The Vedas say to teach in the vernacular of our day so #buddhism should be translated to #wokeism.
Buddha literally means 'one who is awake.'
Awake to not only the nature of the world and the 10,000 sorrows and the 10,000 joys but also to see and know your own delusions.
To more clearly understand the world and its suffering, and use whatever power you have to fight injustice, to feed the hungry, and to house your neighbor.
I invite you all to join me on my 10001 Buda project. 10001 Buda is my attempt started in 2019 to create 10001 Buda stickers. This project is based on the idea of creating and enjoying imperfection, defusing a critical mind in the process.
Therefore, I single-handedly draw and cut Buda stickers.
Budas started traveling the world at a certain point and landed on the streets of England, the USA, Germany, Sweden, Turkey, and even Ethiopia...
If you want a free sticker pack, please e-mail me at 10001buda@gmail.com with your address, and I will send you the pack once I create it. All I ask in return is for you to put the stickers up and share photos with me, since I'm sharing them all at www.instagram.com/10001buda
Thank you all. Your boosts are highly appreciated.
It's no surprise that 4 of the 6 articles at Lion's Roar on #LGBTQ+ inclusion in American #Buddhism are about Jodo Shinshu Pure Land Buddhists. The Jodo Shinshu community has long been at the forefront of queer #Buddhist inclusion and support.
In your opinion, which relatively lesser-known author of Indian philosophy (including Buddhism, Jainism etc.) deserves more attention in current research, and why?
So I am a week into my #Zizek#Lacan#Hegel studies, through Zizek's lens. All good. I think Zizek's #philosophy of looking at Hegel through the Lacanian lens is seductive. That said, where I find the lens of Zizek lacking, and I now wish he'd not talk about these 2(3) things any more are:
I was a serious #catholic half my life, seminarian for minute, and an ordained deacon, still, even after I confessed my #atheism. So I get what he is saying. My atheism has never felt the same as #Dawkins or #Hitchens, whom we adore, and Zizek sneers. Slipping through the profound safety net religion and a transcendent, all powerful, personal god into the #existentialism of nothing was terrifying, it was my first experience of the "#real." This is it. This is all there is. The problem is it appears Zizek commits the #fallacy of #reification (if we understand it correctly). Clearly he knows it is #fiction, even if profound from a #psychoanalytic Hegelian #CriticalAnalysis, we get it we really do, but it is not real. The #event is real, and the fiction caused the event, but the fiction is still fiction. There is no God, IOP, that became an atheist. The #story Zizek emphasizes is powerful, the changing of the cosmos when #Jesus on the cross questions Gods love. Good story and that is all. Some RCC positions from recent popes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlBZy_iu0m8 and https://www.romereports.com/en/2021/09/14/full-homily-of-pope-francis-at/
So please, Zizek, can I say stay in your lane where you are brilliant, please.
Buddha statue with hand in the Vitarka Mudra position, representing intellectual debate, argument or discussion. Shot on Fuji Acros 35mm film and a nikon F6
Working with this metaphor of nutriment/nutrition made me realise that #ADHD feels like constantly starving, despite seeming banquets of food (sensory impressions) all around. #Buddhism has a name for that too- the hungry ghost. Being a hungry ghost is usually explained in terms of being a bad rebirth destination due to greediness , but for my ADHD mind it’s more like dying of thirst while stranded at sea- there’s water everywhere but however much you drink, you’ll still be thirsty.
My local zen center is hosting a Ukranian refugee who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. They are currently attempting to raise funds to help with her living expenses and other needs while she receives treatment and recovers. Any help (or boosting!) would be greatly appreciated.
People on cohost were discussing mindfulness and how mindful apps and corporations have ruined the term.
Which got me thinking on why that is so and how it came to be.
I ended up writing the following:
Mindfulness has been a crucial aspect of a lot of religions and spiritualities. It's part of the core of Buddhism and its neighboring religions. This stripping of the core elements of mindfulness was deliberately done, starting with Jon Kabat-Zinn who was a Buddhist teacher. Kabat-Zinn recognized the only way to get this practice into medicine was to strip away its spiritual components and focus only on the bare bones: "paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally." Other people then created retreats and/or courses to teach this stripped down version more widely.
This art of paying attention in this particular way can be very beneficial, and studies do show that this style of mindfulness, when taught well, can aid people with their healing.
