Buddhism General

2DEEP 4U!

If you don't mind a longer read, Bhikkhu Bodhi has a great anthology called In the Buddha's Words.

He lays out the basics and gets way more in-depth than a "how to buddhism" book, and his notes make great resources.

For going straight into scripture, the Dhammapada is a great start, and in addition to that Bhikkhu Bodhi has translated nearly all of the Nikayas of the Pali canon.

Note though, that these are all Theravada Buddhist resources, as that's what I'm most familiar with.

I can try to answer any other questions you may have.

>MacBook

Admittedly, I'm actually a phone poster.

In the states?

I live in Georgia and the closest temple to me is an hour away. Nice place, though.

>follow a certain ideology just because of your race/nationality

I don't understand.

Yes. I went there as part of a project for one of my courses. It's mostly a Vietnamese immigrant community

Opinion on mahayana vs theravada?
My families mahayana chinese buddhist but I feel like aside from being part of a tradition, it's just inferior to theravada historically and philosophically.

I'm not going to say one sect is "better" than another, but I chose Theravada because the Pāli Canon is the oldest available source of the Dhamma, and because Mahayana and Vajrayana seem to have incorporated native traditions and religions into their teachings.

I think Mahayana is cooler but that's probably because it appeals to my Protestant sensibilities

So does Zen involve much worship to mystical deities or is this a cultural tradition that you could get by without.

>I want into Zen Buddhism
>But I don't want to pray to any deities
Why? What do you have against prayer?

It doesn't seem real. Like another spinoff. Theravada looks like the most solid practice but it can be difficult to get into by their rules at least.

I would say read original buddhism to get the basics down, then move on to stoics, its easier to understand that way. Then if you really want to pin it down neuroscience gives the scientific backing for the credibility of the concepts. after that i garuntee you will be 100% convinced theres no such thing as ego and self, your mind will be limitless, and you'll discover the cyborg in you.

how do I stop watching porn all day long?

It's called tribalism. Some people embrace it, you know. Usually as a way of keeping up self esteem through perceived shared traits.

This, actually. Although I went backwards from how you described. From the neuroscience to the Buddhism. It just turned out that they were already saying what I was finding.

People also overlook Taoism, which I find to be essentially saying again the same thing as Buddhism. Hey fuck you you don't even know what's going on here and you're not even real so just chill.

Why do you want to?
Now, why do you want that?
And, why do you want that?
And why do you want that?

And you think that if you quit looking at porn and accomplish all those things then you'll be happy?

Once you figure out what will actually make you happy, you'll realize that it's usually not porn. It could be, but the odds are bad.

>westerner

Herro there partneru-sama

What do you think of Maitreya/maitri/Maitria?
Do not you think it's a Messianic attachment?

Maitreya isn't a messiah in any sense that Gautama Buddha was. He's simply the next Buddha that will teach the Dhamma after it's been completely forgotten.

This won't be for a very long time, though.

>Theravada looks like the most solid practice but it can be difficult to get into by their rules at least.

What rules are you talking about? Lay followers only have five precepts that they are encouraged to abide by. The actual act of practicing what the Buddha taught can be difficult, but anything that's worth doing usually is.

The reason the Maitreya Buddha is venerated is because they are the Boddhisattva who will reach enlightenment in an age where Buddhism and its teachings have been almost entirely forgotten.
They will teach the dharma to the world in a time when the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama are forgotten or abandoned by almost all people.
So they're more of a predicted future restorer of the Buddhist faith / path to enlightenment rather than a messiah / saviour of the world figure at least from what I have learnt.
I'm not a Buddhist though so hopefully somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

>pretending to hold beliefs you don't truly embrace just to feel like you're part of something

I don't know, doesn't seem worth it.

anyone who have thoughts about others and themselves... are Buddhist in my opinion.

>They will teach the dharma to the world in a time when the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama are forgotten or abandoned by almost all people.

