Holier than thou

This occured to me today, while I was walking into my room at home in good old sunny hertforshire this evening. Alot of the time we attach ourself to an Ideal: A way of thinking that assumes what we belive. Alot of the time we think say and do things that are only fair and conveninient to others if they have attained the "Highest" point of what our belief system proclaims. For example, I recently went to a buhdist meditation class, as we all know it's is based on your good old bog standard cherishing all others. I have admit i'm not quite there yet! I was just amazed at the lady that sets up the room for meditation. shew kept saying things that really were only ok if I was somone who had completed my spiritual training and cherished all living beings from the depths of my heart.

In a similar way my karate teacher talks about things that are fine for someone who has a peacefull mind, (Peacefull mind is a kata that karate uses.) but that's not allways how it works. It's not allways that black and white. Let me explain.

Consider someone who is really down and depressed, upset with himself and other people. the last thing he wants to some "all good" strong, peacefull aproach to his problems.

Even consider chineese medicene, even at it's most basic level of symbology: The yin yang symbol has dark containing light and light containing dark.

I've thought about similar things while talking to people who are depressed. viewing them as kind (which is a buddist principle) seems to make matters worse!

magic and the like aren't so simple!

well there you go. My two yin/yang cents.

wow...i sincerely thank you for that post. i hope that more people can share this viewpoint/display more compassion for the mentally ill.

cuz i am one of those. i was diagnosed as bipolar in 2008, after a hellish nearly year long manic episode. the rest of my life before that, i have always been kind of depressive. more often than not on some type of anti-depressant. and yes, when i hear things like 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' or 'just snap out of it' or 'why arent you happy', it makes me want to punch someone.

that viewpoint displays a near total lack of compassion for what a mentally ill person is usually going through. most often, it is a feat that i can even function in normal society, much less 'just be happy' or whatever.

anyway, yeah, sincerely, thank you for that.

I have Bipolar Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

My Zen Master told me to forgive my enemy so I obeyed her and forgave myself.

---

There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had made in all this time.

To find out, she obtained the help of a girl rich in desire. "Go and embrace him," she told her, "and then ask him suddenly: 'What now?'"

The girl called upon the monk and without much ado caressed him, asking him what he was going to do about it.

"An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter," replied the monk somewhat poetically. "Nowhere is there any warmth."

The girl returned and related what he had said.

"To think I fed that fellow for twenty years!" exclaimed the old woman in anger. "He showed no consideration for your need, no disposition to explain your condition. He need not have responded to passion, but at least he could have evidenced some compassion;"

She at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down.

For a Jedi to be reborn through the force
His spirit must not be destroyed,
Through the turning of the self

The theme of the last few months for me is "We are all in this together". In this context, if you have bipolar disorder then so do I. If I know about your disorder then I will know how to treat us. So I will do my research and know us. I wish us peace of mind.

The kindness and compassion that the Buddhist speak of relates to how we treat ourselves as much as how we treat others. I must know myself if I am to help others. As for me, I may not have a disorder myself, but I do understand the anger that is felt when someone says things like.."Just get over it".

We who are trying to enlighten ourselves must realize the ignorance of those that are following a path with blinders on their eyes. Those who do not care for themselves let alone me or you. We must strive to overcome their ignorance with kindness and compassion for them as well as for ourselves.

The levelers say it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFV1leyekA4

The lyrics are:

Did you ever stop to think from time to time
'bout how the world's been left behind
in another place in another time
we could mabey change the way we think
take the blinkers from our eyes

I've been listening to this song over and over all day today.

continuing this thread! hope you don't mind

Speaking of mental I'll ness. During my daily meditations I came across the realisation that we both see the same thing, or at least there is a truth of how things are at the base level that we can all agree on. If not then truth doesn't exist, except ofcourse for the individual who percives that truth. I don't like that idea.

Say for example that I say you're in danger, and you dissagree. why on earth am I having these so called "paranoid" thoughts and you are not? we are both experiencing the same thing. what I think this boils down to is that we need to be more consious. During my violin class, it feels quite joyfull to say that something "seems" like a danger. allthough "seems" is an inconvenient word for me. My violin teacher isn't diagnosed with paranoid scizophrenia, but she does make a point of asking, not nessesarily directly to me but as a self motivated comment, whether there is a helicopter going over. is she not important enough to want to know what is happening with the emergancy service/unit in her own community?

this kind of thing i'm saying makes me suspisios in a good way.

so err... 2 cents