Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Buddha and Mind

neh.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 111 posts

Re: Buddha and Mind

#81

Post by Falandafa2021 »

pmoriarty wrote: post #44
Falandafa2021 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For some, like in many types of Christian meditation, the purpose can be to deepen one's relationship with God. Quieting the mind or stillness might be part of a way to get there, but not the ultimate aim. A true Buddhist would argue that divinity is within a truly quiet mind. See my username for one such practice

Who gets to decide who's a "true Buddhist" and who's not, and what relevance does that have to Christian meditation?

The words and standards of the Buddha or other masters, just like Scientology isn't true Christianity even though it has Jesus in it all Buddhist practices aren't necessarily Buddhist if they have meditation in them...

And it's also what Christian mystics like Meiser Eckert and and Gnostics also believe.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#82

Post by nestorD »

DennisP wrote: post #63
nestorD wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen tummo meditation used by non-buddhist to raise their body temperature. With a little bit of practice you should be able to experiment with it yourself (one common recommendation: don't practice it in a warm room / wearing warm clothes).

I've never found clear instructions for tummo. How do you learn it?

Years ago I found good instructions on a website targeting kayakers (it was presented as a way to avoid geting cold in the water) but I am unable to find the reference now.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#83

Post by southeastern »

Trasmatta wrote: post #75
schoen wrote: post #28

> Much of the doctrine is not acceptable to a modern Western worldview, so researchers of meditation have to cherry-pick the parts of Buddhism they like and ignore the rest. For example, they might draw from certain passages of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta about developing mindfulness of the breath and body but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground. Or they might integrate into their re…

> but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground As morbid as that is, I feel like I would actually gain a lot of value from doing that...

Death meditations are common in a lot of faiths. In Islam it's mentioned in hadith, Christianity has the practice of memento mori. And even in Time there was a tradition that during a Triumph, a large parade for a successful military commander and one of the greatest honors that could be bestowed on a person, a slave would be tasked to sit by the commanders ear during the celebration and whisper "remember you will die". I think it's naturally something a lot of people could gain from

Re: Buddha and Mind

#84

Post by _y5hn »

Trasmatta wrote: post #75
schoen wrote: post #28

> Much of the doctrine is not acceptable to a modern Western worldview, so researchers of meditation have to cherry-pick the parts of Buddhism they like and ignore the rest. For example, they might draw from certain passages of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta about developing mindfulness of the breath and body but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground. Or they might integrate into their re…

> but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground As morbid as that is, I feel like I would actually gain a lot of value from doing that...

And, if birth is possible, why wouldn't rebirth be possible, or even the extreme default?

It just seems silly to deny possibilities.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#85

Post by state_less »

bgroat wrote: post #76
optimalsolver wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have a bit of a backdoor experience into mindfulness through my background in lucid dreaming Could you elaborate on this? How does it help?

90% of lucid dreaming is just becoming extremely aware of your surroundings, and your experience of your surroundings, and whether they're real. Once you find out a few times that they aren't it can pretty fundamentally change some of your perceptions

It’s an odd thing to ‘wake up’ to the reality that you’re dreaming. Any tips on getting into that state again would be welcome. It tends to happen for me after I’ve been pretty focused/mindful of the present for some time.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#86

Post by _y5hn »

pasquinelli wrote: post #12
chana_masala wrote: post #3

This is kind of unrelated but whenever discussions on meditation come up here, especially recently ones that have mentioned the dangers around it, I am reminded that my lineage stresses that meditation should not be undertaken until one has sufficient preparation with simpler practices, such as karma yoga (service orientated worship). The perspective is that if you start these practices before "calming down" (like be…

that's kind of funny, because for a couple years there i had a consistent meditation practice, but in the last 9 months i've been unable to keep a schedule of any kind, or at least that's how it feels. i've tried, in place of meditation, just not being contemptuous of people. i'm not very good at it. but it's funny to me that i'm going about things backward.

It sounds like you've become more conscious.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#87

Post by bgroat »

state_less wrote: post #85
bgroat wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of lucid dreaming is just becoming extremely aware of your surroundings, and your experience of your surroundings, and whether they're real. Once you find out a few times that they aren't it can pretty fundamentally change some of your perceptions

It’s an odd thing to ‘wake up’ to the reality that you’re dreaming. Any tips on getting into that state again would be welcome. It tends to happen for me after I’ve been pretty focused/mindful of the present for some time.

What's helped me is getting really comfortable to the fact that the things around me are never really real.

They're either wholly manufactured (dreams), or partially manufactured (flawed senses and biases).

This tends to make me very mindful when awake, and very lucid while asleep

Re: Buddha and Mind

#88

Post by _y5hn »

Finnucane wrote: post #51
tokenpreneur wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worry not, for secular meditation does not get that far. Otherwise we'd have seen a psychosis pandemic vis-à-vis Calm.com's 40 million app installs.

The Buddha sought an escape from the state of dukkha, and our western political and economic systems depend on maximizing the state of dukkha. How do you make ‘self-help’ from a philosophy that teaches that there is no permanent self to help?

Escape and seclusion is circumstantial, so bound to change into bridge-building on middle ground.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#89

Post by schoen »

southeastern wrote: post #83
Trasmatta wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground As morbid as that is, I feel like I would actually gain a lot of value from doing that...

Death meditations are common in a lot of faiths. In Islam it's mentioned in hadith, Christianity has the practice of memento mori. And even in Time there was a tradition that during a Triumph, a large parade for a successful military commander and one of the greatest honors that could be bestowed on a person, a slave would be tasked to sit by the commanders ear during the celebration and whisper "remember you will di…

If you've been around Catholics on Ash Wednesday, you may have seen them wearing ashes, which were probably imposed by a priest reciting

"Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris."

(Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.)

a liturgical adaptation of Genesis 3:19.

Re: Buddha and Mind

#90

Post by _y5hn »

swayvil wrote: post #49
chana_masala wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree that it's good to use awareness intelligently, but you don't even need meditation for that, according to Hindu thought much of that can be achieved through other yogas, namely karma yoga. Meditation is much more than learning to use your awareness intelligently. There are many types of meditation, too.

I know of only 2 meditation techniques. Samatha and Vipassana. (Aka Concentration and Growing. Aka meditation with a seed and meditation without a seed). I have never heard of a meditation technique that was not simply a variation on those 2. But if you have one then I am all ears. Also, ya, you could say that meditation touches some other stuff than just "getting intelligent with your awareness". Sure. And as far as…

Meditation doesn't really promote the intellect. It needs direction. Something which karma yoga may provide for societal concerns, hatha yoga for physical, jnana for mind, etc.

There are over 100 meditations defined in Indian traditions. They're all useless without direction.

Post reply on HN