Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

[nancy]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Calysta, I read that article you sent about happiness. It was a good read. I think it does seem really unfair and inappropriate to push happiness on cancer patients.

I think the US is a very consumer driven culture so if we want happiness, they serve it up. Just like they serve up super size meals or shallow news if that is what the masses want and regardless of health or what is good for us (Unlike Satori, I don't think there is a conspiracy here, just response to market demand and what sells well. The US mainstream TV news is pretty silly but we have an excellent,quality public news broadcasing system that isn't driven by market factors. Also we have good newspapers and mags).

The reality as Satori said, is that life is very mixed. And not acknowledging that or placing negative judgements on the bad experiences, seems very unhealthy and I think that could fuel addiction.

I think that from what I read in Buddhism, we place a lot of judgements on negative feelings, which makes a negative feeling twice as bad. If we accepted them, we could live with them more easily. I think it is bad to block feelings off or to always be seeking a quick fix.

Having said all that, I think it is good to watch out for unrealistically negative feelings. I have written about this before: identifying cognitive distortions. They hold you back too.

Calysta, hope you are not too cut off. I think we are social beings and need connections.

[southernbelle47]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Hi everyone.
This is some good food for thought here!
I DO think we are all spoiled in comparsion to how things were 100 years ago. And more un-happy!
We have machines to do most of our work ....dish washers, clothes washer, dryers, canopeners , electric not even manual....it goes on and on......
I watched a tv show last night about "stolen" I-pods!!! A whole hour show! Serious business....I guess!
Has ANYBODY noticed we work less but have less time to do the things that REALLY matter?

"As Steve Salerno, the author of Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, told me in an interview, ?I once asked my father if he was happy, and you know what he said? ?A man doesn't have time to ask himself that question.' ?
How times have changed. In the past, Ms. Hecht explains, people thought it was quite normal ?to feel bad a lot of the time, and to break out and celebrate occasionally.? Now, we expect, and are expected to be, happy all the time ? a state of being as arbitrary and wrong-headed as many of the ways we go about attempting to create it." Interesting ......

Thank you for this discussion!
I spent most of today making tomato-basil soup and canning it!
We grew all the ingredients!
I don't even have to have a can opener to open the jars....a penny will do the trick when the time comes to eat it.
Thank God for "retirement"!! We're working harder than ever and yes...there may not always be "happiness", but there is "Joy"and "Peace"!

As a wise Doc said to me several years ago...."it's ok to cry sometimes"
I do and I will...I hope until the day I die.....
Sometimes its the only thing to do...then get up and get busy!
:h Nancy

[Calysta]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

satori;173048 wrote: Perhaps I am just paranoid - but I get flashes of Orwell's 1984 now and then.I don't think you're paranoid at all. From what you've said, I think you hit the nail on the head.

The developed world at least (and the USA is MUCH worse than Europe /UK) is living in a mostly manufactured, falsely happy, optimistic dream world.

Yes, and I thank you more than you will ever know for acknowledging it.

I am so sick to death of the current manufactured "culture" that I think I may have an obsession against it. Whenever I, or others, bring this topic up, nasty names are thrown around in abundance. Those of us who object must be "cold/frigid/low-self-esteem/lesbian/ugly.

I beg to differ. I'm just a woman with a working brain.

All that stuff about self-esteem really had me going for a while. But I realize that the reality is that my self esteem is so strong that I can't put up with this surface crap. Reconciling it with everything I see around me shouldn't even BE a challenge.


BTW - The reporting of the news in general in the USA is much less truthful than in the UK - a much more optimistic version is depicted in the USA. Not sure what it is like with you.

Same. We are subjected to all of it, and the weaker minds buy into it the same as the media wants them to there. It only takes just enough sound-bytes to move the masses, who, inevitably, get dumber and more compliant all the time.

I really miss living in Europe.

[Calysta]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Whoa, and I just realized how open my last comment would leave me.


But that's how I feel.

[Calysta]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Here's an article that should make every Canadian think (hopefully, really really hard).

Anyone wonder why this country's productivity is as low as it is?

Union Strangleholds - I'm completely fed up.

