Robenzo72, First of all WELCOME TO THE YAHOO! ZEN FORUM...
The question you asked is the very question Siddhartha Gautama (aka Buddha) wrestled with his whole adult life: 'Why is there suffering?'. He tried many things to rid himself of suffering, all to no avail. Finally he sat under a tree for many days (some say 40, some 49)and then one morning he saw the morning star and became enlightened and was relieved of all suffering. Or so the story goes... Whether you believe this story or not is not important. What is important IMO is that you do believe you can relieve yourself of suffering by relieving yourself of the part of you that is suffering - your 'self'. Your illusory concept of 'self' is the cornerstone of the prison which confines you and causes suffering. I can only advise you to learn to do zen meditation (zazen), and the very best way to do that is to find a zen group in your area that has a teacher at least competent to teach you to do zazen. If you just can't find someone in your area you can get instruction on the web. Just Google or Bing 'zazen instruction' and I'm sure you'll find a lot of sources. If you have any problems or questions about how to do zazen after reading some of these you can always post them on this forum and there are plenty of people who will be able to offer help. Thanks again for joining and I hope you start sitting (zazen). ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "robenzo72" <robenzo72@...> wrote: > > Hello all, > > I just joined after searching the net for a couple of hours. I'm enduring > some considerably demoralizing persecution. I'm mainly talking of > verbal/mental/emotional abuse. I'm curious what Zen or Buddhism in general > recommends for this situation. I know it's not good for me, and I try my best > to live an ethical life, but I have chosen the spiritual path and it seems to > be a crime anymore to not be pursuing an industrial life. > > Thanks, if you need more clarification just ask. > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
