Lazy people should just give up, right?

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padma norbu
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Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by padma norbu »

I've come to realize that I'm quite lazy about Dzogchen practice. I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. In fact, I'm quite lazy with ANY practice I've ever discovered in relation to Buddhism. This has been going on for over a decade now and I have concluded that I will never be able to change.
Time to give up?

Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results. Completion of Tara practice is only a million mantras! No problem! Give me a break. Kabballist path-working was almost instantaneous in comparison, sorry to say.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
Dharmaswede
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Dharmaswede »

Reification of laziness is a self-fulfilling prophecy, with all due respect. Wavering faith in results of practice aside, there are of course methods for working with inspiration, discipline, and motivation - from both Western psychology and Buddhist traditions. But I am sure you are aware of that...

Best Regards,

Jens
Last edited by Dharmaswede on Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Karma Dondrup Tashi
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Karma Dondrup Tashi »

If you accepted your laziness as the display of emptiness maybe you would become enlightened.
It has been the misfortune (not, as these gentlemen think it, the glory) of this age that everything is to be discussed. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Acchantika
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Acchantika »

padma norbu wrote:Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results.
I had a similar problem. My lama told me, "the practices are the result."
...
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Sönam
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Sönam »

Same for me
In one hand I have zero motivation for practice ... in another hand I'm occupied with that with no interruption

:popcorn:
Sönam
By understanding everything you perceive from the perspective of the view, you are freed from the constraints of philosophical beliefs.
By understanding that any and all mental activity is meditation, you are freed from arbitrary divisions between formal sessions and postmeditation activity.
- Longchen Rabjam -
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kirtu
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by kirtu »

Sönam wrote:Same for me
In one hand I have zero motivation for practice ... in another hand I'm occupied with that with no interruption

:popcorn
People are 100% 24/7 devoted to something .... ignorance as laziness is one of the main ones.

Kirt
Kirt's Tibetan Translation Notes

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche

"Most all-knowing Mañjuśrī, ...
Please illuminate the radiant wisdom spirit
Of my precious Buddha nature."
HH Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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Virgo
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Virgo »

padma norbu wrote:I've come to realize that I'm quite lazy about Dzogchen practice. I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. In fact, I'm quite lazy with ANY practice I've ever discovered in relation to Buddhism. This has been going on for over a decade now and I have concluded that I will never be able to change.
Time to give up?

Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results. Completion of Tara practice is only a million mantras! No problem! Give me a break. Kabballist path-working was almost instantaneous in comparison, sorry to say.
Yes, give up completely.

Kevin
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mint
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by mint »

Acchantika wrote:
padma norbu wrote:Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results.
I had a similar problem. My lama told me, "the practices are the result."
:good:

I would think that the point of assigning one million repetitions of anything would be to make the practice the result. It's utter absurdity is precisely the point.

Of course, I personally have a general problem with external practices. Sometimes it's difficult to see the forest for the trees.
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heart
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by heart »

padma norbu wrote:I've come to realize that I'm quite lazy about Dzogchen practice. I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. In fact, I'm quite lazy with ANY practice I've ever discovered in relation to Buddhism. This has been going on for over a decade now and I have concluded that I will never be able to change.
Time to give up?

Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results. Completion of Tara practice is only a million mantras! No problem! Give me a break. Kabballist path-working was almost instantaneous in comparison, sorry to say.
Getting over laziness with practice is quite a trip. It means to be very present and thoroughly enjoy the practice that you do. To let go of all your plans and schemes and just be right there. To do that you have to have confidence in your Guru and a vivid awareness of impermanence and drop everything else.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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swampflower
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by swampflower »

How could Tara be considered to be a chore even if one billion devotions are given?

You may even just call out her name to receive great benefit.
Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā
Malcolm
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Malcolm »

Just give up. There is no hope for you. You don't even have Buddha nature. :stirthepot:

N
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Sönam
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Sönam »

The conclusive meaning of Mind, Matrix and Secret Precept
lies in absence, openness, spontaneity and unity.
These four are treated each in four aspects:
disclosure, assimilation, "the bind" and resolution.

