Let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, a bit late I know, but my home internet is still down so it had to wait till I got to work.
I went to a party for New Years Eve, it was good to get out, though I wasn’t drinking as I was driving. I was reminded of a lesson that stemmed from my Buddhist meditation experience.
With the right frame of mind you can be happy wherever you are. So, as I wasn’t drinking, and I do normally need a few drinks to get into things, I decided to give it a go and see what a change of mental attitude can do. It does work, I even got on the dance floor for a few minutes, and I normally need to be half ratted before I do that! So I’ll chalk it up as a limited success story, I can feel the shapes of questions rising from this, but I’ll let them take shape but I start wondering.
Lewis says:
And a happy new year to you Richard!
I rarely drink alcohol myself these days (only a few sips of some things I wanted to try the taste of - unusual beers at the beer festival - over the past few years). I went through the usual beliefs of thinking I’d never be able to have fun without it, but after a while I learned that belief was just that, a belief, an attitude, and soon I learned to have fun even while my friends were drinking. I no longer feel out of place. I figured in the end, if I can learn to have fun without the use of an external thing, I can use that skill at any time I choose - and also avoid the losses in judgement and hangovers I tended to suffer from quite readily. I have a sense of pride about being able to get on the dancefloor myself and make a fool of myself without the aid of alcohol - it shows a freedom of spirit, spontaneity - to be willing to be the fool is where freedoms at.
4 January 2007, 10:54 amucakkurzxg says:
Hello guys! I have some questions. I mean need some help.
12 January 2007, 3:24 pmWhere i can read more about this problema?
Please, don’t derect me to http://google.com i know about it.
Please derect me with some links.
thanks!
UCAKK^^
rtbarker says:
Well, speaking personally, my understanding comes from Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, also from my own experiences.
I feel that you have to put your insights and thoughts into action in your own life in order to “bring them home”.
I’m afraid that I can only point you to Wikipedia to look at their articles on Buddhism and Taoism, though perhaps you could try about.com:
http://buddhism.about.com/od/ethics/a/Alcohol.htm as a starting point. I find that the site http://www.truetao.org is a great Taoist resource, for a general Buddhist resource, you could try http://www.buddhanet.net/. My belief is that the greatest teacher will be your own experience.
12 January 2007, 5:04 pm