Is Enlightenment Mental Suicide? | Dennis Sheppard | 20 August 2021
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Every year, the monastic community (Monks and nuns) go on a three month retreat called the “Rains Retreat” from mid July to mid October. During this period, they do not visit our centres for teachings as it’s a time for deepening their own practice.
While the monks and nuns are away, we will have some interesting guest speakers coming in to give the Friday Night talk.
OPEN YOUR HEART 2021
Dennis Sheppard: Is Enlightenment Mental Suicide?
Dennis Sheppard is a beloved long-time member and past president of the BSWA on numerous occasions. His sessions are as diverse as his skills ranging from hypnotherapist to building designer.
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon: / buddhistsocietywa and don’t forget to subscribe to our RUclips channel.
Recorded at Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre, Perth, Western Australia.
To find the full playlist visit: / buddhistsocietywa , click on 'Playlists' in the top menu bar.
Thank you! From Virginia USA
Good question! 🙏
Note to self
Buddha (Verse 21): “Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already.” (Corrected version)
Embrace life as the way it is, let it go, and be peaceful. …Accept everything the way it is and live with it.
Reality and sanity.
Practice to become peaceful and let go and stop right here and now.
It is heedfulness not hatefulness
@@rico2615 Wow! Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I have been wondering about this because I have never heard about this particular quote. Is this correct? “Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already.” 🙏
Thank you from Los Angeles 🦋
Years ago I lay in a hospital bed for weeks unable to do anything of significance but be acted upon rather than doing things of my own choice, not even able to talk. I listened to the sounds around me. I watched the daylight change from morning till night. I noticed the change in temperate between day and night. I noticed the changes of shifts of the nursing staff and doctors. I could watch the wall clock with such concentration that I could virtually see the clock hands moving with the passage of time.
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It was quite an experience to be taken out of the bustle of normal life and be forced by circumstances to become passive, seeing the only bustle as that of other people. And while there was some sense of enjoyment in experiencing this novelty, in amongst morphine hallucinations or being wheeled to other departments for x-rays etc, I wanted to be like the people who wandered by, going about their business, having the ability to walk, for example, which at the time I was utterly powerless to do, and watching them do it was like being an intelligent plant from another planet marvelling at the idea of being sentient yet mobile.
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I wanted to be back into normal life. Contemplation, meditation, mindfulness, yeah it's all great, but it's only a part of life. The rest is the exhilaration of being able to act volitionally, plan actions and execute them, find oneself in situations and have to tackle them in real time, and most of all, interact with other people. To be followed in the evening by quiet time to contemplate the days events, learn from them, ponder the meaning of existence, the great puzzle that such a puzzle exists, and yet plan for the next day. The joy of being a participant rather than only an observer, of living life, not just watching it. Of not just going with the flow, but taking my part in it.
Sorry to hear your ordeal. It's our defilements that make us go back to the world .
@@Unknown-bv7lv Explain "our defilements". I am not sorry for my ordeal. Someone told me I was the most unfortunate person he had met. I was surprised. I felt quite the opposite. That said, I did not choose my ordeal, it was not given to me as a choice, and had it been, I would not have chosen it, nor would I wish such an ordeal on anyone else. I could have been of far more use to other people had I not been ill. But it is what happened. Real life is like that, whether you have a religion or not, ie whatever floats your boat. And there are people who face far worse, all over this planet, every day.
A very encompassing and learnéd lecture ! I gained much from it. Just rewatching it a second time.
Oh the luxury of sitting in pleasant surroundings in the security of a wealthy country at (relative) peace, contemplating how pleasant it is to be conscious. Try that in Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea or Sudan. Of course it's pleasant. He looks well fed, well dressed, and not stressed by moment by moment risk to his life or the lives of his family. Just saying.
Buddha was asked how can we be secure in our lives . He said security comes within us and not from the surroundings we live in . If you make the effort in Meditation no matter where you are peace will come into you
@@Unknown-bv7lv Ah yes this is the Buddhist version of Victim Blaming in which the afflicted person is blamed for not believing enough or not praying enough, the same as, in Prosperity Theology, being poor is the victim's fault.
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When I was ill in hospital, I never blamed anyone else as there was no one to blame, I never felt pity for myself as it served no purpose, I had no choice but to take each day at a time as I was too ill to do anything for myself, and on the bad days, take each hour at a time, or each moment at a time. I had loads of time for meditation. I became very aware of the dedication of the doctors and nurses, and the excellence for which they strived. I was also very fortunate to be visited regularly by family and friends. I realised how fortunate I was, no matter the outcome.
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But I am also aware that, where someone's misfortune is the result of, say, living in a war zone, or being oppressed for being in a minority, or whatever, putting all the responsibility on the victim can mean perpetrators walk away free.
@@Unknown-bv7lv If you see things the right way, peace will come to you. Fair enough. But what about when those around you who are suffering? Do you still have such peace of mind? That would be selfish.
@@dakrontu Wow, I have the same story as you. 5 years ago. Since then Buddhism is not as dear to me. The dedication of the people around me were all I could cling onto....and thought of others less fortunate. I live in NYC with best doctors, and bills were low with my medical plan...others are in pain with less....Not their fault...blaming past lives is victim blaming.
I still appreciate other aspects of Buddhism but it lost it overall appeal.
@@emmedalcamo6899 People are inventive. The idea of blaming people's circumstances on past lives is a very convenient invention. The kind of thing that would occur pretty obviously. Never underestimate the capacity of human beings to take something simple and follow their own fantasies and delusions to completely obscure it with layer upon layer of ornate decorative obfuscation.
Why was the meditation cut away? Will it be re-published separately? It was a very good meditation.
If you really consider Einstein's realizations regarding both special and general relativity it seems to me he had to have arrived at his understanding through a combination of focus of mind and present moment awareness. He pretty much had to in order to see reality as it is. So there's a good argument that scientific discovery involves direct perception of reality. Which is essentially meditation.
I've always thought of Buddha as a scientist of the subjective human experience.
Please, take the mind.
I don’t want it except when absolutely necessary
🥳🤓😆
❤️🙏
If a 'universal cycle' is an actual cycle of the universe then the current one is in it infancy and could go on for quadrillions of years. So the Buddha looked back over 24 previous such cycles, observing no beginning? What a guy. It's great what the imagination can do.
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But while that may jive with modern understanding from Physics, it is still just imaginative conjecture. No I am not a YEC (Young Earth Creationist), but those folks similarly have it firmly wedged in their heads that the world is a snow globe constructed 6,000 years ago by their deity. They have the disadvantage of rightfully being laughed at by Physicists.
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But as with the Buddha, their strong beliefs are just conjectures. What we know mostly comes from Physics. There is very little informational content in a statement such as 'the universe is of infinite age' or 'the universe is 6,000 years old'. There is plenty of informational content in what we understand about the physical world that has enabled us to build the internet and send probes beyond the solar system.
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So let's not get too excited by conjectures unbacked by any form of evidence. They can be as vacuous as the 'God did it' mantra uttered by YECs. Knowing 'God did it' doesn't tell as anything useful. It doesn't tell us how to feed ourselves, cure our ills, how to make a radio, or even how to make or use a sheet of paper and a pen.
Sit for 3 min once a day is not hard. It is for your selfs.Breed in the Dama and relece Chiquitas
bullsht