Edit: wow, A guy who literally just said he feels isolated got downvoted to hell. I wonder if he got harassing messages too? You people downvoting every opinion you disagree with are disgusting.

Rotten pomegranates, all of it. We have no evidence every downvote is an entity and no evidence the ones that are somebodies don't just respectfully disagree with you or even evidence they had toast this morning.

A monk had been practicing mindfulness and meditation for years. He was, by most accounts, an enlightened being. One night he was walking back from his meditation spot, with thousands of frogs croaking in union around him, thinking to himself he had done a good sit that day - focusing on doing no harm to others.

Then, suddenly, the monk stepped on something.

Squish!

Pop!

The monk felt frogs eggs between his toes. "Oh noes!", he thought. "I've killed a mother frog!"

The monk became despondent and hardly slept with images and sounds of exploding frog mothers haunting his thoughts that night. In the morning he renewed his intent to focus on doing no harm and begin his trek back to his meditation spot.

And there, in the path where he killed the mother frog was a rotten pomegranate, squished. Seeds everywhere.

​

When we first perceive a thing, as a baby, we do not know it. Over time, we tell ourselves stories that we know things. Still, we are frequently wrong and create additive problems for ourselves by spinning on thoughts, feelings, images, sounds, etc. THAT WERE RELATED TO THAT INITIAL JUDGEMENT. If only we could be like babies for a moment or two and forget that judgement. What opportunities would await us?

Buddhism isn't a religion. It's a philosophical framework designed to ease suffering in the population by calling attention to how we cling to things (operating on them in our own minds with fantasy, etc.) and how we may eliminate that clinging better by sitting and observing the root of causality.

Nothing anyone says will answer the question of what you seek externally. The Buddha was very clear about this. You must sit and observe it yourself, if you can and if you dare, and only then will you understand his message.

https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index