Dharma Wheel

Ok, yes, good advice. Japanese, I was saving that for my next life. Oh, why wait!

Jikan, thanks for the great links. PorkChop, do you mean Rory is "anti-Pure Land" because he isn't "Nembutsu only to the exclusion to all others", personally I don't believe in one exclusive practice, sometimes I chant Namo Adida Phat (my nearest neighbor, Vietnam, chants Nembuts...

I am willing to learn classical Chinese, I can already speak basic Mandarin, I know it isn't easy but I will make the effort. If I get to Nara anytime soon I can devote myself to this study. Yes, Rory, love the links btw.

Lao, and Thai.

Jesse, if you read this, no, being a layperson is not a "waste of time", but being a monastic as I have understood it makes it easier to practice Buddhism, and one can make more progress due to this. If you want to give alms to monks and bow to them to make more merit, great, it shows good...

In my native lanugage there are no full stops nor spaces between words, so an entire book could technically be "1 sentence". Sorry to the native English speaking westerners and the grammar Nazis, my apologies. There are other languages and cultures in the world, you can check on Wikipedia ...

If I take away the full stops it would be one sentence. My point is, not one sentence, not one word, not one thought can describe nor explain absolute truth. Because truth is whatever it is without the thinker, without the observer, the explainer, the describer or whatever. That was not meant to des...

Rory, I'm totally with you on this, that's why I'm primarily interested in the 6 schools of Nara Buddhism now. True, the sectarianism doesn't appear to have started until these Tendai offshoots came about and said "just this practice" or whatever.

Oh, so many informed and interesting responses! Rory, yes, very helpful, and just curious, "willing to ordain", so in the Mahayana tradition a temple can refuse you?

So in Mahayana Buddhism, celibacy is optional for monastics? Or not seen as an integral part of becoming a monk? What precepts to most Mahayana monks keep, or is there something completely different in the Mahayana tradition from Theravada?

So true, PorkChop, this is why I like Obaku, they are not so "sectarian" like other Japanese sects can sometimes be. They had no problem combining Zazen with Nembutsu(or just continuing the same practice from China, where both are practiced toghether and pretty much always were), this is w...

Myoho-Nameless, agreed! I don't know why some people insist on chanting in Japanese, and as you pointed out, the Japanese pronunciation nowadays might be very different from hundreds of years ago, like any language. Why don't most Nichiren groups take this approach? SGI claims to be modern-day refor...

Myoho-Nameless, agreed! I don't know why some people insist on chanting in Japanese, and as you pointed out, the Japanese pronunciation nowadays might be very different from hundreds of years ago, like any language. Why don't most Nichiren groups take this approach? SGI claims to be modern-day refor...

Yes, excellent replies. But what about actual practice, like meditation, etc. Any practitioners out there who can teach me? Is it so easy to ordain at a temple such as Todai-ji or Toshodai-ji, or one of the other great temples of Nara? Any experiences?

Love him. Because science is science, whether you like it or not or believe in it or not.

Absolute truth just is. It cannot be described. Words can never explain, nor be, absolute truth. Because they are never the things they describe. Words are an interpretation of truth, or perhaps an attempt to understand it, but are always the "truth" of the one saying the words, reality as...

What is the process for ordination in the Mahayana tradition? I live in a Theravada country and grew up in the Theravada tradition, where ordination as a monk is very straightforward, just go to the monastery, tell the abbot you want to ordain, and ordain. Is it quite so easy in Mahayana? If I went ...

So funny too, when you ask them "when is the study meeting where we study the Lotus Sutra and the writings of Nichiren?" Blank stares, confused looks. Then a leader answers: "oh, reading Sensei's books are better since they explain the real meanings that we cannot understand." Hm...

Yes, many interesting and insightful responses. Some Nichiren practitioners seem to say that it's the practice that counts, not the group or organization that one belongs to (at least on Internet forums). Yet I personally know followers of (2 groups in particular that I won't name but you can guess-...

Very interesting replies, true as Rory pointed out it is basically the same in doctrine with Rinzai, in Japan they are under the same organization, but their history is quite fascinating and different.