Dharma Wheel

Again I don't think it's a choice, it's an outcome based on other factors and what would motivate you to start that. You might as well say it’s the will of God, monsters or whatever else controlling your decisions then, it’s equally non-falsifiable. Your “factors” may make it sound somehow more sci...

Well most people operate under a sort of cognitive dissonance where they think they both have free will but also a "soul" or essence that makes them them. The funny thing about free will is that Nobody who tries to convince others That free will doesn’t exist Actually believes it themselv...

With regard to the Four Immeasurables one of my teachers says that at a certain point, an expert and an expert faker becone indistinguishable. You could start by just thinking “I’ll try this loving kindness thing as an experiment”, and eventually it would become a real aspiration, and at a point it ...

One cannot hack buddhahood in one life, especially not with all the pirated Vajrayana methods being peddled online with no lineage approval. One will only experience what a Buddha experiences from someone who's experiencing it. Otherwise it's just rumor. This is a good post, but I think that most W...

Well, it is a cliched and very questionable thing to say that Autistic people don’t feel or express love or whatever, but I’ve been married to one for a bunch of years so I don’t believe it. I do get why it might superficially make a practice like Metta harder, especially if you're practicing with ...

Well, it is a cliched and very questionable thing to say that Autistic people don’t feel or express love or whatever, but I’ve been married to one for a bunch of years so I don’t believe it. I do get why it might superficially make a practice like Metta harder, especially if you're practicing with o...

The aware artist has agency over their attention, will, and faith. They can decide what to believe, when to relax and accept, and when to express their creation. They can also consciously create emotions of love and gratitude at will. All he’s saying is that a person can take responsibility for how...

I mean, that site is not really therapy either. It’s self-help basically, that draws from a bunch of different things and (near as I can tell) claims no professional credentials. As to the note about emotions, creating emotions at will is not some amazing thing to me. Movies and TV do this all the t...

Looking at the site, I question the assumption that the way to be happy is by “cleaning out” “unconscious areas of the mind.” He claims to do this, but also says he helps people identify negative beliefs - presumably bringing them to conscious awareness. To me it is a confusing jumble of ideas, but ...

I am going to make some generalizations here, based on years of real-life observations. I guess it also takes a bit of ‘street smarts’ which you probably either learn growing up, or you don’t. That means being able to know right away when the person isn’t on the level. It’s the same as knowing when...

Yeah the guy I was talking with didn’t really listen to what I was saying. I felt like he was trying to fit my stuff into his box and even distorting it to make it fit. I lost a lot of respect when he invented trauma I didn’t have just to have an explanation for what’s going on To me the second bit...

I go by authenticity, personally. It’s a thing that can vary some by culture for sure, but if someone is always wearing a mask, it’s just another layer of delusion and will probably obscure whatever wisdom they want to share. My only caveat here is that with Buddhist teachers they have to operate at...

Do you know this situations where you meet a new person, and they start creating a story of their self and who they are? What should you do in such situations? The same? Especially when they want to play the game of status, figuring out where they are on the imaginary social hierarchy. I never know...

As it is said in Dharmapada 14:183 "Do good, don't do evil, purify your mind." This is the Buddha's defitinion. I put my sign under it. Not blowing to the wind. :popcorn: Obviously you ignored or simply dismissed the fact I shared with you already, which is that this quote from the Dhamma...

Hi everyone, I've recently decided to begin practicing Ngondro. The closest Tibetan center to me has a resident tulku with a Sakya lineage background (having studied for over 10 years at the Sakya Trizin academy in Nepal). When I inquired about receiving the Ngondro lung from him, he mentioned find...

It’s not universal, one public Sakya practices involves self-generation. I’m sure more stringent instructions exist for people without the empowerment in some instances, with some teachers but there is a large public practice involving a liturgy with self-generation. What exactly are you thinking o...

It’s not universal, one public Sakya practices involves self-generation. I’m sure more stringent instructions exist for people without the empowerment in some instances, with some teachers but there is a large public practice involving a liturgy with self-generation. The idea that there is some stri...

My Sakya teachers have thought it was fine for some people to attend pujas of some practices without empowerment, peaceful practices mostly, and simple Guru yogas. I think who the student is matters too. I'm sure there's no harm in sitting in a room while someone does a puja. But they can't do the ...

My Sakya teachers have thought it was fine for some people to attend pujas of some practices without empowerment, peaceful practices mostly, and simple Guru yogas. I think who the student is matters too. They all were emphatic that serious tantric practices began with and flows from empowerment thou...

Ah yes the “things are how I want them to be because emptiness” argument. A true staple of Buddhist forms.

Trying to practice Vajrayana or Dzogchen without empowerment is just playing games with a map, without introduction or empowerment you will never go anywhere, you don’t even have a compass.