We talked stuff that works you up, how about things that you do to calm down? What techniques, activities, mantras, stims, etc. do you do to keep yourself comfortable and safe? Feel free to share what you’d like - and something kinda cool is that you might end up helping someone else down the line.
is meditation the main method of cultivating the various right ways. Feels like house before the cart to get to it to improve meditation rather than improve meditation to get to that.
I’d like to think we might all have certain pieces of the puzzle but we might not have the big picture view. Likewise I think it’s incredibly healthy to accept things as what they are, but to be honest (and this is a hot take here) I think a lot of westerners overly-idealize Buddhist philosophy. But as a mixed kid, eh! I like it, but I don’t sit in any one camp. People talk about how humble monks are only eating what they are offered. But honestly, it’s a social expectation. In a different space, monks would not thrive because it might not be something so readily being offered and in turn they would experience a level of stressors that push their very beliefs to their core. That’s why there’s a lot of jokes about things like meditating in isolation on anger only to be annoyed when those practices actually get pushed. In theory all individuals regardless of background, personality, stressors - etc should be able to reach enlightenment. But I think in actuality, it takes a certain alignment of the stars and it’s fool-hearty to think otherwise. But that’s just me, and what do I know? I’m a messy human. (I always anecdotally remember that one of the most materialistic people I’ve met in my life was a former Buddhist monk =P!)
I will say though, that in my travels the happiest people I’ve ever met in my life were a SE Asian Islamic/Buddhist combo. They didn’t have much, but they had each other. And to be honest, it really taught me how to mind my ps & qs when it comes to want vs need and what one truly needs to be happy.
But at the end of the day, it’s shown over and over again that meditation in some form helps people much like exercise and doing it in any capacity is worthwhile =)!
yeah im not much for it as a religion but since I was young I have been obsessed with philosophy including in religion and truth. Currently the four noble truths are about the closest I have come. Take out the rebirth thing but otherwise seems like it. My cuirrent form looks at accpetance a lot which you had right in your second sentence. All the same one of the big acceptances for me is I will likely finish up my time without understanding truth in the purest sense.
I totally feel this. See, I don’t think any one religion has the beginning, the middle, and the end. Which you could say about anyone, because how the hell is anyone right about everything 100% of the time. Or have 100% of the coverage of consensus. We try to mimick this with observation and study (basically learning), but we don’t have all the answers. I think for sure right now we’re all in this giant space of walking the unknown. And if we don’t let stuff like this go from time to time it’ll drown our minds.
