The Advantages of Cherishing Others
This week I was flooded in the campground that I was staying and needed to flee in the middle of the night.
Life is like that sometimes.
It seems that the nature of life is suffering, and when we dwell on our own pains,we feel worse. But if we spend time cherishing others, we feel better about ourselves and the others benefit too. I don’t make this shit up!
so, in this week’s article I look at the 12th Lamrim meditation, ‘The Advantages of Cherishing Others’. I did it for you. (Bahahahahahaha)
Going Down The Steps
Ken Wells, in this controversial article, has some suggested steps for those of us that seem to keep on going back to the well.
“Treating yourself with gentleness and being your own best friend seems preposterous when you simply want to scream and beat yourself up. Why? Because you failed. It’s common for some to scream and self-destruct in a cloud of smoke, while others more subtly self-sabotage.”
When I was Jung
To Enneagram or Not To Enneagram
There is a real need in me for Philosophy and Psychology this week. It arises quite often and yet, it is surprising when I have discovered that I am navel-gazing again.
I remember my Psychologist, Rhonda, saying to me, “You know, Mike, people like you are often drawn to Buddhism!”
At first, I was offended at being so easily typecast, and then I was intrigued to find out what ‘kind’ I was.
I already had been told that I was “Just a garden-variety alcoholic”. That was cruel enough.
Rhonda had also diagnosed my manic-depressive nature too.
Being the type of person that finds cosmological understanding in the teachings of Buddha is not bad in the whole scheme of things.
So what type of people am I?
The group, Centre For Men Australia, had been a great source of camaraderie over recent years and most of the predominantly Christian men that I met there were Councillors and had a tremendous liking for the Enneagram system. I did not know much about this until recently.
Here is something that I learned about myself (according to the Enneagram).
“Being ordinary, unspecial, or insignificant (is my core fear). Living a mundane or unimportant life. Being abandoned or rejected because of some inherent flaw or deficiency.
Fours (me)+ tend to feel sadness more readily than fear. In some way, the Four’s sadness is a way of preemptively experiencing their fears; instead of worrying about rejection, the Four grieves relationships as if they’ve already been rejected. Digging deeper into sadness and grief often reveals the core fears of the Four.”
If you have experience with the Enneagram thingy, I would love to hear your comments.
love alwaz
mike