Some thoughts to a friend on a night of Englightenment
Maybe if those "Buddhist Masters" who teach online, or the TV Bible thumpers, or other such kind, read a little science, it would help them to understand what is going on...
In my online project, I must be careful to act in others interests or I will fail, in my purpose to alleviate human suffering on a larger scale and integrate new values into a community of fellow humans. To isolate those who operate on an animal need/greed basis who would harm others and children because their selfish desires. My understanding of my own nature and that of others ads me greatly in this task. It will only work if good people think it is right and proper and if they can "get some", this will under cut the black market. You know how much profit there is in pot, if the price drops sufficiently, the incentives disappear, the risk won't be worth the reward. The greedy behave logically...
https://www.rollitup.org/t/canada-grows-to-the-4-plant-limit.948839/
I need to meditate more. Most of this stuff is pouring out of my subconscious and is taking me aback, so I need to sit more and smoke less, tough I'm not smoking much.
Work was a great aid to training and even though I had a busy job with many balls in the air at once, I found time to practice. Because of the psychological flexibility that practice promotes, I used an imposed discipline to aid one that is difficult to maintain. I came in early practiced for 40 min before work anywhere I could find a place and put in some ear plugs to tone down the noise a bit. I didn't take that long to get offered a much better office job that was more challenging and interesting. Eventually a sociopath took over the company and not long after that we had a high anxiety one running the shop. I've seen supervisors vomit blood in waste paper baskets, we had a talk! One big boss a bit younger than me had a heat attack and almost died, except his wife saved him on the kitchen floor. He came to the shop in a low stress job, training 200 new apprentices, when all the experienced guys were heading for the door because of the social conditions that greed had created, one of the reasons I hung around a bit. I would corner him in the office and send emails, trying to save his life, I think I might have succeeded too, cause he was a pretty smart guy and if I coulda talked to his wife I woulda had her with a stick on him.
I would sit before work and at lunch, because I could eat at my desk whenever I wanted. If I had nothing to do I attended to my experence, watched my breath notice my feet on the floor and tried to get into feeling every bodily sensation. I often had a sit after super too for 20 min, after a shower works nice for this. Did metta at the gym at work on the elliptical for forty minutes sometimes also when I was swimming, I used metta bodily sensations and the controlled breath. I learned to swim better by attending to my swimming in detail.
I guess what this is really all about is: Use work, an imposed discipline to foster a difficult one, is the best advice I could give anyone, in how to maintain a practice and exercise yer brain. Start slow, a little helps a lot, but you must be consistent and try to learn as many tricks as you can to relax. Remember your giving the old prefrontal cortex the 20 minute work out and your brain is gonna be changing physically, it's an exercise above all else. Like in exercise stuff happens in a practice stuff happens too, many changes are on a subconscious level and weird shit might happen like yer floating in the air etc. We want to flood the prefrontal cortex with blood through exercise, this only happens when we are relaxed and can feel at ease. You do't have to fold yourself up like a damn pretzel on the floor either, a comfortable chair will do, maintaining an upright proper posture aids in connecting with yer body cause it's a pain to do at first.
- I work on processes not problems with my students, problems are the meat and potatoes of a practice and they're all yours, if ya want.
- Have no goal, this is not like other work and problem solving, we are working with a different part of the brain. Chronic fear and stress causes changes in the brain. You ain't normal, a few are, natural causes, or training...
Most of this is coming straight from the subconscious and I have little awareness of what will come out of my finger tips next. I'm not even thinking about the writing it's just flowing out.Haven't worked on the lamp either, more important things are going on with in me. Late nights, I'm off my sleep cycle, maybe I'm going through cannabis withdrawal! Naw, been there done that! I have a great deal of experience with that particular item, coffee is more addictive. I like the selfish pleasure of getting high, period and it doesn't bother me at all, because I think I've become a better person, maybe because of it. It doesn't appear to have made me stupid, though you might disagree with that one and myself on occasion too! I believe in what I'm doing and that's the most important thing. I have a more objective outlook than most (training).
I came to these realizations mostly on my own, other academic and scientist practitioners did too. I designed my own course from my own experience as a practitioner as all professionals in this business do. It is based on my understanding of the process and my life experience, I'm as good as any in my field IMHO and have a lot of training and experience. Most importantly, I understand what I'm doing and put others before myself, the hallmark of a good teacher.
It would be difficult to be mindful and a drunk for long, alcohol interferes with neurogenesis and synaptic genesis too much. I can't teach a drunk anything, until they sober up for a bit and if they are older I would recommend moderate cannabis to aid, not training, but these factors.
I'm not a Saint or Bodhisattva, just someone trying to be more human and exercising those parts of the brain that have to do with it. I don't need the stick and carrot of Heaven and Hell. A monkey can follow a rule book, if ya got the book, the monkey understands it, and ya got somebody to swing the stick, in away I'm just another monkey too. I have my own rulebook though and it's called right and wrong; wrong is when we put ourselves before others, everything else is ok. Remember this rule and do everything you can to make sure it's enforced, in yourself, as well as others. That is what I've learned from my practice and why I modestly teach, I have no one to grab me, when I screw up and could have a large following if I wished. But egotism is not my purpose, happiness and wisdom are. But that is changing because that too is selfish and I should run the risk at AA at least, if I join as a peer, but not for the usual reasons.
Now you should have some idea about me and what drives me through life, I've discovered the secret to happiness and would like to share. I feel like a greedy bastard, in that I can't effectively do this on as large a scale as possible. I'm creative, so I'm sure something will pop up from my subconscious mind! Maybe a few things have. This is how it works and why you should think I know what I'm doing. I started on a spiritual quest traditionally called the way or the path, it a very wise and ancient path. My goal became to understand this and since I believe in science, use it's knowledge and understanding to aid my own. Two forces in this world have done much to reduce human suffering, science and Buddhism. One is largely objective and the other subjective, both meet on honest ground where honorable people speak and bullshit artists with no true understanding run.