Dharma Wheel

Oddly, HHDL talked about this with Alexander Berzin. I came across it while looking for something else.

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/ar ... on_04.html

I don't agree that dharma is restricted to formal practice periods, or that people who live in monasteries necessarily even practice the dharma at all. I think it is more about the individual than the circumstances. So, how to live one's life? Pursuing a career means 40-60 hour work weeks with littl...

We all know the hundredth monkey has been discredited right?

"It is a metaphor of my own making, based . . . on very slim evidence and a great deal of hearsay."

--Lyall Watson

http://www.fastcompany.com/36873/monkey-see-monkey-do

http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~ronald/HMP.htm

It will be released in English in September as the Hidden Life of Trees: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate/dp/1771642483/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51A5weZOGhL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR112%2C160_&refRID=1MN21ZH95BC6FPAFBKHA A German forester observed and i...

This sounds like naive realism, which has largely been debunked. What is a sound, conventionally? The vibration of particles in a medium, most commonly, air particles. So what is present is the vibration, not the sound. The sound is created once the vibration interacts with a specific organ --- such...

In Shabkar's Flight of the Garuda Song 10, he says that the whole external universe is mind. How does this also not fall into the Vedanta trap? Is it because of the multiplicity and interdependence of all minds? So appearances are outside the mind? No. There is just mind/experiences. From what did y...

I don't think that the problem of dualities is solved by multiplying dualities--- splitting the two truths, for example. I would further argue that allowing dualities to go unchecked in "everyday matters" simply reinforces habitual tendencies that lead to suffering. I mean, should be leave...

I think it cuts much deeper than that. You all are proposing a duality, but instead of creation/created, or subject/object, it is sentient/insentient. But simply looking at how other dualities are handled shows that proposing dualities are always going to be problematic. The same issue arises in Gre...

If I've learned anything from Madhyamaka, it's that the notion of a line, border, or separation is based on a faulty concepts. Which side of that dividing line is he going to place sunflowers? sensitive plants? viruses? coral polyps? butterflies as adults or as pupae - or does he think a butterfly c...

Peter Harvey in his Introduction to Buddhist Ethics marshals the evidence as to plants. Most of his evidence comes from the Vinaya and a commentary on it. Interestingly, they refer to plants as "one facultied" beings (ekindriya jīva)--- possessing only the sense of touch. Now one faculty i...

If we reduce Buddhanture to impermanence, or more broadly, emptiness, I think that is not accurate. For example, this completely ignores the Third Turning sutras, and simply promotes the Second Turning as supreme. Personally, I think that what Dogen is referring when he says all things are Buddhanat...

Chinul and Zongmi are probably best known for the "sudden enlightenment, gradual cultivation" model in Zen. This is fairly well established in both source texts and academic sources, so I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction here. You can read more about it in Buswell's Selected Works of C...

Well, there are 8 cold hells you know.

dzogchungpa wrote:

Adamantine wrote:Now I wonder when, if ever, Malcolm might admit he is wrong?

A cold day in hell.

Tell that to Zongmi, Chinul, and Sheng Yen for starters.

Astus wrote:"For the Chan school, understanding ... is instantaneous, now, not a matter of time!"
(Record of Linji, p 13, tr Sasaki)

To put back stages into Chan is turning it into general Mahayana.

I've actually come from a reverse trajectory, from Theravada, to Zen, to Vajrayana. Personally, I don't think Theravada is a good path for householders. The tradition is based on monastics, and lay people were primarily there to support the monastics. When Buddhism spread to China, for example, the ...

Based on what I've seen, in myself and others, I would say that few people practice, and those that do seldom follow the instructions. I think this has to do with the relatively low value we often place on the dharma. For many, it is more of a hobby or a self-improvement project, a way to pass the t...

Thanks for the quotes, everyone.

So I was reading "Rainbow Body and Resurrection" by Father Tiso and came across a passage in which he says that based on his sources, the rainbow body is simply the dissolving the appearance of the body due to the strength of the realization of the yogi--- it is not actually the dissolving...

I think there's an interesting dialogue in Buddhism about views. All views are limited, but I don't think that means all views are equal. In Theravada, there is a teaching called transcendental dependent arising. It means that while nirvana is uncreated, its realization is dependent on the right con...

Oooh, nice one!

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in this case, a sentient being is a wet shitstick, so it works out.