Search found 288 matches

by cyril
Mon Feb 12, 2024 4:26 pm
Forum: Nyingma
Topic: Question about Siddhis/Research/Spreading the Dharma
Replies: 53
Views: 2632

Re: Question about Siddhis/Research/Spreading the Dharma

Nevertheless, there are in the buddhist tradition stories of how certain individuals were at least in part converted because they witnessed miraculous events. For example, Shiwa Aui witnessed Milarepa performing the miracle of crossing the river without a boat. And after that Shiwa Aui refused to c...
by cyril
Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:31 am
Forum: Nyingma
Topic: Question about Siddhis/Research/Spreading the Dharma
Replies: 53
Views: 2632

Re: Question about Siddhis/Research/Spreading the Dharma

If there are practitioners with extraordinary abilities or siddhis, why not be more open about them? If there were clearer, well documented cases of these capacities then it might serve to turn people toward Dharma and to make people respect the knowledge contained within the teachings. I understan...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 7:29 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

I think you’re flogging a very dead horse at this point. Most others on this thread do not find this sort of anecdotal research compelling. Yes, I realize that, this is why I haven't participated in the discussion for a while. I guess it would be a good idea to put the whole thread to rest to save ...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 4:43 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Yes, evidence is superior. But: the starting point in this discussion was whether this was something that could be proven through evidence at all. I and others maintained it could not. So you either listen to experts or you have no conclusive beliefs either way on the issue. Well, it is either that...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 4:12 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Testimony of reliable experts is accepted as pramana in the Buddhadharma. So we might accept testimony of Padmasambhava but not, say, of a polish clairvoyant I was not comparing Padmasambhava with a Polish clairvoyant. The parallel was between Padmasambhava's teachings and some empirical evidence f...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 2:41 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

I’m already very familiar with Padmasambhava’s Bardo teachings. They concern what supposedly happens. What I want to know then, is how . “How” is the science. That is entirely my point. If you dismiss reincarnation cases because we don't know how reincarnation happens, you should also dismiss teach...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 2:27 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Actually, momentariness is not a thing to which ‘scientific proof’ is applicable. It’s like, you can’t scientifically prove air. You can describe what air is scientifically, you can prove what gasses air contains, but you can’t “prove” things like air, or momentariness (or anything that ends in -ne...
by cyril
Sat Feb 03, 2024 2:04 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

I think a the conundrum of momentariness is easy to resolve, actually. The problem comes from regarding a beginning and ending of fixed moments, as though they are frames on a strip of movie film, with defined parameters. But arising and falling moments are really more like waves in a fast moving s...
by cyril
Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:39 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

On a technical note: It’s not a continuous, unchanging awareness. It’s the continuous arising of spontaneously moments of awarenesses, each one caused by the previous one. It's kind of ironic that each and every objection you raised in regards to reincarnation can equally apply to the theory of cit...
by cyril
Wed Jan 03, 2024 8:00 pm
Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
Topic: Serkyem moving
Replies: 16
Views: 1227

Re: Serkyem moving

Heyho, Im a bit spooked so I share this with you. Yesterday I poured hot tea in my serkyem and it started to physically move over the table (like 20cm distance), I pushed it back to its place, but it moved again across the table. It happened like this about 4 times. The table is out of marble. I su...
by cyril
Thu Dec 14, 2023 7:40 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Someone who supports the ‘continuous self’ position could easily point to Stevenson’s research as proof of their view of a continuous self. Sure, that is a posibility. As I mentioned, I for one, could not find anything in Stevenson's work to suggest a continuous self that is eternal and unchangeabl...
by cyril
Wed Dec 13, 2023 6:54 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

When the Master had ended this discourse of Vessantara, with its thousand stanzas, he identified the Birth: “At that time, Devadatta was Jujaka, the lady Cinca was Amittatapani, Channa was Cetaputta, Sariputta was the ascetic Accuta, Anuruddha was Sakka, King Suddhodana was King Sanjaya, Mahamaya w...
by cyril
Wed Dec 13, 2023 6:46 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

My point is to address the question if anything is even being considered as a continuous part of the same being occurring on a subsequent lifetime, rather than the conditions of a being in one lifetime merely creating the conditions for another, different being to occur in a subsequent lifetime. Th...
by cyril
Tue Dec 12, 2023 7:25 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Where Stevendon’s theory doesn’t seem to ‘follow the Buddhist model’ is that, in Buddhism, there is no ‘self’ that reincarnates, and Stevenson’s theory seems to suggest that there is. So, when we say conventionally that Mr. Fred died from a bullet in the head, and a child who has a birthmark at the...
by cyril
Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:08 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

The Buddha was very explicit that we cannot and should not try to understand the specific workings of Karma, because it is sufficiently complex that it would simply drive us mad. (Acintita Sutta, and I think a few others.) So, if we're trying to create tests that demonstrate reincarnation through t...
by cyril
Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:03 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Well in the Pali Canon which I consider authoratative the idea you describe above about the last thought is not given precedence by the Buddha as being the prime cause for determining the future rebirth, rather it is the accumulated action over the lifetime as described in the below sutta. Buddha's...
by cyril
Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:26 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Who? And what was the test that Stevenson did that they replicated? The methodology was esentially the same as Stevenson's but each resercher attempted to address what he/ she perceived a weakness in investigation. The fact that there is critical investigation is good. But specifically, replicating...
by cyril
Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:13 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

That’s what’s missing from the what is asserted above. Where is the replicable experiment? Until we have that, it’s not science, it’s interesting anecdotes. Interesting anecdotes play a role in formulation of hypotheses but that are, of themselves, proof of nothing. Researchers other than Stevenson...
by cyril
Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:00 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

Suppose some type of test is designed which prove via empirical data, Stevenson’s assumptions to be accurate. That’s what’s missing from the what is asserted above. Where is the replicable experiment? Until we have that, it’s not science, it’s interesting anecdotes. Interesting anecdotes play a rol...
by cyril
Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:57 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model
Replies: 230
Views: 13676

Re: Reincarnation cases not following the Buddhist model

But that’s not what I’m saying. Rather, (using the previous example) that if one says that something remarkable or unusual such a birthmark is the result of an event in a previous life, then one must likewise demonstrate why something which is not remarkable or unusual, such as having a certain col...

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