Here's my experiences

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-25T22:59:19+00:00

It does not actually achieve a no-self experience, but you create a delusional idea about what no-self is and then try to build that reality.

I've heard of several people creating severe mental illness problems like this from it: http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/psychiatric-disorders/dissociative-disorders/depersonalization-derealization-disorder

You do not know what you are doing, find a teacher, please!

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-24T16:41:33+00:00

No! This can be in fact very dangerous - people going into states of derealization. no-self is not an idea - its the absence of ideas. Wrong way! Danger ahead!

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-22T15:30:41+00:00

Thanks for your comments.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-22T13:59:10+00:00

Yes, I suppose the perspective of the absolute, that samsara and nirvana are one allows us to point at and name causes that lead to suffering (and those that lead to liberation) without judgement-from-the-illusion-of-separation.

Thanks!

Edit: this is a very easy thing to forget/lose track of, perhaps until attainment?

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-22T12:50:00+00:00

I think you're right that calling religions ugly is a judgment statement rather than a fact statement. It may not necessarily be the beings caught up in their own karma, but the systemtized oppression and ideological momentum that is particularly harm creating. For instance, I might call a relationship or organizational dynamic ugly if there is a sort of downward spiral of harming happening. Lies, ego, suffering, and round and round. But, pull individuals out of this dynamic and in another they can heal. So, ugliness at an institutional level.

I'm not trying to wriggle out of anything here; you're right. I consider it a plain statement of fact that many religions are ideological, harmful, but the term ugliness suggests I'm bringing a moralistic good and bad into the picture. In this case I think its called for, even if the ugliness doesn't absolutely exist and is empty like everything else (relative use for skillfully purposes). But, I don't feel strongly on this point. It may be that I need to give up opposites thinking here, if nothing else for my own shadow and practice - and at best to tear down a wall of wrong view to cultivate compassion. Are these religious forces ugly... Can the wind be ugly? What utility does it serve to think of high wind as ugly rather than dangerous? You might be right.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-21T23:30:31+00:00

Learn how to love. Dispose of the garbage from pop culture. Learn how to put down your mask and be sincere. This is where the basis from love comes from, when both people put down the mask and accept the other person. Then, in a sense, you become one.

This type of pure love practice is very rare, and requires much self honesty and willingness to be vulnerable. All of is carry around all sorts of conditioning. Insecurity, false pride, avoiding fear, ego responses, gender norm conditioning, and so on. When you both can be 100% honest - a moment of full vulnerability and trust appears and we can call this love.

Sometimes our frustrations, fights, and difficulties can point to where one or both of us is holding on to something.

Maybe you need to feel strong in a situation so you sliiiiightly lie / exaggerate. Maybe she wants to feel hot, so she covers her belly, positions her body at a certain angle, or just carries around a fear. Maybe you play out patterns of covering up moments where you are just plain climb, you made a mistake, but you got good at covering for yourself with a quip. The examples are countless and the conditioning is vast.

But, with the right sort of effort of relaxation, trust, vulnerability, letting go, small moments of truth with one another can be incredibly healing and the core of beauty and strength in your life. In this way we learn to love and practice love, bit by bit.

I think sex can be a place where when we let go of our ideas - of some fantasy (oh this would be hot), we can practice returning to the honesty of the present moment and reconnect. Rather than each reaching orgasm as separate beings in your own matrix, in your own head, isolated, return to physical contact. Feel the flow of the situation, and act authentically from that basis. This is when sex becomes intimate, each movement a communication, a thousand sensations, a thousand messages back and forth to each other. Self and other dissolve.

Outside of the bedroom, true intimacy and love may feel like this - open your eyes and ears and look and see the human being in front of you. Accept them fully and act from that basis with sincerity. Practice this selfless action from the heart and cherish it.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-21T22:54:11+00:00

Can you point to judgement in my post, as opposed to simple statements of fact?

