81–90 of 133 posts
A quote from my favorite Thich Nhat Hanh's book Old Path White Clouds:
"The same clouds that Buddha had seen were in the sky. Each serene step brought to life the old path and white clouds of the Buddha. The path of Buddha was beneath his very feet."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely it's lost to the sky, having fallen to the earth as rain? This is like one of those things people overlay on an image of a flower or a cloudy sky and then post to facebook.
Buddhism is about recognizing that everything is one, i.e. there's no sky/earth, but just sky-earth as one thing altogether. Of course you don't have to believe it or find it useful, I'm just explaining Buddhist thought in general and Thich Nhat Hanh's thoughts in particular here.
If you were to study, say, Theravada, you'd see something a lot more austere, less touch-feely (but compassionate), and very much centered on the four noble truths and eightfold path. It reflects a great deal about suffering, overcoming suffering in a Buddhist fashion, and living very, very morally.
So it helps to name the specific brand of Buddhism you're discussing. You're saying something akin to Christians all believe in transubstantiation and see the Pope as their leader, who can declare himself infallible if he chooses. Yes, Catholics do believe this, but not other Christians. Or speaking in tongues or handling snakes. Or that Jesus was a white northern European man with blue eyes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think most Buddhist traditions are “non theistic.” This is different from atheism and theism, in that it essentially says “Even if God exists, God is mostly if not completely beside the point. The point is relying on yourself to save yourself.”
My reading of the Tipitaka is that it says: 1. There are a lot of gods, as well as demons, etc. Typically the Sanskrit or Pali terms devas and asuras are used untranslated, in part because the ontological categories of different mythologies may not correspond exactly. 2. One of them was first and lives longer than the others. He says he's eternal and created everything else in the universe, but he's mistaken about bo…
Wow. I used to go to the mindfulness retreats at his affiliated monastery in San Diego. You left your phone in your car, and had 3-5 days (or more sometimes) of meditation, fresh cooked meals, and nature. It was really peaceful, and so different from what I had expected (something like a cult, being plied for donations etc. there was none of that). I stopped going when I left California, but it's hard to feel much mo…
Do you know of anyway to find more of those? I'm in Oakland and that sounds delightful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My reading of the Tipitaka is that it says: 1. There are a lot of gods, as well as demons, etc. Typically the Sanskrit or Pali terms devas and asuras are used untranslated, in part because the ontological categories of different mythologies may not correspond exactly. 2. One of them was first and lives longer than the others. He says he's eternal and created everything else in the universe, but he's mistaken about bo…
Buddhism rejects the concept of a creator god, though it does not deny the existence of "gods". But it holds that they, too, are subject to the cycle of rebirth and suffering like the rest of us.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know of anyway to find more of those? I'm in Oakland and that sounds delightful.
I highly recommend Vipassana [0]. It's similarly free from commercialism - there is no cost for teaching, lodging and food. At the end, you can pay if you found it beneficial and want to pay it forward. They also only accept contributions from people who have completed the program. Despite this policy, they've grown to 200+ centers across the world. I was so inspired [1] by it that I adopted a lot of their principles…
Wow. I used to go to the mindfulness retreats at his affiliated monastery in San Diego. You left your phone in your car, and had 3-5 days (or more sometimes) of meditation, fresh cooked meals, and nature. It was really peaceful, and so different from what I had expected (something like a cult, being plied for donations etc. there was none of that). I stopped going when I left California, but it's hard to feel much mo…
Do you know of anyway to find more of those? I'm in Oakland and that sounds delightful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buddhism is about recognizing that everything is one, i.e. there's no sky/earth, but just sky-earth as one thing altogether. Of course you don't have to believe it or find it useful, I'm just explaining Buddhist thought in general and Thich Nhat Hanh's thoughts in particular here.
There's many flavors of Buddhism and the idea of all "being one" isn't a shared philosophy amongst them all. The "woo" and connected, anything goes mentality, etc is mostly centered on "California Buddhism," which is a sort of western bastardization of common Buddhist concepts. If you were to study, say, Theravada, you'd see something a lot more austere, less touch-feely (but compassionate), and very much centered on…