Happy Pride
Happy Pride to all Mindspringers and their loved ones who are celebrating Pride Month now. I believe Pride Month is vitally important because there are still some who believe that they're better off dead than being themselves. That is tragic, and I believe our Mindsprings community is about compassion and love. I send well wishes to all of you, and peace!



hi Grace , how i have pondered on this question , the more i look into it the more vast answers and non answers are . The drift or separation from spiritual root , this could be problematic if you need the comfort of "a higher being" or you simply have beliefs of something more than just being responsible for your own self , which moves to Buddhism and Mindfulness. The difficulty of Buddhism for me is the attachment to deep rooted habits , attachment to views , Mindfulness is the "tool" to breakdown the barriers of years of conditioning . Buddha mentioned "know thy self " and how that resonates , because that is such good advice . I think I understand more why Buddhist monks take on solitary retreats (sometimes years ) , away from the noise of the world , because they want to gain mental clarity by removing distractions , the retreats allow the monks to develop their inner peace , wisdom and compassion . I suppose the problem that Eric Fromm is bringing up is that "the West" takes on mindfulness to make themselves feel better , but not actually using the tool effectively because western lives are vastly different to those in the East (i don't believe he actually says that, its just my thoughts ) I could be totally wrong of course , which is why i mentioned in searching for the answers was difficult , the subject is vast and of course each individual is different in their "journey" wherever that leads .