Dharma Wheel

... I have also heard a tiny part of the instructions of the Master that originated in Drāmiḍa, and that was transmitted through Indian scholars. Although I have not actually seen the historical texts that tell the Indian tales, the tales are included in the texts of the history of our lineage of t...

It's sad but personally, while practising ChNN's teachings daily still, I am seeking teachings from other lamas too. I definitely need guidance on the path, SMS teachers are a bit ahead on the path of me, but I'm not sure how far they can lead me. Ati Guru Yoga + SoV till I die but in the meantime I...

In the first place, why does Craig's Kalam argument convince you?

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosm ... laCosmArgu

It's based on certain mediaeval western model of causality, very different from the Buddhist one of dependent arising. If you reject that then the argument fails.

The best solution is accepting the decline and fall of industrial civilization.

"Neural networks" is a misnomer based on a simplistic understanding of human neurons back in the 60s or 70s as Andrew Ng, one of the pioneers in the field, notes. You're suggesting that the human brain is not a neural network? No, read what I said carefully. The machine neural networks DO NOT work ...

I'm actually working in AI right now so let me put it this way: AI right now is based pretty much on linear algebra. Do you remember y=mx+b and matrices from school? If so, you know enough to calculate a simple neural network. Everything else is built on top of this. There is no consciousness in thi...

People overblow the risks of sapient AI (which is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes if it even is possible) but understate many other real risks that are already present.

Read this.

Heraclitus. Pyrrho. Sextus Empiricus. Epictetus.

There are a lot of Tibetan Buddhist centres in Singapore. Singapore is not part of China, so the firewall doesn't really matter, unless 2ndchance is posting from China.

If you are on Facebook search for a page called "Singapore Tibetan Buddhism Events".

Mutsuk said on Vajracakra that Bonpos had a vow of vegetarianism IIRC.

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I'm getting caught up here after holiday travel. What's your end goal out of doing this? I think the bigger question to ask is if one wants to go this route at all. If your goal is to become a translator there are other ways to facilitate that, and translation i...

Monlam Tharchin wrote: ↑Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:19 pm Does the Namgyalma mantra begin with "om dhrum soha", "om bhrum soha", either or?

Tibetans pronounce Sanskrit Bhrum as /dhrum/

The Marxist argument for open borders and immigration... Social democracy, which is not even Marxism, cannot work without clearly defined borders, whether it's a municipiality or a nation-state Actually, it’s capitalism that wont be confined within borders and national identities. Rightly so. At tr...

What reason would the working class in America have to identify with e.g. the Bangladeshi or Honduran working class? Sympathizing with their plight, sure. But identifying with them is a completely different matter, not least to say supporting them at the expense of their own interests (by things suc...

What's your end goal out of doing this?

Unrestricted immigration is insane with technological unemployment.

This is not like the first industrial revolution -- back then, displaced farmers could easily find unskilled menial labour jobs in factories. Today, how many unskilled labourers can become AI engineers?

Ah. That explains the trip they made to China even within the first 49 days of his parinirvana. That is a different problem, one the community in the west will in time resolve. We already know that in China there is a Khenpo appointed to continue CHNN's lineage there. :thumbsup: I don't think so. T...

I went down this rabbit hole a while back. My own conclusion is that the "sutric" dhyanas as taught by e.g. Leigh Brasington, corresponds much more with the Sautrantika definition of the dhyanas as taught in Mahayana. However, there is dissensus even within Mahayana about how hard exactly the first ...

Tulzhug Lingpa, a.k.a. Duddul Rolpai Dorje, a well-known Terton of the mid-20th century and student of both H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, and Chatral Sangay Dorje, wrote a small book on the importance of avoiding alcohol for Buddhist practitioners -- The Youthful Armor for Those Who Wa...

Ngondro practice, refuge, bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, Mandala offerings, and Guru Yoga. One does not really need any other practices. Where would shamatha fit in? In Vajrayāna, sadhana recitation is śamatha. Here, specifically, after the dissolution of the refuge field, Vajrasattva, or taking empowerm...