‘Compassion without wisdom is foolishness, wisdom without compassion is bondage.’ This is the phrase I’ve been looking for all week. I’m writing it down on my phone background. Thank you so much!
I hope it's helpful going forward :) The best practice, in my experience, for working with compassion is the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum Hrih. Anyone can chant it, you need no permission or authority, no experience, just a string of beads (a mala, 108 beads). I have used this mantra to increase the compassion in myself; it's quite hard, as I have to check myself in real time and really try to understand my motives. But it is most definitely effective. Best wishes to you :)
I agree with your views about nondualism which lacks the compassion wisdom mix as a compromise. All wisdom as nondualism has not occured to me previously. This needs consideration. I have always seen philosophy as not wisdom and just playing in words. The link between Buddhism and spiritual nondual growth appeals as very positive. Thankyou
Its a quote from John Stuart Mill . He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form. John Stuart Mill
@@OffGridMind Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden, a paradise on Earth created by God as a home for his newly created humans. What follows is the separation or ‘fall’ of Adam and Eve from unified consciousness with God to separation and subsequent existence in duality. This fall of Adam and Eve into the consciousness of duality was the entry of human beings into the world of suffering, pain and death. Nonduality And Compassion (aka ‘FEEDING THE STARVING CHILD’) Somebody recently asked me: “Jeff, in your latest piece of writing you talked about seeing a starving African girl on the TV, and that it was simply an appearance of Oneness. But how can it be Oneness? I mean, it’s okay for you to say that, you’re not starving, after all. But she is. Couldn’t “Oneness” just be a concept you’re using to push away or deny the reality of living in this world? A way for you to cope with the harsh realities of existence and suffering?” This is a great question. Of course, this “Oneness” could so easily remain on a purely intellectual/conceptual level. It could so easily disintegrate into a belief used by an individual to block out or deny suffering: “There is only Oneness! Nothing exists! Nothing matters! There are no starving children in Africa! My mother didn’t die of cancer! Pain doesn’t hurt! I don’t need to eat, because there is no body! I didn’t punch you in the face just then, there is nobody here punching! And nobody to punch!” Yes, this could so easily be taken on as a life-denying philosophy. But of course this is not what I am suggesting. For me, Oneness - or at least what the word ‘Oneness’ points to - is a living reality, not just a belief… although ultimately of course it’s just a word, and cannot capture the aliveness of everything. For me, Oneness is not a new religion or belief system, not a new ideology for the individual to cling to, but a clear seeing of life as it actually is, beyond our concepts about life, beyond our ideologies and religions, beyond all our second-hand knowledge. You see, Oneness is not a dead thing. Oneness could include moving to feed that starving child. It denies nothing. It includes all possibilities. Well of course it does, it is everything. How could it deny any aspect of itself? It moves to feed that child, or not. It is everything, it appears as everything, and yet it is no-thing in particular. Nothing and everything at the same time. It appears as wars, genocides, flowers, trees, cups of coffee, cars beeping their horns, everything. It appears as saints and sinners, starving children and overweight millionaires. It also appears as apparent individuals who can apparently do something about starving children. Part of this freedom is that there appears to be free will. I’m not talking about “coping” with reality and suffering. I’m not talking about using Advaita concepts to “cope” with life. Oneness IS reality, and it IS the appearance of suffering in the world. Oneness could involve moving to feed that starving child, if that is possible. Or not. I don’t know. I’m not telling you how to live. I’m just interested in reality beyond our ideas of it. Beyond even these ideas.
@@OffGridMind "Let is also not forget thay words are merely symbols of symbols. Thus they are twice removed from reality." 1)Perception = once removed from reality. 2)Mental lables = twice removed from reality.
‘Compassion without wisdom is foolishness, wisdom without compassion is bondage.’ This is the phrase I’ve been looking for all week. I’m writing it down on my phone background. Thank you so much!
I hope it's helpful going forward :) The best practice, in my experience, for working with compassion is the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum Hrih. Anyone can chant it, you need no permission or authority, no experience, just a string of beads (a mala, 108 beads). I have used this mantra to increase the compassion in myself; it's quite hard, as I have to check myself in real time and really try to understand my motives. But it is most definitely effective. Best wishes to you :)
I just started living in non duality, how to do miracles in this state in the physical?
I agree with your views about nondualism which lacks the compassion wisdom mix as a compromise. All wisdom as nondualism has not occured to me previously. This needs consideration. I have always seen philosophy as not wisdom and just playing in words. The link between Buddhism and spiritual nondual growth appeals as very positive. Thankyou
❤
You've not had my wife's spaghetti Bolognese, it's pretty much the same thing
Naughty Tony! Hahaha. I'm sure I'd enjoy a bowl of it!
He who only know his own position, knows little of that.
Is that a quote or is it 'yours'? I like it, I like it a lot.
Its a quote from John Stuart Mill . He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
@@OffGridMind Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden, a paradise on Earth created by God as a home for his newly created humans. What follows is the separation or ‘fall’ of Adam and Eve from unified consciousness with God to separation and subsequent existence in duality. This fall of Adam and Eve into the consciousness of duality was the entry of human beings into the world of suffering, pain and death.
Nonduality And Compassion
(aka ‘FEEDING THE STARVING CHILD’)
Somebody recently asked me:
“Jeff, in your latest piece of writing you talked about seeing a starving African girl on the TV, and that it was simply an appearance of Oneness. But how can it be Oneness? I mean, it’s okay for you to say that, you’re not starving, after all. But she is. Couldn’t “Oneness” just be a concept you’re using to push away or deny the reality of living in this world? A way for you to cope with the harsh realities of existence and suffering?”
This is a great question. Of course, this “Oneness” could so easily remain on a purely intellectual/conceptual level. It could so easily disintegrate into a belief used by an individual to block out or deny suffering: “There is only Oneness! Nothing exists! Nothing matters! There are no starving children in Africa! My mother didn’t die of cancer! Pain doesn’t hurt! I don’t need to eat, because there is no body! I didn’t punch you in the face just then, there is nobody here punching! And nobody to punch!”
Yes, this could so easily be taken on as a life-denying philosophy. But of course this is not what I am suggesting. For me, Oneness - or at least what the word ‘Oneness’ points to - is a living reality, not just a belief… although ultimately of course it’s just a word, and cannot capture the aliveness of everything. For me, Oneness is not a new religion or belief system, not a new ideology for the individual to cling to, but a clear seeing of life as it actually is, beyond our concepts about life, beyond our ideologies and religions, beyond all our second-hand knowledge.
You see, Oneness is not a dead thing. Oneness could include moving to feed that starving child. It denies nothing. It includes all possibilities. Well of course it does, it is everything. How could it deny any aspect of itself? It moves to feed that child, or not.
It is everything, it appears as everything, and yet it is no-thing in particular. Nothing and everything at the same time. It appears as wars, genocides, flowers, trees, cups of coffee, cars beeping their horns, everything. It appears as saints and sinners, starving children and overweight millionaires. It also appears as apparent individuals who can apparently do something about starving children.
Part of this freedom is that there appears to be free will.
I’m not talking about “coping” with reality and suffering. I’m not talking about using Advaita concepts to “cope” with life. Oneness IS reality, and it IS the appearance of suffering in the world. Oneness could involve moving to feed that starving child, if that is possible. Or not. I don’t know. I’m not telling you how to live. I’m just interested in reality beyond our ideas of it. Beyond even these ideas.
@@OffGridMind "Let is also not forget thay words are merely symbols of symbols. Thus they are twice removed from reality."
1)Perception = once removed from reality.
2)Mental lables = twice removed from reality.