Dharma Wheel

Firstly, nirodhasamapatti has nothing to do with nirvana. Nirvana is not the cessation of perception and feeling. Secondly, nirodhasamapatti has nothing to do with “commoners”, it is only available to non-returners and above. Nirvana, as conceived in Hinayāna, is indeed the utter cessation of one's...

The only difference between the two, as I already said, is whether it belongs to an ārya or not. In the case of an ārya, it leads to the elimination of afflictions, in the case of a commoner, it does not. Both are available only to aryas. However, neither of them are nirvana. And the point is that ...

Meeting people where they are with the real intention to help more closely resembles compassion than trying to proselytise and patronise. Whenever these factors are present there is self and self-interest that hinders. Setting an example through ones actions and deeds are the best way to convey the ...

The world can go on hating, envying, and criticizing America all they want, but if I had no choice but to choose one super power, this would be it. To all the countries buzzing to become the next superpower, I would say it won't happen in my lifetime. Can you imagine the equivalent of a single Prin...

I am interested in your opinion on whether we can purify bad karma coming our way and can we make worse good karma coming our way? Thanks You can never fully negate negative karma from ripening. Even a fully awakened Buddha will still have negative karma ripen. However, the ripening of this negativ...

Maitrī: (loving kindness) is the wish that all beings be well, happy and free from suffering. Karuṇā: (compassion) is the undertaking of this task that all beings are well, happy and free from suffering. And also the other two of the Four Immeasurables: Muditā: (appreciative joy) is the rejoicing i...

I am referring to the sutra quoted above that clearly shows the Buddha asserting that sometimes physical pain is not related to karma. Here is another sutra where the Buddha is asserting the same. "There are brahmans & contemplatives who hold this teaching, hold this view: 'Whatever a person experi...

...to believe that every individual that is negatively affected by a random and chaotic environmental event is their individual vipaka, is moving into the realm of fantasy and unfortunately misses the important point of how our ethically derived intentions impact and influence ourselves and others....

So by that line of thinking you would believe that 100,000's of deaths of beings from say a tidal wave (environmental) over a widespread area would be a karmic result (vipaka)? Of course, if you did not bear this karmic physical body and did not happen to be in an area near the tidal wave, you woul...

... Cause and effect will always apply unless you live in a vacuum with no past, present, and future. ... I will reject the the biological explanation. I understand that's all you can use if don't believe in seed and fruit/cause and effect. If you had an option, you would not choose to occupy a wom...

"Cause and effect is not the same as karma in Buddhism" TRC please clarify the difference. Sorry, I thought this was clear in my post above: There are different kinds of cause and effect; all of them are not karmically activated. Karma and its fruit specifically relates to intentions that have been...

... Cause and effect will always apply unless you live in a vacuum with no past, present, and future. ... I will reject the the biological explanation. I understand that's all you can use if don't believe in seed and fruit/cause and effect. If you had an option, you would not choose to occupy a wom...

Watch Me Disappear, Augie March

This is Ali Farka Touré, legendary Malian musician. Unfortunately no longer with us in this format.

I'm following just fine. Perhaps you’re not Johnny Dangerous. You are the one who brought the moral dimension into it, and the Hinayana strawman. The way I see it, and it seems boda too, is craving/clinging is not a moral dimension, but more about the human condition. However, it is not the conditi...

Malcolm wrote:

TRC wrote: Well my response would remain the same regardless of who made the claims.

I think we already established the Vajrayāna is not your cup of tea.

What has that got to do with it?

Whether or not all his interactions with people were positive is hardly the point. He was a realized person. He cannot be judged on the same standard as everyone else. Well I happen to think he can. And in fact I'm going to set a higher standard of judgment if he claimed to be realised. He, as far ...

Malcolm wrote:Whether or not all his interactions with people were positive is hardly the point. He was a realized person. He cannot be judged on the same standard as everyone else.

Well I happen to think he can. And in fact there should a higher standard of judgment if he claimed to be realised.

The perhaps the dissonance belongs to you, and not to them. Have you bothered to consider this? I have no dissonance about Trungpa, that's the point. I don't need to reconcile the paradoxes that exist which others seem to need to. He gave some profoundly deep teachings, which had good results in ce...

People do a lot of things for reasons other than teaching, and with no methodology whatsoever. Yes this is the point that people get confused about. Because they can’t reconcile the paradox of Trungpa’s more profound teachings with his obvious fallibility and (self-) destructive behaviour, they pre...