[Beatris]

I don't know about my fellow beginners but I STILL keep swamping myself with far too much information. It's like I can't just patiently and methodically develop my practice. More books! Look at really advanced posts on forums! Get confused! Get disheartened! Get another book! Repeat!

I keep forgetting that Dhamma really is very simple stuff (but also hard work, like anything worthwhile). Strip away hundreds and hundreds of years of acculturation, commentary, etc it has a profound relevance to my life in 2012.

I need to reel this crazyness in and I've decided that all I need at the moment is:

1. Daily meditation (with or without a downloaded Guided Meditation on my mp3)

2. Just these books (for me personally, it's not a suggestion)
i. Anguttara Nikaya Anthology: An Anthology of Discourses
ii. The Dhammapada
iii. Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering

3. Attend my local Vihara once a week

4. Buy a back support and stop griping

5. Practice what I preach (to myself)


I attend a Theravada place once a week and it is for the most part hugely beneficial. However, I keep picking up yet another free book each week and for the most part they are currently way too advanced for me. Yet I'll sit down and plough through them until my brain fogs up, usually halfway through the introduction. I'm like a bloody magpie with these books. Perhaps I subconsciously think merely owning them will help?

I've signed up to do the Elementary Dhamma exam and one of the monks gave me a big, thick book called the Manuals of Buddhism which I can make no sense of whatsover. He meant well, I know that, he must just think everyone's as massively accomplished and learned as he is.

Are there any beginners out there attending an offline Buddhist centre? Are you currently struggling with some of the aspects of your chosen tradition? I ask this in the spirit of 'keeping it simple'.

I genuinely struggle with some of the 'ritual' (for want of a better term) within the tradition I have chosen, especially after having read (here we go again!) some books about the early history of Buddhism. Yes, Stephen Batchelor being one, but also 'Gautama Buddha' by Vishvapani Blomfield, among others.

Am I just another potential Pick'n'Mix Westerner who just can't admit that? Hmmm.

[ycMC0PLg]

I attend a Theravada place once a week

Is the centre run by people from any particular branch of Theravada, Hornets ?

[Roorseprate]

They're from Wat Mahathat in Thailand. Lovely people.

[MannyLopez]

It's easier to engross yourself in book, online forums etc than it is to look at the mind in all it's starkness for hours on end.

There comes a point when cramming in more information is an escape from present moment awareness and investigating what's going on in the mind, and it can lead to more confusion as the more information you have the more there are likely to be conflicts.

My advise, if you haven't already, is to do an intensive meditation retreat of at least a week as this is the best way to get the momentum going and help base your practise more on experience rather than theory.

[AndyPharmc]

I need to reel this crazyness in and I've decided that all I need at the moment is:

1. Daily meditation (with or without a downloaded Guided Meditation on my mp3)

2. Just these books (for me personally, it's not a suggestion)
i. Anguttara Nikaya Anthology: An Anthology of Discourses
ii. The Dhammapada
iii. Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering

3. Attend my local Vihara once a week

4. Buy a back support and stop griping

5. Practice what I preach (to myself)

hello Hornets

a very wise intention & move there. i think the internet may give some poor & unrealistic impressions

for example, myself. the impression may be gained that studying sutta is something i regard as important & do alot but, in fact, nothing could be more futher from the truth. i am just old in age

i first practised meditation in 1989 for one year, in a monastery, quite intensively. although there were many books there, i rarely read a book

i simply learned the basics of practise, i.e., non-judging ('good' & 'bad'); non-craving; non-clinging; sitting; walking; sitting; standing; etc

i first read Pali sutta in 1995. so, because of practising alot, i integrated & remembered what i merely browsed in sutta easily

in my experience, there is no substitute for practise & keeping it simple

best wishes

element

[krasniyluch]

to add, i read John Ireland's Itivuttaka recently and found it to be the most simple & comprehensive regarding the essential basics

Thanissaro's is here (although i prefer Ireland's)

[juliannamed]

Hi hornets,

Items 1-5 are some excellent ideas and I hope you follow through with them. They could be of substantial help to you. You seem to know exactly what will assist you most, and that itself is great news.

Personally, it took me a while to get going in my practice. As a beginner, I primarily read contemporary works and focused on the simplest of the core teachings. I did not maintain a regular meditation practice, nor did I understand Buddhism beyond a surface level. Like you, there were times I felt disheartened.

Only after a few years of preliminary examination did I dive any deeper. I started taking my practice more seriously, meditating regularly with a group, and exploring the classical teachings. It was then that I began to feel like I was absorbing everything I was learning like a sponge.

If you stick with a practice, you'll likely experience the growth that often accompanies it. Good luck.



Abhaya

[objennasweene]

Thank you all for your posts. All helpful and encouraging, and I read them with a nice, warm tingly feeling. I'm still finding my way, obviously, but anything worthwhile is a hard slog.

Best wishes to you all