skandhas are considered empty in Bön - the teachings on emptiness are essentially equivalent to madhyamaka teachings. One thing that I have noticed, in my limited experience which is mostly with dzogchen teachings; is that Buddhist practitioners and teachers tend to heavily emphasize teachings on emptiness. In the Bön teachings I've received there is generally a balance of considering emptiness, clarity, and union. This may be a dzogchen thing. I suspect that nihilism can be a consequence of over-emphasizing emptiness. This is something I often see in discussions among Buddhist practitioners, especially at the beginning and intermediate levels. Emphasizing emptiness would also naturally not encourage or value creativity. Once the realization of emptiness is actualized, clarity and union are already present and nihilism has no foothold. Unfortunately, this realization is elusive for many of us. It seems to be the intellectual process of trying to conceptually understand or striving to experience emptiness that lead to problems, IMO.

My experience has been the opposite, although I’m coming from the Bön tradition so it may be a bit different. In my training, creativity is a sign or manifestation of the quality and depth our connection to the nature of mind. It’s something that is emphasized often and incorporated into our practices in a variety of ways. This could be something unique to my teacher but I think it is more a characteristic of the dzogchen teachings. I also know the monastics are encouraged to develop talent and creativity in their lives and some I’ve met are marvelous painters, singers, musicians, storytellers… and joyfully share their talents, even modest ones, with little concern for what others think.

I don't think this is a complete question. Each of us defines our unique path in life based on our qualities, characteristics, and choices we make along the way. So if we ask whether something is a complete system for enlightenment, it is essential to ask 'for whom?' Clearly there have been individuals in history who have followed a Buddhist system (of which there are many) to fruition and others for whom Buddhism was not effective. We would also need to ask, which aspects of Buddhism did that individual employ throughout their life and which did they discard? Were any other views and practices employed in any fashion at any point, other influences? To separate ourselves from the system may allow us to indulge our curiosity but the answer we come up with, IMO, is an artificial construct that does not exist in reality.

It is done.

@Unota You want it? You got it!