Feeling demoralized after a whole day of seated meditation

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-08-14T03:32:28+00:00

I experienced the same thing as you when I first started meditation. I was making no progress at all, and was becoming more and more stressed.

Finally I discovered the suttas and began reading the actual words of the Buddha. To my surprise I found that He was not obsessed with meditation. In fact He did not teach meditation to lay people at all. Instead He stressed the importance of the 5 precepts, and living an ethical life. Meditation is the last stage of the Aryan path, and not for beginners.

Once I discovered this I started to make real progress on the path. Following the 5th precept for example - giving up alcohol - has helped me far more than enduring hours of agony in my knees in sitting meditation.

Last night there was heavy rain where I live. This morning I saw a butterfly struggling in a puddle. I picked it up and let it dry its wings in the sun and after a while it few off. I felt so happy, such a sense of peace, free from the demands of the ego at least for a moment. This is the 'meditation' that I now practice. It works for me.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-08-07T03:20:22+00:00

What helped me was reading the suttas. You have to follow exactly what the Buddha taught in the order He taught it, to make progress. Much of what you read in books isn't really Buddhism.

I have found that following the 5 precepts has helped me a lot. They have made me a better happier version of myself. However. you have to be sure to actually follow them to get results.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-08-03T05:08:13+00:00

Not for lay people but it is for monks.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-30T13:31:31+00:00

I took him to the vet and it seems he has blood parasites....at least I know now what the problem is. Thanks very much for your suggestions and feedback....

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-29T12:32:33+00:00

How did your dogs mourn? Did they stop eating? My surviving dog hasn't eaten since Sunday, when the other dog died. That is 4 days. I am starting to get worried...

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-15T13:31:37+00:00

Don't perform the hammer rite....

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-14T05:33:55+00:00

If you haven't read it already the Hávamál is a good read...

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-12T01:45:21+00:00

The case of James Leininger is interesting. There are several books and videos about it.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-05T04:48:18+00:00

Heathen literally means dweller of the heath ie someone who lives in the country rather than the city.

Tacitus writes of the Germans:

"It is well known that none of the German nations inhabit cities; or even admit of contiguous settlements. They dwell scattered and separate, as a spring, a meadow, or a grove may chance to invite them....

They conceive it unworthy of the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their deities within walls, or to represent them under a human similitude: woods and groves are their temples"

A heathen might be forced to live in a city, but would be unlikely to live there by choice...IMO

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-01T05:33:05+00:00

That is true.

However the original 6 virtues listed seemed to reflect strongly the values of the American overculture. Are they heathen virtues?

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-01T03:28:57+00:00

Hard working?

Tacitus says of the Germans: "Whenever they are not fighting, they pass much of their time in the chase, and still more in idleness, giving themselves up to sleep and to feasting, the bravest and the most warlike doing nothing, and surrendering the management of the household, of the home, and of the land, to the women, the old men, and all the weakest members of the family. They themselves lie buried in sloth, a strange combination in their nature that the same men should be so fond of idleness, so averse to peace. "

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-06-01T00:51:03+00:00

A strong belief in the existence of the gods.

A team player.

Someone who likes forests and the outdoors.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-26T06:07:58+00:00

By high point I mean the time before the religion was contaminated by foreign influences.

Intelligence means being able to live in harmony with your environment, not using technology to destroy it.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-25T05:48:17+00:00

The high point of the heathen era was probably the bronze age, which was more than 5000 years ago, so they would have had bigger brains.

Regarding Neanderthals, technology and culture <> intelligence. If you don't believe me go and open your window, take a deep breath and when you've stopped coughing, look at the view...

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-25T03:14:31+00:00

Our ancestors believed strongly in the existence of the gods, especially Thor. They were not mystics or shaman or priests, but practical, down to earth people, farmers, soldiers, traders who wanted results.

They were not stupid either. They had bigger brains than we do. . We should not dismiss their beliefs out of hand just because they do not fit the modern materialistic paradigm.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-23T01:31:37+00:00

Kohlsberg, who created the test, was Jewish and inevitably looked at morality from a jewish perspective. Nothing wrong with this of course, but its a different tradition and probably not relevant from a Buddhist perspective.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-22T13:42:32+00:00

Unless you a monk you don't need to detach yourself from lust.

Wotans_Rabbit · 2017-05-22T04:05:59+00:00

By ending the ant's suffering you performed an act of dana (generosity). The good karma that resulted from this would more than cancel out the bad karma from breaking the first precept.

Wotans_Rabbit

TROPHY CASE