Hi Seaturtle!

Well done on describing your understanding of suffering, attachment and false selves! Buddhism is fascinating, isn’t it? Daoism and Confucianism are related and also very interesting.

Have you got any meditation practices? A large part of Buddhism are meditation practices. There are many to choose from with slightly different intentions.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Traditional Chinese Medicine? It’s a practice that is designed to treat these blockages within the body. Some things that can cause blockages are bad diet, environment (wind, rain, cold), lack of exercise, lack of sleep, exposure to toxins (weed for example), stress, anger is considered a particularly harmful emotion for the body. The aim is to create balance within the body.

False selves. The way I think of it is that anyone we spend a great deal of time around. We learn their traits. Good or bad. Because of our experiences, we are conditioned to behave in certain ways. As adults we have some control, over how we change. Who we choose to spend time with. Buddhism is great at unpicking things and helping you to choose what you’d like to keep and let go.

Rumination for example, would be a good example of false selves. All of the negative self talk and fear. A conditioned response, where we default to a learned pattern in times of stress.

Buddha nature, we all have sparks of the divine within us, but our learned behaviours take over a lot. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it is expected. We are not monks and have to live in the world. A lot of Buddhist practices are designed for monastery life. So it’s hard to get too deep into it, but definitely helpful for lessening suffering.

Surrendering and accepting things as they are is difficult! I always resist. I’m stubborn as a mule!

Not being able to fix someone’s internal world… It’s true, only they can. Mostly because a large part involves changing deeply held beliefs.

But you can try and help and if people are ready then can learn. I think memories are really fantastic tools. My therapist taught me a lot and while I was in therapy I would say I don’t know about that and disagree with her sometimes. Then years later, I would find myself reflecting on those old sessions and realising that she was correct. And some of these books about Buddhism. If you come back to them in a couple of years. Parts will make sense that didn’t make sense before.

I think it’s part of this idea, that the only thing we can control is ourselves and our reactions and actions.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Wishing you all the best! 🙏❤️