Is Buddhism correct to say suffering is inevitable?
Statue of Buddha The Buddha said that suffering is inevitable. Our experience seems to confirm that. In the course of an average week, most of us experience some emotional suffering as the result of feeling at least some unhappiness, upset, fear, or anger. To what do we almost always attribute the source of these unpleasant and painful emotions? Almost always we say the cause is something or someone outside ourselves: Losing a job or a loved one, being betrayed by a friend, lack of money, etc. We think: If only the people responsible for my upset would act [...]
“Who” or “what” really creates our life?
In an earlier post I wrote that I realized that we give meaning to events before we form beliefs and that, in fact, the early meanings are the basis for our beliefs. I also wrote that I made a big mistake when I said in the Who Am I Really? Process that the creator of our beliefs is our Infinite Self/consciousness, when really it is our finite self. I’ve had a chance to do some more thinking about both these issues and how they relate to each other. You—each of you—really are the creator of your life. Let me explain [...]
Use your mind to affect your physical state
Two weeks ago I wrote the following in a post entitled, “Another major breakthrough is on the horizon”: I now think there is something very important that will come from integrating the ability to stop giving meaning, the almost total absence of stress (which has been implicated in almost every minor and major health problem), experiencing unconditional love for people, the fact that our language and the words we use to objectively describe reality already contain meaning that produces significant changes in the body, being able to access the WAIR? altered state of consciousness at will, and the placebo effect [...]
Would you like to feel unconditional love?
Would you like to experience more love and compassion for people and less judgment and criticism? Most people would and lots of people have described how to do this: adopt a serious meditation program and after years and years of consistent practice, you probably will achieve your goal. I’ve written in the past about my ability to not only feel unconditional love for my wife Shelly and two daughters, but also for friends and associates. And I have pretty much stopped judging and criticizing people. Because I’ve never been a serious meditator, I was clear that meditation wasn’t the only [...]
Are we robots?
The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behaviors as such can be described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as thoughts and beliefs. In other words, consciousness is not relevant to understanding human behavior. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism) As regular readers of this blog know very well, I do agree that some of our behavior (especially emotional eating) and some of our feelings (such as anxiety and anger) can be the result of conditioning. This agreement would seem to validate the claim of the behavioral school of psychology that our behavior is the result of environmental [...]
Life is a game… and you make the rules
As I read your comments to last week’s post—in which I contended that forgiveness is never necessary because people’s behavior has no meaning—I could hear many of you thinking, “If events have no meaning, what’s the point of life? Why do anything? Why care about anything? In fact, how can you possibly care about anything if nothing has meaning?” These are thoughtful questions that I will answer in today’s post. (Please also take a look at my responses to last week’s comments at https://www.mortylefkoe.com/dont-forgive/#.) The difference between consequences and meaning Events, including people’s behavior, usually have consequences. In my case, [...]
You are both consciousness AND a "creation"
Based on surveys of my blog readers, most of you are primarily interested in changing your “creation”—in other words, you want to improve your daily life by eliminating behavioral and emotional barriers. For example, you want to stop your anxiety and be able to take actions that you are unable to take now. Some of you, however, seem to be more interested in growing spiritually—in other words, creating an altered state of consciousness in which you experience yourself as the creator of your life. In fact, both are crucial to a life of happiness and fulfillment. And, I’m proud to [...]
