Dukkha is more than suffering.
- Thread starter dukkha
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The people I spoke with were young and old, but few were Buddhist by birth. Perhaps some have just run out of options: Mental-health disorders are up in Western societies, and the answer doesn’t seem to be church attendance, which is down. There’s always therapy, but it’s so expensive. My meditation class was $12.
As she opened a book on Buddhist teachings, the teacher told the class that holding grudges is harmful. Resentment feels like clutching a burning stick and complaining that it’s burning us. And yet, being harmed by someone also hurts. So, the teacher said, the question was this: “What do I do with my mind if I feel like I’ve been harmed by someone?”
Americans everywhere seem to be asking themselves variations on this very question:
What do we do with our minds?
,,,,,, this dad turned to traditional psychotherapy for a few months, but he didn’t see as much of a benefit from it as he had hoped. He felt like he was mostly being taught to justify destructive emotions and behaviors.....
....Though precise numbers on its popularity are hard to come by, Buddhism does seem to be emerging in the Western, type-A universe. The journalist Robert Wright’s Why Buddhism Is True became a best seller in 2017.
Buddhist meditation centers have recently popped up in places such as Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lakewood, Ohio. There are now dozens of Buddhist podcasts, among many more apps and playlists geared specifically toward personal, non-Buddhist meditation. Four in 10 American adults now say they meditate at least weekly.
.....the religion’s primary draw for many Americans now appears to be mental health. The ancient religion, some find, helps them manage the slings and arrows and subtweets of modern life..
The Buddha’s first “noble truth” is that “life is suffering,” and many of Buddhism’s newly minted Western practitioners have interpreted this to mean that accepting emotional pain might be preferable to trying to alleviate it.
....Buddhist thought suggests that one should not compulsively crave comfort and avoid discomfort, which some see as permission to hop off the hedonic treadmill...
.... “cafeteria Catholics” ignore parts of the religion that don’t resonate with them, some Westerners focus on only certain elements of Buddhist philosophy and don’t endorse, say, Buddhism’s view of reincarnation or worship of the Buddha. Call them “buffet Buddhists.”
.....Taken out of their Buddhist context, practices like meditation “become like a dry sponge,” McMahan said, “soaking up whatever values are around.” Traditional monks don’t “meditate for business.”
....Mary Liz Austin, who practices psychotherapy at the Center for Mindful Living, similarly helps clients see that “it’s the attachment to the outcome that really causes suffering.” Another favorite teaching of hers is Chodron’s aphorism “Everything is workable.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/buddhism-meditation-anxiety-therapy/584308/
As she opened a book on Buddhist teachings, the teacher told the class that holding grudges is harmful. Resentment feels like clutching a burning stick and complaining that it’s burning us. And yet, being harmed by someone also hurts. So, the teacher said, the question was this: “What do I do with my mind if I feel like I’ve been harmed by someone?”
Americans everywhere seem to be asking themselves variations on this very question:
What do we do with our minds?
,,,,,, this dad turned to traditional psychotherapy for a few months, but he didn’t see as much of a benefit from it as he had hoped. He felt like he was mostly being taught to justify destructive emotions and behaviors.....
....Though precise numbers on its popularity are hard to come by, Buddhism does seem to be emerging in the Western, type-A universe. The journalist Robert Wright’s Why Buddhism Is True became a best seller in 2017.
Buddhist meditation centers have recently popped up in places such as Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lakewood, Ohio. There are now dozens of Buddhist podcasts, among many more apps and playlists geared specifically toward personal, non-Buddhist meditation. Four in 10 American adults now say they meditate at least weekly.
.....the religion’s primary draw for many Americans now appears to be mental health. The ancient religion, some find, helps them manage the slings and arrows and subtweets of modern life..
The Buddha’s first “noble truth” is that “life is suffering,” and many of Buddhism’s newly minted Western practitioners have interpreted this to mean that accepting emotional pain might be preferable to trying to alleviate it.
....Buddhist thought suggests that one should not compulsively crave comfort and avoid discomfort, which some see as permission to hop off the hedonic treadmill...
.... “cafeteria Catholics” ignore parts of the religion that don’t resonate with them, some Westerners focus on only certain elements of Buddhist philosophy and don’t endorse, say, Buddhism’s view of reincarnation or worship of the Buddha. Call them “buffet Buddhists.”
.....Taken out of their Buddhist context, practices like meditation “become like a dry sponge,” McMahan said, “soaking up whatever values are around.” Traditional monks don’t “meditate for business.”
....Mary Liz Austin, who practices psychotherapy at the Center for Mindful Living, similarly helps clients see that “it’s the attachment to the outcome that really causes suffering.” Another favorite teaching of hers is Chodron’s aphorism “Everything is workable.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/buddhism-meditation-anxiety-therapy/584308/
In the grocery and a woman in a handicapped scooter pulls up to the catfood. It's stacked up so I ask her if she needs a hand getting the food.
