My Experience with Buddhism Pt 1 (Agnosticism)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, December 16, 2022, 16:26 (708 days ago) @ David Turell

The childhood Matt describes evokes a lasting anger in an adult, who must learn to control it by recognizing its source and reasons to change from the biting anger in order to move forward. Matt did that in his own way, beautifully.

One of the things in this process that softened the hard stances I had taken vs religion in the past was recognizing the importance about connecting with an ancient tradition. There *is* something moving about being a part of an institution with 2500yrs of consecutive history.

And yeah David, you hit it on the head--if the exterior matched the interior I would certainly look worse for wear ROFL. Anger generally leads towards destruction if you don't channel it.

dhw: Yes its true that people can put on a mask, but you can't do THAT and live authentically. To the extent that internal peace is possible, thinking one way and constantly doing another is oppression. While I'm painting with broad strokes here, the closer one can get to having their internal state match their external state, the extent to which thought and deed are synonymous is an ideal that one should strive for. (I hesitate to push too broadly here because what does the "Golden Rule mean to a Masochist?)

Later today or tomorrow I'll start sketching what I think the Buddhists mean in regards to rebirth. My monk is attending to two funerals so he's apologized but he'll get back to me. I do think I've unlocked the logic at least, we'll see what he thinks later.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"