dharmapunx NYC

everything is fragile, coming together and falling apart we can observe the amount of effort that goes into being with someone who is very ill or inclined towards death, and the other extreme, being with youthful energy, which requires containing & protecting it from harm and danger, guiding it, teaching it. likewise, we can observe all the time and energy it takes to guide a human life in worthwhile directions and to be with its day to day difficulties —we've got to sustain and feed ourselves, protect ourselves, teach ourselves, etc when we open the heart to the conditions that have to be lined up in order for our life to be sustained we see fragility; so many conditions have to be coordinated just to make it through a day —when we consider the delicacy and contingency of it all, its not surprising when things go awry —as ajahn brahma says, we shouldn't say to a doctor something's wrong, i don't feel well, but rather something's in line with the nature of life,...

We all have questions along the lines of: What is the point of it all? Why are we here? What is the transcendent nature of reality? What is important to achieve in life? What is our reason for being alive? In Plato's world , the meaning of life lies in attaining the highest form of knowledge, the ideal, from which all good and just things derive utility and value. there is a perfect, ideal version of all things, from which our world falls short. Emmanuel Kant wrote a single moral obligation, the "Categorical Imperative", demands adherence and duty. for actions to be ethical, they must lead to what is universally good utilitarianism : the point of each action is to bring about the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people Nihilism seeks to reveal the flaws and unverifiable assumptions that our transcendent truths and purpose rest upon, revealing life's lack of essential value or purpose. Taoist world view focused on an underlying energy or state of flow i...

the Buddha had many terms for things that stir up the mind. anusayas are fixations, thought habits, ideas that arise constantly kiriya means mental agitation papanca is the sheer proliferation of thought that is obsession anusayas or obsessions have seven types . we become obsessed about 1) people and things that make us feel good, that stir passion 2) people and things that make us feel uncomfortable, that stir aversion 3) our views and opinions about life, people, the world 4) our fears of the future 5) our self centered ideas; "who am i" 6) our craving to attain higher states of being, to "become better person, more equipped to tackle the world" 7) our tendency to blame external forces for our stress and unhappiness, to avoid seeing the role our mind plays in creating stress and suffering for ourselves (we tend to objectify our experience, rather than see it as a subjective process) the buddha teaches in the anusaya sutta that the purpose of spiritual practi...