The art of happiness

Do I detect an attachment to the Dhammapada? :)

s.
 
Snoopy said:
Trust in Mind: The Rebellion of ... - Google Book Search

(did I ever recommend this book? Mu Soeng is an excellent author IMHO).
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, Snoopy. I'm finding all kinds of gems in that volume. For one: dukkha is not strictly a property of a world that ultimately seems so unsatisfactory. Rather, it is something that arises from our relationship to the world, our attitude toward it, and our expectations.

Here's the thing: Do we change our attitudes and expectations because we know it'll make us feel better (by decreasing our unhappiness with short-term pleasures)?? Or do we do it because we want to clean the vessel to receive Divine Infusions (increase spiritual emotions associated with a more lasting sense of personal progress toward the One)??

I would say the whole business of overcoming egoistic bias and finding release from attachment that the Buddhists talk about takes on a whole different meaning if you see it as a movement toward God-dependence rather than just as a freestanding technique for short-circuiting the process that leads to unhappiness by eliminating the problem that leads to dukkha - i.e., problem of hunger and its resultants (craving, clinging, karmic entanglements and such).





​
 
Namaste Ahanu,

thank you for the post.

Ahanu said:
This book is informative. I was suprised to find out that the Dalai Lama said, "No," when he was asked if he is ever lonely.

No?

I read the line about 3 or four times in surprise.
Click to expand...

His Holiness has led an extraordinary life and i'm surprised by his answer as well. did he qualify the statement in some manner?

from a Buddhist perspective, anybody want to share how they would overcome these problems?
self disclosure,
Click to expand...

well.. this is a somewhat difficult phrase to parse as you can imagine within the overall rubric of Buddhism though it has more to do with our ideas regarding the term self and that to which the term refers.

that said, the practice of Tonglen is remarkably effective in this process, in my experience.

difficulty communicating with others,
Click to expand...

i suppose that would depend on if the reason is organic or not.. i.e. is there a physiological reason for such an impediment or is it psychological. many renowned Buddhist teachers had notoriously difficult issues with communicating to others, the 6th Patriarch of Ch'an for instance. in many cases, of course, it is through our actions and our behaviour that we most clearly communicate with others.

are poor listeners,
Click to expand...

generally speaking this is a matter of mindfulness unless you mean in the sense of being a sympathetic listener. mindfulness would help there two but i think that aspect is more a function of the development of Bodhichitta within an individual being.

and lack certain social skills such as picking up conversational cues.
Click to expand...

mindfulness is quite important in most aspects of our existence. when i was in the military we had a saying "stay alert, stay alive." which is sound advice in most situations ;)

by and large our skills improve as we use them so the more often that we can practice our nonverbal communication, reading body language, making the correct inferences with regards to personal space and so forth, the easier it becomes.

metta,

~v
 
seattlegal said:
Fasting of the heart :)
Click to expand...




Nice passage.
But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens.​
This sounds a lot like the spiritual transparency suggested in descriptions of Buddha mind (Prajna intuition). Empty the contents to get to No-Views.

Could be Neo-Confucianism with a Zen influence. Some of the permutations of Neo-Confucianism have been lovingly characterized as "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism decked out in Confucian garb."
Neo-Confucianism
 
Netti-Netti said:
Nice passage.
But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens.​
This sounds a lot like the spiritual transparency suggested in descriptions of Buddha mind (Prajna intuition). Empty the contents to get to No-Views.

Could be Neo-Confucianism with a Zen influence. Some of the permutations of Neo-Confucianism have been lovingly characterized as "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism decked out in Confucian garb."
Neo-Confucianism
Click to expand...

It is from the Taoist text Chuang tzu, inner chapter 4,
Zän Kien Shih, This Human World.

Chuang Tzu 4 Lin Yutang translation

Chuang Tse 4 James Legge translation
 
Netti-Netti said:
Wrong thread? {this one is on Buddhisms} :)
Click to expand...
It never stopped folks like Zhi Dun...Buddhist monks in China often introduced Buddhist concepts in the context of Chuang Tzu and the Tao Te Ching, just as Chuang Tzu introduced Taoism at times in the context of Confuncianism. (Do you want to exclude the Mahayana school from Buddhism?)
 
Netti-Netti said:
Wrong thread? {this one is on Buddhisms} :)
Click to expand...

Yeah come on sg, get with the programme! :p

My limited understanding of the goings-on in China suggest much of the interactions between Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism were to do with "power struggles" (for want of a better phrase) in the society for "hearts and minds". For example, Neo-Confucianism was essentially a vehicle to be used against Ch'an.

s.
 
Snoopy said:
Yeah come on sg, get with the programme! :p

My limited understanding of the goings-on in China suggest much of the interactions between Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism were to do with "power struggles" (for want of a better phrase) in the society for "hearts and minds". For example, Neo-Confucianism was essentially a vehicle to be used against Ch'an.

s.
Click to expand...
Oh, the interdependent co-arising thing again?
 
Snoopy said:
My limited understanding of the goings-on in China suggest much of the interactions between Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism were to do with "power struggles" (for want of a better phrase) in the society for "hearts and minds". For example, Neo-Confucianism was essentially a vehicle to be used against Ch'an.
Click to expand...
Some of it appears to be linguistic:
Since Buddhism arrived in China well after Taoism had developed, the Chinese used familiar Taoist terms to describe similar Buddhist ideas. This has led to countless poor translations of Sutras from Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan into Chinese and caused a lot of misunderstandings. The Tao even has a similar writing style to Chinese Zen (actually called Ch'an in Chinese) writings.
​
Tao Te Ching and Buddhism
 
Netti-Netti said:
Some of it appears to be linguistic
Click to expand...

Undoubtedly!

and cultural too: (I'm probably recalling badly from a book whose name escapes me but I could fish it out...)...

the Chinese "mindset" was more concerned with the earthy hear and now rather than the more philosophical Indian mindset prone to musing on future rebirths and cosmologies.

s.
 
...and an interesting point about emptiness in your link there, n-n.

s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top