Path of Buddhism

hmmm..Budda eh?

Jeez its quite here,whats the craic with that?
Is this some sort of Buddhist method of teaching that I have to figure things out for myself??:D:D:)

In order to understand The Eightfold Path,I have to first understand The Four Noble Truths.
Is this really so the first step of Buddhism?

celticcrash

Why would some one walk down a path and not know where they are going.
If your going on the buddhist path and have a buddhist view than of course the Four Noble Truths are going to be the basis to work from.
Someone can hardly call themselves buddhist and not understand The FNTs.

18AD

hmmm..Budda eh? wrote: »

Jeez its quite here,whats the craic with that?

Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. -Lao Tzu.

I know pretty much loads. So I stay quiet. I can accurately intuit that the others on here are equally wise.



:pac:

conor.hogan.2

As I do not know much (in the buddhist sense, mostly) I still speak and seek a lot.

The not speaking still "annoys" me, but I see the point of it.

Yeah I'm not trying to be obstructive, I went through the same posting questions & stuff on forums when I started out as well, until I realised I really had to go off and read myself. I think if you pick specific areas to explore after some initial reading, we'd get somewhere. I think I started a thread on one of the sutras ages back, for example.
You could try reading a couple books...
http://buddhism.about.com/od/beginnerbuddhistbooks/tp/basicbeginner.htm

I read "what the buddha taught" by Rahula; it's a good book and will give you a good intro, but his writing style is a little aggressive for my tastes. It's a bit "you're wrong you're wrong :mad: "
Still as I say, it's a good intro

conor.hogan.2

I started with the Dalai Lama and others *.

Adyshanti, Kornfield, Thich Nhat Hanh and Watts came later which were a little more "action" than "thought".

* that and googling millions of things.

Basically OP you are own your own in a sense / for the most part but that is not to say there is not a lot out there and help on this and other forums.

Yeah, the internet was invaluable as well. I have a fine collection of the dalai lama books also

conor.hogan.2

Audiobooks have been great for me, could not recommend them more especially for this subject.

hmmm..Budda eh?

celticcrash wrote: »

Why would some one walk down a path and not know where they are going.

To experience the unknown and learn something from it??

hmmm..Budda eh?

bluewolf wrote: »

I think if you pick specific areas to explore after some initial reading, we'd get somewhere

One area that really interests me is something someone posted on a different thread mentioning skilled and unskilled actions.
I'm still only at the stage of considering reading more on buddhism,but that is something that I try to incorporate in my own way a lot of the time in my everyday life and its something I believe in very strongly.



Yeah,I get the whole thing that you do need to make sense of things for yourself to really understand them,just trying to get some more discussions on this forum:D.....I'm interested in Buddhism so look forward to seeing new threads posted here...so come on,post up some stuff!!;)

celticcrash

hmmm..Budda eh? wrote: »

To experience the unknown and learn something from it??

It was more of a rhetorical question.

conor.hogan.2

1 ounce of wax.

celticcrash

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

1 ounce of wax.

Did you get that out of one ear or two ears?

conor.hogan.2

I don't have it.

celticcrash

hmmm..Budda eh? wrote: »

One area that really interests me is something someone posted on a different thread mentioning skilled and unskilled actions.
I'm still only at the stage of considering reading more on buddhism,but that is something that I try to incorporate in my own way a lot of the time in my everyday life and its something I believe in very strongly.



Yeah,I get the whole thing that you do need to make sense of things for yourself to really understand them,just trying to get some more discussions on this forum:D.....I'm interested in Buddhism so look forward to seeing new threads posted here...so come on,post up some stuff!!;)

Welcome

[-0-]

Check out the suggested reading thread.

roosh

hmmm..Budda eh? wrote: »

One area that really interests me is something someone posted on a different thread mentioning skilled and unskilled actions.
I'm still only at the stage of considering reading more on buddhism,but that is something that I try to incorporate in my own way a lot of the time in my everyday life and its something I believe in very strongly.



