I hope when I have as much gray hair as he has, that I have half the wisdom he is sharing . Don't know the man but very nice video to watch. And it is my opinion that the second wisdom he shares (being happy even in the midst of unhappiness) is a great solution to the first problem .
A few months ago I just decided to be happy around the house. Literally not letting things impact me much. The effect on myself was modest. But the effect on my wife was profound. Her happiness index shot through the roof! That in turn had an amazing effect on me. I am going to practice what he says (to smile in a mirror when you first wake up) to see if I can amp this up even more.
We all react differently to suffering and pain. Some feel deeply involved in the emotional crash, others escape it the best they can.
There is no magic cake; we are who we are with everyone else around.
* In times of great humor I expressed, I could also see the distress in the few around me.
And in times of great sadness I expressed, I could also see people leaving me, and very few remaining. It's a more lonely world.
It's a balancing act between our own modes of expression and the others around us own's interpretations/reactions.
We adjust between, we accommodate each other the best we can so that we flow peacefully on the same calm waters.
I think.
It is quite a revelation when you realize that although pain is very real, suffering is largely made up by the mind. Its often resisting the experince you are having right now.
A good example to practise on: Being stuck in traffic is not the Problem. Its wishing you where already at the place you are trying to get too thats causing distress. If you come at it like a Zen master you will still be stuck in traffic for just as long but you wont be suffering because there is no resistence to the experience you are having.
I'm glad you guys had the patience to watch the video and write what you thought.
I tried watching and found the guy incredibly boring and deathly slow to express his ideas.
It wasn't that he was a certain age or that he wasn't an audiophile, he simply took a very long time to express himself. I think he should have had notes to remind him of what he wanted to express. It would have moved faster and been more interesting.
Truth to be told I used YouTube control to watch it at 1.5x speed.I'm glad you guys had the patience to listen to the video and write what you thought.
I tried watching and found the guy incredibly boring and slow to express his ideas.
It was at most a two minute talk that took over 12 minutes.
Give me the goods. I'm not interested in the poetic and flowery details.
Truth to be told I used YouTube control to watch it at 1.5x speed.
I'm glad you guys had the patience to listen to the video and write what you thought.
I tried watching and found the guy incredibly boring and slow to express his ideas.
It was at most a two minute talk that took over 12 minutes.
Give me the goods. I'm not interested in the poetic and flowery details.
Buddhism is amazing, imo it has the potential to make the world a better place, not just forums
Buddhism can be so many things, but at it's basis it's a way to understand the world and how we relate to it in a conscious manner, which gives us the opportunity to evolve concsiously instead of by trial and error. Unconscious evolution often involves doing the same harmful thing over and over until it becomes more painful to continue the behavior rather than change it.
Buddhism also teaches us "right view", without understanding the world we make decisions based on ignorance, which leads to pain. Pain is a given in this world, it's unavoidable. Suffering, however, is optional. Buddhism helps us understand the nature of suffering, and provides a way to escape it, often referred to as enlightenment. One key to understanding suffering is the fact that we live in samsara, which is the cycle of suffering, and the suffering is caused by our attraction or aversion to worldly phenomenon. It's easy to see how aversion causes suffering, if we experience something we have an aversion to we wish it would be different and we suffer. Its harder to understand attraction also causes suffering and many people resist it, but it's true. The way attraction makes us suffer is the impermanent nature of phenomenon will eventually take away that which we are attracted to. Whether it's material goods, relationships, even our own human life... eventually it will come to an end, and if we hold attachment to these things we will suffer. It's like 2 sides of the same coin... The unfortunate truth is we are conditioned to either be attracted to or have aversion for physical phenomenon, which makes the nature of the world that of suffering. To those who hold strong attractions and aversions the world is hell, and only has the nature of suffering. For those who are capable of maintaining equanimity, it is Nirvana. So, Nirvana and enlightenment is not a destination, it is simply a way of being. We can all choose this for ourselves, right now. There is nothing you need to attain to achieve enlightenment, it is our basic nature. Ignorance is what keeps it from us.
Bernie seems like quite the character. He has adopted a viewpoint which excludes other different views, others refer to him as a guru, he can speak without say anything and he wears a funny hat. It all seems like more religion to me. Just my opinion . . . man.
I do agree that humor in bad situations is 100% necessary.
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