Other sects may have different views, but I believe Maitreya will only arrive after the Dhamma is completely forgotten by all. And it could be a long time after that before they do arrive.

This is why the Buddha urged people to follow as best as they could, because he knew and he taught that his teachings would dissipate over time.

It's called the Wheel of Dhamma, and you can think of it like a bicycle wheel. When Gautama Buddha first began teaching the Dhamma, it was as if he spun a wheel with his hand. The momentum of the wheel represents how well the teachings are preserved.

The Buddha taught that once he was gone, the Wheel of the Dhamma, much like a bicycle wheel, would begin to spin slower and slower, representing the teachings being diluted and forgotten.

Eventually the Wheel will stop completely, signalling the Dhamma's disappearance, and we have no idea how long it'll be gone before Maitreya sets it in motion again.

Aha if these thoughts are intentions to do harm?

>aha

*what

Exactly, lay people can expect to be nearer to enlightenment.
Zen just seems more accessible and easier. Rapid attainment of enlightenment is one of the motivating factors behind many Buddhist currents.

Late last year I found this website awakenetwork.org/forum/kfd-public/13497-the-progress-of-insight-by-kenneth-folk

Kenneth describes similar thing where your experience breaks down into smaller clustered experience. This happens in one of the stage of insight knowledge.

I am aware of few different vipassana techniques:
1. Dynamic vipassana, a constant pattern of arm movements, walking meditation, and any constant motion to maintain present moment. This technique was developed by a layman who became enlightened by it and taught his family members then taught public. It is from Thai. He passed away so it is less known. I have a PDF and chapter 5 talks about his technique and his background. I will let you know the title of pdf when I find it again on my tablet. I have so many pdfs, so I have to look for it.

2. The Path to Enlightenment II. Free pdf. You can google it. Author is enlightened Luang Por from Thai.

3. Mahasi technique

I have experimented all three towards the end of 2016 to see which one is most fitting for me.

Dynamic meditation is great except one hour of arm movement is tiring for me. When driving or on bus, he suggests that you can rub your fingers or whatever you like to do to maintain motion so you stay in present moment.

Mahasi is great except I can only mental note thoughts. I have hard time mental sensations especially when many sensations happen at the same time or when I get rapid successive sensations from one spot.

This year I decided that The Path to Enlightenment is the easiest for me. He explains clearly what is knowing consciousness, what is present moment, what is the condition that one is to be mindful of, and what is mindfulness. I call his technique passive vipassana.

He does say mental noting is not true insight technique, but a beginner may use it to get started; however, to practice insight one needs to abandon mental noting.

2015 I did 30 min breathing meditation per session, then switched to 1 hour per session since Oct 2015. 2 sessions per day.

2016 Did only anapanasati during sitting, but watched mind and practiced mindfulness when not sitting.

Towards the end of year, I tried dynamic meditation, anapanasati, and passive vipassana all in one sitting.

2017 Settled on doing 45 min anapanasati and 30 min passive vipassana per sitting, When not sitting, I do passive vipassana.

In Feb 2016, I experienced access concentration but I stopped that session in the middle of it because I thought it was weird to see colorful 3D chariot wheel hovering at my nose and turning. Research told me that I saw a nimitta. Never been able to see it again, so I thought I give it a break and just do anapanasati for 30 to 45 min for concentration without desire to see it again.

In Dec 2017, I experienced one time - light seeping through my eye lid though the room was dark. My eye lids were flickering rapidly. This happened while doing passive vipassana. It is described as an A&P experience.

Dzogchen is based on the idea found in some Sarma tantras as well, that all phenomena are included in potentiality (rtsal) of ye shes when the basis arises from the basis. When the potential of ye shes is misperceived, this is rnam shes and this in turn cases samsara. When it is correctly perceived (i.e. shes rab) as one's own state, this is the cause for nirvana.

what are buddhists thoughts on sam harris?

Mahayana is just polytheism with a thin layer of Buddhist paint.