Yeah,I get the whole thing that you do need to make sense of things for yourself to really understand them,just trying to get some more discussions on this forum:D.....I'm interested in Buddhism so look forward to seeing new threads posted here...so come on,post up some stuff!!;)

hey hBeh,

I think it's good to see someone starting threads and asking questions on here; I lamented the lack of activity myself, when I first discovered the forum. I'd love a few more discussions on peoples insights into things, and healthy debate about certain concepts. My own pre-conceptions kind of hold me back from starting more threads sometimes though.


If you're looking for reading material, or anything like that I found Eckhart Tolle's "the Power of Now" [particularly] and "a New Earth" to be great introductions to the topic of spirituality. I think he presents the ideas in a fairly straight forward manner and in fairly simple language. I don't think he would strictly be called a "buddhist" writer - although that in itself could be the subject of debate.

I would say that his writings are just the very tip of the iceberg though, I found them to be a good starting point on the topic of spirituality, but I think they are limited.

"The Tibetan book of living and dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche, was another book I found pretty easy to read and pretty insightful.



The conerstone of it all though, is the practice of meditation, so if you can do a meditation retreat at some point, just to receive instruction on how to practice, that could benefit you no end.

conor.hogan.2

hmmm..Budda eh? Google Tolle before you read, to keep it nice I would not recommend paying for his stuff.

You seem interested in Buddhism not new age "stuff" like Tolle.

hmmm..Budda eh?

[QUOTE=conor.hogan.2;79275542

You seem interested in Buddhism not new age "stuff" like Tolle.[/QUOTE]

Yeah,always felt drawn to Buddhism for some reason,and those skilled/unskilled actions I've mentioned are something that have been on my mind for some time(about 15 years!:)),and are something I do my best to live my life by.

Basically when I was around 20 I had two dreams that when I woke from them I just understood,with absolute clarity,(think of dreaming in HD:D)that every action we do has a consequence (suppose the scientific version would be every action has a reaction),and a few days later,the second dream,was what I interpreted at the time was good actions were better than negative actions(skilled v unskilled).

And shortly after these dreams I had another one,(used to sleep a lot then:rolleyes:)which I understood that it is within us to ultimately always carry out these good/skilled actions,whether in our thoughts or in our actions to ourselves and others................Discuss.....:D:D

conor.hogan.2

I would recommend Zen then, all about doing and action.

roosh

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

hmmm..Budda eh? Google Tolle before you read, to keep it nice I would not recommend paying for his stuff.

You seem interested in Buddhism not new age "stuff" like Tolle.

If you take Tolle's works to be complete, in and of themselves, and go no further than Tolle, then you will probably fall into the "new age" trap; but if you take them as a single perspective on the idea of spirituality, they can be a helpful introduction.

I would probably advise not paying for anything more than "the Power of Now" and/or "a new Earth"; I bought some of his other books and wasn't impressed by them. Of course, you can probably get them online somewhere, for free, but I find there is something different about having a hard copy of a book.

conor.hogan.2

Fair enough, I would just jump "closer to the source" and cut out the middle man but to each their own.

roosh

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Fair enough, I would just jump "closer to the source" and cut out the middle man but to each their own.

I'm probably a little bit biased, bcos Tolle's "the power of now" was my first introduction to spirituality; it had a profound effect on me, and I found it to be very insightful, and very approachable. It might be different for someone else, who maybe had a different introduction.

I understand what you mean by "cutting out the middle man", but I wouldn't necessarily see Tolle as a middle man, I'd see his as just a single perspective on things, among a wide range of perspectives. A fairly easy to understand perspective at that, which I think is his strength. I think his writings are limited though, which is why I would only ever suggest his works as a starting point.

conor.hogan.2

Ok, fair enough but many would not go further than him as it would be easy to mistake "his stuff" as being the be all and end all and not go deeper to the stuff he based it on.

