What Is The Difference Between Monkey-mind And Ego

[Emerald]

4 hours ago, Fidelio said:

 You wrote that you want to bore and bullshit your way to Enlightenment; to pretend to be the Wise Sage untill you get sick of it. Not too difficult to understand. A novel approach. If it works. 

...Or you could try the method that has worked for countless people for thousands of years, refined and tried and true--since you already know everything there is to know, you know the Buddhists call this the eight-fold path. Of course a map to Eldorado won't get you anywhere if you don't use it. This is the difference between learning how to bake cookies and actually baking them. It sounds like you've read all the cookbooks, but you just don't want to actually go into the kitchen to roll dough. Rolling dough is hard; it's easier just to read about baking cookies and then imagining yourself eating them.

I just realized I haven't eaten lunch. Time for a cookie break. ?

Samma-Vaca 

[SOUL]

12 minutes ago, Fidelio said:

Why do you make so many assumptions? Do you believe you can read minds? Because if you can, what am I thinking about right now? And no, it's not porn.

I didn't have to make any assumptions, you provided the evidence of it yourself with your own words. Is this lack of self awareness you have one of the eight folds? I'm just wondering...

[Emerald]

Just now, Fidelio said:

Yes, and your attempt to use it as a cudgel leads me to believe you have no idea what it actually means. This is why I suggest you visit a temple, because there is an ocean of space between the practice, and what you think you've learned perusing Wikipedia.

Let me give you an example: You know Loreena, right? You've seen her around? Ring a bell? She's as sweet as can be. Her posts are very nice and supportive, and she even used to have a rabbit as her avatar. Everybody loves rabbits. However, most of what Loreena has ever posted is "wrong speech". If you can figure out why that is, you very well may have an instant awakening.

Listen, Mike. I don't know why you're so pre-occupied with me and what I'm doing. I could be going in the wrong direction, and that's fine. I trust that I'll get back in the right direction eventually, if I am. However, I do believe that right now is my time to let go of intellectualization and getting wrapped up in thoughts. So, I believe that the best thing I can do right now is to try to get disenchanted with it. Otherwise, it will be too strong of a pull since it will (mostly unconsciously) feel like an outlet to get over my sense of self-lack. I've looked into a lot of systems for reaching enlightenment, and they've all been really great for me when I looked into them. But in all honesty, if I were to do that now, it's simply to delay the actual task of relinquishing all security blankets that insulate me from the experience of emptiness that creeps on me daily now. I want to go somewhere, read something, check my emails, talk on here, clean the house, etc. It's only when everything loses meaning, especially intellect-related things, that I can actually face reality for what it is.

So, tell me about what "right speech" entails. 

[Zephyr]

@Fidelio You seem to know something that many people don't seem to know. How can I acquire the knowledge you posses?

[Joseph Maynor]

@Nichols Harvey Do you guys all know each other in real life?  Seems like a small squabbling family around here sometimes.  I never thought Buddhists could be so argumentative.  The Buddha must be spinning in his grave!   Rub the Buddha's big fat belly for some luck and peace folks.  Life's not this hard.  I thought I was an arguer.  Man, I'm chill in comparison.  You ever seen one of those tiny zen gardens?  Maybe get one of those.  With that little rake. Rake away your sins!  Life is chill.  Eat it up.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Emerald]

Just now, Fidelio said:

Oh, I'm not preoccupied with you or what you are doing. I was just giving Annie most of my attention on here, and I figured I should spread the love around with other members on the forum.

And I could explain what "right" and "wrong" speech is, but since you said you are bored with intellect-based learning, you probably wouldn't be interested.

Then why have you continued to reply to me with various insults and nay-sayings? If you think I'm on the wrong path, why can't you just accept that without having to try to control the situation or prove me to be some kind of dishonest or foolish person? I already told everyone that I am dishonest and foolish... but I'm slightly more honest and wiser for being able to admit these things to myself. I know my honesty limits and I'm trying to push them to the brink of how honest I can get. 

But my question to you is, when are you going to start being honest with yourself? I've heard you deny a lot of observations from others who have posted on this thread either in my defense or simply in their own defense. So, consider that the following might be true and that you may be deceiving yourself.

Here's what I believe based on what I've witnessed: You are angry and agitated and that's why you're always in arguments. You are trying to take jabs at me just for the sake of feeling superiority over me because you feel put out by me for some reason. You are pre-occupied with me and what I'm doing. You do believe that you're wiser and more intelligent than others. You are using the forum to prop up your sense of identity by establishing yourself as a voice of reason.

Would these things be so difficult to admit to yourself? Could you still accept yourself if these things were true? 

You may come back at me and tell me that I'm projecting and making assumptions. But this is certainly what it looks like to me and probably most others. You can't expect for people to see something that walks, talks, and acts like a duck and not assume that it's a duck.

