Hello
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- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 9:06 pm
Hello
My name is Eric. Most of my reading in Buddhism has been in zen, but I have read and enjoyed this forum for several months. My laziness and skepticism is corrosive, yet no matter how hard I try I can't escape "the Damma." Anyway, just thought I'd say hey. You guys really have a good thing going here. Vale.
- Polar Bear
- Posts: 1348
- Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:39 am
Re: Hello
Welcome aboard, despite your skepticism I think the best thing you can do is start meditating and differentiating between skillful and unskillful. Even if some claims in buddhism aren't true that doesn't mean there isn't lots of wisdom to be gained by practicing. Think of buddhism as an old well that you've stumbled across while traveling through the desert and you're desperately thirsty, but when you pull water from the well it's mixed with a small amount of mud or dirt so you have to take your shirt off and sift the water through your shirt and you'll come up with enough clean water to quench your thirst. In other words, investigate, but use your intelligence as well, there's no need to immediately accept everything with reckless abandon
Last edited by Polar Bear on Wed May 09, 2012 4:28 am, edited 2 times in total.
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."
"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
- retrofuturist
- Posts: 27848
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:52 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Hello
Greetings Eric,
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.
Thanks for saying hi!
Metta,
Retro.
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.
Thanks for saying hi!
Metta,
Retro.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 9:06 pm
Re: Hello
Thanks Polarbuddha! I rather like your analogy. One thing I've learned: if I there is something I think is wrong (at least when it comes to Buddhism), then I'm almost always mistaken. It's happened so much it's ridiculous. I sometimes feel like I should just give up on the "be lamp unto yourself" thing. But of course if I can't be my own lamp neither can anyone else. The key is to become a better lamp, right? I still need convincing when it comes to reincarnation, though. Or the omniscience of the Buddha. Or that an arahant dies after seven days if he hasn't ordained.polarbuddha101 wrote:Welcome aboard, despite your skepticism I think the best thing you can do is start meditating and differentiating between skillful and unskillful. Even if some claims in buddhism aren't true that doesn't mean there isn't lots of wisdom to be gained by practicing. Think of buddhism as an old well that you've stumbled across while traveling through the desert and you're desperately thirsty, but when you pull water from the well it's mixed with a small amount of mud or dirt so you have to take your shirt off and sift the water through your shirt and you'll come up with enough clean water to quench your thirst. In other words, investigate, but use your intelligence as well, there's no need to immediately accept everything with reckless abandon
- retrofuturist
- Posts: 27848
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:52 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Hello
Greetings Eric,
Metta,
Retro.
Neither of these are stated in the Sutta Pitaka, so perhaps you have no need to artificially convince yourself of these things?ericmattingly wrote:Or the omniscience of the Buddha. Or that an arahant dies after seven days if he hasn't ordained.
Metta,
Retro.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Re: Hello
Hi Eric and welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
kind regards,
Ben
kind regards,
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cittasanto
- Posts: 6646
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:31 pm
- Location: Ellan Vannin
- Contact:
Re: Hello
Welcome aboardericmattingly wrote:My name is Eric. Most of my reading in Buddhism has been in zen, but I have read and enjoyed this forum for several months. My laziness and skepticism is corrosive, yet no matter how hard I try I can't escape "the Damma." Anyway, just thought I'd say hey. You guys really have a good thing going here. Vale.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill