What Have You Learned

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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CedarTree
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What Have You Learned

Post by CedarTree »

What are some teachings, perspectives, experiences, or whatever that you have learned a long your walk on the path that have made a lasting and very profound impact in your life?

Recently I was posting on The Dao Bums forum and someone addressed my "Sky Gazing" post and included a beautiful Chinese Taoist painting with diverse life and water falls and dimensions and what looks like the seeker within his own painting.

He said this was sky gazing in his tradition and it was a good and powerful message to remember the relative is the absolute.

It made me think, what have you all experienced and maybe this can really help each of us grow by cutting through the usual questions and answers and getting to the guts of our own lives :)


Practice, Practice, Practice

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Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta »

CedarTree wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:40 pm What are some teachings, perspectives, experiences, or whatever that you have learned a long your walk on the path that have made a lasting and very profound impact in your life?

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getting to the guts of our own lives :)
One of the most profound thing I have learnt (intellectually, at least _ if not 'truely' experientially) is that there are no such things as "the guts of our own lives", just natural (dhamma) processes :-)

Metta,
𝓑𝓾𝓭𝓭𝓱𝓪 𝓗𝓪𝓭 𝓤𝓷𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓿𝓸𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓓𝓮𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽
  • Iᴅᴇᴀ ᴏꜰ Sᴏᴜʟ ɪs Oᴜᴛᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴ Uᴛᴛᴇʀʟʏ Fᴏᴏʟɪsʜ Vɪᴇᴡ
    V. Nanananda

𝓐𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓽ā 𝓜𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓘𝓼
  • Nᴏ sᴜᴄʜ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀs ᴀ Sᴇʟғ, Sᴏᴜʟ, Eɢᴏ, Sᴘɪʀɪᴛ, ᴏʀ Āᴛᴍᴀɴ
    V. Buddhādasa
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cappuccino
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by cappuccino »

think of tiny insight, repeated, repeated

it's a journey on foot, small steps
Last edited by cappuccino on Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:36 am, edited 3 times in total.
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retrofuturist
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,
CedarTree wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:40 pm What are some teachings, perspectives, experiences, or whatever that you have learned a long your walk on the path that have made a lasting and very profound impact in your life?
Any teaching connected to emptiness...
SN 20.7 wrote:Staying at Savatthi. "Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.

"In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering. But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.

"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — will come about.

"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.' That's how you should train yourselves."
Metta,
Paul. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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one_awakening
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by one_awakening »

Craving can't be satisfied.



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“You only lose what you cling to”
SarathW
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by SarathW »

-My first lesson was there is no Ï" in the ultimate sense. It is possible to liberate.
- My second lesson lately is, past Dukkha has perished. (Nirodha) the future Dukkha has not arrived yet (Samudaya) What ever Dukkha Samudaya and NIrodha is right at this moment.
- ie: Nibbana is here and now!
Last edited by SarathW on Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
sentinel
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by sentinel »

Suffering arises when there is non awareness of the strong wanting and thinking processes although sometimes it does not necessarily resulting in sufferings .
You always gain by giving
justindesilva
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by justindesilva »

one_awakening wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:05 am Craving can't be satisfied.



_______________________________________________________________
True, yet I am inclined to say that craving cannot be satisfied as long as we cling to craving of the senses.
A now and here experience is that a diabetic patient would not cling to the craving of taste of sugar for fear of sickness and damage of kydneys. Similar examples can show how people get away from other senses for similar fears. It is also appropriate to understand that one who understand fear of suffering ( death, sickness) and samsara would make an effort to get rid of clinging to tanha of six senses.
rolling_boulder
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Re: What Have You Learned

Post by rolling_boulder »

um, mostly not to be so hard on myself about my failures, but to just keep trying in spite of them.

So much suffering dropped out of my life from that one.
The world is swept away. It does not endure...
The world is without shelter, without protector...
The world is without ownership. One has to pass on, leaving everything behind...
The world is insufficient, insatiable, a slave to craving.
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