Long story short we talk and she has a 4 year old who she is feeding Fancy Feast cans and dry.
It's swill- full of beef tallow and corn and rice.
I show her Beyond brand - potatos instead of rice, not tallow or byproducts - and she takes a bag
Sez the cat is a "finicky eater" -I told her the cat doesn't know what he wants,
because he's never had quality food to compare.
Off she goes to feed her cat something decent - she thanks and god blesses..
It was about 3 minutes of my time. the cats gets good food and the people get good karma for thinking out
what's best food for the cat .
Life is a series of small encounters you can choose to address with compassion and good will, or unthinking selfishness
Long story short we talk and she has a 4 year old who she is feeding Fancy Feast cans and dry.
It's swill- full of beef tallow and corn and rice.
I show her Beyond brand - potatos instead of rice, not tallow or byproducts - and she takes a bag
Sez the cat is a "finicky eater" -I told her the cat doesn't know what he wants,
because he's never had quality food to compare.
Off she goes to feed her cat something decent - she thanks and god blesses..
It was about 3 minutes of my time. the cats gets good food and the people get good karma for thinking out
what's best food for the cat .
Life is a series of small encounters you can choose to address with compassion and good will, or unthinking selfishness
The Buddha taught the eightfold path in virtually all his discourses, and his directions are as clear and practical to his followers today as they were when he first gave them.
The Noble Eightfold Path
Right understanding (Samma ditthi)
Right thought (Samma sankappa)
Right speech (Samma vaca)
Right action (Samma kammanta)
Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)
Right effort (Samma vayama)
Right mindfulness (Samma sati)
Right concentration (Samma samadhi)
Practically the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during 45 years, deals in some way or other with this path.
He explained it in different ways and in different words to different people, according to the stage of their development and their capacity to understand and follow him.
The essence of those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist scriptures is found in the noble eightfold path.
It should not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the path should be followed and practiced one after the other in the numerical order as given in the usual list above. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others.
These eight factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline: namely:
(a) ethical conduct (b) mental discipline and (c) wisdom.
It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight divisions of the path if we group them and explain them according to these three heads.
https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/
^breakdown and amplification. EXCELLENT site
The Noble Eightfold Path
Right understanding (Samma ditthi)
Right thought (Samma sankappa)
Right speech (Samma vaca)
Right action (Samma kammanta)
Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)
Right effort (Samma vayama)
Right mindfulness (Samma sati)
Right concentration (Samma samadhi)
Practically the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during 45 years, deals in some way or other with this path.
He explained it in different ways and in different words to different people, according to the stage of their development and their capacity to understand and follow him.
The essence of those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist scriptures is found in the noble eightfold path.
It should not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the path should be followed and practiced one after the other in the numerical order as given in the usual list above. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others.
These eight factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline: namely:
(a) ethical conduct (b) mental discipline and (c) wisdom.
It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight divisions of the path if we group them and explain them according to these three heads.
https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/
^breakdown and amplification. EXCELLENT site
evince
Truthmatters
did you make sure she got her rights to vote taken away too
That's more of a political situation about power.Speaking of suffering...
Is it right/just & jolly good that Rohingya are forcibly removed/chased out of Burma??
Do you reall that woman on DCJ who was Buddhist? DARM? she went over that - it wasn't about "warrior monks"\
it was Buddhists are people too with all their flaws and xenophobia etc.
The exception might be Tibet before the Communists
Anyone can benefit from the eightfold path. You do not even have to claim to be a Buddist to benefit.
Yes, I recall her. I actually agreed w/ many, many of her opinions.
It never occurred she was Buddhist..
I don't see it as a political, but rather religious & perhaps racial situation..
Anyway, whatever which way you wish to define it, do you believe they should be able to stay??
it's a bit of all three.. ( yes she was Buddhist -but also an expert at comparative religions)
???From what I recall she was rather hostile to religion, especially Christianity..
But back to my question, should those Muslims we allowed to stay in that country where they are not wanted??
not sure about the "hostility" could be -it's in fashion now.
But she knew her stuff -we had that other guy who was an actor who claimed to be a "Nicene Buddhist" as well.
It's a power play in Myanmar I've heard "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" as well
Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561
Yes, I am familiar w/ that..
From what I have read the root of the problem is they were brought there from British India as coolie laborers, the Burmese had no say in this decision.
As you know there are many ethnic groups there that are formally recognized, & even some that are Muslim & originally from India that migrated long ago but the Rohingya have not, & have always been considered unwanted British plants, Not even Aung San Suu Kyi will come to their defense.
gawd I love having you around with your knowledge of world empires and peoples. I knew little of this.
Just like the old days when we chatted about "Wakistan"
gawd I love having you around with your knowledge of world empires and peoples. I knew little of this.
