BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism mansland versus spiritual land

To all or none,
Bit mixed up,I beleive.My toughts on mansland and spiritualland.
I already gave part of it in my above post #819411.

I shall give more details however.

loong

Thanks for sharing your story Loong. This is quickly becoming the most interesting Buddhism forum in town (certainly the most dramatic.) I am just glad you will recover. So many lessons from this event.

Regarding mansland and spiritualland, you say 'Being alive, I know I will have to enter mansland on occasions'. I am really trying to say do not let mansland and spiritualland be separate for you. Yes we need to retreat from mansland in order to go deep into our practice. I am a big believer in retreat and in formal meditation practice, as you know. For most of us, this is the only way to see certain things. But then, we strive to integrate this and bring it back with us into 'mansland'.

You are already doing this with your compassion practice I know. You responded differently to this event then you would have in the past. So I am writing this for others that might be reading it.

To all or none,

Today ,met with 2 detectives of the city where the incident happened.As I have been honest with you, I had the same honesty with the 2 gentlemen.
You will not beleive what happened at the bail setting.

Me not being there to give my version,they told the judge,that THEY were attacked.So the one that stabbed me is free on the street,and the one that gave the knife to the one that stabbed me
was sent for psychiatric evalution.

The lies they told are unbeleivable.

If ever they plead guilty,having no priors,they will have aslap on the wrist,for attempted murder.If they plead not guilty
I will have to go to court,and this is what i wish to be able to give my version.
Keep you posted
loong the lame dragon

To Lisa,

Using words of Buddha and a few Tibetan Masters,this living corpse(see also Dhammapada) old age.This living corpse that I am
will have to enter Mansland until I die.
My last experience showed me ,who was my only friend in life.
The rest,I realised that when I met them,I was just a listener to THEIR problems,Just a set of ears being filled with idle chatter.Kalil Gibran wrote,if your friendship does not bring you anything,get rid of those friends.
Since 1971 lived alone ,except for about 8 years with a compagnon.
I lived 22 years in a plywood shack.I was happy and content.

Better have no friends then fake ones (mansland).

What the knifing has settled,in part is the craving for beautiful women.Especially the way to get close to them.
I am 66 years old and still have my 40 year old libido.

No more lap dancers,if I ever (not in the Now) meet someone,
Like in Theravada ,they mention ,a free woman ,walking some kind
of spiritual path.Then one moment at the time ,I shall let things happen.
So to complete this post,
No more listening to idle chatter
Better no friends than fake ones.

Now do you understand why ,I do not want to go to mansland,but
instead deepen my knowledge of Buddhism Spirituality.

How many monks lived part of their lives in Isolation,not entering Mansland?

loong:)

To Lisa,

You mention ,that one must not isolate himself,from Mansland.
again ,this morning in the newspaper,in Cleveland Ohio,The 3 poor women kept as sex slaves for 10,TEN,yearsin a basement.
Compassion for these 3 men,And aton of loving kindness for these
3 women.
Spoke for an hour this morning with a restaurator,that was born here,had restaurants for 30 years.She cannot take the ignorance
of the people any more.She has a condo in the city,where she flies down to,to be able to meet people ,that are not ignorants.
As you can see,mansland is the land of ignorants,why should I
go there?

Hi Loong, we have had a misunderstanding! It is hard to communicate solely by writing in the forum. I was not saying that you should not retreat. Retreat is a very valuable part of spiritual practice, and if you feel compelled to live a very monastic life then I trust that is right for you.

My words were more about right view - to not create a duality where the world in your head is divided into 'mansland' and 'spiritualland', or 'bad' and 'good'. I know that this is not what you meant to do, it is partly the trap of language. So I was clarifying it for others reading that may not have had the in depth discussions you and I have had here.

Mansland does not equal 'bad' and spiritualland 'good'. In any moment we may act or think from a place of right understanding and right view, and then we are in spiritual land even if we are in a bar surrounded by people. Or at any moment, we may act or think from a place that is not grounded in right view or right understanding and then we are in 'mansland' even if we are alone meditating.

Dear Teacher,

You wrote:Or at any moment, we may act or think from a place that is not grounded in right view or right understanding and then we are in 'mansland' even if we are alone meditating.


I am sorry ,but I do not understand the meaning of the phrase.
Could this part be rewritten differently.

You tell me that mansland is not :bad:.To me mansland is where
people ,have no morality, no conscience, no compassion etc.
If someone living in Mansland has discoverd Spiritual land,which
I find very rare,this person .I would exchange with.
Was with 2 woman this afternoon at my office at MC Donald.80%
of what they exchanged was non constructive,just their reminescing of the past.This type of people,I do not need in my life.As Buddha daid they are ignorants.
It may sound ,to me, that someone that lives in spiritual land
is superior to the ones living in ,mansland.
I do not feel superior,but lucky.
All my life,I felt ,I did not belong on this planet!Then I discovered Buddhism.Now I feel ,finally that I belong on this planet,but in spiritual land.

With the outmost respect
Loong
the learner

Being away from people, even in retreat meditating, does not guarantee we are awakening, that we are in 'spiritual land' as you are calling it in this thread. We can be attached, or judging others, or congratulating ourselves, or living out our spiritual-ego fantasies, or any number of other things as we sit there meditating. That is all I mean. It is not just retreat and meditation that aids our awakening - it is RIGHT practice - that we are coming from a place of right view and right understanding.

The world is unpleasant at times, but if your primary reaction when you are with others is one of aversion, how is retreating from that aversion helping your path? When you are with others and there is no aversion, then that is progress.

I am not necessarily speaking of what you should do right now. Sometimes retreat is very necessary, and you are healing right now, so may need retreat for other reasons - to conserve your energy for healing for example. But I think there are more layers to this thinking in terms of mansland and spiritual land to explore.

To Lisa,

I do not remember in what section,however it is written:Avoid idle chatter.That is what I do.
If to have a social life, i must listen ,to people,subjects,words
that have no meaning to me,i rather not have a social life.

loong

To Lisa,

Far from being a sage, putity of my thoughts regarding others,is
what ,I have worked almost the most on my way to spiritual land.

One that is still thinking acting talking in anger,hate disrespect cannot enter spiritual land.This might have the severity of the Theravadin,but this what ,i truly beleive.

With great respect.
loong