Meditation - Essential to Buddhism

[Phaelyn]

There are those who are totally unaware of their "wrong" deeds. They justify everything they do. Maybe they are aware they have harmed others, but this is ignored as they are "right" in what they did or said. Or that the victims of their actions or words, somehow deserved such treatment. Then there are those who are aware they do bad deeds, and they try to stop, but find they often continue to do bad. Some just get confused at what is bad or good. The mind can be a mess of conflicting beliefs and messages. What do most violent movies do? They show us who is bad and good in the movie, then we root for the good guy to kill the bad guy. Easy eh.... point of view, conditioning....focusing on only one aspect of a person, what they do or did.... The more horrible the villain is shown to be, the more we root for his or her demise or harsh treatment in the movie.

But then what if the person doing bad things in a Western wears the white hat? What if the person is wearing orange monk robes? Has a high position? Is a priest or master or said to be enlightened or liberated or realized? What if they are a member of our family, or religious group? What if their beliefs and spiritual practices align with ours? How are we to judge what is good or bad then! Well we say things like, well that may look bad, but he is a priest or realized, so I can't really judge such behaviors... or I will forgive.... give a pass to.... I will not comment or judge... send him to a new parish....

What is essential to be a spiritual being or entity? What is an essential spiritual practice? What is essential to be a Buddhist or Christian? There are no easy simple answers. The is no magic practice or belief or technique that can make us good kind unconditionally loving beings. But we try eh (or don't try and don't care about such things) .... do the best we can with what we know and are... In the end, this is not a solo pursuit. The other, the other person, those we encounter, those we are in various relationships with, that's where the rubber meets the road... that's where we are tested, where we "practice." Sitting in meditation hours everyday will not have any benefit at all if we continue to be mean self centered persons who harm others in various ways. But then sitting meditation can help us as well. So intent also comes into it, one can sit in meditation for good reasons or bad reasons.....to desire to be a better person....or from a desire for more selfish pleasures, maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't..... what to do? Up to us to figure out.

There is certainly no shortage or people giving us their opinions and beliefs on what should or needs to be done. In the end, we choose what we are and do moment to moment. Our future and present is our responsibility and nobody else's.

[Phaelyn]

The messages can be pretty simple, do unto others as you would want done unto you. Love yourself and others. Be kind to yourself and others. Even to not judge. But yea depending on our circumstances, even these simple ideas can not work at all. What about when we encounter others who are harming the innocent? What then? Not judge? Not put an end to the unrighteous harm? Then judging becomes a good and righteous thing. Be kind and non-violent and non-judgmental towards a pit bull running through a neighborhood attacking small children? A life on earth is no easy thing. Everything is complicated.

[sky]

Yes.... Meditation is essential to Buddhism.

[sky]

Originally Posted by janielee

Without a regular, formal meditation practice, there is no authentic Buddhist practice.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

The messages can be pretty simple, do unto others as you would want done unto you. Love yourself and others. Be kind to yourself and others. Even to not judge. But yea depending on our circumstances, even these simple ideas can not work at all. What about when we encounter others who are harming the innocent? What then? Not judge? Not put an end to the unrighteous harm? Then judging becomes a good and righteous thing. Be kind and non-violent and non-judgmental towards a pit bull running through a neighborhood attacking small children? A life on earth is no easy thing.




' Everything is complicated.

'





Not when you choose the ' Middle Way ' and a lot of common sense

[sentient]

Well ...

Meditation-in-action or monkey-mind-in-compulsive-action contradicting itself at every turn and shadow boxing with itself, fighting hypothetical situations and getting all emotional about them ….

If it is happening right now, it is happening …..

If it is not happening right now, it isn’t happening

And whatever is or isn’t happening right now, the good old:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

*

Originally Posted by sentient

Well ...

Meditation-in-action or monkey-mind-in-compulsive-action contradicting itself at every turn and shadow boxing with itself, fighting hypothetical situations and getting all emotional about them ….

If it is happening right now, it is happening …..

If it is not happening right now, it isn’t happening

And whatever is or isn’t happening right now, the good old:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

*

I've presently joined the The Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
Because I can't remember if Bruce"Bob" aka Cole, saved the world or not.

But I did learn about a primary.
quote from the google machine.

What is a primary in 12 Monkeys?
A paradoxed Primary. Compared to gears in a clock,
Primaries are a support system for time. As a result,
if Primaries are paradoxed, the structure of time is weakened.
If enough Primaries are paradoxed, time will collapse and cease to exist.
This is the basis of the Army of the 12 Monkeys' mission.

Far out.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Gem

What, essentially, is meditation?

In laymen language reflective pensive unbiased recurring disciplined thinking on self, world n God leading to transcendental/sublimatory life.

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

In laymen language reflective pensive unbiased recurring disciplined thinking on self, world n God leading to transcendental/sublimatory life.

Buddhist meditation is not thinking, HITESH SHAH

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

The messages can be pretty simple, do unto others as you would want done unto you. Love yourself and others. Be kind to yourself and others. Even to not judge. But yea depending on our circumstances, even these simple ideas can not work at all. What about when we encounter others who are harming the innocent? What then? Not judge? Not put an end to the unrighteous harm? Then judging becomes a good and righteous thing. Be kind and non-violent and non-judgmental towards a pit bull running through a neighborhood attacking small children? A life on earth is no easy thing. Everything is complicated.

You brought up some interesting points.

What can complicate matters is sometimes when we are under duress, some people go into 'automatic mode'.

I liked your analogy of a pit bull. What do you do?