Dharma Wheel

.......But, at a certain point, all the deities, prayers, oaths, mantras, bells, drums, flags, etc. result in a great big unnecessary complication. Sure, these types of things get us outside of ourselves and foster more virtuous attitudes, and there's nothing wrong with that, but they can also dete...

I don't think there is anything to forgive. It's a sensible question. And this is a very interesting position to take, and not uncommon among those who are more inclined to follow the Theravada traditions. Strictly speaking, that quote is accurate. One cannot overcome ignorance through offerings and...

7=5=7 is only in base 10.
If you write haiku in base 3 it's 12-21-12:

A day on Mars will stretch the five second food rule,
The blooming of a garden rose is missed by the snail who blinks at the very same time,
Haiku’s meter thus warped when composed in base three.

try cleaning them with tabasco sauce or another reddish hot sauce. This will not hurt the utensils (at least not any more than eating thai food would). also try toiomato juice, ketchup. etc. these work great on copper. For silver, use toothpaste (paste, not gel).

Upon becoming enlightened what stops ignorance from re-asserting itself? If that is not possible then does that make enlightenment permanent? When you truly know or experience something, you don't stop knowing it or return to a time when that experience did not occur. Ignorance is not the result, i...

Don't confuse "characteristics' with "defining characteristics". Since mind is infinite, it has no de fining characteristics. Only " in fining " characteristics. The nature of mind, it's characteristics (space & luminosity) are infinite, not finite. (Define: de= "of" fine= "end" in other words, the...

Don't confuse "characteristics' with "defining characteristics". Since mind is infinite, it has no de fining characteristics. Only " in fining " characteristics. The nature of mind, it's characteristics (space & luminosity) are infinite, not finite. (Define: de= "of" fine= "end" in other words, the ...

Namdrol wrote:

PadmaVonSamba wrote: isn't the lack of characteristics a characteristic?

Is a "lack of money" money?

Yes...it's money that you don't have!
...and sometimes it can be a huge amount.

I think you should do what you feel drawn to do, and know your own mind. If you are a kagyu and you want to do an academic or scholarly study comparing the various traditions, this will probably benefit you. My tradition is kagyu, but I have learned a lot studying all kinds of traditions. Also, what...

One cannot cognize that which lacks characteristics. It's impossible. isn't the lack of characteristics a characteristic? I mean, if you say, "that which lacks characteristics" then you are creating a category. Everything has characteristics. If it doesn't have characteristics, or qualities, then t...

I started thinking about this more, because, according to my spouse, when I eat garlic, even a small amount, I reek of it. Especially if it is raw. So, I got to thinking about how the cause-and -effect things sometimes gets a little distorted. And it occurred to me that since a Buddha probably does ...

The problem with this question, and it's actually a good question, is that it isolates particular events such as the Holocaust, addressing them as if they suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, an also lumps all the victims together as having something more in common than the fact that they were victims...

Hooray for Bankai! He always knew what to say.

And, as explained above, I find cultivating any practice regarding the ceremonial dissipation of materials to be counterproductive, counterintuitive and simply superfluous. Does "materials" include the human brain? Why just the human brain? generally, it's humans who think about dharma. My point wa...

Epistemes wrote: And, as explained above, I find cultivating any practice regarding the ceremonial dissipation of materials to be counterproductive, counterintuitive and simply superfluous.

Does "materials" include the human brain?

is it a musical? I can't stand musicals.

Since the value of various objects is imputed by the mind to begin with, then there is a sense of follow-through with their disposal. For example, Some people receive stuff in the mail from Monasteries or Dharma centers and they have images of Buddhas and teachers printed on them. So, we regard thes...

Generally, people burn them. I dissolve printed materials in water. For me, this is like dissolving a visualization (as in vajrayana). I also do this with the type of paper documents that most people shred. Sometimes the paper pulp can be used in gardening. Worms like to eat paper. This way you can ...

I read something recently, I think it was in a book about the wandering Pureland monk Ippen, and it was talking about the distance (from here) to Amitabha's Pure Realm, and of course, it's some ridiculously large Buddhist number. But the explanation was that this number isn't really about physical d...

Keep in mind that linear time is a product of the human imagination. Scientists can calculate that the universe is so many billions of years old. But what is a year? It is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun one time. So, before there was the Earth, no such measurement could exist. The ...