Search found 17 matches

by Megha
Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:27 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

Our understanding of karma should tell us that there's never just one reason why someone inherits a particular condition. It should also tell us, conversely, that however negative a condition may appear, it was ultimately produced by the same overriding motivation - to experience happiness and avoi...
by Megha
Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:11 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

I think that dismissing people's empirical experience as "ridiculous" is irrational. It's certainly not good science. Ignoring the empirical evidence of lots of people's corroborated experiences (and indeed such experiences have been studied and well documented), in my opinion, is not exa...
by Megha
Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:23 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

The number of influencing factors is infinite. The relationships are also non linear. It's a total waste of time speculating about this one or that one. That doesn't mean that there is no karma, just that speculative views lead to a hall of mirrors. And that will drive you crazy and get you into all...
by Megha
Tue Jan 08, 2013 9:41 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

The idea that you can magically see why someone is gay is ridiculous. It's based on a misunderstanding of how the Buddha said the universe works. To then start saying that it is based on being a woman in a past life and a man the next is the final absurdity, and is exactly where this sort of flawed ...
by Megha
Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:32 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

“Now when these ascetics and brahmins have such a doctrine and view that ‘whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action,’ then they go beyond what they know by themselves and what is accepted as true by the world. Therefore, ...
by Megha
Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:06 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How sane are you?
Replies: 64
Views: 14439

Re: How sane are you?

Well actually, the above quote regarding queer people is just Dependent Origination as it is applied to queer people. And she was quoting it so as people would not assume that when talking about "mental illness" she was including Queer people in that. A reasonable clarification, consideri...
by Megha
Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:12 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
Replies: 154
Views: 38353

Re: Order of Buddhist Contemplatives

Hi Sara, well I removed my original post as I felt that it was little more than hearsay and gossip - and it is a serious business when people are discussing cults, as they wreak such damage in people's lives .

I apologise if it was inaccurate. I assure you I have no axe to grind either way.
by Megha
Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:50 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
Replies: 154
Views: 38353

Re: Order of Buddhist Contemplatives

Why is this group labeled as a cult in so many places? Would love some insight gals and guys :) I just removed my answer as there are people better placed than I to give their account of Kennett's "career". Suffice it to say that the mental stability of Peg Kennett has been questioned on ...
by Megha
Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:04 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: "Zen is Going to Hell and It’s the Boomers’ Fault!"
Replies: 26
Views: 6856

Re: "Zen is Going to Hell and It’s the Boomers’ Fault!"

Your comment is completely beyond the point actually. Buddhism is well established in the west. The problem is a generational one, the lack of ability of one generation to relate to the other. This isn't a 'new religion in a strange land'. Your response seems to suggest that the onus of responsibil...
by Megha
Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:11 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Falling asleep
Replies: 5
Views: 3044

Re: Falling asleep

I keep falling asleep during Zazen and not sure what I can do to prevent it. I know the medication I'm on for my anxiety is probably contributing to it, but it's helping so I don't wanna come off it. I have my eyes cast downwards like instructed but do you think it would make a difference if I had ...
by Megha
Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:20 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: "Zen is Going to Hell and It’s the Boomers’ Fault!"
Replies: 26
Views: 6856

Re: "Zen is Going to Hell and It’s the Boomers’ Fault!"

Well I seem to remember an old teaching story that Bodhidharma had just this problem when he came to China. He had a fashion show, a raffle, and a big advertising campaign across China to promote Zen. Oh no, wait, no he didn't. He sat opposite a wall for 10 years. And after all that time he had one ...
by Megha
Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:38 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: "No Seeking" teaching of Linchi (Rinzai)
Replies: 26
Views: 7254

Re: "No Seeking" teaching of Linchi (Rinzai)

Don;t forget Linchi himself had to go through many years of training to reach the level to understand this himself Three years. The first 'opening' of a Zen trainee is relatively easy to achieve. See "The Treatise on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School" by Master Torei. That insight ...
by Megha
Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:55 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Question about Zen School
Replies: 31
Views: 7293

Re: Question about Zen School

Rinzai Zen requires a lot of "hands on" training, which can't really be replicated by solitary practice. Also, any practice, no matter how sincerely applied, will inevitably be liable to "I" bias. Being naturally lop-sided we can't really see our own "blind spots", and ...
by Megha
Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:06 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Is Zen Buddhism...
Replies: 33
Views: 8853

Re: Is Zen Buddhism...

Well, from my personal experience, the Japanese teachers I have been fortunate to meet have been great. D T Suzuki was, by all the accounts of people I know who knew him, a great man.

That is all I have to say, really.
by Megha
Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:19 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: zen daily life
Replies: 24
Views: 6297

Re: zen daily life

i understand sitting practice and walking, but do we practice all day long? what does one do with ones mind all day long? Whatever you do, as long as it is withing the precepts, give yourself to it wholeheartedly, gratefully. In daily life practice (shugyo) keep giving yourself up to whatever is be...
by Megha
Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:32 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen meditation and Right Concentration
Replies: 18
Views: 4770

Re: Zen meditation and Right Concentration

How does the idea of meditation in Zen mesh with Right Concentration? It seems that concentration itself is antithetic to zazen, especially shikantaza. I'm thinking specifically of the nine levels of meditative absorption mentioned in several books I have on the Noble Eightfold Path. Am I conflatin...
by Megha
Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:37 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Rebirth of whom?
Replies: 17
Views: 2853

Re: Rebirth of whom?

Hi. I'm studying 'The Noble Eightfold Path The Way to the End of Suffering' by Bhikkhu Bodhi. I understand the 3 universal marks of existence, in essence - impermanence (aniccata), unsatisfactoriness (dukkhata), and selflessness (anattata) - My confusion is with rebirth. If there is no self, what i...

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