Unorthodox training

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
Post Reply
User avatar
purple planet
Posts: 728
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:07 am

Unorthodox training

Post by purple planet »

Unorthodox training ideas to get rid of defilements

sutff like walking with weird clothes in the streets to overcome shyness and going on amusment park to overcome fear ect ect ...

inspired by what i read ajhan chan practice - just i dont want to go to dangerous places so im trying to find good ideas like this

think this are good ideas ? have other ones ?
Chi
Posts: 130
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:18 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Contact:

Re: Unorthodox training

Post by Chi »

Give things away like your life depends on it. Practice being mindful of the happiness before giving, the happiness while giving, and the happiness after giving. For me, giving away my possessions and simplifying my life has created so much indescribable happiness and contentment and confidence.

Sometimes, getting out of the house for any reason is a wonderful way to reduce laziness/inertia.

How about finding a way to stand while on the computer rather than sit? I've seen a few people do this and they seem quite energetic.

Laugh a lot. I just attended a laughter yoga session a couple of days ago and it totally takes a person out of the stories for a while. In the car, just start pointing at yourself and laughing. Whenever you find yourself making elaborate plans or fantasizing about something, point at yourself and laugh. Pretend you are on the phone and somebody is telling you the funniest thing ever and start laughing. Pretend like you are riding a motorcycle around and start laughing. Laughter and smiling is such good medicine for the disease of seriousness.

Do some yoga. Relax, stretch.

Eat healthy, slowly, mindfully. Realize that you and the food are already one thing. That there is nobody inside consuming something on the outside. Easier said than done, but practicing this way is a wonderful way to realize that everything is just energy. Food has energy. Do you want a certain energy to become your energy? Which energies feel healthiest? Which energies do you crave but know are unhealthy for you?

Be Happy! :namaste:
Do Good, Avoid Evil, Purify the Mind.
David2
Posts: 930
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Unorthodox training

Post by David2 »

Some approaches:
-do something "extreme", i.e. something that leads you to the borders of your comfort zone
-do something which the wise would not disapprove
-do something after which you can think "what had to be done has been done" - contentment is always good.
-do something which helps other people
-do something which is good for your bodily health
-do something which prevents you from doing unskillful things
-do something and ask yourself "who is doing this?"
-do something monotonous and learn to enjoy it/ be mindful while doing it
-do nothing and just watch (the orthodox way? :spy:)
User avatar
Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: Unorthodox training

Post by Ben »

If you practice, sila, samadhi and panna then you are going against the orthodoxy of the habituated response of craving and aversion to sensory data. It is the ekayano maggo: direct path.
My concern with what you are contemplating is that it could be an exercise in indulging in delusion in the same way as the dog-ascetic and the ox-ascetic.
wishing you all the best,

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 ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
Cittasanto
Posts: 6646
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:31 pm
Location: Ellan Vannin
Contact:

Re: Unorthodox training

Post by Cittasanto »

purple planet wrote:Unorthodox training ideas to get rid of defilements

sutff like walking with weird clothes in the streets to overcome shyness and going on amusment park to overcome fear ect ect ...

inspired by what i read ajhan chan practice - just i dont want to go to dangerous places so im trying to find good ideas like this

think this are good ideas ? have other ones ?
Take a banana for a walk, and try to play fetch with it like it was a dog, while wearing a BDSM clown outfit.
not that it would do much, unless you face your hindrences as you are, not as another mask worn.
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
Post Reply