Dharma Wheel

Thanks for sharing that, Nosta. Like you, I like to visualise my counting instead of merely using numbers. I am predominantly a visual learner and thinker. I also try to practise another method taught by Ven Yin Guang once a day, in the morning as he suggested. Literally translated from Chinese it c...

Interestingly, the colour of Maudgalyāyana's sarira is dark brown (bottom), while Śāriputra's is light grey (top):

Recently I have been doing a twist of the "count to ten" recitation method - instead of simply counting from one to ten, I contemplate the layers of a stupa, one by one forming from the ground up (see my avatar pic). As there are five layers in each stupa (representing earth, water, fire, air and em...

i suspect it would be modern influence too. he chants the dharani in Sanskrit, not in traditional chinese pronunciation, and that is very unsual in Taiwan..maybe Tibetan buddhism's influence to Taiwan more and more stronger, so some small groups would adapt Sanskrit pronunciation and Mudra from Tib...

TED Talk by Matt Killingsworth: Want to be happier? Stay in the moment

I'll second that - yes, it is the Heart Sutra. Is that handwritten and hand-drawn on a leaf? Looks like it is stuck to a white piece of paper - is it framed for hanging? I hope it is not made into a bookmark, as that might cause improper placement of and disrespect to the sutra. It seems to be from ...

From what I have learned in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, there are many mantra and dharani that are in sutra. I understand that the use of them does not require transmission by a specific kind of teacher. This practice is still called esoteric, in the board sense that most human practitioners do ...

I have come across a number of incense offering mantra, but not this one.

This is interesting - I tried to read this "chapter" aloud on day to "read it in my ear" - (this goes back to an old post) - and after what seemed like 20 pages my mouth became exhausted. But I have to say reading it "puts it up" in the mind in a way that imply reading it doesn't. Yep, the Avatamsa...

Nice photos of the circular rainbow, thanks sinweiy!

And some emperors banned the practice of vajrayana among commoners, fearing their siddhi might become too powerful in revolts and civil unrests.

Ven Chin Kung once said, in the old days the numbers of accomplished Buddhist practitioners were in the order of: monks, nuns, male laities, female laities; and nowadays the order has completed reversed. A lay Chinese Buddhist who regularly goes to temples in Hong Kong recently told me that monks th...

This is interesting. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an environment that supports autonomy is crucial to keeping a person motivated when it comes to tasks that are not inherently interesting or enjoyable. To a lay person like myself, living with hundreds of precepts does not sound easy...

I mean is it reasonable to use faith to justify things when we don;t know the whole picture of a situation?.. . I reiterate my question - is anyone using faith to justify things? If so, who is using faith to justify what? Perhaps it would be worthwhile looking at your question on reasonableness. If...

I mean is it reasonable to use faith to justify things when we don;t know the whole picture of a situation?.. . I reiterate my question - is anyone using faith to justify things? If so, who is using faith to justify what? Perhaps it would be worthwhile looking at your question on reasonableness. If...

GarcherLancelot wrote:I am not bashing faith ,I am just wondering why is it being used as a reason to justify things? .. . .. .

Sorry I'm not quite following... Who or what is using faith as a reason to justify what?

What do you think of, just before you start reciting? Darn... I forgot to feed da cat... ...which gives rise to thoughts like... Who is da cat? ... What is it that I feed dat cat? ... What did I mean by I forgot? I obviously remember it now. But how could I remember something unless it was forgotte...

In a fixed period of recitation I would also repent and make the four Bodhisattva vows. After the recitation it is important to transfer the merit to Western Pure Land and explicitly solidify one's vow to be reborn there.

I highly recommend the teachings of Ven Yin Guang. I am not sure if there is a complete English translation of the whole text.

Below are some related information. What I understand is that issue lies in the way how those text are encoded in the PDF file. Apparently, there is no easy way to convert it back to the Unicode characters, and it may differs from one file to another. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=12...