by onacruse 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Onacruse
You have quoted from my comment on Terry’s thread entitled:
‘The vote is in: SCIENCE vs RELIGION......who won?’
Why you have chosen to start a new thread using a partial quote instead of simply adding a comment to Terry’s thread and continuing the consistency of the matter in hand gives me an insight in to your motivation.
My comments were designed to help not to challenge or gain attention.
As this is your thread I will leave you to explain your point.
I'm receptive to considering alternative experiences.
How would one "begin" this meditative process?
Trevor:
Why you have chosen to start a new thread using a partial quote instead of simply adding a comment to Terry’s thread and continuing the consistency of the matter in hand gives me an insight in to your motivation.
You have no idea what my motivation was, nor what has transpired between Terry and myself on his thread.
My comments were designed to help not to challenge or gain attention.
I understand that, which was why I stipulated on the opening post that I was not trying to challenge you.
As this is your thread I will leave you to explain your point.
My "point" is to understand your "point," and to allow myself to try to understand that there may be other ways of apprehending my universe, as foreign, and even illogical, as they may be to me.
edit to add: If you perhaps feel that I should make an apology to you, then I hereby offer it, for every poster to see.
http://www.amazon.com/ Meditation for Dummies Stephan Bodian
enjoy, Dave
****How would one "begin" this meditative process?****
ona - there is a lot of different ways to begin meditation...quite simply sit in a quiet, undistracted, place and try to learn to listen to your breathing. if you have trouble stopping the thought process ask yourself *I wonder what my next thought will be?* usually, it stops the thought process in it's tracks.
btw, try some mind-altering drugs now and then and you can achieve thought/ideas without words.
I used the breath counting method, as my mind likes to be really active. Just count out breaths, one to five, for about 15 minutes, minimum. It actually hard work.
S
Dave, thanks for that reference. I'll start with Kate, since she knows a whole lot more about this kind of stuff than do I.
fl:
if you have trouble stopping the thought process ask yourself *I wonder what my next thought will be?* usually, it stops the thought process in it's tracks.
You touch me with that. I think and think and think...sometimes I'd like to just blow off my head, especially as I consider that everything I've thought is just...well, Satanus can say it better than me.
In any case, I thank you all for being here, putting up with me and my rantings.
Life just ********** sucks.
(((craig)))
"The obtuse one" (aka Craig)
Awe honey you task me......
I'm not gifted with word but I know what I know and I remember what I've been shown or have read and this reading comes to mind from a Buddist nun Pema Chodron in her book The Places That Scare You in her Prolgue;
When I teach, I begin with a compassionate aspiration, I express the wish that we will apply the teachings in our everyday lives and thus free ourselves and others from suffering.
During the talk, I encourage the audience to keep an open mind, without preconception's. As the Zen master Suzuki Roshi put it; "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."
At the end of the talk, I dedicate the merit of the occasion to all beings. This gesture of universal friendship has been likened to a drop of fresh spring water. If we put it on a rock in the sunshine, it will soon evaporate. If we put it in the ocean, however , it will never be lost. Thus the wish is made that we not keep the teachings to ourselves but use them to benefit others.
This approach reflects what are called the three noble principles; good in the beginning, good in the middle, good at the end. The can be used in all the activities of our lives. We can begin anything we do--start our day, eat a meal, or walk into a meeting--with the intention to be open, flexible, and kind. Then we ca proceed with an inquisitive attitude. As my teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, "Live your life as an experiment."
At the end of the activity, whether we feel we have succeeded or failed in our intention, we seal the act by thinking of others, of those who are succeeding and failing all over the world. We wish that anything we learned in our experiment could also benefit them.
In this spirit, I offer this guide on the training of the compassionate warrior. May it be of benefit at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. May it help move us toward the places that scare us. May it inform our lives and help us to die with no regrets.
trevor said:
The whole point is to not allow words to enter the mind and start the thought process. It is the space that this uncovers that makes it possible to return to a default setting of calmness and peace. It is what silence is to noise. Sometimes this state of mind can cause emotions to enter the mind that have been held back by the activity of word driven thought. People who first attempt meditation find a lot of debris rising to the surface.
It takes lots of practice to quiet the mind and it also takes a willing spirit to endure the process. Little by little you achieve a calmness which keeps you repeating the process until you finally achieve transformation and the calmness overtakes you and it's a high higher than any you've ever experienced with any mood altering substance which keeps you coming back for more, and this is the quencher for anyone who has truly reached it you come back not for the high but for the calmness of it all, where you just know all is well and you are okay and life doesn't seem such a burden anymore.
It is not rocket science, in fact it is not science at all. It is about developing the ability to still the thinking process and make room for the awareness of the other factors that may be affecting our lives.
Bingo! Life seems so much more refreshing when we stop struggling against the nature of reality and just accept what is, only then can we relax and be fully present for our lives.
Craig said;
My "point" is to understand your "point," and to allow myself to try to understand that there may be other ways of apprehending my universe, as foreign, and even illogical, as they may be to me.
Not everything has logic to it, dare I say that the things which are most illogical are the by far the most poignant.
You touch me with that. I think and think and think...sometimes I'd like to just blow off my head, especially as I consider that everything I've thought is just...well,
And now honey I will say something you will probably really hate but from the words of Philip Knight.......just do it!
Onacruse
I have been out and not had time to reply. There is no need to apologise at all. We are all free to question, criticise and debate on the board.
What I am describing is not a mystical experience and has nothing to do with spirituality, belief or prayer. It is simply the understanding that being asleep or awake and thinking are not the only two gears the mind has.
There are other of states of mind. Hypnosis shows how easily the thinking mind can be altered by digging a little below the surface. Thinking is a most important tool but it can also cause neurosis and other anxiety problems when a person has not learned to control the intensity of the thought process.
The comments others have made on this thread are helpful and there is plenty of information on this much debated and misunderstood subject.