>lay people can expect to be nearer to enlightenment.

How do you figure? Just because they don't follow rules?

>Zen just seems more accessible and easier. Rapid attainment of enlightenment is one of the motivating factors behind many Buddhist currents.

What makes you think that the path to liberation must be easy?

Thai Forest tradition is objectively the comfiest form of Buddhism.
amaravati.org/audio/a-shortcut-to-enlightenment/

Theravadin reporting in !

Still learning tho

>hipster

Only the Mahayanists are hipsters

I listen to him when he's talking about neuroscience, that's about it.

He takes the stereotypical western approach of, "Buddhism's cool if you take all the bullshit out", the bullshit being thousands of years worth of traditions and beliefs.

Definitely don't use him as a primary resource for Buddhism.

Anyone else partial to Sri Lankan Theravada traditions as opposed to Thai Forest?

Why are mahayanists hipsters?

>Stoic
>not Cynic
It's like you're not even trying, mate.

I'm still not a huge fan of Nagarjuna. Rinzai suits my tastes a bit more.

Good, but at that point why not just crawl the Pali Canon?

What's the size of the Sangha out there?Neat.

Both are valid, and Thereavada suffers from a doctrinal break from the core Pali Canon assertions, in practice, due to degeneration from social decline. Don't buy into the memes about either.

Theravada is only "closer" insomuch as they've been able to reconstruct their praxes. It's not illegitimate by any means, though at this point they're just as authentic as any other sect, which means it was adapted for time and place. Vajrayana may be an extension of Saivism and Bon, but the core Mahayana precepts CAN be found in the Pali Canon. Just takes the right eyes to see.

How so? They keep the same Sangha.

Depends on exact flavor and other factors but generally speaking, no.

>"Why do you run my little Phoenician, nothing bad has befallen you!"
I'd again argue that the Cynics are more in line with Buddhist concepts, if only marginally. Neither can hold a candle to the phenomenological work of Abhidhamma.

I think it's just a procession of the prime enlightened one for each era. Any person claiming to be Maitreya who isn't a literal giant is probably insane.

I mean, they're expected to follow the Eightfold Path.

One concept I've bouncing around in Mahayana is that if you venerate sincerely then when it comes time for Maitreya to manifest you'll be part of his retinue of arhats. This sort of has root in the Pali Canon as Buddha often describes his inner circle as having begun the path of Dharma under a previous Buddha many cycles ago.

^This.

Pic INFINITELY related.

Quite.

Depends on the Mahayana.

^^^THIS

>Sri Lankan Theravada
this is mahasi style ?

Because he doesn't like them and is still attached to denigrating other paths to lift up his own self worth.

I'm much more interested in what Vajrayana was doing on the island but that line appears mostly broken.

Thoughts on this wonderful man? Found his recordings after I started finding I had answers to my own existential questions and thought I was having some personal awakening. Felt incredible to hear some dead guy putting my own thoughts and feeling into words.

Good starter for westerner.

Spend some time with getting overall picture from him and then move down to real source.

>What's the size of the Sangha out there?

Not very large, they repurposed a house in a neighborhood, and I believe there's two or three resident monks, with probably more on the way as two visitors have already undergone temporary ordination.

Because most of the Westerners who claim to be Buddhist are member of some Mahayanist lineages, and they don't really follow the Dhamma of the Buddha but a false Dhamma.

As an example, every Westerners that claim that Buddhism isn't a religion or that Buddhism has no gods are Mahayanists,meanwhile, the Westerners aware of the nature of Buddhism(Abhidhamma) are Theravadins.

reminder that buddhism appeals only to old white women, their cucks and some self righteous chicks craving exotic dicks.

> theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/06/buddhist-monk-held-meth-pills-found-in-monastery-myanmar

Obviously, they allow anyone in (but then all religions allow ped-rapists into their churches or to be their preachers, reverends, etc.).

