Wonder if anyone else has this type of experience:
There are a few things that keep on happening in my everyday life that are kind of funny (in a way) and hard to explain. Each event taken on its own is perfectly normal, but the strange thing is, it keeps on happening over and over, for years, to a point where now it's starting to make me laugh. My wife is equally befuddled, so I have some confirmation that this isn't just all in my mind.
One thing is: When I fuel my car, very often the gas pump receipt printer is not working, so I get a message that says: "See attendant for receipt." Then, if I want a receipt, I have to go inside the station. My wife says this has NEVER happened to her when she gets gas. Her pump always prints a receipt. Now when I pump the gas she's with me, she's come to expect that the receipt printer will not be working. Weird.
The funny thing is, she never keeps her receipt, but I always used to keep my receipt. At first, I'd go inside each time to get one from the attendant. Now I don't even bother.
There are a few other little things like that, too, that keep on happening again and again. Things that don't seem to happen to other people with any kind of regularity. They seem to be some kind of idiosyncracy in my life.
Anyone else have this type of experience? Thoughts? Kamma? Coincidence? Something else?
Idiosyncratic external experiences
Idiosyncratic external experiences
Rain soddens what is kept wrapped up,
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.
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Cittasanto
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Re: Idiosyncratic external experiences
did you annoy the attendant once ? LOL
touldn't like to guess but it is strange
touldn't like to guess but it is strange
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
Re: Idiosyncratic external experiences
It probably annoys the attendant to have to print the receipt. 
Re: Idiosyncratic external experiences
Jechbi,
Do you associate this with your practice? I heard an American monk describing the benefits of a regular practice and, after the expected rational comments, he added "and you will find you have more good luck." Certainly, in your case, routinely choosing a paperless gas pump may just mean that you frequent a station with poor pump receipt maintenance. On the other hand, I have noted, over my few months of practice, that either a) I am experiencing more than my normal share of good fortune or, b) that I am now more adept at noticing what good fortune I've always had even more.
Regards: AdvaitaJ
Do you associate this with your practice? I heard an American monk describing the benefits of a regular practice and, after the expected rational comments, he added "and you will find you have more good luck." Certainly, in your case, routinely choosing a paperless gas pump may just mean that you frequent a station with poor pump receipt maintenance. On the other hand, I have noted, over my few months of practice, that either a) I am experiencing more than my normal share of good fortune or, b) that I am now more adept at noticing what good fortune I've always had even more.
Regards: AdvaitaJ
The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. Li Bai
We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. Li Bai
Re: Idiosyncratic external experiences
Interesting point, AdvaitaJ. Thanks. I guess I've been looking at it more as coincidence, tho that probably doesn't hold water. What I have noticed is that more and more, I laugh about these things rather than get annoyed by them. In the broad scheme of things, I've been very fortunate on the whole. When these weird little patterns keep popping up, it's like life playing some kind of joke.
Rain soddens what is kept wrapped up,
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.
Re: Idiosyncratic external experiences
That is the best approach I find Jechbi. We are wired to recognize patterns, and patterns within patterns of all kinds. It can be a humorous and painful exploration! Take it all with a grain of salt. I watch my mind assemble it's patterns and I watch the universe put them together and take them apart just as fast. I take a similar view that at least as far as this game goes I will have to just keep watching all of it carry on until I am fully disillusioned with all of it and the mind is no longer compelled to fabricate in these ways.
It's cheap entertainment though.
It's cheap entertainment though.
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}