Dharma Wheel

This is such a big topic. There are so many of us. I remember how a friend told me of how he was singled out for abuse by his father as the family scape goat. He didn't become an alcoholic but rather chose heroin until sometime in his mid twenties. When he was working at the jail farm he looked up a...

the guide to the bodhisattvas way of life by santideva has some great verses to reflect upon. its a simple small step, but it will help. all the best :good: OK Keith! I'll see you and raise you one... The Wheel of Sharp Weapons by Shantarakshita (sure hope I spelled that right.) My best teacher sai...

Yes, me too. I had a repressive, abusive, autocratic Dad who I hated as a youngster enough to leave home at age 16 to start working and a life of my own. I did return to his house briefly about a year later but then got married and moved away across the country and saw him only one more time before ...

Here is an excerpt from the chapter "Bodhisattva Development into Buddhahood" from the Surangama Sutra on consuming the 5 pungent roots. :popcorn: ‘ ânanda, all beings live if they eat wholesome food and die if they take poison. In their search for Samàdhi, they should abstain from eating...

I have rarely seen such patience in real life as in this thread where lovely patience persists despite all efforts at refusal of logic and reason. Many bows in your direction, Amelius. Many would have lost it long ago in the face of such obstinance. If we exerted as much effort at trying to really u...

Actually, rather than this story coming from Ikkyu (~~ 14th century), the original comes from Kasmir in about the first century BCE. Probably a few dozen different teachers have been accredited with this story over the last two thousand years. Thanks for the info, Ven. Huifeng. I think that many st...

Funny how someone else's karmic happenstances.....catmic?
can make us laugh.
I hope it helps us laugh at ourselves a little more easily too!

The sarge, yes but I await the Inspector.

D

My best, and now departed teacher said that the wheel was where she looked whenever she encountered difficulty in her life.
First to see what lay at fault and then to see what the remedy was.
A friend loves the drama and has memorized it.

D

But that aside, at least a month and a half I do spend in wilderness currently every year, much of it engaged due to topography altitude....."

This view Ron?
It seems an exquisite place to go to practice tho arduous getting there.

D

So fire away....say it is wrong., I don't give a fig on that opinion. I can substantiate it very easily within the school from which it is derived, and that is a Buddhist school indeed. You know if it's right or a wrong practice for you, I'd guess and hope that no one judges you in that way. Reques...

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clic ... s?siteId=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was sent this message saying they need help with getting enough numbers of clicks to be effective.

D

This sort of thing seems to be extreme and far from the middle way at first glance and would likely be way over the top for most of us. Perhaps tho, it is suitable and a middle way for those whose energy is so powerful and disturbed that this is the only way to get some degree of control or quiescen...

http://www.kathokgonpa.ca/directions.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes, off the Alberni Hwy right, at Butterfly World, right at Grafton and down a ways to the left, across from the organic blueberry farm.

D

" I'd guess the involuntary nature of the confinement(for no good purpose) has a very real effect upon the result. " Yes, and imagine the change in perspective if one is so fortunate as to come into contact with a spiritual tradition that helps one in such dire circumstances. It is often s...

Good Morning Ron, Your quote at bottom is an apt one for this topic. That wilderness being like the advice given to sit on the edge of a well in order to stay awake while meditating and seems like the heightened awareness necessary to remain safe in prison. Recently I heard a discussion on the topic...

Yes Ron, I think it would be an aid to practice for sure if one knew they were 'stuck' in prison for a long time. The one person I knew who did time did say that learning to follow his breath gave him something that was not controlled by anyone else. What karma tho to be put inside - fortunate or un...

Hi, In the past, in the US many inmates found Islam while they were incarcerated. I know this to be a religion that employs violence when it is felt 'need be'. In more recent years, Thubten Chodron, http://www.thubtenchodron.org/PrisonDharma/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);retu...

Every teaching I have ever had by any lama always started with an introductory note on Bodhichitta . Sometimes this intro would be of great length, the higher the teacher, the longer this topic would be used as an intro to the teaching. Bodhicitta and dedication of merit. All in Mahayana that i have...

I see many names I recognize. I see that some of us keep the same tags as we move around the web. Nice. Have been missing the conversations on Buddhism in all its aspects lately as E-sangha is down for a long time now. I have been on ordinary forums here & there recently and have been sadly disa...

Hi Zoltan, An ingenious idea! But too many cons out there are there not? Who would believe you? How about a public challenge to others to participate in a group meditation venture of some sort as the kids do here at the high school for hunger where they hang out and fast together for a while to know...