SN 45.8: The definition of the Noble Eightfold Path lists the first four jhanas under samma-samadhi/right concentration. Does this mean all four are necessary or only one? Let's be conservative and say that at least one of the first four jhanas is necessary.

MN 70: Arahants are either liberated in both ways or liberated through wisdom. Those liberated through wisdom do not dwell touching the formless spheres, thus, formless attainments are not an absolute necessity. SN 12.70 also mentions some liberated by wisdom as having not attained any formless spheres.

AN 9.44 lists the first jhana (or higher) as part of the definition of one liberated through wisdom.

MN 52, MN 64, AN 9.36 & AN 11.16 seem to indicate that any of the first four jhanas (or the dimension of the infinitude of space or the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness or the dimension of nothingness) can be sufficient for full release for some.

MN 14 seems to say that jhana is necessary to remove the fetter of sensuality (i.e. a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that).

Fullfilling the seven factors of awakening, including equanimity/uppekha, leads to liberation. One could perhaps subsume from that that the 4th jhana is necessary.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu writes: So it would seem that what jhāna means in the commentaries is something quite different from what it means in the Canon. Because of this difference we can say that the commentaries are right in viewing their type of jhāna as unnecessary for Awakening, but Awakening cannot occur without the attainment of jhāna in the canonical sense.

>relatively small instances of bad monks
>"they'll let anyone in"

Do you know how long it takes to become a fully fledged bhikkhu?

Bump

Thoughts on pic related?

Is it fiction? What exactly is it about?

If it's like Siddhartha, it's a good book, but not for learning about Buddhism.

Why is Harris such a great buddhist?

This is the third appearance of Joseph on Sam's podcast. This time, they go much further in their discussion of the nature of awakening.
In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris and Joseph Goldstein answer questions about the practice of mindfulness. They discuss negative emotions, the importance of ethics, the concept of enlightenment, and other topics.
samharris.org/podcast/item/why-meditate

Previous exchange between Sam and Joseph:
samharris.org/podcast/item/the-path-and-the-goal
samharris.org/podcast/item/questions-along-the-way-further-reflections-on-the-practice-of-meditation-w

>Goldstein
who could be behind this?

>Why is Harris such a great buddhist?

bupmk

captcha : grinder central

Last bump

>westerner
>race/nationality

People who take their Buddhism sort of seriously and engage some form of sangha, take the vows and are committed to their practice generally don't care much for secular Buddhism in all its forms. I've talked this over with fellow practitioners on several occasions and most people think it's harmless, while others believe it's a distortion of the teachings. Whether it's about MBCT helping your anxiety during daily life or Nu-Buddhism making you more "centered" while engaging the stock exchange or shopping, it's essentially a thin veneer helping you adjust to a "sick" culture. That doesn't mean that the only way to properly practice Buddhism is to drop out of society. Thousand year old texts tell us to seek peace in the middle of the clamor and noise, that when our practice fruitions, "bustling cities become mountain forests". But we're all too quick to carry some agenda with everything we do, trying to get something out of it. "Undivided awareness AND I got what I wanted at the mall". You have to devote yourself to the practice on its own terms sometimes. Otherwise it's on shaky ground. Buddhist practice really only gives you something in return, teaches you something substantial, when you give yourself to it without the expectation of improving your life.

I am personally a little less polarized about these new movements, I kinda like Buddhist programs in prison for instance. If you can't cure it, a little medicine is better than none at all. I can't stand Harris however. Something to do with his attitude.

>Buddhism isnt a religion
>it's a way of life man
>anyone can be a buddhist in their own little way

What is the Buddhist perspective on trying to improve the world and help others? Shouldn't they be primarily concerned with creating inner peace and disregarding the outer world, and therefor if trying to help others help them become good Buddhists instead of trying to fix their material conditions?

Sam isn't really a secular buddhist though, he's just interacted with buddhists a lot.