Just like the old days when we chatted about "Wakistan"
I assumed that you knew about it... Anyway, IMHO it makes that situation much more complex.
bits and pieces of it - but I'm not all that up on Myanmar -yes I can see it becomes more then just a religious conflict
Sid Kemp, Zen practioner since 1980, sharing Buddhist meditation since 1987.
This is a distortion or mistranslation of the Buddha’s teaching. I’ve also heard it as all passion is suffering.
Neither of these is true.
The root of all suffering in Buddhism is tanha, which is properly translated as attachment or grasping.
We see this because the Buddha teaches us how to cut off suffering, but he also teaches us to cultivate joy and peace, both of which are passions and emotions. But if we get attached to joy and peace and want it all the time, that, too, is suffering.
When we become free of attachments, emotions flow. If a friend dies, we cry, but do not become weak. If we hear good news, we feel joy. If we learn the good news was not true, we let go, and are not disheartened.
That is the true teaching of the Buddha. Emotions or passions are not suffering. Getting stuck in them is.
This is a distortion or mistranslation of the Buddha’s teaching. I’ve also heard it as all passion is suffering.
Neither of these is true.
The root of all suffering in Buddhism is tanha, which is properly translated as attachment or grasping.
We see this because the Buddha teaches us how to cut off suffering, but he also teaches us to cultivate joy and peace, both of which are passions and emotions. But if we get attached to joy and peace and want it all the time, that, too, is suffering.
When we become free of attachments, emotions flow. If a friend dies, we cry, but do not become weak. If we hear good news, we feel joy. If we learn the good news was not true, we let go, and are not disheartened.
That is the true teaching of the Buddha. Emotions or passions are not suffering. Getting stuck in them is.
Once a Brahmin approached The Buddha and questioned him thus:
Brahmin: “My Lord, your disciples claim that your Dharma (Teachings) is flawless and pristine and yet
I see some of your disciples gone astray! How could this happen?”
Buddha: “ My dear Brahmin, do you know the road from the capital of Magadha to the capital of Kosala?”
(Two Kingdoms during the time of The Buddha)
Brahmin: “ Oh Yes my Lord! Like the palm of my hand!”
Buddha: “ My dear Brahmin, what if someone asked you directions to go from the capital of Magadha
to the capital of Kosala and you gave him the directions accurately? Yet, you find that… that person had gone astray?”
Brahmin: “ My Lord! While giving that person accurate directions, if that person had not listened to me attentively or while giving that person accurate directions he had listened to me attentively but not followed my instructions properly, am I to be blamed for that person going astray?”
Buddha: “ Then my dear Brahmin, while I expounded this Dharma, if my disciples had not listened to me attentively
or while I expounded this Dharma my disciples had listened to me attentively but not followed my instructions properly,
am I to be blamed for my disciples going astray?”
Brahmin: “My Lord, your disciples claim that your Dharma (Teachings) is flawless and pristine and yet
I see some of your disciples gone astray! How could this happen?”
Buddha: “ My dear Brahmin, do you know the road from the capital of Magadha to the capital of Kosala?”
(Two Kingdoms during the time of The Buddha)
Brahmin: “ Oh Yes my Lord! Like the palm of my hand!”
Buddha: “ My dear Brahmin, what if someone asked you directions to go from the capital of Magadha
to the capital of Kosala and you gave him the directions accurately? Yet, you find that… that person had gone astray?”
Brahmin: “ My Lord! While giving that person accurate directions, if that person had not listened to me attentively or while giving that person accurate directions he had listened to me attentively but not followed my instructions properly, am I to be blamed for that person going astray?”
Buddha: “ Then my dear Brahmin, while I expounded this Dharma, if my disciples had not listened to me attentively
or while I expounded this Dharma my disciples had listened to me attentively but not followed my instructions properly,
am I to be blamed for my disciples going astray?”
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Guardian Naga Serpent
mages or depictions of nagas are a common sight in Thailand, particularly at temples. The naga is a guardian figure which keeps away bad spirits and features in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. In one particular story, it is said that the King of Nagas protected the Buddha from a fierce storm by using its cobra hood as a shield
Naga, (Sanskrit: “serpent”) in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, a member of a class of mythical semidivine beings, half human and half cobra. They are a strong, handsome species who can assume either wholly human or wholly serpentine form and are potentially dangerous but often beneficial to humans.
mages or depictions of nagas are a common sight in Thailand, particularly at temples. The naga is a guardian figure which keeps away bad spirits and features in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. In one particular story, it is said that the King of Nagas protected the Buddha from a fierce storm by using its cobra hood as a shield
Naga, (Sanskrit: “serpent”) in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, a member of a class of mythical semidivine beings, half human and half cobra. They are a strong, handsome species who can assume either wholly human or wholly serpentine form and are potentially dangerous but often beneficial to humans.
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