Hi Merle, 1. Filling your mind with thoughts of truth and joy is often easier than emptying your mind of negative thoughts. You have plenty of control over what thoughts and feelings you fill your mind with mainly just by doing wonderful enjoyable things...
2. Understand the illusory UN-necessity of attachments. Attachments are not real things. They are thoughts and feelings in your head. You have complete control over them (as opposed to the physical things desired) because these attachments are in your mind, not in the world around you. 3. Analyze your attachments and understand that you probably don't need them nearly as much as you think you do. 4. You think the attachments are there to make your life better, but what would actually make your life better and happier in most cases is simply to drop the attachment. 5. If the goal is happiness, contentment and freedom from suffering, then enjoying what you actually can RIGHT NOW does it much better than pining for what you don't have... Attachments and desires sabotage the happiness you could be having RIGHT NOW! 6. It's easier to replace negative thoughts and feelings with good ones, but eventually one learns how to empty the mind of thoughts and feelings altogether and just dwell in the pure chi or life force which can be experienced as the pure love of reality for you which it has brought into being and sustains... 7. Then to re-engage with the thoughts and feelings of the world of forms in your daily life while maintaining this same experience. That is done by experiencing all aspects of the world of forms, not as the things they appear to be but as the manifestations of Buddha Nature itself... 8. Attachments and desires all stem from an illusory perception of incompleteness, that one's being needs something it doesn't have. WRONG! You are complete and absolute in your being at all times. There is nothing additional missing or needed. You ARE Buddha Nature and Buddha Nature ONLY. Experience and become your Buddha Nature and you will realize your absolute completeness..... And all will be perfectly as it is... It already is. It's just a matter of realizing it! Of course this doesn't mean one can't work to change things in the local reality around us. That too is a manifestation of the perfection of Buddha Nature. But it is always the absolute perfection of the present moment whether it is being changed or not, that is the reality to be realized.... EDgar On Sep 2, 2012, at 12:10 AM, Merle Lester wrote: > > hi edgar..yes you are correct..easier said than done..show me the way > please...merle > > > Joe and Merle, > > This is correct but it's important to recognize that desire and attachments > are not really for things but for the IDEAS of those things in one's mind. > > That's why, Merle take note, one can release oneself from desires and > attachments just by changing one's mental narrative.... Changing it to a more > positive one is the first step... > > Edgar > > > On Aug 30, 2012, at 7:21 PM, Joe wrote: > >> >> Bill!, >> >> Yes! The three of those are all different things: >> >> (1.) Desire is for what we don't have (or so it seems not to be so); >> >> (2.) Attachment is to what we *do* have (or so it seems to be so); >> >> (3.) Self is what we assume is the Organizing Principle of All This, and >> More. First, we tacitly assume there needs to BE such a principle! >> >> --Joe >> >> PS Are we ready for Buddhism 102? (no such thing). >> >> "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote: >> > >> > Both attachment and desire require the same thing - a self. A self >> > requires one thing - dualism >> > > > > >
