doc benway

You do seem to post things in order to elicit a response. Calling people deviants for not obeying your personal gender expectations, obsessing over sex, etc... How do you expect people to respond? What are you looking for here?

I use the ignore feature from time to time. It actually works well for me, although I have to admit I find myself looking at ignored posts sometimes. Mostly I find that I feel foolish using it. How can I hope to make any progress with respect to the real challenges in my life if I can't deal with my reactivity to annoying, anonymous, keyboard warriors? So I periodically take everyone off ignore and take all of this childish mudslinging as my practice. What I mean by that is when I notice myself getting reactive to someone or something said, I turn inward and rest in the Nature of Mind as I pay attention to those feelings and thoughts inside. Without exception, that allows the reactivity to simply dissolve and I generally see humor in whatever was bothersome.

So cool to see you revive this old thread with an update. Hard to believe it’s been 13 years! I appreciate your distinction. My teacher once spoke a bit about this sort of thing and it really clicked for me. The question came up, why do people describe so many different experiences from spiritual practice? One person may speak of profound openness, another might describe a feeling of immortality, another great power or clairvoyance.... The explanation is that when we have a spiritual insight or breakthrough, what we are feeling is the release of whatever was blocking us. So we will feel the opposite of whatever the obstacle was. I’ve had a variety of non-dual and related experiences and, looking back at them, this made perfect sense to me. PS - there’s nothing mini about these experiences

Which one do you feel like?

That’s nice to hear about the real you. When people are anonymous and sitting behind a computer screen they do tend to behave differently - more dismissive, more rude, less understanding, more aggressive. Just look at Facebook and Twitter. It’s nauseating how rude we can be to each other. I’m that way sometimes, far less than I used to be. I don’t see the angry internet troll as the “true self.” I see it as a more artificial self created by isolation and electronic communication. I think your true self is who you are face to face, in town, wherever, interacting with fellow humans in person. I’d love to know that side of you, and all the other blustery keyboard warriors.

I've always enjoyed watching the tables get turned on bullies... It's been nice to watch things evolve here without moderation. The community seems to be coming together and self-moderating in interesting ways.

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I love the hats. For me it shows devotion and respect. It shows commitment and creativity. The symbolism is beautiful and supportive.

I was referring to Josh... 🤩

My gramma used to make me watch Engelbert Humperdink with her. Never quite got it myself but she was a big fan, loved Liberace too!

I recall and don't miss the Buddhist wars here in the past, we really haven't gone down that road lately. It's nice to see the discussion going somewhere now... ironically that somewhere is empty!

If you want to address a goddess, don’t pretend. Language is pretty but doesn’t matter. You need to find the feeling in your heart. You need to be very quiet inside and wide open! And a mantra is best 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Here is one I favor but, alas it is Tibetan... Sherab Chamma Primordial Loving Wisdom Mother All such goddesses embody and empower all enlightened qualities

So you’re a boob guy?

What might you be singing then?

Sean removed and did not replace them.

The moon I was describing earlier in the thread...

... and when she debuted it was borderline criminal!

I just love Tal Wilkenfeld's bass lines!

Because that is what your post said to me and I thought it was both germane and amusing to point that out... PS - I didn’t mean that your comments weren’t worthwhile, rather that they emphasized an aspect of the meaning of emptiness

I prefer to simply practice and leave concepts and theory be as it is...

In other words, words are empty also...

I'll supplement what you said as it relates to personal practice. In meditation, emptiness does refer to empty of the mind, empty of the sense of a personal, individual self. This does not mean that there are no thoughts or emotions coming up (the point I think ilumairen just made), rather it relates to our relationship to them, our tendency to identify with them. When we no longer identify, the content is free to arise and self-liberate. Rideforever posted some inaccurate stuff about emptiness and Buddhism, IMO, but the pith instruction in the first line of his first post has been very useful for me.

There is a problem with mixing paradigms. The way I suspect you are using the word God is not a part of the Buddhist paradigm so the question isn’t valid. Buddhists do not posit a single, all powerful creator, there are many gods and goddesses and, yes, they are not exceptions to sunyata. The concept of emptiness does apply to everything - both self and other. But emptiness does not mean non-existence, it means more along the lines of lack of inherent, independent existence. Buddhists who understand sunyata do not deny existence, it’s more a matter of recognizing inter-dependence or connectedness.