Meditation, ET Sightings, and Tin Foil Hat Design

[Martin]

@Media

I guess that one might be very prone to seeking adventure to get into these positions (astronauts, pilots, etc…) in the first place. When that too becomes boring, where else to go?

Isn’t Buddhist practice like an adventure?

[Media]

@Martin

Isn’t Buddhist practice like an adventure?

Thank you. That proved a nice little topic for reflection.

I’m pretty new to Buddhist practice, but I’m a long time meditator. I find that meditation literally opens up new worlds and new inhabitants of those worlds and when not tempered by Buddhism I would say that there is much exploring and making of adventure to be had as the horizon of perception expands. We see this in one of the long discourses where a monk travels to progressively refined realms of existence to ask his question of the inhabitants there. And for a great deal of my time as a meditator, this adventurous spirit is what I had too. But actually what the Buddha does is tie down this adventurous spirit by framing those experiences and directing us towards investigating them in the context of the three signs of being, or the three conceits, or one of the other unique aspects of Buddhism. For me this curtails the adventurous spirit, so I might conclude that Buddhist practice (or at least the bits that are unique to Buddhism) are the antithesis of adventure.

Thank you again.

[karl_lew]

@Media

the antithesis of adventure.

But imagine my delight at recently finding all the suttas to meditate on for my new adventures!

[karl_lew]

Reading this thread and wondering why I subscribed to it, I realized that this discussion might actually be about the “dimension of infinite space” and our craving for that. For me that dimension of infinite space is the dimension of infinite possibility. The dimension where forms have yet to arise.

My job as a programmer is essentially naming forms, and forms come out of …

And this is probably why discussions on UFO’s for me are really about the infinite possibilities, or the “dimension of infinite space”. Even physics says space bubbles randomly. And having watched Star Trek and taken heart at “where no man goes before”, I understand that to go there, one has to go into infinite space.

So that was a long way of asking…

Are we wistfully waving our hands here at the dimension of infinite space?

[Martin]

@Media

But actually what the Buddha does is tie down this adventurous spirit by framing those experiences and directing us towards investigating them in the context of the three signs of being, or the three conceits, or one of the other unique aspects of Buddhism. For me this curtails the adventurous spirit, so I might conclude that Buddhist practice (or at least the bits that are unique to Buddhism) are the antithesis of adventure.

Actually I think you’re right, it is quite prescriptive. My own approach to satipatthana is somewhat heretical in that I use it to explore aspects of experience in a more open-ended way.

[karl_lew]

@Martin

antithesis of adventure.

Hmm. This sounds like a horrible thing for the gently curious. Maybe I should stop now and go do something adventuresome.

Curiousity is actually what brought me here to SuttaCentral and to a specific perplexing phrase: neutral emotion. And in that phrase, curiousity found a mirror. It was quite funny actually. I literally could not stop giggling when I read “Delight is the root of suffering.”

Cat chases tail. Quite the adventure.

[Martin]

@karl_lew

Are we wistfully waving our hands here at the dimension of infinite space ?

“Beam me aboard, Scotty!”