>that hipster zen fag who posts alan watts and shrinks away from rigor because 'dude kill the buddha' or w/e
mediocrity
>that hipster theravada fag who only smokes that real OG buddhism cause its totally organic, farm-to-table, fair trade, certified natural BUDDHISM (TM)
dilettante essentialist
>that hipster fag esotericist enthralled with obscure texts and provincial deities, always confronting you with how THIS IS A RELIGION (but like I'm totally going to interpret it within the western paradigm of religion)
dishonest wank
>that hipster fag secular rationalist whose going to wax poetic about the 'beauty of the cosmos' and how there is no god but like he grew up in a liberal town and is kinda insecure so hes going to tell you how buddhism is 'more of a philosophy' and meditation has been backed up by neuroscience
what are you doing lad

You all fucking suck I'll tell you that much

He was a great avatar of Lord Vishnu.

reminder that you are not already awakened and that once you are awakened, you know that you were not awakened before, not matter what mahayanists claims.

Depends on the sect. In basic terms:

Theravada: more about the self
Mahayana: more about helping others.

Incredibly crude reduction ofc.

Isn't vishnu still stuck in delusion? What's the traditional attitude to buddhism if there is one?

How the fuck do I get into lotus position?
My legs feel like they are going to snap

Culasada is losing it too. What is happening to the white buddhists, the tibetans and dependent origination ??
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2LYa1YCdZH8#t=1513

I thought this was evident from reading the Pāli canon.

You don't necessarily need to sit full lotus to meditate. But if you do want to, try half lotus first, just sit criss-cross and take the foot you can pull out and set it on top of the thigh of the other leg.

If you get this down, just do the same with the other foot and you'll be in full lotus.

>>How the fuck do I get into lotus position?
you train from cihldhood.
do it on your bed or just meditate in your bed

Dont resist the snap. Just accept broken legs and be mindful of them.

Bearing mind Sunyata teachings, who exactly is awakened?

Don't hurt yourself. Sit in Burmese, seiza, on a chair or in your bed. Do walking meditation. There are a million ways that don't involve irreparably damaging your knee ligaments.

My knees are fine.

But yeah, you either have the ability to sit in it naturally without fucking yourself up, or you train at it, preferably starting when you're young and flexible.

>implying not a manifestation of Lord Shiva
I mean, there are a fair number of Saivists venerated as emanations of Buddhaforms (Matsyendranath, et al.).

Stringing insults together in a somewhat coherent sentence is no substitute for an actual argument.

Eightfold path, as referenced earlier. It's going to be core no matter the sect.

>who exactly is awakened?
The Pali canon is pretty much clear on this. Those who have achieved total Liberation and Emancipation from the ten fetters.

Funny enough, schema in Sutta Pitaka substantiate the concept of "Pure Land", which is amusing given how often the hardline Theravadin converts rail against "Pure Land" as a Zoroastrian corruption.

Doesn't that implicate a concept of atman which the Buddha taught against?

Which one is the best?

Theravada>Mahayana>Zen>>>Vajrayana>>>>>>>>>Western Secular

yes, that is true.

The edgy one.

"Daichsun Tngri, also known as Dayisud Tngri and Dayičin Tngri, is a Mongolian war god "of a protective function" to whom captured enemies were sometimes sacrificed.One of the equestrian deities within the Mongolian pantheon of 99 tngri, Dayisun Tngri may appear as a mounted warrior. Some of his characteristics may be the result of the "syncretistic influence of Lamaism" (Tibetan Buddhism); the fifth Dalai Lama composed invocations to this deity"

mahayana. bodhisattva vow + non-duality best tools.

biuewnmp

bump

bemp

Don't post generals.

It sounds like a very mature and advanced religion/philosophy but at the same time all buddhist lands are the poorest shitholes in the world (maybe except Japan, if you consider it "buddhist")
How can this be

good texts to start with this tradition?

Agree.

hes very easy to get into.

How do I train at it?
My legs are mega thick, i leg press around 2k lbs. Will that prohibit me at all from doing it?