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Post by tzewang on Dec 22, 2005 17:13:17 GMT
how can we best practise as buddhists without loosing our personailty or sounding like we have swallowed a rule book? how can we practise without alienating the ordinary non-buddhists that we meet?
i'd be interested to see what people suggest,
tzewang
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Post by JCL on Dec 22, 2005 17:38:09 GMT
good question. well i'd say taking in2 account the fact that testing the teachings and philosophy is encouraged as a crucial part of them would stop that?
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Post by karrenablaze on Dec 22, 2005 20:12:46 GMT
i'd really like to know some answers to this question... the only thing i can think of it to keep it light, depending on who you're talking to. i've made the mistake of talking to non-dharma practitioners as if they were dharma practitioners and ended up feeling like i totally have alienated them.
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Post by monkeymind on Dec 22, 2005 21:55:56 GMT
Hi, tsewang, JCL, & karrenablaze Perhaps by acting with the sanity and respect that our primordial intelligence equips us with! As to talking about the dharma to people unaware of the dharma, that's a whole other ball of wax, i.e., criteria. You need to know where they're coming from and if they're able to listen with an open mind and heart as well as, have good intentions of your own. Haha! Not that I'm a seasoned practitioner of the Dharma by any means. Thich Nhat Hahn gave good advice about pre-requisites needed to give a dharma talk. Perhaps in his book, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching," he gives guidance about giving a dharma talk. When I talk to people about the Dharma, it's usually testimonial in nature as to how I became interested in it. Any ideas? /\ Namaste monkeymind
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Post by prady on Dec 23, 2005 9:29:35 GMT
do you know what i do? i put a ban on all wrote replies and set me self the challenge of using other words to say what i felt needed to be said...becasue after all most of the time its ur karma ripening is true fooking karma its everywhere. but mainly i decided to speak from love first dharma later ... but i don't think i am buddhist enough these days need my dharma robot back these dharma parrots nearly killed me talking with love is important
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Post by tzewang on Dec 23, 2005 14:55:34 GMT
in some ways i think this can be about this process: absorb -> reiterate -> experience i think there is a need to re-tell the teachings we have heard and i think this is a perfectly natural part of the learning process. hopefully once we have integrated them into the fabric of our (non)being ( ) we can then start to relate to people in our own language and without quoting the rule book. i guess thats how it is for me anyway. i feel i really need to try and remain natural and experience things as they arise, without trying to manufacture anything or process what is happening in my mind. although in my more heavily philosophical days, i used to resist this, cos it seemed too easy, i really do now believe it is true: there is nothing much to do accept remain mindful, let the dirt settle, dont stir it up at all... ... just observe, just observe lol (to quote old goenka) everything is the mandala, (to anoy goenka lol) but it is ! dan
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Post by prady on Dec 24, 2005 16:10:09 GMT
you know i think this is really important... ultimately if we don't relate the advice in the books to what is going on in our mind...what we think we feel...in a way we relate to it...what are we actually doing??? i mean come on...what benefit is there otherwise appart from the hope of a virtuous imprint?
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Post by prady on Dec 24, 2005 18:01:00 GMT
IF i hope u don't mind but i loved this and wanted to share it with those who might not visit esangha x
If you cannot find the light perhaps you are in the way.
the truth will set you free until you stab somebody with it.
all who walk, all who live compassion, courage, honor, I will embrace with humor. those who only talk, talk is all you get.
there is no perfect life, only moments of beauty.
when passion is all or nothing someone has to lose.
Language: the attempts to exchange ideas across a chasm of limited perceptions
Politics: to sway opinions by language and displays of passion.
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Post by Satori on Dec 24, 2005 18:03:17 GMT
I love that!! Thanks for posting it, Prady! ;D
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Post by prady on Dec 24, 2005 18:17:15 GMT
thank that wonderful ironfeather its all down to him
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Post by Satori on Dec 24, 2005 18:21:08 GMT
Wonderful, Ironfeather!! Lovely! ;D ;D
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Post by ironfeather on Dec 27, 2005 12:35:10 GMT
K, no prob, Prady... and Arigato Satori. There's more where those came from.
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