Dharma Wheel

Not necessary for society, maybe... As Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche often says, from a mundane perspective, Buddhadharma is completely useless. True, millions of dollars are spent on the trappings of piety that would be better served funding schools and hospitals. I don't think that's what he meant, ...

Danny wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:36 pm
Don’t forget the creation myth....

There is more than one Tibetan creation myth.

Buddhism is not for everybody and is still a minority group so it is not necessary. The two most powerful men on this planet controlling together 10000 ICBM are not Buddhist.. Not necessary for society, maybe... As Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche often says, from a mundane perspective, Buddhadharma is c...

amanitamusc wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 1:08 am Fox news no less.

The world is our burn pit.

What exactly is the point of Vajrasattva, Akshobhya, the 35 Buddhas, and other confessional practices if "misdeeds cannot be washed away with water"? (Yes, I get that the Buddha cannot give you enlightenment and you have to do that but what about these practices?) They are based on the idea in posa...

Isn't there a saying that goes that just as there are infinite sentient beings, there are infinite myriads of tathagatas (and possibly bodhisattvas)? If one has been eliminated of knowledge obscuration, can control birth alongside help sentient beings, how is it that suffering still exists in the w...

Könchok Chödrak wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:11 pmbut those who feel they are not ready need a provisional Vehicle stemming from the Ekayana (Single Vehicle) to continue their practice...

What are you defining as a provisional vehicle?

Isn't there a saying that goes that just as there are infinite sentient beings, there are infinite myriads of tathagatas (and possibly bodhisattvas)? If one has been eliminated of knowledge obscuration, can control birth alongside help sentient beings, how is it that suffering still exists in the w...

If the knower were the same as the known, it would have to have parts in order to change. It would have to transform into all the different objects it knows, meaning it is not a self, has parts and components. This is the rebuttal to the Hindu idea you bring up below. You might object, well, what i...

All this madhyamaka discussion is off topic. The buddhanature is not fully elaborated in the Sutras. Sure it is. The Lanka states that tathāgatgarbha is the natural luminosity of the mind. What more does one need to know? There is the nonmaterial appearance of wisdom. That's beyond the scope of Kar...

Crazywisdom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:58 pm All this madhyamaka discussion is off topic. The buddhanature is not fully elaborated in the Sutras.

Sure it is. The Lanka states that tathāgatgarbha is the natural luminosity of the mind. What more does one need to know?

The argument that a knower is a self has already been advanced and dismantled in Buddhist texts. If a knower can have many cognitions, it already has many parts and cannot be a unitary or an integral entity. We are therefore not operating here at a position prior to recognizing discrete entities, t...

Hoping Malcolm or someone else might be able to help here. I'm taking a class essentially on "alternative" frameworks to pyschotherapy. Half of it is good, some information on Ayurveda and a little on TCM. The other half is almost unbearable new age nonsense, seriously it's bad. I'm wondering if a ...

A Buddha doesn't get reborn once they are a Buddha... Not in the literal sense. But they appear to be reborn, don’t they? There is the Theravadin view by some that Gautama isn’t coming back at all, but the Mahayana view from what the Lotus Sutra (The White Lotus of the Good Dharma in Tibetan) has s...

Könchok Chödrak wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:11 pm Is there a Teaching about the various Bodhisattva Vows carrying over?

Yes, the bodhisattva vows are the only vows that one carries from one life to the next.

Actually, as a lay person, one has a choice to follow it or not. In the Tibetan tradition we purify all vows with the practice of Vajrasattva. Also, bodhisattva and Vajrayana vows take precedence. This is fascinating to me because it is not the way it is generally presented to laymen in most of Eas...

Lord Guatama Buddha designated refraining from intoxicants as one of the five vows for laymen, and thus a core vinaya vow for monks as well. It's one of the most basic parts of being Buddhist. No, it’s not a core vinaya vow. It’s one of the 90 or minor Vinaya vows. The core vows are the four defeat...

Lord Guatama Buddha designated refraining from intoxicants as one of the five vows for laymen, and thus a core vinaya vow for monks as well. It's one of the most basic parts of being Buddhist. No, it’s not a core vinaya vow. It’s one of the 90 or minor Vinaya vows. The core vows are the four defeat...

I met someone who was interested in developing a meditation practice, and who also had interest in taking psychedelics. I wanted to warn her not to take drugs because I believe it could not only be harmful to her physical health, but also impede her meditation practice. Does anyone know how drugs h...

Is there an official Teaching for how Empowerments from past lives carry over? Yes, the official teaching is that they do not. I have always wondered, how is it possible then that just barely keeping samayas pure leads to liberation within 16 lifetimes? One needs to keep them in order to meet Vajra...