A NO Uttered From Deepest Conviction Is Better And Greater Than A YES Merely Uttered To Please, Or What

“A “NO” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “YES” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.”

Mahatma Gandhi

The Path, after all, is about truth.

Very broadly stroked, but not without merit, I suppose. To me, the biggest issue with definition for Taoism is that the joke only works if your life "sucks." This, of course, is simply a matter of perspective. In the end, if you're happy about it, it must not really suck as much as you thought.

Hinduism: your life sucks and it’s going to suck over and over again Buddhism: your life sucks, but follow this very strict path and it won’t Confucianism: your life sucks and here are some solutions to apparent problems Taoism: your life sucks, and we don’t really care as long as you’re happy about it

(I’m not disrespecting peoples beliefs. I’m just stating what I learned)

Thoughts On Shyness

I think there's a reason people are so shy when they're young, but grow less so as they get older. Shyness itself is a lack of confidence, yes? The feeling of being lost, apprehensive because you cannot find your way. Maybe some of you already see where I'm going with this. I believe that as we find the Path, whenever or wherever it becomes known to us, our shyness will slowly dissipate, because we can gain confidence in what we know and what we want to do.

What is your experience with shyness? When do you feel the least shy?

PS: I think I'm going to start doing little mini-posts like this more often. At first I felt like I had a whole bunch of big explanatory posts to do first, and then start doing these more tangential posts after I'd laid the groundwork via the other stuff. But now I feel like maybe it would be better for me to just put these little "Thoughts" out there as they come to me, while simultaneously working on the bigger posts for later.

Remember what I was saying about labels?

If you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. Lin Chi

Thoughts on Tragedy

People don't like to talk or think about it, but tragedy is also part of the Path. As are the feelings of grief and sorrow. I believe that to disconnect ourselves from these emotions does nothing to help us in our search for peace, and will only harm us over time. Accept the ability and need to mourn loss, to grieve the dead; and then when it is done, accept the necessity to move forward and grow from the experience.

Never assume that sitting still is the same as doing nothing.

Students will often come to a teacher and complain that their meditation practice is going poorly, they are bored or easily distracted. When asked about their practice it becomes clear that they are not meditating at all. They are sitting quietly in a room staring at a candle. Sitting quietly is a...