samatha to appease

[befriend]

hi,
for the last 2 weeks i have been trying to put more effort into my practice. right now i feel like im having intense fun withdrawals, should i do some samatha to give the defilments some food. or should i do vipassana to uproot this defilement energy. by fun i mean like music, dancing, television. metta, befriend

[marc108]

maybe you could elaborate more about what you mean by 'put more effort into my practice'? are you adhering to the 8 precepts, and that's why you're not watching tv/dancing/etc ?

[James the Giant]

hi,
for the last 2 weeks i have been trying to put more effort into my practice. right now i feel like im having intense fun withdrawals, should i do some samatha to give the defilments some food. or should i do vipassana to uproot this defilement energy. by fun i mean like music, dancing, television. metta, befriend

Befriend, I'm having trouble finding the precept which says you can't have fun. Can you show me where it is?

Maybe, possibly, instead of doing a different kind of meditation, you could relax a bit and go out and have some fun!
Surely you can find some fun which is wholesome, which does not break any precepts? I love hiking, cycling, reading, chatting with friends, going to the park, feeding the birds, throwing a ball for the dog, baking cakes for my friends then having a dinner party, etc etc. That's all wholesome.
You're not a monk, Befriend. You're a layperson. There are just 5 precepts (or 8 if you are being really serious) not 227 rules for monks.

Also, the monks I know have a lot of fun, especially on the dirty muddy enjoyable building site building the new accommodation for visiting monks. They take walks in the forest, build things, study what interests them, write essays and books, they discuss and debate with each other, sew things, and sit around talking dhamma.

[befriend]

im trying to do this now, i take like 20 minutes to just have me time, to enjoy the feel of the sunshine and the flowers and think about what im grateful for. the thing is i want to see if i CAN be a monk i think of being a monk sometime within a few years, and i feel like im kind of in training. do i have the disposition to be a monk? i dont know im trying to find that out now. by saying i am putting more effort into my practice i do mean renunciation. the defilements get stir crazy so i dont know if when that happens i give them what they want even if it is like flowers and talking or samatha, or hold them back with vipassana.