Añjali, D.W.
I'm here because I find making friends off-line a slow and challenging process, and I'm also in an area with very few Theravāda Buddhists. I think that any collective interest in Buddhism in these parts is mostly tangential to the popular curiosity about mindfulness.
I also recently suffered a trauma: I was at work - an overnight job at a hotel - and I found myself face-to-face with a masked young man sticking a gun in my chest. He had it up against my back as he cleaned out the front desk of cash, he had it against the back of my head as he forced me to disable the surveillance system (but all I did was turn off the monitor and yank a bunch of unrelated wires, to his apparent satisfaction), and he fired his gun in my direction to intimidate me before fleeing. He has yet to be caught, but surveillance did capture his image. I was obligated to watch the footage and I saw myself on the verge of death.
The impact of this trauma is slowly dawning on me. I think I was in a stupor afterwards, but as it gets closer to a week since the incident, I begin to find myself more irritable and depressed. I asked myself what my life would have been worth had it ended now, at a time at which I'm only just emerging, thanks to the Dhamma, from a time of self-destructive indulgence and idleness. Blessedly, I was told that I was the best thing to happen to that hotel, and they asked me to come back and offered to try and meet any conditions I have for my return. I will insist on a daytime shift only and that special security measures be taken to keep me, my coworkers, and our guests safe at night.
But what moved me most was the fact that it was my mother who learned this, as she called my manager on my behalf. All her life, she's been dealing with my mistakes and failures, my drama, having to leave school after school and job after job. To hear that the general manager wants me back and finds me such an important hire, even though I'm so recent, moved her to tears.
The fact is I didn't die that night, but I've got a long road ahead of me. I hope no one minds if I visit here. I'd like to make some Theravāda friends.
May I take refuge here?
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May I take refuge here?
Mettā!
Your friend,
Cola.
Your friend,
Cola.
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Re: May I take refuge here?
Welcome to DW!
Glad you are okay and safe! Sometimes it is moments like these that make you really evaluate your life, as you say. That can be used as a great impetus for practice.
Glad you are okay and safe! Sometimes it is moments like these that make you really evaluate your life, as you say. That can be used as a great impetus for practice.
Re: May I take refuge here?
Welcome Dhammacola!
Yes, you can take refuge here.
Chill, read, learn and discuss.
Thank you for sharing your traumatic experience and I hope the negative effects of being held up at gunpoint diminish.
kind regards,
Ben
Yes, you can take refuge here.
Chill, read, learn and discuss.
Thank you for sharing your traumatic experience and I hope the negative effects of being held up at gunpoint diminish.
kind regards,
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 Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- 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 Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: May I take refuge here?
Hi Dhammacola
Sorry to here your story. I can relate to your story as I had a friend who went through a similar thing.
It appeared he felt about his experience the same as you did.
Certainly taking refuge of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha will help you to overcome your problem.
Generally employers provide counselling services to the victims of trauma.
Sorry to here your story. I can relate to your story as I had a friend who went through a similar thing.
It appeared he felt about his experience the same as you did.
Certainly taking refuge of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha will help you to overcome your problem.
Generally employers provide counselling services to the victims of trauma.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
- The Thinker
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- Location: UK
Re: May I take refuge here?
Hello
"Watch your heart, observe. Be the observer, be the knower, not the condition" Ajahn Sumedho volume5 - The Wheel Of Truth
Re: May I take refuge here?
hi... coming here will help...the people here will help with the mind stuff...you will make new friends if you choose to...just keep this as your "go to" for balance and education....you'll see...lots of good here to undo the bad...
Re: May I take refuge here?
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel! You will find many friends here.
Re: May I take refuge here?
Hi and welcome Dhammacola!
You'll find this place to be a nice one to take refuge, hope you will enjoy your stay.
Metta to you.
You'll find this place to be a nice one to take refuge, hope you will enjoy your stay.
Metta to you.
'may all beings be happy at heart.' - Karaniya Metta Sutta
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Re: May I take refuge here?
Fortunate it is to walk the path of dhamma. Beneficial in the beginning, middle, and end.
Welcome !
Welcome !
Tam Kho Panna Bhagavatam :
Evam Kalyanno,
Kitti Saado,
Abhu Gaato
Evam Kalyanno,
Kitti Saado,
Abhu Gaato
Re: May I take refuge here?
Greetings and welcome!
You'll find support here on a lot of levels.
You'll find support here on a lot of levels.
"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus