expectations creating our sensations...

[Gerard]

A bit presumptuous assuming another person doesn't meditate because they don't agree with you. Let's not mention the "a" word, ok, let's do... attachment.

 

And I'm not sure what an eternal circle is (as opposed to a temporary circle), but for me, this chat is like any other: an opportunity to learn about ourselves and our practices from those that think like us, as well as those who don't.

 

Generally speaking students tend to question a lot, which is understandable; when I used to be one I was questioning Buddhism and the by-products of meditation quite often, now I observe them and acknowledge their transient nature and tomorrow will be another day. Gautama Buddha was constantly confronted by his students about his teachings and he answered each and all of those questions with great patience, diligence and came up (of course) with an irrefutable (enlightened) answer.

 

Eternal = endless; tiresomely long; seemingly without end; in our case, without reaching a satisfactory solution. Again, don't take things literally as I was using figurative speech.

 

Were you born in a metal year?

Edited February 28, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[3bob]

"...You've got to learn to be the master of your own mind before you can see the true realities that govern you as a person". JK.

 

...another spin off of that is when you realize that "your own mind" is just another shifting appearence - just like all the rest of the vastness of mind which is not you.

 

Om

[3bob]

"Gautama Buddha was constantly confronted by his students about his teachings and he answered each and all of those questions with great patience, diligence and came up (of course) with an irrefutable (enlightened) answer".

 

"Please, don't take writen statements things literally." Ok, and btw that also applies to your statement above.

[ralis]

Let's take for example the Kunlun practice. He tells in the first part of the book what kind of phenomena one will experience. That is exactly what one will experience doing Kunlun.

 

ralis

[Spectrum]

learn to forget

[Marblehead]

Forget what?

 

Peace & Love!

[Owledge]

Possible that intent-energy manifests things, creating great confusion about the validity of methods, not understanding that the method maybe can not have a validity or an efficiency, because what counts is the non-action-based 'behavior' of the performer of the method, the mindset.

 

Concerning the wine-tasting: Not necessarily does our expectation have to influence our sensation, or not exactly like one would think. One alternative could be that the expectation simply makes us more attentive to the sensation. But it could also be even more plain: That an expectation, especially when in a social situation, makes us lie to others and maybe also to ourselves. (peer pressure*)

 

* not to be confused with pee pressure, which is totally natural.

 

 

More general: Maybe expectations can only cause trouble or benefit when we put the heart energy into them. You can expect something with the distance of a statistician, or you can put belief/conviction into it, or emotion like "Oh, see, I KNEW this would happen! Damn!"

 

There's that saying ... Careful about what you wish ... it might come true. I'm not sure what its intended meaning is, but it could be seen like this: Usually there's a longing involved in a wish, and longing can cause painful emotions. And then you might muster so much energy that what you wished for comes true, shaped by all the emotional pain of the longing.

 

 

Something that came to my mind, about philosophy and the infinite diversity in this huge system we call universe:

When people can't agree whether something is this or that, maybe it is this at one time and that at another time, or even both at the same time. Or maybe it's just a matter of definition and thus can be anything.

 

 

P.S.: I wanted to be the first in this thread to write "ass".

That is... if you don't count "Massachusetts" and "assuming".