tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post4910932379393408324..comments2024-03-14T06:26:00.182+00:00Comments on Reflections: Ajahn Sucitto: The Good, The True and The BeautifulUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-29316993253083054152016-03-18T06:39:42.610+00:002016-03-18T06:39:42.610+00:00What a beautiful reflection! When I woke up this m...What a beautiful reflection! When I woke up this morning, I wanted to read something that will open my heart, will help accepting the ups and downs of my working day, something to reflect on. Your reflection and your practice gives me lot of confidence and courage.<br />Sadhu Sahdu Sadhu Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260365606509677686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-68242018386685761592016-01-01T09:03:51.101+00:002016-01-01T09:03:51.101+00:00I think it's possible to hold the Copernican m...I think it's possible to hold the Copernican model as a scientific truth ( which has been amended as the Sun is no longer the centre of the universe) and hold a mystical truth, that of consciousness with its many 'worlds' at the same time. When you want to measure quantity and 'external' reality you use science, when you want to measure quality and subjective consciousness, you use meditation, art etc. <br /><br />As for the 'sacred'; it's not what a thing 'is' as an objective fact, it's about how we relate to it as unique, measureless and somehow involved with us. Note that in many versions of the sacred, it's not always benign: Jehovah was wrathful and gave Job a very hard time. Still, in the denouement, Job acknowledges that God is just unfathomable and gets all his goods back. <br /><br />I'm a Buddhist, so I'm not into theology or Gaia worship, but I do think more respect towards the planet is necessary. And if calling it sacred helps get us out of our egocentric view, then I'll go with that. And of course , with reference to your last point, those same egocentric drives and their ordering the mind around are a hindrance to meditation. Meditation is a means of acknowledging the limits of egocentric view, and abandoning it. Devotion ( to 'the sacred') is also part of doing that. Life is good, thank you!Ajahn Sucittohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17302243600533653954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-82156452311977695022015-12-29T03:40:11.263+00:002015-12-29T03:40:11.263+00:00I’ve thought for a while now that the Buddha was s...I’ve thought for a while now that the Buddha was surely the world’s first scientist. His thinking can be recognized as fundamentally in tune with the scientific method as it exists today: causality, no special elements, no beginning cause, momentariness, and surely trial and error, as he abandoned those practices that weren’t working on his own spiritual quest. He lacked the optical tools to physically look very far into things or very far out at things but his outlook seemed aligned with discovering as much as possible about the world. Of course, he was mostly concerned with looking inwardly, towards the mental causes of dis-ease, but even then his teachings have a ring of science to them, in my opinion. Not to quibble, but I think your statement about Newton abolishing the earth-centered cosmos might be a bit Eurocentric, since the Buddha had already done so many centuries previously. No one outside India knew about it is the only difference.<br /><br />I am not so sure about the earth being sacred. It did its best to kill us off after all, in that drought, the Miocene drought. We were reduced to several thousand individuals at one point. It must have been terrifying for those creatures and we surely still feel the consequences today. Seven billion of us stand on the other side of that portal and only a small number can train the mind to forget and forgive the snakes and lions. I don’t think that’s a metaphor either, it’s literally true, although the snakes and lions can take on vastly different guises now. Maybe Gaia is suicidal but lacks agency, and had to create a creature capable of finally finishing her off. Let's hope not.<br /><br />Forgive my rambling but I must comment on your last sentence. I’ve found that the genuine results of meditation are always surprising, and totally unexpected. Is that the hallmark of progress? It seems that the mind that asks the question “what is the nature of X?” orders the result to be something along the lines of “the nature of X is Y”. When you can stop discursively ordering the mind around like that the results are always amazing, because we spend so little time in that frame of mind. Isn’t it something like that?<br /><br />I hope you are enjoying your life these days.MBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073670710209348011noreply@blogger.com