Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tactic?

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Son of Buddha
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Re: Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tact

Post by Son of Buddha »

conebeckham wrote:Son of Buddha, there's plenty of books for Buddhist "beginners" that are affordable.....a search through any used book store, or on-line, say at Alibris, or even Amazon, reveals this.

In general, a beginner shouldn't be reading Zabmo Nangdon, or Guyhagarbha, or Yeshe Lama, anyway, in my opinion.
That's true....
But what do poor Buddhists who are not beginners do when they have permission to read Zabmo Nangdon, or Guyhagarbha, or Yeshe Lama, but they cannot afford them?

Are you going to pay the 300$ they need to read all those texts?
What happens when the latest and newly translated tantric texts come out?.........do they have to fork over another 300$ to advance in their dharmic practice?
Malcolm
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Re: Zabmo Nangdon to be published by Shambhala

Post by Malcolm »

Son of Buddha wrote: I wish All dharmic texts were free,that's what the Buddha wanted.
That is true only of sutra. It is completely not true of tantra.
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conebeckham
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Re: Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tact

Post by conebeckham »

Define "need."

And, while you're at it, please cite a scriptural source for Buddha's insistence that all Buddhist books be free. (Nevermind: you won't find one).

It is up to the individual to determine whether Dharma has value, and what that value may be. In our current Samsara, money is a primary measure of value, and is traded for other things one values.

At the time of Khyungpo Naljor, and Marpa, gold and textiles, among other things, were valued, and prospective students offered these things to teachers for the transmissions they received. Marpa actually had to return to Tibet to make money so he could go back to India for more teachings.

Although Buddha surely wished for the enlightenment of all sentient beings, I am certain he did not wish to equate the value of his dharma with "no cost."

Frankly, there are many who obtain a bunch of books, or obtain copies of material on-line, freely, via various means, and they value these materials about as much as they paid for them.

In the grand scheme of things, of course, one doesn't REALLY need books. But I think we all understand that.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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conebeckham
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Re: Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tact

Post by conebeckham »

Son of Buddha wrote:
conebeckham wrote:Son of Buddha, there's plenty of books for Buddhist "beginners" that are affordable.....a search through any used book store, or on-line, say at Alibris, or even Amazon, reveals this.

In general, a beginner shouldn't be reading Zabmo Nangdon, or Guyhagarbha, or Yeshe Lama, anyway, in my opinion.
That's true....
But what do poor Buddhists who are not beginners do when they have permission to read Zabmo Nangdon, or Guyhagarbha, or Yeshe Lama, but they cannot afford them?

Are you going to pay the 300$ they need to read all those texts?
What happens when the latest and newly translated tantric texts come out?.........do they have to fork over another 300$ to advance in their dharmic practice?
Poor Buddhists do their best to save money to obtain things they want, like anyone else. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don't have any other way to say it.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
DGA
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Re: Zabmo Nangdon to be published by Shambhala

Post by DGA »

Malcolm wrote:
The entire (reliable) translation of Longchenpa's commentary on Guhyagarbha is available for free on the internet. It is ludicrous therefore for anyone to restrict commentaries on it.
I'm interested in finding this one, but it seems my google skills aren't up to the task. If anyone could please point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you.
Malcolm
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Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: Zabmo Nangdon to be published by Shambhala

Post by Malcolm »

Jikan wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
The entire (reliable) translation of Longchenpa's commentary on Guhyagarbha is available for free on the internet. It is ludicrous therefore for anyone to restrict commentaries on it.
I'm interested in finding this one, but it seems my google skills aren't up to the task. If anyone could please point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you.
http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/guhyagarbhatantra.pdf
DGA
Former staff member
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Re: Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tact

Post by DGA »

Thank you, Malcolm.

:cheers:
DGA
Former staff member
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Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:04 pm

Re: Restricted Publications-An Effective or Ineffective Tact

Post by DGA »

conebeckham wrote:
Poor Buddhists do their best to save money to obtain things they want, like anyone else. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don't have any other way to say it.
I've been taught that it's actually good to make sacrifices for the sake of Dharma. I'm not exemplary in any respect, but there have been times I've skipped meals or done without certain things or worked extra hours so that I'd have gas money & time to attend teachings (for instance). I know for a fact there are practitioners who make much greater sacrifices than this.

I'm not suggesting it's virtuous to skip paying the power bill in order to give Shambhala Pubs all your money, however. I might change my position on this if their books were more consistently copyedited.
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