I thought I read somewhere that Jehovah's Witnesses are "The Happiest People On Earth"
Proof Buddhists Are Happiest Religion??
by metatron 16 Replies latest jw friends
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Gopher
Mary --
You misread that. It said "WACKIEST", not "happiest".
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ClassAvenger
I once heard that those guys would set themselves on fire while they were meditating and just die off without yelling or complaining. Thats pretty freaky. Makes me wonder how stuff like that can be possible, but oh well, there's a lot of weirder stuff out there.
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azaria
Funny, that was the topic on a radio talk show today. Because I was at work, I couldn't hear it all. Iknow almost nothing about buddism. I have a couple of questions. Doesn't a buddist monk basically tune out the world and go inside himself all the time, a lot of meditation (ummmmm)? If so, they don't have to deal with the everyday problems the rest of us face. In my opinion then (if that's the case) it can be a very self-indulgent thing to do. As for happiness, is their definition of happiness the same as ours? I would think that if you accept pain as part of your happiness, the brain will react positively and likewise if you have a difficult time accepting the pain in your life (and most of us deal with it) your brain will react differently. Hope that made sense, but I think you get my drift.
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gitasatsangha
There are various buddhist meditational techniques. The simplest one would be zazen, which is basically means sitting. Theravada Buddhism employees vippasanna. Vippasanna involves a lot of breath control and mindfulness. Mindfulness is often the key. Simplifying actions to be mindful of those that are going on. Your thought processes and so forth.
Meditation is often done in one of two ways in the eastern methods. (and by this I mean Buddhist and Hindu meditation, which are strikingly similar) One is to stop thinking. The idea is to loose the idea, and the ego. Easier said then done. One buddhist teacher said he liked what White Rabbit told Alice, "Don't just do something, stand there!"
The other thing would be to meditate on a specific thing. Some concept, some idea, a holy word, a mantra, maybe even an object.
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azaria
Forgot:
God is there always in ALL of us. Even in JW's. It is just a matter of removing the layers of illusion that we are seperate from God. And embracing the Grace that is You. Just some thoughts.
Integ: I agree with you.I personally believe that we all have the knowledge of God deep inside us. Some deny His existence. I could never understand to believe like a child, then I thought maybe it's because they don't have so much garbage covering Him up (in a sense) with life's problems, hate, anger, pain etc.
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Introspection
Good questions Azaria. Of course, meditation is not meant to be a form of escape, but it can be used in that way. Sometimes people meditate so much that their life may start to revolve around the practice, but the truth is any real spiritual practice should be revolved around life. I think it's really just a matter of being clear with your intent and seeing things for what they are, as far as I know nobody ever said meditating a lot will make you enlightened, as if it's like pioneering by sitting or something. The issue of being socially engaged is certainly one that's been talked about, and some people like Thich Nhat Hahn are big on it.
As for happiness, I don't know that it necessarily changes your brain in any sigificant way, although I understand that in general there are differences that have been observed in meditators. (which is not the same as a Buddhist either..) But yes, you're pretty much on the right track on the point about accepting pain - whether we accept pain or not it's a fact of life, it's a natural response the body has in certain situations. I'm sure you can see how having a clear mind will result in less psychologically induced pain though, those are after all unnecessary outside of the psychological framework they arise from.
To go back to your first question, that's actually a very good observation about how it can become self-indulgent. Considering that one of the main teachings in Buddhism is no-self or not-self, it is clear that if someone identifies with being a Buddhist or a meditator they don't really understand this. This is where it's kind of ironic in that when someone becomes a Buddhist whether as a monastic or a lay person, they start focusing on form to a certain degree - it could be anything from wearing the official robe, being interested in Buddhist art, burning incense and collecting Buddhist paraphernalia to just the meditation practice itself. Obviously being Buddhist is not about those things, but I suppose this is kind of what happens when people do something religiously.