Weboards, the new Mara?

[Jhana4]

Last night I had a splendid meditation session. I got deeply relaxed. Then I got a huge shot of bliss. I felt like I could float through my ceiling. Then I went to a web board where someone left me an unprovoked and slightly rude reply to a message I posted. I felt a sudden impulse to rip that person apart. LOL! .

I decided to watch it pass, like a sudden surge of stiffness in a lower leg haven fallen asleep during meditation.

That doesn't always happen

The internet has been a great boon for communicating information about meditation and Buddhism. I also think it has a compulsive element to it that goads people into getting lost over petty things.

I mean, if I can feel like that fantastic from meditation one second and feel full of rage from the internet the next second, it either says very little about the Dhamma or it says a lot about the compulsive nature of web boards

[Nibbida]

Or the web board is a teacher in disguise, showing you where hidden faults lie. It's doing you a favor by showing where you need more work. By working through those areas, your practice will strengthen even more and you will reap the benefits.

[Jechbi]

For what it's worth, I think meditation periods can be a good reality check, and it doesn't matter to me personally if there is bliss or physical pain or both or neither. Then at other times, things crop up that also present an opportunity for being present, including annoyances. Whatever underlying reactivity occurs, it's a chance to notice what's happening within, and to engage it directly with equanimity and awareness. That's part of ongoing practice. We're not always going to get it right.

If I can feel fantastic during meditation one second and feel full of rage the next second, it says very little about the Dhamma, and it also says very little about the nature of web boards, but it says a lot about the underlying pyschophysical processes that we all have experienced for as long as any of us can remember.

People say and do things on web boards that can be helpful or unhelpful. The best we can do is respond authentically with an attitude of friendship, leaving our expectations at the door. Either that or disengage, I suppose.

[Jhana4]

Or the web board is a teacher in disguise, showing you where hidden faults lie. It's doing you a favor by showing where you need more work. By working through those areas, your practice will strengthen even more and you will reap the benefits.

That sounds similar to a rap an acquaintance of mine had in college. The guy was very intelligent, very well read, very into philosophy of all kinds and very into Buddhism. He also had problems with OCD he was in denial about and he was an attention whore.

He would blather off a barrage of twenty dollar words, off tangent, in class and on a number of Buddhist forums at the time. He instigated many fights and spoiled many discussions. When people complained, he mentioned many good points like yours, but then perverted those points into some sort of psuedo zen lesson about an enlightened master who acts like ass to help people. With the implication of him being the enlightened master/ass, being pleased with himself and chuckling at you.

He lives in my area and he is still pulling that shtick.

He hasn't changed, let alone grown. He has just gotten older.

[rowyourboat]

Hi Jhana4

No one is claiming perfection here. But we are here to help each other. Buddhist practice must necessarily include giving as well as being able to take advice from your peers (due to the absence of a God whispering in your ear ). If we presume that someone is judging us each time he/she gives some advice we didn't figure out by ourselves, we will not get very far.

Returning to a technical point- the development of calm, concentrated mind states simply suppress defilements and sometimes they simply break through if they are provoked hard enough. This is why there is the whole eightfold practice (noble eightfold path) to cultivate and develop, not just meditation. I have had much benefit from practicing this and will continue to do it in the future. It is far superior to any form of therapy currently available.

With metta

Matheesha

[m0rl0ck]

The internet has been a great boon for communicating information about meditation and Buddhism. I also think it has a compulsive element to it that goads people into getting lost over petty things.

People are full of crap, conceited and always looking to put someone down for being stupid or belonging to the wrong sect or having the wrong politics blah blah blah I can only think that it stems from some sort of presumed inferiority.

As much as i have learned on buddhist forums over the past few years, in my experience to date, they are absolutely unexcelled crap delivery systems.

[Jhana4]

Why post on them then? I agree with you about the roots of the bickering.

[Jhana4]

rowyourboat, point taken. Like I wrote, it just sounded too close to an old left handed slam pulled by an OCD jerk I used to know.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I'm starting to think that its a problem when a web board reaches a certain critical mass — number of members or posts per day perhaps. What started off as mostly polite and helpful discussion, easily degenerates into a slanging match.

Many people equate moderation with censorship, but it seems to be something that is unavoidable on web boards that become active and popular.

My school music teacher put it well — if you don't discipline yourself, someone else will have to do it for you.

[tiltbillings]

it either says very little about the Dhamma or it says a lot about the compulsive nature of web boards

Actually, it says something about you. Bliss is nice, but it is just a rising and passing stuff, just as is rage and neither are worth hanging on to, but both can be an occasion for insight as one pays attention to (but not intellectualize about) the transitory natures of these emotions/sensations.

[tiltbillings]

That sounds similar to a rap an acquaintance of mine had in college. The guy was very intelligent, very well read, very into philosophy of all kinds and very into Buddhism. He also had problems with OCD he was in denial about and he was an attention whore.

He would blather off a barrage of twenty dollar words, off tangent, in class and on a number of Buddhist forums at the time. He instigated many fights and spoiled many discussions. When people complained, he mentioned many good points like yours, but then perverted those points into some sort of psuedo zen lesson about an enlightened master who acts like ass to help people. With the implication of him being the enlightened master/ass, being pleased with himself and chuckling at you.

He lives in my area and he is still pulling that shtick.

He hasn't changed, let alone grown. He has just gotten older.

And he has obviously annoyed the bejesus out of you. There is something to learn from that.

[Jhana4]

My school music teacher put it well — if you don't discipline yourself, someone else will have to do it for you.

That sounds like something a music teacher would say! Hah!

[Jhana4]

He lives in my area and he is still pulling that shtick.

He hasn't changed, let alone grown. He has just gotten older.

And he has obviously annoyed the bejesus out of you. There is something to learn from that.

LOL! Not for about 15 years. I avoid socializing with him directly. Given the way he still acts it wouldn't surprise me if he is still on talk.religion.buddhism just with a new alias. Point taken. Don't let myself get annoyed by what a mentally ill person has to say, because that is what it is.

[tiltbillings]

Don't let myself get annoyed by what a mentally ill person has to say, because that is what it is.

Easier said than done, of course, but it can be a learning experience on any number of levels.

[m0rl0ck]

Why post on them then? I agree with you about the roots of the bickering.

Lately i pretty much try to keep it to providing support and whatever in my experience might help with a problem someone has. Another good reason may be to offer what ever academic knowledge someone has requested. Its ideally about support and mutual aid in helping each other along the path.

Many tho seem to think that causing discord in the sangha to flatter their own intellectual vanity is what buddhism is all about.

There seems to be little sense that encouraging virtues like equanimity in others is of any importance, instead the object for some seems to be to draw others into conflict. We are inhabiting a common environment here and many seem to think that its about smearing shit on the walls to mark their territory.