And I know it doesn't appear to be "on-topic" but it is. What is it that allows people to think that they should be allowed to pierce tires and indimidate people in their homes?!?

Get the union thuggery out of the public service, and perhaps we would have a chance to discuss things rationally?

I don't really believe that's possible, though. And the entitlement factor is huge.

*******************************

Take away unions' loaded gun
Philip Hochstein
Financial Post
Published: Thursday, August 02, 2007

Here in British Columbia's Lower Mainland, we've begun to endure a CUPE strike that may mean a summer without garbage collection, animal control, sewer work and many other essential municipal services. And this is only part of much broader labour strife that threatens to engulf Alberta as well.

With the country's two most dynamic economies under the pall of major labour disruptions, it's important to understand that it isn't like this in the rest of the world.

For example, the British Office for National Statistics released data in 2006 showing that Canada endures 10 times the number of strike days per 1,000 workers when compared to the average for countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.

Great Britain itself with twice the population of Canada lost less than 160,000 workdays to strikes in 2005 compared with more than four million in Canada. On a per-capita basis, that means we are subject to 50 times more strike days than the country where trade unionism was born.

Unions and governments in Canada and BC have somehow constructed a framework of apologism for labour radicalism that says it is acceptable for taxpayers to be subjected to unsanitary living conditions in this case--but also withdrawal of education and health services in others -- to give bargaining leverage to unions.

In other developed countries -- including perceived left-leaning Western European nations -- unions are not given legislative loaded guns to hold at the heads of their citizens, as they are in Canada.

Consider that Canada is one of the only countries in the free world that forces union membership on workers who want to practise certain professions like teaching. In most other countries, governments have decided that it is a basic human right to allow employees to choose whether or not to belong to a union.

Amazingly, in B.C. last year barely an eye blinked when the B.C. Teachers Federation attempted to blacklist four teachers who refused to participate in its illegal strike. What more damning evidence can there be that a system needs reform than a union disciplining its members for refusing to break the law?

It strains memory to recall a year where a public-sector union didn't threaten to, or actually did, withdraw some of the services fundamental to our well-being. Surely our elected officials owe us more security than that.
Nations throughout the world have declared that the well-being of their citizenry outweighs the narrow self-interest of the labour movement, and have taken the steps necessary to remove some of the weapons labour uses to advance its agenda.

If the will is there, our governments could employ a range of tools to reassert the pre-eminence of citizens' needs, including broadening essential-service designations, allowing for workers to opt out of unions that misrepresent them, allowing for replacement workers during strikes, and/or allowing for private competition in traditional union monopolies.

Our major trading partners and competitors across the globe have already made the reforms that built platforms for true labour peace. Not transient peace at any cost, as seems to be the case here, but a more sustainable labour peace based on respecting the rights of unions to bargain within a larger context of the social contract between citizens and their governments. It is time we demand the same of all our elected officials.

***************************************

I'm so fed up with this kind of shit, you wouldn't believe. And in my eyes, at least, it goes right along with the topic of this coversation.

Nancy - I really question the notion that the media gives us what we want. The question of whether they give us what 'we' want rather than being the driving force behind what we 'decide we want' is an age-old question. Here is an article for you to peruse that may allow you to see the media in a different light -

Sexism and Sexuality in Advertising

Have to go to to bed now - thank you both for your comments.

[nancy]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Calysta,

I think the media panders to and stirs up our lower instincts. This is also true in Europe. The US is not alone in this. The UK for example has quality broadsheets and but a lot of very trashy tabloids that sell a lot better. And the celebrity news is hot there. The UK does have the quality BBC, though this is publicly funded. the US public TV has quality news but not enough of it. We do have some good newspapers in select cities, but not enough.

Sure the media can also generate those lower instincts but i think our lazy side already exists. I think quality,serious news does not sell as well.

It's like eating healthy vegetables. People are drawn to the sugary items instead.
I just read a boook about food that suggests we need to think with our heads and not our instincts/stomachs because our instincts will guide us to the wrong choices, food that elevates endorphins, exciting us, and will make us overeat and get fat!!! sugar! The food industry panders to this.

