|
|
Post by Failed Buddhist on Jul 14, 2019 21:24:55 GMT
Welcome all! Thank you for joining what I thought was a fierce and socially charged discussion today. As planned, our next meeting will be facilitated by Shaun, in which we will discuss his insightful (in my opinion, anyway) article Ditching the Raft, which you can find here. Also see the follow up post, Ditching the Raft 2: Interdependence. I will post a Doodle link shortly, so we can vote on a time again. Stay tuned! -FB |
|
|
|
Post by gwallis on Jul 14, 2019 22:43:36 GMT
Yes, thanks so much, everyone, for a stimulating conversation. And thanks for setting this forum up, FB. I am looking forward to the next gathering.
|
|
corey
New Member
Posts: 1
|
Post by corey on Aug 20, 2019 0:28:30 GMT
Shaun - I've read some of what you've posted here and there for some time, but I appreciated your presentation because I came away with a richer sense of who you are as a human being. Elizabeth (?) (whoever was on with Harold)...I'll admit I was annoyed at first by being asked to speak up, but I'm glad you nudged everyone to do so. I now have a sense for what brought a lot of the folks gathered yesterday. I was especially hoping to find some people around my age who'd had a similar(ish) journey, and did, so that was quite encouraging. If the monthly gatherings continue, I'm unlikely to make the next couple because my community/project/socializing bucket is a bit full at the moment, but I'm nonetheless really interested in seeing where this goes. Fwiw, I would describe my primary interest at present as exploring practices and groups that facilitate adult development, and I attempted to (mildly) clarify what I'd like to build sometime in the next year here: stagefive.home.blog/short-term-vision/ |
|
|
|
Post by shaunyata on Aug 21, 2019 12:20:20 GMT
Thanks Corey, I appreciate your participation in the discussion. Please join us again.
I'd like to reflect more on the discussion of Trash Community #3 and its aftermath. The discussion helped me a great deal; it helped me to talk through these issues with a group of people. It helped me to move along much faster on the continuum toward getting out of Buddhism altogether. (I hoped it helped other people in whatever way serves them best.) The discussion was followed by another blast of disillusionment upon reading that Culadasa was removed as head teacher of Dharma Treasure for sexual misconduct. That propelled me to 'ditch the raft' even more completely. Culadasa seemed so humble and unassuming, he was the last person I thought would engage in that kind of behavior. Guess I was wrong. I thought his approach to meditation was so modern and rational and empirical. Just shows you that even totally secular approaches to Buddhist practice can be warped, if the dharma teacher becomes narcissistic and his followers delusional.
I'm not only sick of religion (thanks to my upbringing as a Roman Catholic), I'm now sick of 'spirituality.' There is such a thing as too much spirituality, where spirituality becomes a gigantic escape from reality, a drug, a mental pill. It's too inwardly focused. It doesn't help you understand or cope with the larger reality outside yourself. Too much spirituality and you end up in a perpetual dream state, a delusional fog. It’s time to face the world and get on with life.
I’m starting to question myself now. What was it in me that needed to get into Buddhism in the first place? Why did I go so deep, to the point of refuge and vows? What made me think that a religous philosophy from 2600 years ago would have anything relevant to say to me today? Was it just the fact that so many people I personally knew were Buddhists? That Buddhism was an established global religion? Is it the fact that the real world today is so horrifying (think: Trump, climate change) that I needed to escape into an archaic religion? What was I so lacking that I had to find what I needed in an archaic and mostly irrelevant religion? I don’t even have answers to these questions, I just need to keep asking so that I understand myself better.
I now practice the religion of no religion. I practice the dharma of no dharma. I practice the refuge of no refuge. No Buddha, no dharma, no sangha. Emptiness.
|
|
