This was an allusion to a Buddhist teaching. If you pay close attention, you will notice that every conscious experience is marked by impermanence, dissatisfaction, and emptiness.
Yes, all sensory experience. I would include thoughts, etc., as they are always accompanied by sensations in the body.
-
-
The spiritual trap seems to be this: One learns that experience is unsatisfactory and that grasping leads to suffering. Thus, one begins seeking a kind of experience that is not unsatisfactory (i.e. enlightenment). Problem is, that's a fantasy.
-
Which is why emptiness as a practice means to not take anything, even enlightenment so seriously and to appreciate our delusions as waves from the mind. It’s let go, not let’s go.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
fair enough. sounds like Dzogchen isn't for you.
-
Mind training is still useful. The wishful thinking parts aren't. And Theravada has plenty of wishful thinking too.
-
I feel like much of the wishful thinking in Buddhism is directly related to the depressing core premise. But even if true, why orient around that?
-
The truth hurts, as that unspecified "they" say. Why orient around what? The depressing premise or the magical thinking?
-
The depressing premise. Buddha's idea is this is fundamental truth, but I'd be inclined to say that's one of those "even if true, how relevant is it?" kind of deals. There are other fundamental truths you might be able to ascertain as well. Should those also form religions?
-
It's relevant because, according to the teaching, when you fully understand this truth, you cease to be surprised when suffering happens. This leads to a kind of "meta-okay-ness" (credit to Kenneth Folk for that term) that is present even with negative experiences.
-
In other words, you stop taking your experience so seriously. Also, was the Buddha (insofar as he was a real person) trying to form a religion? I don't know that he was.
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.