Dharma Wheel

I'm not trying to get at whether the self exists or not, rather the distilled essence of what differentiates right thought from wrong thought. Will it lead to suffering, sooner or later. Right view-->right intention-->right speech-->right action Your might find this discussion on view by Alexander ...

Not sure how useful this is, but in the concluding chapter, Final Instructions, of the Platform Sutra, there are some interesting instructions by Huineng on teaching. I will now teach you how to explain the Dharma without deviating from the tradition of our school. “First bring up the three classes ...

Crazywisdom wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 14, 2018 10:17 pm

This is good. Thank you.

Is it possible to maximize one’s individual utility but not at the expense of others? Good question. In doing a little background research when looking into this D stuff, I came across the notion of Ethical egoism , defined as, "the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is i...

I hope, with all my heart, that it is just Chinese-sponsored gossip. Very likely just rumors. A couple of those articles are dated back in early April. If they were true, I think it would have come out by now. However, HHDL is in his 80's, and we should expect to hear about natural decline. I can o...

As far as the Shambhala experiment goes, it probably has failed. But if the Rajneesh/Osho mess back in the day is any indication, Shambhala will reinvent itself and continue to survive in some form. Whether one considers that a success of the Dharma is another matter. As far as Dharma in general, on...

I always heard it was "someone who knows more and more about less and less until they finally know everything there is to know about nothing. " :tongue: Wow. Haven't heard that one in a long time. Actually, that's pretty good from a Buddhist perspective--thoroughly knowing one's empty nature and su...

For those interested, here is the link to the authors' webpage on D: http://www.darkfactor.org/
And here is the link to where you can request a preprint of the paper: https://www.cognition.uni-landau.de/hilbig/get.php?p=86

Queequeg wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 12, 2018 8:53 pm

Narcissism-Psychopathy-Machiavellianism...

Metta, Bodhicitta, Upaya?

I like that!

The thing I've been focusing on in the study is how the researchers have defined the d-factor, at least as presented in the articles, and on the online test page. An informal, succinct version from one of the articles that seems to capture the essence is, "an underlying tendency to put oneself first...

If the real problem is who gets to be Karmapa, then perhaps a "thinking- out-of-the-box" solution may be to retire the institution itself - just as the Dalai Lama has considered ending his role. Who knows? Another interesting alternative would be to follow the approach of the Sakhya Trizin position...

Really it comes down to a lack of empathy, or an inability to feel it, apparently. I think there may be something different going on here. Just found another recent article on the subject: https://www.livescience.com/63731-personality-test-dark-core-d-factor.html. Narcissists, psychopaths and sadis...

Heavy. Yeah, I thought so too. I've never heard of the dark triad before, but looking it up, there's a lot of stuff out there on it. https://illimitableman.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/the-dark-triad.png?w=356&h=339 The takeaway for me was this quote, As the new research reveals, the common denomina...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926110841.htm An extended excerpt: Egoism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, spitefulness, and others are among the traits that stand for the malevolent dark sides of human personality. As results from a recently published German-Dani...

Just speculation on my part, but given the recent health concerns of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley, there may have been some incentive to make this kind of meeting happen. (As far as I know, there are no current health concerns for either Karmapa.) For example, very likely, one will pass before the other. A...

...In general, his sympathies seem to lie with Himalayan traditions and he seems to exhibit similar biases one tends to see coming from those traditions. ... That'a shame. It is true that Lopez's background is toward the Tibetan tradition (Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan ...

Queequeg wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 11, 2018 1:15 am

Lopez has a bias against E. Asian Buddhism, imho. ...

Interesting. Maybe for another topic, but you can briefly say how the bias manifests?

I would like to offer a somewhat nontraditional answer, given that you are looking for a general background/overview. Get yourself a good Buddhist encyclopedia or two. Every Buddhist should probably have at least one on their shelves for reference. Encyclopedias are good places to start when learnin...

Ajahn Chah started out practicing Zen, as did his disciple Ajahn Sumedho... Do you have a source for that? I don't think Ajahn Chah ever practiced outside Thailand, and Zen lineages are generally not represented there. Can't speak to Ajahn Chah and Zen, but can speak regarding Ajahn Sumedho. My mem...