Dharma Wheel

Malcolm wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:53 pm

monkishlife wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:24 pm I believe strongly in non-duality, so I cannot be a Theravada Buddhist for that very reason.

You can't be a Dzogchen practitioner either then.

Lol!

I also have a problem with PMs. There's a PM that's been sitting in my outbox for a few weeks. I deleted it and tried to resend a few days ago (copy and paste) but this one is still hanging out in the outbox... What to do?

Vipassana meditation is more or less the same in all traditions of Buddhism, unless I missed something along the way. It's not even the same in all branches of Theraveda. There have been huge disagreements between different Theravedan schools about the approach to and role of this in the past half ...

Anyway... I think we just need to find the right language to talk about these things. Some people in buddhist circles want to puke when they hear things that might be remotely construed as new-agey... And a conservative might just as soon dismiss or even try to shut down people saying things that do...

Malcolm wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:05 pm Hey, guys, this whole thread is off topic.

There is no Mahāyāna sūtra that takes about energy fields or anything like it.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Okay. You start... ...by defining what exactly “field of energy” means. :popcorn: ... Definitions aren't so good in this area... Especially the stilted kind of definitions you find in buddhist tradition. Spiritual experience is something organic. Start to define it and put it in boxes, you might tu...

Okay. You start... ...by defining what exactly “field of energy” means. :popcorn: Lol. It's just a metaphor to talk about subjective experience. These kind of energetic experiences are personal and subjective, and they also differ from tradition to tradition. Putting into words is tricky, and words...

PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:36 pm

If you are interested in “Tibetan Buddhism”, meaning “Vajrayana” Buddhism, but you are wishing to avoid all the “accessories” lets say, that have emerged specifically in Tibetan culture (butter lamps, offering scarves, wrathful yidams, etc).

There were no wrathful deities in indian vajrayana?

But I believe we need to be aware of where we're parting company with what is scientifically verifiable because what is scientifically verifiable is roughly equal to what most people* in our community are willing to accept as "real" and "true". :namaste: Kim It's true, good to know where our talk p...

Some qigong masters can see the energy field through their third eye. Perhaps they can, but science won't believe them because there is no *objective* measurement. It isn't science, though, since science can't measure it Assumption. Show me where science has measured it, then. Or show me where scie...

Bodhisattvacaryavatara by Shantideva
The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech by Kunzang Palden (commentary of Bodhisattvacaryavatara)

Maybe you'd enjoy books by the Dalai Lama.

What if you forget your master's teaching?

Even wanting an answer to your question is a type of goal. Very zen! Zen people say "no goal". Having a goal conceptualized in your mind will create suffering for you. So zen people empty the mind of all concepts and just sit. But there's an apparent contradiction. If there's no goal, why sit? Why ...

I was taught in a chinese buddhism class in college a scheme that helped me first get my mind around these world systems. My teacher drew on the board the six realms stacked on top of each other. On the very top was a buddha, and he said the whole world system emanated from the buddha of that world-...

What are the relations between universes, world systems, and realms - conventionally? My assumption is that one universe has many world systems which each have 6 realms. Is this correct? Which of these have how many buddhas at a time? It seems to me that universe and world-system are the same. Ther...

There's a very interesting book called Sky Shamans of Mongolia. The author is a shaman practitioner and travelled around inner mongolia not long ago to interview a number of shamans from different clans. It describes each tribe's cosmology of the realms "above" and "below" our own. There are variati...

Meditation as was taught to me in theravada and zen/ch'an. Mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of the feelings, mindfulness of the mind. When you get really in your experience, you become comfortable with sensations, thoughts, memories,experiences... many things coming and going in and out of exper...

In chinese

功德寶神咒

南无佛陀耶 南无达摩耶 南无僧伽耶。
唵 悉帝护噜噜 悉都噜 只利波 吉利婆
悉达哩 布噜哩 娑嚩诃

I know we have had a few threads about the Great Compassion mantra, but I wanted to share my experiences of reciting it; I recited the Chinese pinyin version (da bei zhou). In several times of acute illness I recited the mantra and noticed clear physical improvement; I could feel energy rushing int...

Nobody knows whether it is fire in literal or figurative sense. But I believe both fire and afflictions are mentioned in sutta. Some sutta also mentioned those who chant particular bodhisattva name will be protected from thief, fire and other calamity. Nobody knows and no one experience it. Some pe...