Regarding self-esteem, there is a genuine need to improve self-esteem and ease the clinical illness of depression in some people. A lot of women have trouble with this. But you still should be able to be true to yourself Calysta, if you are pessimistic about what you see out there in the world so be it. I think pessimism is a different thing from clinical depression/lack of self-esteem. I hope you can channel your energy somehow so it doesn't feel so frustrating.

Nancy
PS
your post made me realize that the only features I see about Iraq nowadays on TV are about domestic issues (treatment of returning vets, congress etc).

[Calysta]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Oh, I forgot to include this article that pertains to advertising in the consumer culture - it holds a slightly different viewpoint from the other piece I linked to -

Why I Hate Beauty, by Michael Levine

[Calysta]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Thanks for your post just now Nancy - some good points there. I'm working on channelling my energy towards positive stuff. Being a generally serious person though, it's just a really uphill battle some days. :-)

Oh, I should probably also provide some context for my rantings - I recently ended a relationship I had thought had some real potential for the last year-and-a-half over his perceived notions about beauty - for the longest time he never mentioned anything, and then he started posting pics of Playboy-type bunnies and making drool-type comments. Worse yet, he started making comments along the lines of how "men ogle - get over it." This was an otherwise highly intelligent guy. Furthermore, he's rather seriously disabled, which I had been prepared to deal with. At my stage in life, it made me more angry than hurt.

[nancy]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Ah, so you are feeling bitter about this guy. It's hard to find the right person. and these dealbreaker things come up and are disappointing...

Thanks for the story on beauty. I don't have time to read now but will take a look later (bookmarked it) as it looks interesting.

[Benjammin]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Calysta treat the thoughts outside of your head just like the ones on the inside. When you're being mindful you can observe each one and let it move on. Attaching yourself to things that cause you discomfort by reacting with anger only does you a disservice. Being aware of the problem is a wonderful thing in and of itself, not owning it would be the best course of action. (Though that is much easier said than done! :H )

[fsophiah]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

I'm bumping this thread because I really enjoyed reading through it. It's funny. This morning, I woke up thinking, "Happiness is only a by-product of something else. We only feel it because we are pursuing something less fleeting and more tangible."

[Suzanna]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Just came across this so wanted to bump it up again. There is so much to read through, and I have been thinking about how we are deliberately being distracted from what is important, or what is going on in the world, by the celebrity news, the pursuit of the perfect body, botox, riches and pursuit of possessions, always leaving us wanting, Something!! In the US we have the most corupt stuff going on now and fear mongers keeping us in a war with no good end. The media helps keep the masses distracted from the real issues we should be dealing with. I'll read more of the articles later, too... bookmarking this, good stuff. Suz

[meditation mama]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Back to Pema.. She is absolutely one of my favorite teachers in the world. I HIGHLY recomment getting the AUDIO "Getting Unstuck". I think I may have it on MP3 somewhere.. I can link over for all you techies.. I'll look.. It is really a good one. Pema knows a bit about buddhism and addiction.. Love her..Thanks, Nancy!

MM

[Finding My Self]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

Wow! 'Happiness is coming across a meaty, interesting, intelligent post'!!! (Except that all the posts on the whole are great and intelligent and certainly loving. But 'hair down stuff' is needed as well to balance out our minds I think!)

Really enjoying reading this and love (it's summed my whole situation up in 14 words for me) the first quote....'A fleeting shift in energy - a minor tightening in the stomach - leads to addiction'... soooh true and isn't that just crazy when you look at it?!? Well, it is to me and I think I need to post it up...inside my eyeballs actually! I will look out for Pema and the audio sounds great MM - IF I am anywhere near being a techie which I doubt!!!

Yes, what is it actually that fascinates people about reading that x, y or z went shopping in blue trousers etc etc etc....?? 'Fame' used to have substance, skill, strength and character...how'd it go so wrong? I mean, it hasn't but it isn't what's wanted now seemingly - except I do!!!

Looking forwards to reading the articles and good to hear the views...aposite I think as the devil feeds idle minds and we can't be idle reading all this meaty stuff!!!

Love
Finding x (I know it's serious but I'm addicted to !'s and I know why...nerves (!)) :H

[nancy]

Buddhist philosophy about impermanence and addiction

"Getting Unstuck" audio also helped me a lot.