Re: blows my mind how many people do not care!
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:10 pm
good point! good advice, thanks.Annapurna wrote:Hi there, remember how the Buddha got enlightenened under the Bodhi-Tree and upon realizing that he would not be able to reach a lot of people he became hopeless and didn't want to teach the Dhamma?johnny wrote:i understand when someone has another faith or whatever so they don't care about buddhism. but i don't get people who just go through life not practicing anything! they suffer, they cause themselves problems, and it doesn't matter at all too them! you can tell them how great jhana feels or what ultimate reality is supposed too be and how amazing it is when you realize not self and so on, and they just shrug.
i'm not trying too convert people or anything like that, just talking about how people usually respond when i talk about the dhamma. just "blah. whatever, sounds cool. i'd rather watch a reality tv show and get drunk."
i say "once i felt my ego lift for about an hour and it was literally the greatest feeling i've ever had in my life!"
i say "once i entered jhana and it was like another world! i didn't see, hear, taste, smell, or feel anything around me, yet i was completely awake, and in total bliss!"
and before you think it, it's not me! i can get people interested in physical determinism, or space exploration, or solipsism, or any random thing. but for some reason, epic and truly amazing as it is, the dhamma just doesn't impress most people that i know.
especially strange when the modern medical community generally recommends meditation and mindfulness as things that are good for you! so it's not like trying too get someone interested in something that has no grounding in scientific reality. there are direct, quantifiable, positive results from practicing the dhamma (mostly meditation has been studied for this but nonetheless). but still
i guess i was one of these people long ago in my life? not sure though, no one ever told me about any of this, so i don't know how i would have responded.
It took a lot of encouragement from a Deva to make him change his mind....
So, he knew how humans are...
Don't let it upset you.
He knew that most people are run-of-the-mill wordlings and can't see the "truth".
In one suttha (can't remember which) he asked someone who was disppointed:
"What did you expext....?"
So....do not expect too much of them...but I am sure you can imagine now how then Buddha felt...and he was a Supreme Buddha, seeing a lot more than we....
Annapurna