--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > On another forum, I am reading posts by people I once taught meditation > with, but who, unlike me, kept doing it. It's been an interesting > experience, one that has caused me to recapitulate my life and try to > figure out why. > > One of the reasons I gave up teaching was that I didn't feel that I had > a framework within which to teach. I was a member of no sangha or > spiritual organization, and had no particular path or teacher to cite as > an authority or represent. I'm a loner, and my path is as solitary as I > am; it's a hodge-podge of things I've learned from a number of different > paths, and resonated with enough to add them to my own home-grown > philosophy. Unless you've got major charisma (I don't) or major hubris > (ditto, I hope), it's tough to teach meditation or spirituality in the > modern marketplace without having some framework within which to teach > it, or some lineage to represent. > > But another reason was that I really didn't know what I'd teach. I know > how to teach several forms of meditation, but wasn't really attached > enough to any of them to present them as "the" method or the "best" > method. I could cite books I'd read or talks I'd heard from other > teachers, but I couldn't point to a single one of them that I'd > recommend as representing "the" spiritual path or the best way to walk > it. > > Today, just for the fuck of it, I thought I'd spend some time in this > cafe thinking about some of the things I *would* feel comfortable > presenting as potentially valuable things I've learned from 50+ years > following a generally spiritual path: > > * Meditation might be of benefit to you. There are many forms of it, and > I do not recommend any of them over another. Whatever works -- for you > -- to calm the mind and allow your body to settle down and chill a bit. > If nothing else, chilling is good. But meditation can have many other > benefits as well, some of which might be of interest. > > * If you want to be happy, try to spend more time thinking of and doing > for others than you spend thinking of and doing for yourself. The thing > they didn't teach you growing up (in most cases) is that selfless > service and doing nice things for other people GETS YOU HIGH. And, > unlike drugs or other ways to get high, it has no nasty side effects, > and is not likely to land you in a jail cell with a roommate named Bubba > who wears lipstick and makes you afraid to fall asleep. > > * Self importance is not nearly as important as it might first appear. > If spiritual teachers or spiritual paths go out of their way to convince > you how important you are by believing what they believe, you might just > want to pay less attention to that than the fact that you're just one > more voice in a trillion-voice choir, singing on a very tiny ball in > infinite space. > > * If you find yourself thinking "I know" a lot, about any subject, > consider the possibility that you really don't, and see where that leads > you. > > * "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no > matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your > own common sense." I would have no problem citing the Buddha on this > one, and agreeing with him. > > * Try to err, when you err -- and we all do -- on the side of > compassion. I would similarly have no problem citing Rama, although he > didn't always walk his talk, on this one. > > * Don't be afraid to take chances and break the rules from time to time > if something in you feels that there might be benefit in doing so. There > really might. > > * Don't Panic. Douglas Adams got this one right. So did the cheerleader > in "American Beauty" who said, "Everything that's supposed to happen > will, eventually." Things are not necessarily nearly as scary and as > serious as they sometimes appear. Learning to just kick back and go with > the ride is often what turns a mere A-ticket ride at Disneyland into an > E-ticket ride. > > * Don't forget about laughter. If the spiritual path you have chosen is > no longer FUN for you, and if you don't find yourself laughing out loud > for no reason other than the sheer joy of it all fairly often, you might > just have taken a turn on the path that -- for you -- isn't in the > direction you originally wanted to go. > > I'm sure I could come up with more bullet points, but these will do -- > for me -- for now. What are yours?
You talk too much?