- Longchen Rabjam -
By understanding everything you perceive from the perspective of the view, you are freed from the constraints of philosophical beliefs.
By understanding that any and all mental activity is meditation, you are freed from arbitrary divisions between formal sessions and postmeditation activity.
- Longchen Rabjam -
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padma norbu
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by padma norbu »

Virgo wrote:
padma norbu wrote:I've come to realize that I'm quite lazy about Dzogchen practice. I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. In fact, I'm quite lazy with ANY practice I've ever discovered in relation to Buddhism. This has been going on for over a decade now and I have concluded that I will never be able to change.
Time to give up?

Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results. Completion of Tara practice is only a million mantras! No problem! Give me a break. Kabballist path-working was almost instantaneous in comparison, sorry to say.
Yes, give up completely.

Kevin
:thanks: :twothumbsup: :applause: :cheers: :lol:
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
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padma norbu
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by padma norbu »

swampflower wrote:How could Tara be considered to be a chore even if one billion devotions are given?

You may even just call out her name to receive great benefit.
I have heard this before. But look at this thread I just made today. What can you deduce from this? I am pronouncing her name wrong?
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
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Paul
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Paul »

padma norbu wrote:
Virgo wrote:
padma norbu wrote:I've come to realize that I'm quite lazy about Dzogchen practice. I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. In fact, I'm quite lazy with ANY practice I've ever discovered in relation to Buddhism. This has been going on for over a decade now and I have concluded that I will never be able to change.
Time to give up?

Really just plain sick of practices that take forever to achieve results. Completion of Tara practice is only a million mantras! No problem! Give me a break. Kabballist path-working was almost instantaneous in comparison, sorry to say.
Yes, give up completely.

Kevin
:thanks: :twothumbsup: :applause: :cheers: :lol:

Yes - genuinely amazing advice :anjali:
Look at the unfathomable spinelessness of man: all the means he's been given to stay alert he uses, in the end, to ornament his sleep. – Rene Daumal
the modern mind has become so limited and single-visioned that it has lost touch with normal perception - John Michell
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

Correct me if I am wrong but isnt laziness, (like everythng else for that matter) to be viewed as an ornament of ones Rigpa?
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Malcolm
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Malcolm »

Fa Dao wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but isnt laziness, (like everythng else for that matter) to be viewed as an ornament of ones Rigpa?

yes, except when it is an ornament of one's marigpa.

N
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sangyey
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by sangyey »

Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training:

'Discard all expectations of reward'
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

so when one is in rigpa its an ornament of rigpa and when in marigpa an ornament of that? interesting....
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
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padma norbu
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Re: Lazy people should just give up, right?

Post by padma norbu »

sangyey wrote:Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training:

'Discard all expectations of reward'
Doesn't help with being lazy. Wish I had a guru who could size me up and say, "okay, dumb guy, I see you have no capacity to do really just about anything, so... for you I just want you to sweep the floor here" and then blammo I achieve realization like in those legendary stories (which are seeming more and more far-fetched to me these days, btw).

No, more likely, these days, any teacher will tell me, "you can't do... or you don't WANT to do?"
and to which I'd say, "guess I don't want to"
and they'd say, "well then that's your problem"
and I would say, "Yeah, I know," but there wouldn't be any point because it would just become circular:
"so you must do the practice"
..."but I don't want to"
..."but you must"
..."but I won't, I'm telling you I can't"
..."well... if you won't take the medicine, how can you get better?"
..."I guess I won't."
..."well, that's up to you. It always has been and always will be. If you want to go around and around for a few million more aeons..."

Actually, the good thing about Namkhai Norbu is I suppose he would probably just say, "you try!" and "you do your best!" which is somehow more encouraging than "you must do this practice." At least I can rationalize that I'm trying. Am I doing my best? Seems to be the case...

On a side note, I have recently noticed that as a kid it was easy to adapt to change because people were always telling me what to do. As an adult I find that now I am very used to freedom and only doing what I want to do and consequently, I can't seem to make myself do anything anymore.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
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