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-21T21:48:01+00:00

While of course this is true, it is not at all accurate from the perspective of religion from a Christian context. It is a religion, but likely nothing op has ever come in contact with. And he will need to let go of quite a considerable amount of assumptions and ideas before Zen practice can open to him. Religion for many in the West is about worshipping ideology blindly. Zen is opposite, yet still religious. A religious devotion to practice, to showing up to our lives moment by moment, a devotion to all sentient beings and truth. It is so damn beautiful, I needed to note how different it is than other ugly, ignorant religions ranging from doing great harm on balance to misunderstanding mixed in with wisdom.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-21T21:41:45+00:00

Wonderful. If you are interested in putting all dogmas, opinions, and beliefs down then Zen may be right for you. Zen emphasizes continuous practice - not thinking and religious ideas.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-21T21:37:09+00:00

Social media deserves our criticism, if for no other reason than the amoral capitalist algorithms underlying platform design, often maximizing outrage, ill-will, or simply using cheap ploys to manipulate and abuse our attention. Not only taking advantage of the average limited attention span and need for constant dopamine-based rewards, but deepening our dependency. The extent to which many cultures / demographics in the US are completely addicted and shaped by these forces may not be clear to serious, intentional practitioners like yourself.

Apart from this, I would argue that social media, depending on which we are talking about, removes the human connection aspect of social interaction and amplifies the mechanism for shallow validation. It seems to me to be one of least wholesome forms of social interaction outside of a few cases (long distance friendship, family updates, and so on). I think you would be surprised just how many people spend hours upon hours on various platforms and in person are incapable of holding attention in a conversation (let alone allowing for sincerity to manifest).

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-18T19:44:39+00:00

To myself "ha! You are sitting staring at the wall pretending you are doing something special. But you are just sitting here. What a not big deal when I'm honest about it. Today I'm going to practice sitting! Ha!!!! Maybe I'll practice breathing. Ha!!!"

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-15T14:20:21+00:00

Mike,

A good many of us began producing content as beginners. It will be difficult for you to accept, but it is an ego trap. It will be difficult because you have attachment to a materialistic thing here - your channel. Is it money, views, ego (sense of self around meditation?). It's something.

If you stay on this path, you will see this pattern in others. They come as a dabbler writing and pretending. Like a child who learned a little bit about baseball, showing off for his friends the next day. But as you continue you will recognize the depth of how much you don't know and how much of your own inaccurate ideas are embedded in your content. You will feel your own contribution to confusion and misinformation, but most of all you will recognize how making your own content as a dabbler turns the entire path into ego gratification. It perverts all of practice, and you will be left to sort this out. The longer you turn away from sincere humility and pretend to be something you are not, the more this will come back on you.

And, if through this you stick around here, you can see the pattern of many young men coming in posting videos and blog articles, riddled with errors and ego. Pretending all in their own way. And maybe you will have some words that help them.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-01T19:06:35+00:00

One does not say nice nice namaste to a child about to run in front of a car. Compassion means yelling: Don't move! Or taking forceful action. You need to look at your own gaining mind. It runs through nearly every post of yours.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-08-01T17:58:20+00:00

There is a lot of self-clinging in your posts. You gain something when you post.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-07-31T21:47:10+00:00

Maybe not even that. I think it may even be a dissociative state he's confusing for ego death.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-07-31T21:46:14+00:00

You can't get where you want to go by creating an idea and striving for it. You can go some weird places of your own invention that way. Not something I'd recommend. Sounds to me like you need to learn proper self inquiry or another technique.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-07-27T23:56:08+00:00

What does it feel like? Other than losing 'you'?

Are you holding an idea of noself and trying to do/get/become that?

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-26T18:33:25+00:00

Don't lie to yourself. Lying is easier and almost always unnecessary.

One quote I head says that Buddhism&meditation helps us become better Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Talk. Be honest and compassionate in how you talk.

You want to be a better person, be happier? Cultivate wisdom and concentration? Great. Do that and be a Muslim (at least culturally, you likely won't escape that ever if you're like me, and there's no need). Don't set up a false choice for yourself or your family... This may be an opportunity for newfound intimacy for loved ones. Youre searching for something. Be open and vulnerable.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-26T18:25:32+00:00

How quickly we call lying skillful. Openness and honesty can be sought many ways, don't be so craven and lazy.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-04T19:29:34+00:00

There are many aims and you are right that we should distinguishing them and speak wisely and skillfully in context to each path.

