Groundlessness, the basic Emptiness of things, and Acceptance.

[Fire Walk With Me]

This is basically to continue my efforts to connect different practices in noting similar tools. Note that I am no Buddhist master, and I post this only as an observation. I do note the Master's words that those who teach Buddhism without enlightenment, are killing Buddhism...I am not enlightened, but am hoping to learn what I can, and to share that which I have found to be beneficial.

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Buddhists teach that all things are empty, and that life is a groundless state. You cannot cling to anything, as everything changes (at least, in this, the physical realms). Pain comes from attempting to grasp that which has changed, working for it to become what it once was, and from fighting change you do not wish to occur.

There is no security. There is nothing to grasp, which can be used to provide security.

Except of course, that which is outside of these realms.

The loss of loved ones, the realization that perhaps there was no love to begin with; being unable to prevent detrimental situations and experiences; being unable to create beneficial situations and experiences. In the end, we are unable to manage the world at that level, and it is futile to attempt such control. Some degree may be had through the mystic arts, but being ego-based creatures, this can backfire to such an extent as to be anathema.

So, what to do?

The book "When Things Fall Apart" is an excellent source of wisdom and beneficial practices with which to face the inevitability of change, and its potential suffering. These are time-tested techniques that have survived because they function as described, regarding the problems we all face. It teaches to live in the middle ground where one does not become attached to the things and situations we believe we require in order to be happy, or even to be ourselves. We also lose karma as a result of not attaching and becoming energetically embroiled in the world and its dichotomy/duality.

I find that in the Anonymous programs that there is a similar hit. The legendary Page 417 (4th edition of the AA Big Book; Page 449 in the 3rd edition) speaks of Acceptance being the solution to all of my problems today. This of course is enraging to any addict :) However, it is the truth, and it teaches healthy detachment from the world and its phases. One may survive with clarity, situations which our culture really does not spend much time teaching us, such as the loss of loved ones, etc. See above.

Nice how all practices lead to the same place.

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. Well put

Thank you FWWM.

All practices lead to the same place. I really appreciate that sentiment.

I explained to someone the other day that _WE_ are all the drops of water in the ocean and when it rises up, forms clouds and then drops over the hills and mountains, each drop has a slightly different path, but they all end up back in the ocean.

None right or wrong. They just are.


We are here having an experience,
Bonnie

[WhiteTara]

2. the roads are many

the destination, one. Hindu "proverb"

I have to remember all the time that there is no permanence, only change. There is only now and the whole thing is an illusion. I read a lot of Pema Chodron's work and she is a true enlightened Buddhist.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Acceptance versus judgment...

a theme I see all around suddenly. Wonder if there's an astrological influence to attribute this to?

;)

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. I can only answer to energetic influence.

The 4th Dimension is extant, and the Higher Dimensions are coming into play as well. Concepts such as unity, forgiveness, etc. become more and more "logical" and perhaps even the norm :)

[get the red out]

4. Separation

If separate ourselves from all "things", all people, all emotions; we are separating ourselves from love and light as well. Emptiness is not light for me. Good and bad are part of the Earth existence, and if I put my hands over my ears and refuse to acknowledge my humanity I don't grow, I am just waiting to die hoping everyone will see how spiritual I am while I pass the time. That's just for me because I have to find work arounds and personal meanings or I will quit on a spiritual path altogether in frustration at the usual "not being good enough".

I don't mean to offend, I just had to come to terms with this a while back, do I want to take my lumps and live or just wait to die and hope it is soon so I don't have to feel anything?

I am an oddball though, and find that I have to look really hard for the spiritual concepts that work for me, which isn't acceptable in polite society, lol, but it's me.

I do not, however, need to make any "thing" the focal point of my existence, I must be spirit not the thing I hold close. I can't be my marriage, my job, my place, my favorite sports team; if my identity becomes one of those completely then I am asking for trouble, I am asking to no longer exist as my spirit. Very painful! I once was my job then lost the job and ceased to exist and was suicidal, if you can call it that since I no longer existed anyway; I had been so non-existant outside that career that even loved ones seemed to wonder why I would still be wasting air on this planet without it. In a milder experience I was around a group of people who consistently viewed me as one dimensional and would not allow me to exhibit growth in their presence without bringing me back to how they initially perceived me. This came to feel so uncomfortably patronizing that I had to distance myself from that particular gathrering. Definitely something I have to watch out for, I have to be my spirit being first and everything else long after that. But I don't want to be here and be afraid to love and live and enjoy; and that can't be without some pain as well.

I wrote this out for my own use as much as anything, so there is a grain of salt that goes with it.
;)

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. You probably perceive that I write for my own healing as well.

When not entirely planning the outcome, it is possible for truth to occur, to slip in between the intentional thoughts, and actually allow us to grow :)

I agree with your post, but remember that positive karma is still karma, requiring reincarnation to burn it away, to end the cycle of Samsara, to be free of the Astral Heaven and Hell.

[get the red out]

6. That's all good

I don't mind sticking around, if that is my fate.