Bodhi 心5d ago
In 2 months I will arrive at SBS, a monastery where I hope to ordain as a Buddhist monk, something I have aspired to do since I found the #dhamma in 2010. I have reduced my possessions to a 68L backpack and one medium box I will leave at my friend’s. I am 42 and long past the point of no return: I aspire to die in the robes; the prospects of lay life in the current world-state feel worse than grim; 1/2
Show threadBodhi 心

I am still young and healthy enough to invest a half-life cultivating and sharing the prospect of genuine happiness.

Something I think I will miss the most, honestly, is being able to buy my own stationery 📝, and books.

That may sound flippant, but honestly, I have invested so much of the first half of my life in cultivating the identity of an erudite person that shedding the outer trappings of this has been the hardest part of renouncing my possessions.

2/2

Apr 8 at 5:59pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadBodhi 心5d ago

I am currently leaning heavily into the Buddha’s teaching that memorising and internalising the dhamma is the most-fruitful way to practice.

If I practice well I won’t need to record any insights that emerge along the way, except to share them with others and there is a living oral tradition for that.

And perhaps any longhand thinking I am able to do can be processed and shared digitally before it accumulates into another large box of scrawled notes.

3/n

Show threadUnsui Zensō5d ago
@bodhipaine
You probably won't need books on the path you're looking for.
Show threadBodhi 心5d ago
@unsui You’re probably right, up to a point. I trained in Zen for a while, so am familiar with depictions of the masters tearing up the scriptures. In Theravada practice, a certain amount of cognitive scaffolding is used to learn the right psychological skills for cultivating non-attachment. I certainly can’t take books into the unconditioned but I will almost-certainly die with at least one in my bag 😉
Show threadUnsui Zensō5d ago
@bodhipaine
I've read a great deal since I was a child, and I still do. But the deepest learning never came from books, but from practice and silence. I've been going back and forth with the practice for almost 40 years. I still love to read.
Show threadBodhi 心4d ago
@unsui 100%, I gained a moral education from literature and there is solid research about the power of “narrative empathy” in society but applied Buddhism brings empowerment to actually embody those values in a way I haven’t found elsewhere. I hope your practice continues to deepen and stabilise alongside a healthy literary diet 🙏🏼