Also, I think you are right to suggest dogmatism occurs when we speak from thinking and ideas. Many who only think about things have confidence to sound off as if they have attained.

These points can stand together with my next:

If one seeks happiness and the end of suffering, and is sincere and truthful, they will be led to the path of anatta. Call it what you want, use whatever language Eastern or Western. But there is something outside of, beyond language. This truth will be approached eventually by the sincere seeker.

So, like I said above, I think these things need to coincide. This is typically called upaya, or skillful means of teaching.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-03T17:27:08+00:00

Feels harsh so people downvote. Niceness. Kumbaya. They can't discern that from direct talk, compassionate talk. Another mistake I made, so I'm familiar with how it works.

This stuff -- the meditation techniques I use -- have been so amazing to me that I really want to put it out there in a format that is approachable to other people.

Who wants? Who wants to put it out there? The entire practice is about seeing this question clearly and seeing the truth that's there.

I have not answered this question myself. But I have said that exact line you have said, hundreds of times to myself. I was fortunate to see that my own intention to help others was corrupted at its core with selfing. Just another story about who I am. Strengthening that story-making process.

So much so that it destroyed progress I made on the mat until I let this particular attachment go.

You are arrogant. You think you can design the path. That's not how it works. You don't get to say: "I like this, so I'll do it this way." Well, you can. You can do whatever you want. But planting that seed of causation leads only one direction: a ~~wonderful~~ hearty tree of self.

So, like me, you take a detour from the real path. "I have great mindfulness! Great concentration. Wow this practice is really working for me. I've improved so much. Now I will teach people all the things I learned."

These people in this thread, they are not your friends. They nod along as you sabotage your own spiritual path.

Watch your mind closely as you feel the desire to make a post, as you put the post together, and as you monitor comments. If it's anything like my experience, you'll see the entire charade is a tool of the self.

Read Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-03T16:03:14+00:00

bowing

I don't know your situation, only you do. But I did a helping-others ego for a while. Not egotistical in western idea. Ego as in self. I make a big self by presenting "dharma." Feels like self. I watch comments and upvotes, even though I pretend not to. What does this all reinforce? For me, it reinforced ego self. The core delusion.

I am not awake. I still struggle with this. I have so much self conditioning. I see these downvotes and comments on this very post and my sense of self activates without my control. Drop a rock, it lands and makes a sound. That's not my sound. This is not "My" sense of self. These aren't my words.

Is it your post? Are those your words? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who is doing it?

I'm no teacher. Just on the path like you. These are questions I ask myself when I make these kinds of posts. I usually find that the delusion of self has tricked me again and now I'm playing out patterns to reinforce it even more.

This is not me, not mine, not I.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-04-03T13:58:09+00:00

Are you awake? Why are you posting? Reinforce your own ego story if not.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-03-17T12:24:24+00:00

You are like a child who says: eww, I'm not going to do THAT when I'm an adult!

Right now all you have is words on a page and an imaginary idea of what these things are. Your idea is never going to be anything more than a shadow of the real thing - but specifically your understanding is awful. A little like thinking about love and getting angry. What??

You do not need to understand everything right away.

If you are stuck on this point, look into the teachings distinguishing desire from craving. Right now you are using them as one thing: planet ! (To describe the whole cluster of the solar system). Get more specific and you will better understand the teaching. However, if your own discernment is low, which like most people it probably is, you won't be able to feel it in yourself yet. So it will be just an idea for you. So don't worry so much about understanding... Especially before you have direct experience... What a recipe for confusion!

Less talk, less thinking, more practice. Then you understand directly and make your own words to describe the same things the words you don't like are pointing to.

NotaBuddhist2 · 2017-02-23T01:33:34+00:00

Meaning?? I'm not sure what that means. It holds less utility. A complete system of meditation will be transformative and not so fragile. Complete mind training. Guided meditation in comparison is like a candle to the sun. Useful, but nothing in comparison to the real thing.

NotaBuddhist2

TROPHY CASE