https://tricycle.org/article/ethics-of-appreciation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ethics-of-appreciation The independent voice of Buddhism in the West. Tue, 21 Nov 2023 15:46:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 https://tricycle.org/article/ethics-of-appreciation/#comment-129077 Sun, 05 Nov 2023 05:27:15 +0000 https://tricycle.org/?p=68033#comment-129077 Thank you for this piece. I have studied Mahayana Buddhism in the UK at Manjushri centre and at outreach centres also, combined with MBSR training, Counselling, Social work training, Shamism and for the last four years Shaktipat. OSHO had similar ideologies regarding the process of meditations, their usefulness in todays world and acknowledged the differences between modern ‘man’ monasticism and the Interpretation of Buddhist texts. During my studies as a Lay person I have been told the views of texts written and distributed by my centre and I tried to mould myself into to such an Ideology. My Sangha consisted of a plurality of people who had financial, drug, marriage, alcohol addictions and other problems, meditation became a lifeboat, and following the prescription that Dhama exudes would and did help many of us if we followed the teachings. However, exploring MBSR gave another perspective, instead of looking at renunciation I began to see acceptance and love in ourselves, our bodies and an increasing awarenss in our actions. This approach I felt offered, a lens into the reality of life that meditation did not. In essence meditations did not help in making me a better person, it just made me better at meditating, whereas MBSR gave me the tools to look inward and find the mechanics that made me operate. It helped me uderstand that my actions come from somewhere, and that ‘somewhere’ was damaged and needed to be given love and compassion, time and acceptance. The earth sustains us, our mind creates the reality of our lives and being of service to all sentient beings is a noble and thankless task….hey! But someones got to do it!!

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