Dharma Wheel

Queequeg wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:28 pm A traveler asks the gas station attendant, "Where does this road go?"
Attendant replies, "The road don't go nowhere. Where do you want to go?"

Love it. I never used to understand ko-ans like this...

I generally find thought exercises quickly become a trap. Which is not to say I'd suggest they are inappropriate, since such efforts move towards clarity, but that the trouble comes with attempts to refine and redefine to be a better understanding- it turns into more grasping at views. The goal see...

Something often glossed over in these conversations is that some lama's are ACTUALLY pure. So sometimes it is a matter of seeing accurately. And so, in those cases, seeing fault and criticizing actually is just the dirt on your own glasses. Having a lama that’s without fault is a true gift because ...

I apologize for the flood of material from me at the moment. I'm experiencing some cognitive dissonance from VajraSattva retreat, and I am convinced I have to write everything down that I've absorbed over the last 10 years :ugeek: If you kind folks will humour an old fool, I was wondering—has anyone...

My guru does 1 long mantra for every 2 prostrations. If you are frustrated by lack of progress, there are creative ways to add visualizations for the full purifying effect to ripen sooner. I'm in retreat on Vajrasattva now, and I would say, don't get carried away thinking it's not enough. The job of...

Do you know many people that have had insight into the dependently originated nature of phenomena because they have died of cancer(for example)? So where is the guarantee (where is your proof) that a long and tortuous death is better (or more beneficial) than a quick one by one's-own-hand? We have ...

Funnily enough, I'm in the midst of a solitary VajraSattva signs retreat organized by my refuge preceptor, and I began thinking about how I would personally condense the message of the Lotus Sutra's exhortation in my own words/language. Here's what I came up with, so that anyone interested in pickin...

I would say that it should be less about lifting the lama up and more about bringing purity to your mind. Shaun :namaste: Depends on how you look, too. Why can't you imagine both happening simultaneously? My life tells me that there is equal blessing for teacher and students if samaya is maintained...

Could you (or anybody) please provide only one source? I mean, it is better to have a clear source and context. Otherwise one will be discussing about apples and the other one answers about oranges. My personal opinion is that this relates to the way we plant seeds during the day, and karma ripens ...

In case you're interested, there was a definite step I just discerned preceding the development of greater confidence in the Pure Land path. That is, I recalled an instruction from my teacher, which I remember as: "look for the intention to act". The whole purpose of my effort, as I see it now, was ...

Thus suiciders would have less chances and time to learn the deeper impact lessons during life that could lead to liberation, thus more like getting stuck in the loop of life and death, than compared to cancer or other possible death outside of one's own direct control. Do you know many people that...

LastLegend wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 6:37 am Perfect original wisdom allows to have views without issue?

Thanks for the nudge. I would say, the answer is Eventually. This is because views are given the proper context in which to inter-operate as part of a tangible harmony, rather than conflict with each other, as they normally do.

Oh, sure, I see what you mean now. But that is really getting an insight into our own ignorance, and in that case I totally agree with you. :twothumbsup: I'm glad! I'm doing my best with the equipment I've got, we could say. My framework is Tibetan rather than Japanese because that's the teacher I ...

I had thought that as karma means 'intentional action', then the doctrine of karma would require free will. In other words, if our actions were determined by factors we have no control over, then we couldn't be regarded as responsible for them. So in my view, I think Buddhist teachings do presume m...

The key point about Pureland is 'reliance on the vow of Amida Buddha' rather than 'taking charge' or 'being in control'. It's more creating a space or a clearing to enable the 'power of the Vow' to do its work in us. From a paper on How is Shinjin to be realised? : The point of receiving Amida's gr...

How do you explain individual me versus you? Obviously even you is no self and I is no self, yet you is not me. :mrgreen: Knowing this, put the focus on other beings, & the knot of suffering will be cut. Not really cut off but karma is clearly understood? Yes. To understand something is to possess ...

Let old age & illness naturally take it course, in order to learn the lesson about death and impermanence sufferings be known in full, in order to not repeat the horribly futile loops of samaric reincarnations of life and death again and again. Experiencing suffering per se does not necessarily tea...

I've recently started reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra, after reading this as a recommendation on Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book. Reading, reciting or hearing it recited can clear away karma even from committing the Five Great Offences. I'm curious about the part where the Buddha talks abo...

The teachings in the Dhammapada use conventional terminology in order to instruct on behavior. The term “self” is used precisely because that is what is experienced. Sakyamuni Buddha ate food because of the demands of the aggregate human body. Are you saying that the aggregate human body is the “se...

Just because it won't lead to enlightenment is no reason not to practice it. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I practice in the Tibetan tradition, but I hope you'll indulge me, because the above is the crucial lesson I've been learning. I would say that I have been throwing the baby out...