Infinite Good Humor

"How do you keep patience going? How do you keep persistence going? By having a good sense of humor about what’s happening to you in the path and having an infinite good humor that can keep you going. This is the attitude that allows you to say, “Whoops, another mistake! – Well, try again! Another mistake? Try again!” It’s that ability to step back from yourself a bit to see what you’re doing and not to be so into a particular state of mind or into a particular identity that you can’t let it go."
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Infinite Good Humor"

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(1) Experience as Rugby League football fan a resume qualification!

My experience as a Rugby League football fan deserves to be on my resume! I've been a hypochondriac since puberty. But my dream of playing Rugby League in heaven is still alive. Rugby League is a dangerous sport. They wear no protective gear, and, until it was banned in 2006, there was what's called a "shoulder charge" where the purpose is not just to stop the opponent advancing in yardage but to inflict pain and preferably concussion. Once an Australian international player was penalized by a strange foreign referee because his tackle was "too fierce" which I found hilarious! The G-forces of the hardest tackles in Rugby League are about 20 G's! An astronaut only feels 3 G's or three times his or her bodyweight. Anyway my dream is to be reborn in heaven with such a powerful body that I could deploy and receive shoulder charges in celestial games of Rugby League with no risk of injury. The news media report afte...

Questions for figuring out Do's not Don'ts

Theravada Buddhism mainly offers lists of Don'ts rather than Do's . I've struggled to figure out what action I want to do before I do it. “Whenever you want to do a [bodily/verbal/mental] action, you should reflect on it: ‘This action I want to do — would it lead to self-affliction, to the affliction of others, or to both? Would it be an unskillful action, with painful consequences, painful results?’ If, on reflection, you know that it would lead to self-affliction, to the affliction of others, or to both; it would be an unskillful action with painful consequences, painful results, then any action of that sort is absolutely unfit for you to do. But if on reflection you know that it would not cause self-affliction, the affliction of others or both, it would be a skillful action with pleasant consequences, pleasant results, then any action of that sort is fit for you to do." ~ the Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya 61 , transl. Thanissaro My latest variation (bodily, verbal...

The body can’t feed off of anticipation but the mind can. And that’s what gives it the strength to keep going. So faith is an important way of nourishing the mind.

"You’re not here just stuck in a bad situation where there’s nothing you can do about it. Even though there may be limitations on what you can do, you always have the opportunity to do the skillful thing, say the skillful thing, think something skillful. And that will be your food down the line. Even though the refreshment and the nourishment and the rapture may not be coming immediately, the simple fact that you’re convinced that there will be something good coming down the line gives you energy right there. Because the mind is not like the body. The body can’t feed off of anticipation but the mind can . And that’s what gives it the strength to keep going. So conviction is an important way of nourishing the mind." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Feeding Off the Future"

Enjoying Creating Affirmations

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