I do not like people who write on semi buddhist related things, smells too much of quackery (or worse) to me personally.

celticcrash

Eckhart Tolle TV $99 for six months or $15 a month.
Need I say more.

roosh

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Ok, fair enough but many would not go further than him as it would be easy to mistake "his stuff" as being the be all and end all and not go deeper to the stuff he based it on.

I do not like people who write on semi buddhist related things, smells too much of quackery (or worse) to me personally.

this is very true, and that would be the "new age" trap. I still think his two books, the power of now and a new earth are a pretty good introduction to spirituality; they are clearly written and very easy to understand.

roosh

celticcrash wrote: »

Eckhart Tolle TV $99 for six months or $15 a month.
Need I say more.

Don't confuse the teachings with the teacher.

Cork24

http://www.vajratv.com/



get you hands on this book

http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Teacher-Revised-Edition-Literature/dp/1570624127

moonage

roosh wrote: »

I understand what you mean by "cutting out the middle man", but I wouldn't necessarily see Tolle as a middle man, I'd see his as just a single perspective on things, among a wide range of perspectives. A fairly easy to understand perspective at that, which I think is his strength. I think his writings are limited though, which is why I would only ever suggest his works as a starting point.

What do you find limiting about Eckhart Tolle's writings? What is this "single perspective" that he has that isn't enough?

I think his teaching is complete in and of itself and can be both the starting and end points.

roosh

moonage wrote: »

What do you find limiting about Eckhart Tolle's writings? What is this "single perspective" that he has that isn't enough?

I think his teaching is complete in and of itself and can be both the starting and end points.

Perhaps they can be more; I'm basing it solely on my experience of his writings, which only extend as far as The Power of Now and a New Earth - I bought some of his other books, such as practicing the Power of Now, which seemed to just be a regurgiation of the power of now; to be honest it felt like he was just cashing in on that - and my experiene of buddhist teachings.

From there I went onto to explore buddhism more, I read a number of books and attended a number of retreats; I then went back to re-read Tolle and just didn't feel that his writings had the same depth as what I had encountered through Buddhist teachings. That being said, the Power of Now probably had a greater effect on me than some of the other books I've read.


I haven't seen much written by Tolle on the practice of mediation, which I have found to be a critical part of spirtuality. Buddhist teachings, on the other hand, are rich, not only on insights gained through mediation, but critically on how to do the practices themselves.

Another thing which obviously plays a role is the fact that we are comparing Tolle to a larger group of writers, who could be categorised as "buddhist writers"; this means we compare his writings to a larger number of writings; if we compare one author to a large group of authors, it is almost inevitable that it will appear as though there is less depth to his writings. That's why I wouldn't consider him apart from these writers, but rather as a single perspective among those writers, who definitely has a lot to offer - even to those who have studied buddhism for a long time.

moonage

roosh wrote: »

I haven't seen much written by Tolle on the practice of mediation, which I have found to be a critical part of spirtuality. Buddhist teachings, on the other hand, are rich, not only on insights gained through mediation, but critically on how to do the practices themselves.

Tolle has nothing against formal meditation as such but he says it's no substitute for bringing presence/mindfulness to to all aspects of daily living.

If the aim of meditation is to bring you into the present moment, the use of methods and techniques can be a hindrance because they take time, and using time to try to take you into the timeless can be fruitless.

roosh

moonage wrote: »

Tolle has nothing against formal meditation as such but he says it's no substitute for bringing presence/mindfulness to to all aspects of daily living.

If the aim of meditation is to bring you into the present moment, the use of methods and techniques can be a hindrance because they take time, and using time to try to take you into the timeless can be fruitless.

I would agree in theory, but in practice I think formal practice is pretty essential. Buddhism also teaches about integration, bringing presence and awareness into our daily lives, but because our minds are so habituated into being over active, this can be very difficult. Formal practice actually cultivates this awareness that we can then bring, more easily, to our daily activities.

I personally believe, from my own experience, that there is something about formal sitting practice, just sitting and observing the mind, or rather just being present with the mind, that allows you to notice the subtleties of mind more clearly.


EDIT: it's probably worth stating that there is no substitute for your own experience.