Leo was right about Buddhism

[Oppositionless]

So I've been going to a Buddhist temple for 3 months now . First of all, the good. I like this place, I like these people , I'd rather have Buddhists as friends than most types of people . Meditation is also really good . If you have adhd or otherwise can't sit still and you go to one of these temples you'll be forced to sit still and meditate, that's good, it builds accountability.

But as for understanding of reality, I've been a little let down . There's lots of talk of oneness, of seeing through the ego, of no self. Sometimes if I'm lucky there will be a little blurb about everything being Mind, but unlike Leo who beats you over the head with it you get maybe a sentence or two about Consciousness, then it's right  back to practical stuff, I feel 90% of the talks given are self-help. How to be a better person, how to do the right thing , how to be more selfless.

 They don't really talk about Love, Intelligence, Beauty, Goodness. And obviously they don't talk about GOD.

I'll probably keep going, it's just a little disappointing.

Edited 18 hours ago by Oppositionless

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, Oppositionless said:

you get maybe a sentence or two about Consciousness

That’s all I need baby 

Edited 17 hours ago by Yimpa

[Jordan of the Shire]

3 hours ago, Oppositionless said:

So I've been going to a Buddhist temple for 3 months now . First of all, the good. I like this place, I like these people , I'd rather have Buddhists as friends than most types of people . Meditation is also really good . If you have adhd or otherwise can't sit still and you go to one of these temples you'll be forced to sit still and meditate, that's good, it builds accountability.

But as for understanding of reality, I've been a little let down . There's lots of talk of oneness, of seeing through the ego, of no self. Sometimes if I'm lucky there will be a little blurb about everything being Mind, but unlike Leo who beats you over the head with it you get maybe a sentence or two about Consciousness, then it's right  back to practical stuff, I feel 90% of the talks given are self-help. How to be a better person, how to do the right thing , how to be more selfless.

 They don't really talk about Love, Intelligence, Beauty, Goodness. And obviously they don't talk about GOD.

I'll probably keep going, it's just a little disappointing.

 

Within buddhism, the deeper meaning behind the practical stuff is that the cleanliness of mind makes it easier to absorb. Cleanliness of action builds merit, which empowers penetrative seeing.

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Jordan of the Shire

[Joseph Maynor]

2 hours ago, Yimpa said:

That’s all I need baby 

Lol.  That's what they are trying to teach.  

[Jodistrict]

It’s the traditional method.  It’s the same with the Vedanta Society.  When you are initiated you will be given a mantra with no talk of nonduality even though Vedanta is nondual.  That is because in the traditonal way, purification most come before self realization.  You have to quiet the mind before you can make meaningful progress in meditation.  In my opinion, the traditionalists are correct.  Westerners cherry pick and want the cherries without doing any work.

[Oppositionless]

@Joseph Maynor

@Jodistrict

True but there could be someone who never fully awakens bc they weren't told .

Also did someone delete their comment ? It was really good

Edited 15 hours ago by Oppositionless

[Joseph Maynor]

2 minutes ago, Oppositionless said:

@Joseph Maynor

@Jodistrict

True but there could be someone who never fully awakens bc they weren't told .

 

There seems to be a natural conflict between people who have a tendency to distrust concepts vs. people who are overly concept-heavy in their spiritual creating.

[VeganAwake]

It's interesting to watch people functioning within their belief systems.

How they experience life from a certain perspective and operate from that interpretation 

They can seem very immersed and invested in the game of life.

Their bubble of reality is usually the center of the focus.

Then you can watch yourself watching others and actually realize, there's not big difference, if any at all.

[Joseph Maynor]

48 minutes ago, VeganAwake said:

It's interesting to watch people functioning within their belief systems.

How they experience life from a certain perspective and operate from that interpretation 

They can seem very immersed and invested in the game of life.

Their bubble of reality is usually the center of the focus.

Then you can watch yourself watching others and actually realize, there's not big difference, if any at all.

But you do this too, no?

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Lol.  That's what they are trying to teach.  

“When the Buddha Awoke, the entire Earth shook in recognition of His Awakening.”

 

[Oppositionless]

5 hours ago, Yimpa said:

That’s all I need baby 

I'm like an addict I need more . 😭😂

[Oppositionless]

Maybe I'm getting stuck on language . But if someone uses words I consider vague, as Zen people are apt to do, I become suspicious . Words like "Suchness" "Oneness" etc don't satisfy me the way that God does, this could reflect either a difference in depth of understanding or simply a difference in language .

Nevertheless I find myself drawn to it because it's challenging my ideas of what awakening means .

Edited 11 hours ago by Oppositionless

[Joseph Maynor]

1 minute ago, Oppositionless said:

Maybe I'm getting stuck on language . But if someone uses words I consider vague, as Zen people are apt to do, I become suspicious . Words like "Suchness" "Oneness" etc don't satisfy me the way that God does, this could reflect either a difference in depth of understanding or simply a difference in language .

Zen is about the East-Asian distrust of Western, Indian, and Middle Eastern metaphysics.  

[Lucasxp64]

The point of Buddhism isn't understanding of reality. It's the path to the cessation of suffering. Buddha was very adamant on it. I listen very frequently to Buddhist dhamma talks, and it's literally one of their main points, is the analogy of someone that gets hit by a poisonous arrow.

The dumb person will stop and think too much about all kinds of questions about the arrow, it's materials, where it came from, etc...

But not focus on the fact that they need to treat it as fast as possible.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing if this is  good or bad, just stating it as a matter of fact.

One of the points of Buddhism as well is changing of mindset and values, such that you value more your own path to the kind of enlightenment of cessation of suffering, rather than cosmological/intellectual conquest of some kind.

Obviously. The best Buddhists such as Thanissaro Bhikkhu, it's not like he is a stupid person. He's very skilful, he's a professional Buddhist scholar in practice, he has done some of the best modern translations of the Pali Canon to the English language.

But, they don't have as a bias going on their own path, they see the buddha's path as a path you should accept and follow.

It's not like they just take as blind faith like the focus on Christianity, in Buddhism it requires following the process of proving Buddha's teachings to yourself as opposed to accepting it by blind faith.

But also paradoxically, like I said, it's sort of an already stabilized religion, they won't try to innovate or come out of their own way too much.

There are modern Buddhism such as the "pragmatic dhamma" where they toss away most of the dogma and they do it closer to how Leo Gura would do it, where they mix and match their techniques and knowledge based on their own pursuit of truth, as opposed to being more guided through the dogma.

Definitely a lot of echo chamber going on, they can be very strict, some sects are so strict to the point of lunacy.

In the Pali Canon itself, buddha went through several years of self-neglect because he thought it was the proper path, then he did backtrack on that and found the so called middle way.

So just like other religion, their core text have had certain biases that got stuck there up to this day.

If the Buddha was alive today, he would tell you not to get bogged down by Buddhism itself if you care about truth. Like they say, even for someone in the Buddha's path, if you find him alongside of the road, you got to kill him because the outside dogma will block you from your own understanding. (not literally obviously).

Use multiple sources. A single source will lead your mind into blind spots. Traditional Buddhists are very closed minded in their own world view, not that it doesn't deliver.

It does deliver on its promises (probably not as effective if you used many sources). But it's not the whole world of mystical experiences and truth seeking.

Edited 57 minutes ago by Lucasxp64

[Leo Gura]

If you don't understand Reality, then you can't know if Buddhism is the highest truth.

Buddhists put the cart before the horse. 

Buddhism is a profound conformity.