Dharma Wheel

Matylda wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:29 amhow 'student' may know if a teacher is or is not awakened???

If they’re curious they could simply ask them. Would not an awakened teacher be trustworthy???

The point is moot since you should be connecting with a teacher virtually during the pandemic.

This is a question for Zen students (not Zen teachers nor about other traditions, only those that follow from Bodhidharma). Is it your understanding that all Zen teachers have had an awakening (commonly expressed in Zen as “seeing one’s true nature”) though to varying degrees? It’s my understanding...

Can someone explain what one's true self is? I had thought that Buddhism doesn't deal with true self but I have been watching some Zen Dharma teachings and they talk about attaining one's true self. I think the source of my confusion came from an Alan Watts video where he says Zen doesn't create th...

Our scientific development leads to nowhere. We only add suffering. We in modern rich countries live in comfort, but what about undeveloped countries in Africa and Asia? Before globalization people in such places suffered less. Nowadays these people work for us. The most of clothing are made in Ind...

Maybe not as expedient a solution as a solar flare but I learned about the degrowth movement the other day. Sounds promising.

https://degrowth.org/

It seems to me (and others) that modernity is nothing but a psychosis, the Christian religion failed due to the power-hungry church, and we covered it up with what we call modernity. It's easy to see in communist and nazi propaganda, i.e. the state becomes the image of God. But modernity is not sus...

Okay. I agree so far. I have only experience with THC. It's getting stronger these decades, because the plants are pumped up with artificial light etc. I can't even tolerate the smell of it. But if you say CBD is mild - I think I do not get what mild means. Like chamomilla tea or valerian? Yes, act...

The idea was that he developed anxiety as a symptom of an autoimmune disorder and that the benzos were prescribed to treat that specific symptom. But yeah, could be buillshit. Who knows. So he was prescribed benzos to treat his anxiety about the auto-immune disease, not to treat the auto-immune dis...

Mocking someone who's fallen into addiction because his wife is terminally ill with cancer - we're Buddhists. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: That appears to be a narrative designed to be used exactly as you use it here. It's hard to tell what the truth is with people like Peterson, but the facts ...

If anything I would think that zazen would help creativity because it has a depatterning effect.

If I've got the story right, the stress of dealing with his wife's cancer diagnosis is what got him hooked on benzos, though he was hooked on them years before, supposedly to treat symptoms of an autoimmune disorder. Then he went on an all-meat diet for the autoimmune disorder. Then he went to Russi...

Back to my initial conclusion... its really about values. Sure, but how do you think they would need to change exactly? Pretty simple. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/43/51/03/435103d95afbb9ac401f1645f9370d7d.jpg What is an ass hole you ask? I think we know one when we see one. The problem is that it's n...

Queequeg wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:14 pm Back to my initial conclusion... its really about values.

Sure, but how do you think they would need to change exactly?

Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that public ownership is inefficient because it lacks profit motive, and is prone to corruption. Private ownership obviously doesn’t always serve the public good, however. CEO’s are like warlords who take care of themselves first, shareholders second, and h...

Do you see how different these two notions of ownership are? One is the capitalist one: I’m a private owner, which is to say a selfish, profit-maximizing, soulless human calculator. The other is a social democratic one: I’m a public owner, we own these good together, we share them collectively, we ...

Well clearly a quick google search isn't enough in this case, because you're clearly missing some context, and that wiki page clearly hasn't been updated in a while and is inaccurate. The Kanzeon Zen Center sangha folded nearly a decade ago. From the Wikipedia page: He continues to serve as preside...

Well clearly a quick google search isn't enough in this case, because you're clearly missing some context, and that wiki page clearly hasn't been updated in a while and is inaccurate. The Kanzeon Zen Center sangha folded nearly a decade ago. From the Wikipedia page: He continues to serve as preside...

seeker242 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:19 pm

what are, in your opinion, the major reasons for such?

He was an alcoholic.

That can’t begin to explain it when other highly respected figures in the Buddhist tradition were celebrated for their “crazy wisdom.”

The problem for me with Watts' alcoholism is that it undercut the root meaning of the principles he wrote about. I recall a line from the Monica Furlong bio, towards the end, when he was asked why he was drinking vodka every day, and he replied something like 'so that I don't feel so terribly alone...