12 why buddhism is true

Rethinking the Plantain Weed

A meditation retreat led the author to question their hostility towards the plantain weed, seeing its beauty for the first time.
The author realizes that the classification of a plant as a weed is subjective and lacks objective criteria.
This experience resembles a brush with emptiness, as the essence of the weed seemed to diminish and become less distinguishable from other plants.

Tópicos Relacionados: plantain weed, subjective classification, emptiness

The perception of essence plays a crucial role in moral psychology and how we treat others.
Our judgments of people's essence are often influenced by superficial factors, such as attractiveness.
Moral judgments are often made based on a single data point, and we tend to attribute behavior to disposition rather than situational factors.
The fundamental attribution error leads us to underestimate the role of situation and overestimate the role of disposition in explaining behavior.

Tópicos Relacionados: essence and moral psychology, fundamental attribution error, moral judgments

Our brains have a mechanism, the essence-preservation mechanism, that allows us to maintain our perception of essence in the face of conflicting evidence.
When enemies or rivals do something good, we attribute it to circumstance, whereas when close friends or allies do something bad, we also attribute it to circumstance.
This mechanism helps maintain our enemy image and reinforces our beliefs about the essence of others.
The mechanism is influenced by our need for justice and the satisfaction we derive from seeing evildoers suffer.

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The perception of essence is a preconception programmed into our brain.
By practicing mindfulness meditation, we can reduce our preconceptions and see things with less essence.
This can lead to a clearer comprehension of the world and a greater sense of empathy and understanding.
However, the reduction of essence is not guaranteed to make us better people, and moral instruction is still necessary to guide our actions.

Tópicos Relacionados: illusion of essence, mindfulness meditation, empathy, moral instruction

Intensive meditation practice may alter the nature of our personal relationships.
It may lead to less possessive love and a more equitable distribution of compassion.
However, the effect of meditation on our relationships is not the only moral consideration.
We should also reflect on how our practice affects our compassion for people broadly and whether it distances us from feelings of compassion altogether.

Tópicos Relacionados: impact on relationships, possessive love, distribution of compassion, feelings of compassion

There is a concern that the practice of the dharma could take the joy out of life.
Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that the Buddhist path enriches the emotional life and leads to greater happiness and joy.
Mindfulness meditation allows us to choose which feelings to follow and weakens our obedience to them.
This selective engagement with feelings can contribute to a freer and more joyful response to the world.

Tópicos Relacionados: joy of life, dharma, emotional life, mindfulness meditation