You may hide these things from yourself. But you can't hide it from other people. So, a big part of right speech is honesty. Why don't you take your own advice and practice right speech a little? And a little humility and brutal honesty will be much better than grand-standing on your own high horse like you're the voice of reason and wisdom to tell others what they should or should not be doing on the path. 

[Joseph Maynor]

@Nichols Harvey  You never heard that?  It's a way of saying don't fool yourself.

[SOUL]

@Fidelio, The answer you sought from me was very eloquently and effectively elaborated by @Emerald.

[Emerald]

Just now, Nichols Harvey said:

What a waste of time too!

What's with the duck analogy??

It's definitely a waste of time. But he's been taking a lot of little jabs at me for a while now. Normally, I just ignore the jabs and answer as though no insult were intended from him. However, this time, I decided to clap back a little bit and hold a mirror up to him, since he's been putting a microscope up to me. 

[Emerald]

Just now, Nichols Harvey said:

This is really dysfunctional.  To stand there and psycoanalyze people is a really rude and aggressive tactic. No matter how justified it feels. 

Not cool. Better to just put up a hand and walk away and not get into a game. 

 

These are my honest observations though. He certainly hasn't been very conservative about his observations about me.

[SOUL]

Hmmmmm... calling someone's genuinely expressed and exercised spirituality "bullshit" isn't insulting?

[Prabhaker]

6 minutes ago, Nichols Harvey said:

but im not sure why it's  bothering you if you truly believe he's the bad one?

No he is not the bad one, he is a great master , he tries to shatter the ego of everyone who he finds appropriate. He was doing same thing with me and many others, but unfortunately I am as egoist as I was before. 

E earlier @Fidelio  was begging for attention from @Emerald  , he tried his best but failed. Now, he has got enough attention from @Emerald .

 I wonder why he was not finding mistakes in @Emerald , when he was begging for her attention.

[Joseph Maynor]

@Prabhaker Maybe he should work on the log in his own eye before he worries about the speck in others.  

"Do Not Judge!
…For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?…"  Matthew 7-3

Damn that's wise eh!  Jesus didn't suffer no fools.  Oh lordy lord.

Here's the King James version, a little more blunt -- 

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Prabhaker]

5 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Maybe he should work on the log in his own eye before he worries about the speck in others.  

Everyone has right to behave in the way he like, as long as it doesn't bothers the moderators/ administrator of this forum. Everyone learns from his mistakes.

[Emerald]

32 minutes ago, Nichols Harvey said:

@Emerald but im not sure why it's  bothering you if you truly believe he's the bad one?

It's normal for a person who's identified with the ego to be bothered when someone attacks the ego. Normally I'm pretty good at playing the role of the bigger person and just ignoring it or pretending that I don't see the insults. It deprives him of the chance to hem me into an argument. But this time, I decided to clap back with full honesty, instead of just pretending not to be bothered or above the situation, as I usually do. You have to understand that Mike and I have been corresponding on here and on my channel for a few months now. So, it's a little irksome that the very first time that I come back at him with a mirror to his own stuff, that there's a person that automatically starts calling me aggressive and presumptuous, like I was doing it out of nowhere. Sorry, I'm normally better at hiding my ego than that.  

However, there is a chance that he's a master ego-poker like @Prabhaker said. Having had my channel for about a year and a half, I've noticed that there is a certain type of antagonistic people who all have the same kind of feel to them that come and try to challenge my ego. At first, I was easily upset by them, and felt the need to tighten up. But I usually learned to loosen up and hear what they were saying, and it has helped me. However, I still assume that everything that I wrote about Mike is true, because that's what it looks like. That's my honest perceptions of him. And if it's true, I hope that he can learn to see how it is true. So, it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and acts like a duck. So, it probably is a duck. But there's a very small chance it could be some other type of bird that I've never heard of before that happens to look just like a duck. But I'd bet money that it's a duck.

[Emerald]

Just now, Nichols Harvey said:

@Emerald

Yawn.

Lol

I don't trust you one bit  .

You're all talk and no substance.

Why are you insulting me?

[Emerald]

@Prabhaker Are you doing a similar thing to what I'm doing now with regard to the trying to become disenchanted with intellect? 

[Emerald]

Just now, Nichols Harvey said:

@Emerald

How Can you pull that card after the freight train of monkey mind you just poured out here at this guy?

You're no better than him 

Sorry. But you make your bed and lie in it. If you insist on feeding trolls with your particular brand of self righteous ibsult then you don't get exemption from comments from bystanders about your own behaviour. 

Talk about double standards

You still didn't answer my question. Why are YOU insulting me?

[SOUL]

5 minutes ago, Nichols Harvey said:

@Emerald

Yawn.

 

Sleepy one....awaken.

[Joseph Maynor]

@Emerald Maybe you rub his ego the wrong way lol.