Re: Thoughts

Date: 2025-05-19 11:45 am (UTC)
cattasalla: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cattasalla
Yeah. I've seen that kind of problem. It's more of a risk nowadays because there is a lot of information about Buddhism in books and online, but it's less easy to find a serious teacher. Also, the detachment aspects of Buddhism attract some of the same people who get into certain drugs: because they're looking for a way to stop caring about whatever is making them miserable. Which is, historically, a reason some people become monks in various religions. It's a misuse of the material, but it's an easy mistake to make, and not an easy one to prevent people from making.

That is exactly the problem, and it's even addressed by the tradition but people who don't know it miss it. I'm not sure how familiar you are so apologies if you already know this, but for the brahmavihāras, what Thich Nhat Hanh called "the four aspects of true love," each has a "far enemy," which is the opposite, and a "near enemy," which is close, but also definitely not it. For equanimity, the inclusive love that accepts someone even with all of their faults, the near enemy is apathy or indifference. Equanimity is about not being moved and staying centered when good or bad things come up in life, but it still means caring and being present. Cold detachment is definitely not our thing.

True. You have to think about it more, though, which is sometimes an asset and other times not.

Not really, though. In fact, when caught up in liking and disliking you end up thinking about it more than when spontaneously acting out of a natural wisdom according to the best information you have. There is only such thought as is necessary. When caught by liking and disliking, though, when you are motivated by those, you end up having to think about how to get the thing you want or away from the thing you don't want. And if you're judging yourself for what you like or dislike, there's even the additional step of coming up with rationalizations or justifications.

It probably works a lot better at high levels in the controlled environment of a monastery.

Yeah, that's important for training and why we laity have it harder. We have far more choices to make than a monastic does. My teacher has talked about this before. Part of the point of being a monastic is specifically to have fewer choices to make, which means fewer opportunities to break the training rules. They don't get to decide what they eat or when they eat, or what they do with at least half of their day (sometimes the whole day), what to wear, and other things besides.

I'm eclectic; I like to look at many different traditions and see what they are good at, then consider if it is useful to me.

Great! I'm also eclectic, but mostly between different Buddhist traditions! I do incorporate a fair amount of Western occultism and paganism in my practice, though, like observing the Wheel of the Year or doing daily Tarot readings and meditations.

It's the monkey's paw trap -- being unable to let go of things, and it causes trouble.

I like to say it's not even about letting go but about not picking it up in the first place. That's where we want to get to in our training.

That's ingrained in society to the point that television ads push it, trying to make people want all this stuff. Not healthy.

Yeah, there's an entire industry that has perfected the art of manipulating our desires and fears to get us to buy their stuff. Not healthy indeed.
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Upāsaka Cattasallā

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