Modern Minds
All suffering arises from mental processes, in particular from beliefs and judgments. It's not any surprise that certain philosophies and religions have considered life to be suffering. They had no technology to handle mental processes.
The best they could do is to work at stilling the mind — meditate. When the mind is still, the suffering ceases, but they were not trying to still a twentieth century mind.*
A twentieth century mind has had at least a decade of schooling in how to be anxious. It has seen 75,000 commercials. It's watched 25,000 hours of drama, the best of which has left emotional scars (Bambi's mother didn't come home). I think if the Buddha had had a twentieth century mind he might have said, "Life is really intense suffering."
*this was written prior to widespread use of the internet and social media
Avatar® is a modern approach to achieving control over the mind.
from The Avatar Path: The Way We Came
About the Courses
Help for your modern mind
Try one or both of these exercises!
Feel more relaxed, focused and in control.
Exercise 1 Expected Result: Calming, Increase in energy Time: 10+ minutes Take a walk, notice something, and decide how you would describe it. Continue, noticing different objects. | Exercise 2 Expected Result: More focused, relaxed Time: 2+ minutes Pick a stationary object, and direct your attention to it (examine it) for a period of two minutes. Any time your attention wanders, bring it back. If after several tries you still have trouble with this step, return to the previous exercise. |
Simple. Straightforward. Effective
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