Okay,
So the topic that we happened upon,
Nellie,
Anna,
And I was,
Do you have a bottom line of reason or thought or sense of why you practice?
And when we were talking about it like a bottom line,
It wasn't like a thing.
It was more like,
Is there something that drives you to meditate,
To practice,
To be engaged in psychology,
Philosophy,
Buddhism?
Is there something?
So I'm going to read three of our conversation,
And this was via email,
And then anybody can contribute.
This is Nellie.
I think my bottom line might be about doing good things in this lifetime that bring benefit to myself and others.
I think that puts me squarely in the secular Buddhist camp.
And then this is me.
Funny how that bottom line,
Which I also resonate with,
Could put us in many different camps.
Maybe that is why our practice of being open with a variety of views and seeing them as developmental is so pragmatic and functional.
And this is Anna.
I think if I had to get it down to a minimum,
It would be to do no harm.
However,
Considering the complexities of life and the changing nature of Anna and her realm of influence,
That could be changed to minimum harm.
But then what do I know?
What harm?
To whom?
On go the questions.
A good question to put out to myself,
Perhaps.
Well,
I guess my bottom line for why I practice is just deep curiosity and wanting to explore and experience in as deep a way as possible and understand what's going on here.
Really good.
That's lovely.
Thank you.
I think my reason for meditating is just to get kind of at my truth.
I think deep inside I have a moral compass and I think if I'm quiet enough,
If I have violated that in any way,
It will bubble up.
And so it's kind of just to keep myself on track with kind of my true self,
My deep self.
Thank you.
I think for me,
I find life to be disappointing.
I believe it.
I practice because when I meditate,
There's something meaningful happening and it really gives my life meaning more than anything else in my life because I feel like everything else kind of comes and goes and leaves me wanting in some way.
And even though meditations aren't always beautiful and wonderful,
There's some kind of a deep,
There's something very meaningful happening.
I think my bottom line is it helps me to stay connected to my greater self,
To the greater truth of the universe.
And there have been times where,
I mean,
I know I'm always connected,
But sometimes I forget and so it helps me to stay connected.
And I've had moments of being really connected and then I get a taste of that and then I'll fall back,
But I'll remember that.
And so it keeps me going,
That greater love,
The greater joy,
The greater heart of myself.
Thank you.
When I was meditating,
It was just to see if I could sit still for five minutes.
Over time,
Of course,
It changed.
And now I think essentially it's a recognition of the person whom I've become,
An awareness of the causes and conditions that have made me who I am.
And when I'm meditating,
It's all held and it's a cultivation of spaciousness that enlarges to include more things less judgmentally.
And I find that that goes against the cost and condition of a person.
And so I welcome a lot of gratitude for that time of opening that comes with the silence in the city.
Well,
For me,
I think the bottom line is acceptance and presence.
And I also resonate with curiosity and my imagination,
Which feeds me.
And that's why I meditate because it is,
And the other word that comes up,
I have a lot of words that are coming up.
It's a hard question to answer,
But creativity.
I mean,
Creativity has,
Encompasses a lot,
I think.
If we can learn from nature and the creativity that nature has,
I feel that nature has a lot of answers.
And so if I have presence of mind and awareness and my meditation,
Which all kind of go together,
There is a harmony that is flowing.
You've got them all in.
Sorry about that.
I don't know how to put the bottom line.
For me,
There's a real healing and nourishing quality of sitting with my reactivity and my woundedness.
And kind of by going through it in a safe container,
It's less harmful.
My bottom line is about truth,
But like my truth,
But also kind of sifting out what are other people's truths as well,
But I think all that changes moment to moment too,
And sitting to sitting,
What is the truth you're working with?
What is the truth I'm working with?
That came to mind right away.
And then also compassion for this person,
But also when I feel that compassion for myself,
Then it's more available for other people.
Thank you all for being part of the experiment and you'll get a copy of this recording and it will be on NPR soon.
Yeah,
For the big bucks.
No,
But at the risk of being too encounter group like,
What I really am considering is how do we kind of talk about the ways we get together and talk about practice and hearing real people's voices and that the sincerity with which everybody was able to talk about something that's very precious to them and our overlapping words and our different words and so the similarities and differences.
So it's very interesting to me.
Thank you.
And that's the Dharma talk.
Now we get a chance to sit with everybody's voice in our head.
