Search found 6474 matches
- Fri Mar 29, 2024 10:22 pm
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: East Asian Buddhism - any what-is-what (each school) overview?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 156
Re: East Asian Buddhism - any what-is-what (each school) overview?
The series Buddhism in a Nutshell can give you a fair summary from a Chinese Buddhist perspective. See chapters 21-24 and 53-97. And if you'd like a basic introduction to East Asian Buddhism, I recommend the treatise Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.
- Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:55 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Form and emptiness
- Replies: 6
- Views: 463
Re: Form and emptiness
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." Does Mahayana/Madhyamaka say all phenomena are empty *and* have form? Or are there exceptions, non-empty or form-less phenomena? Form is the first of the five aggregates. That often quoted line from the Heart Sutra is followed by the other four aggr...
- Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:48 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Is Buddhism compatible with the modern world and modern thinking?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 332
Re: Is Buddhism compatible with the modern world and modern thinking?
Is it still practical to practice buddhism (traditional buddhism) today? A regular description of the Dharma taught by the Buddha is that it is "apparent in the present life, immediately effective, inviting inspection, relevant, so that sensible people can know it for themselves" ( AN 3.5...
- Wed Mar 13, 2024 11:01 pm
- Forum: Lounge
- Topic: AUTHETNIC Buddhist Quotes
- Replies: 5
- Views: 266
Re: AUTHETNIC Buddhist Quotes
If they are meant to be authentic, it should give the sources properly, including the actual source, like the title of the book, date of publication, and the name of the translator. For instance, at 0:51 is a quote from "The Sutra of Hui Neng": "By amending our mistakes, we get wisdom...
- Wed Feb 28, 2024 2:33 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1012
Re: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
However, Yogacara does say that there is something which is real, an ultimate reality, which is not a sheer negation, the thing-in-itself (vastumatra). Why? Because for them, it is only when there is something to be empty that we can speak of emptiness (e.g., a cup is empty because it exists as a c...
- Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:12 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1012
Re: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
Well, this is kind of unfair. It begs the question for the Madhyamaka position. This statement is basically saying, either you agree with this specific Madhyamaka position, or you are clinging to self. Denying ultimate reality to consciousness is not specifically a Madhyamaka concept, especially wh...
- Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:59 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1012
Re: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
However, even the ones you quoted don't entirely eliminate the Yogacara elements. It eliminates the suggestion that there is somehow a special consciousness not empty. After all, the need to establish mind as ultimately real is simply a form of clinging to self. So it doesn't agree with even the fu...
- Fri Feb 23, 2024 10:09 am
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 1337
Re: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?
There are two situations where one is occupied by such questions: - as a mere mental exercise for amusement, in which case it's simply meaningless and futile, a type of wrong speech ( samphappalāpa ) - as a way to establish a specific set of rules and regulations, precepts and practices, in other wo...
- Thu Feb 22, 2024 1:07 pm
- Forum: Sūtra Studies
- Topic: English translation collection of basic sutras that has had its language adapted for modern readers
- Replies: 29
- Views: 1153
Re: English translation collection of basic sutras that has had its language adapted for modern readers
You might want to start with this booklet: The Teaching of Buddha.
Perhaps The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers is also OK.
Perhaps The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers is also OK.
- Wed Feb 21, 2024 11:07 pm
- Forum: Ethical Conduct
- Topic: Does the doctrine of karma blame victims for their own suffering?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2240
Re: Does the doctrine of karma blame victims for their own suffering?
The teaching of karma is meant to show how skilful and unskilful intention resulting in action influences one's state of mind, and that in turn defines one's experience. Although it is generally viewed as things happening out there, the main point is still what is happening in here. As far as the ex...
- Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:25 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1012
Re: Was Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka an implicative negation?
Other translations might help in a better understanding: 'Such things spoken of as the “great elements”, These are fully absorbed into consciousness; Since they are dissolved by understanding them, Are they not falsely imputed?' (Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning, v 34, tr Thupten Jinpa) "The great el...
- Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:44 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Finding Common Ground
- Replies: 6
- Views: 849
Re: Finding Common Ground
If you're drawn to Kagyu, then you might want to get familiar with their teachings, starting with the Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa and its modern commentaries. The website Study Buddhism is also a good place to start, for instance it has a page about Concentration Terminology and The Four...
- Tue Feb 06, 2024 4:49 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Yogachara: Ontological or Epistemological Idealism?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 965
Re: Yogachara: Ontological or Epistemological Idealism?
Thanks for the recommendation, I will try to look for the book on Scribd. No need, click the link , it's freely available. Does this lack of metaphysical assertion of a transcendental mind apply to the whole of Yogachara, or were there really some subschools which reified the mind and elevated it t...
- Tue Feb 06, 2024 10:00 am
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Yogachara: Ontological or Epistemological Idealism?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 965
Re: Yogachara: Ontological or Epistemological Idealism?
This practical clarification by Karl Brunnhölzl might help ( An Overview of the Five Texts of Maitreya , p 19-21): 'Cittamātra is not a metaphysical assertion of a transcendental reality consisting of “mind-only” but a description of our delusion — the dreams of this sleep from which the Buddha has ...
- Fri Feb 02, 2024 10:31 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: I'm looking for a good introductory book for a friend...
- Replies: 5
- Views: 313
Re: I'm looking for a good introductory book for a friend...
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh is a great introductory book.
- Fri Feb 02, 2024 9:48 am
- Forum: Ethical Conduct
- Topic: Which of the following activities do you consider sexual misconduct? (continued)
- Replies: 33
- Views: 2618
Re: Which of the following activities do you consider sexual misconduct? (continued)
If one were brought up in a strict Christian environment, one might become extremely jealous if someone else slept with his wife. If one were living in a society in which it was good etiquette to offer your spouse to a guest (and there used to be such societies), he might not be upset. If a person ...
- Thu Feb 01, 2024 3:53 pm
- Forum: Ethical Conduct
- Topic: Which of the following activities do you consider sexual misconduct? (continued)
- Replies: 33
- Views: 2618
Re: Which of the following activities do you consider sexual misconduct? (continued)
I also disagree with the notion that there must be some universal at work in determining what is and is not ethical. Karma is quite the universal ethical principle that applies even to non-human beings. Also, in what situation is this not valid: 'If someone were to have sexual relations with my wiv...
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:22 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1167
Re: Two truths question
Should you be comfortable sharing, do *you* think it's useful/illuminating to ascribe aspects to ultimate truth? Ultimate truth is a term with various meanings in Buddhism. What matters is whether the definition one has a liking of is something helpful in reducing troublesome qualities and increasi...
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:08 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1167
Re: Two truths question
I am drawn to the Buddhist teachers/teachings that see ultimate truth as having an effable and ineffable aspect. Most of them are like that, even some in Madhyamaka, like Bhavaviveka and Jnanagarbha. 'Ultimate truth is free of all conceptual projection. It is of two types: the ultimate truth that c...
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 2:51 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: No-Self Concept
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1207
Re: No-Self Concept
Huangbo Xiyun put it this way (Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace, 1.4): 'Practitioners of the Way, have no doubt that the four great elements constitute the body, that these four great elements have no self, and that the self has no master. Know that this body has no self and no master. The five aggreg...