The problem is when when corporations wield mindfulness not as a way to help people, but as a way to control people.
And therein lies the difference. Corporations appropriating mindfulness, making all these "mindful apps," stripped the essential core of mindfulness and remade it as a form of control and to make it marketable.
This is why when corporations push employees to "meditate" or do other mindful activities, it can backfire instead of help. In corporate settings, its a form of control, which is the exact opposite of Right Mindfulness.
(Note: the term 'right' is from sanskrit and pali words that denote 'wise,' 'wholesome,' 'skillful,' and is not an implication of this is the only right way to do it. The Eightfold path and how to apply it's teachings is more of a guide on the path toward enlightenment, as how each person adapts, learns, and practices the path is often unique to their needs and experiences.)
Right Mindfulness requires giving up control. The four frames of reference for Right Mindfulness (as stated by Buddha):
Mindfulness of body (kayasati).
Mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanasati).
Mindfulness of mind or mental processes (cittasati).
Mindfulness of mental objects or qualities (dhammasati).
The practice of mindfulness cannot be separated from these frames of reference nor from its connection to the rest of the Eightfold path without it losing some of its most crucial and liberating aspects. Thus, when we are taught a stripped down version, we're often not receiving the full possible benefits because of the loss of these core elements.
So what the health industry and corporations peddle isn't necessarily mindfulness. It's an altered form focused on paying specific attention often in an effort to control one's reactions, thoughts, and feelings. (DBT does teach more of the 'letting go' aspects than any other form of this 'paying attention' meditative exercises, but there is still that essence of 'controlling' one's state that still crept into its application. Part of that is Western Psychology can't be separated from its origin of control.)
Right mindfulness requires us to let go, to be aware of our body and its processes, our feelings or sensations, or mind and thoughts, or mental objects or qualities -- to look at each and let them pass through oneself. The activities inherent in the practice of Right Mindfulness:
Mindfulness reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing. Our thoughts can often mask over reality or decenter us away from the actions we are actually performing. For example, daydreaming while doing chores. Mindfulness brings the mind back to the process of doing chores, to be fully present and aware in that moment of each aspect of the task. This full awareness aids us in completing the task well.
In mindfulness, we see things as they really are. Thoughts can often distort what we see, feel, hear, experience. So mindfulness strips away those distortions. This aspect of it is what corporations don't want us to learn, because then we were see them for what they really are: seeking control to use us in their profit making machine.
Mindfulness sees the true nature of phenomena. This essential aspect of the activity of mindfulness brings us to the root of the true nature of existence: imperfect, temporary, egoless. This awareness of the true nature of phenomena also followed from the prior activity, and it allows us to look past the distortions corporations peddle to us and to see their true nature - their power-hungry, profit-driven, and ego based exploitation of human, animal, and nature. To see this true nature can often lead people toward liberation from the corporation's hold on us.
For liberation and enlightenment to be realized, we must see the true nature of the situation we are in currently.
Often times the meditation taught by apps like Headspace isn't Right Mindfulness, but more of an exercise in awareness and interoception (awareness of one's body). These are still crucial skills to learn, and definitely can help us heal and better manage our health. However, the other aspects of mindfulness is often neglected, partly because it requires far more discipline and practice than what corporations allow their employees.
Right Mindfulness, when practiced in the correct frames of reference, will lead people into the other seven aspects of the eightfold path because Right Mindfulness, when practiced with respect to its original intent, is entangled in the other aspects of the Eightfold path.
As Thich Nhat Han wrote in The Heart of Buddha's Teaching: "When Right Mindfulness is present, the Four Noble Truths and the other seven elements of the Eightfold Path are also present."
One cannot practice one without the others also being present to some extent. That is something Corporations don't want to happen.
Why? Because the Eightfold path leads people to a higher awareness and understanding of themselves, their place in the world, and the world in general. That push toward enlightenment breaks the corporation's hold on our minds and makes us less easily controlled workers. Our enlightenment leads us toward liberation.
So mindfulness is stripped down and appropriated, so it can be a tool to keep workers calm, productive, and less likely to rise up.
Except, we don't have to keep it that way. We can take mindfulness back from the corporate toolbox. We can restore it to its roots, but that requires us to understand its roots, understand how we got to where we are now, and act upon that knowledge to realize our collective liberation.