though i am a Christian, i find the Zen idea to be a sound principle for coping with problems we face here.the Bible says we are to have self control.if one wishes to do what it says,it makes sense to investigate what causes us to lose control and ways of controlling ourselves. following the basic tenants:
there is suffering in the world
we suffer because we are too attached to something (like winning)
example:
1.someone calls you a name. you get angry. why? maybe too attached to winning the alpha/beta male battle. let that guy play that game. you don’t. detach yourself from such a silly game. if you get angry, he has just PROVEN that he has power over you. he MADE you angry,didn’t he?
2.someone cuts you off in traffic and laughs at you. detach from this stupid game.
keep your center. when you get angry you are losing your center and being pulled off course from having the kind of day you want to have. energy is being sucked away from you so that you cannot have that kind of day. keep your center and detach from people’s silly games.
I used to practise Vipassana meditation (from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism in SE Asia) in Thailand. It helped me a lot, although I’m not sure if that’s the point. I am not ‘angry’, but everyone can improve their state of mind by learning to let go of things and from trying to avoid being static and clinging to ideas and patterns.
Try and get hold of ‘One Step At A Time’ by Phra Pannipadipo (A British Thai Buddhist monk) who can outline some techniques for you, if you’re interested. He’s a good writer and not some dumb hippy who found peace in the mystic East. It won’t be available in Taiwan, but if you know someone who’s going to Thailand, get them to pick it up for you, or maybe Amazon.
[quote=“theposter”]though i am a Christian, i find the Zen idea to be a sound principle for coping with problems we face here.the Bible says we are to have self control.if one wishes to do what it says,it makes sense to investigate what causes us to lose control and ways of controlling ourselves. following the basic tenants:
there is suffering in the world
we suffer because we are too attached to something (like winning)
example:
1.someone calls you a name. you get angry. why? maybe too attached to winning the alpha/beta male battle. let that guy play that game. you don’t. detach yourself from such a silly game. if you get angry, he has just PROVEN that he has power over you. he MADE you angry,didn’t he?
2.someone cuts you off in traffic and laughs at you. detach from this stupid game.
keep your center. when you get angry you are losing your center and being pulled off course from having the kind of day you want to have. energy is being sucked away from you so that you cannot have that kind of day. keep your center and detach from people’s silly games.[/quote]
I don’t know why, but this post REALLY pissed me off.
Yes, Buddhism offers up the goodies without requiring any faith, though. Makes it attractive to many. And you can also do the meditation without thinking too much about the theology and religious tradition while still getting a lot of benefit. Kind of like going to church just for the singing (edit; except totally different, actually, what a stupid analogy).
the author of “how to control your anger before it controls you” did a lot of study into this and feels that this as a coping method is effective. i’m not doing any meditation, but i’ve come to some anaologies in my own experience:
it’s like you’re on a canoe in a river. all along this river there are eddie swirls. if you engage even ONE of these, you won’t get to where you’re going. everyday is like this. you must not get sucked into people’s vortex.
i’m not sure. but it’s easier for me to just think “detach”. the most important thing is for us to have an interest that we want to engage more than petty things.
Well, what I mean is to do things without doing them from your ‘self’. Let go of your usual thought processes which are tied to your sense of self and what you ‘know’. You are not your thoughts or attitudes or body so you shouldn’t let yourself be trapped by your mental baggage.
I have no idea how to explain what I mean.
jdsmith (or anyone) says and does what he does because he is jdsmith, the set of beliefs, experiences and attitudes. He allows those attitudes to define his actions, but they are transient and not really him.
That part is easy enough to grasp. The next part is, well, who IS jdsmith, then? This is where the different Buddhist traditions go their seperate ways. Mahayana (Zen, Tibetan, Pureland, etc) holds that we are all part of a big whole and we can be enlightened by a kind of grace. So we should act with compassion for the good of all beings so we can achieve enlightenment for everyone. The Theravada (Thai, Indian, SE Asian) tradition says that we can only change ourselves and we should act compassionately to escape samsara (rebirth) ourselves.
This is a bit garbled; I’m no scholar or an ‘advanced’ Buddhist (or a Buddhist at all, really) so if anyone can add more, that would be good. I just picked up bits and pieces from my travels, and reading and a few seminars in Bangkok…
like i said, i’m not really into that part of it- the “in the zone” thing where you just do, except when it comes to playing music. in that it’s useful. i’m more interested in being able to selectively ignore things that interfere with the quality of everyday. the stuff that wastes energy and runs you down.
i’ve found out a few things:
letting the other guy go first even though he’s an asshole isn’t so hard after all
i feel better doing that than fighting him
if you resist, they resist you (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction)
someone stares at you and you give him a hardline response: then what? do you really feel better? no. did you gain anything? no. so why not just skip the whole thing and nod once. if he’s still staring, ignore him.choose something in the room that you’re more interested in.
Not trying to cause trouble, but, the above law of physics doesn’t necessarily apply to human beings and their actions/reactions. Plenty of fights don’t end in a draw.