Search found 506 matches
- Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:12 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: What is supposed to be kept secret? What isn't?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1065
Re: What is supposed to be kept secret? What isn't?
Below are examples of books that made me consider starting a YouTube channel. When I see these books, I imagine that there are people who would benefit from learning about them in the form of fair use video essays and book reviews. If it's okay for people to write books about these topics, I would i...
- Thu Jan 25, 2024 2:04 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: What is supposed to be kept secret? What isn't?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1065
What is supposed to be kept secret? What isn't?
Vajrayana is also called secret mantra. Some things are supposed to be kept secret, I think. But I can go on Amazon and see so many books about this "secret" tradition. I find the books interesting, and sometimes I think about making a YouTube channel dedicated to them. But before I do tha...
- Sat Dec 16, 2023 5:28 pm
- Forum: Help Required
- Topic: Enlightenment as soon as possible
- Replies: 9
- Views: 419
Re: Enlightenment as soon as possible
I think the fastest path for you depends on your unique qualities. Dzogchen is a faster path on paper, but Dzogchen didn't work for Milarepa, so his Dzogchen teacher told him to leave and study with Marpa. Then Marpa gave him the longest ngondro of all time, followed by other things that weren't Dzo...
- Thu Nov 02, 2023 8:52 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: How should a Tibetan Buddhist lay person view sensual pleasures?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1664
Re: How should a Tibetan Buddhist lay person view sensual pleasures?
I appreciate everyone's answers. I'm learning that I need to be radically honest with myself and be mindful of whether I'm engaging in sense pleasures out of craving & attachment, or as a form of sincere Buddhist practice.
- Tue Oct 31, 2023 8:41 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: How should a Tibetan Buddhist lay person view sensual pleasures?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1664
How should a Tibetan Buddhist lay person view sensual pleasures?
My understanding of what sets tantra and dzogchen apart from the personal liberation teachings is that instead of abandoning sensual pleasures, we can use them on the path to become liberated faster. But the fact that we can use delicious food, sex, etc. for spiritual practice doesn't mean it's okay...
- Sun Jul 30, 2023 5:24 am
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Is it good to have a bit of trauma to keep you motivated in practice?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1037
Re: Is it good to have a bit of trauma to keep you motivated in practice?
Thank you for the answers, everyone.
- Fri Jul 28, 2023 7:18 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: US monk awarded Gelug Geshe degree
- Replies: 3
- Views: 567
Re: US monk awarded Gelug Geshe degree
I rejoice in the merit of everyone who made this accomplishment possible.
- Tue Jul 25, 2023 4:45 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Is it good to have a bit of trauma to keep you motivated in practice?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1037
Is it good to have a bit of trauma to keep you motivated in practice?
If you're serious enough about your practice to go into a one, three, or seven year retreat, I reckon you need to have a very intense personality. With more distractions than ever trying to steal our time, you can't have the mindset of an ordinary person while also being really successful in dharma ...
- Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:49 pm
- Forum: Prayers and Aspirations
- Topic: Prayers for my mother
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1263
Re: Prayers for my mother
Praying now.
- Sat May 27, 2023 7:01 pm
- Forum: Dzogchen
- Topic: Why so gray?
- Replies: 89
- Views: 8591
Re: Why so gray?
I'm in my 20s, and I've always assumed that most older Westerners became interested in Buddhism because the beatnik movement, hippie movement, and Hollywood films like Kundun attracted them from the 1950s to 1990s. Youth culture isn't like that now.
- Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:48 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: People with professional careers in Buddhist organizations: do you recommend it?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 683
Re: People with professional careers in Buddhist organizations: do you recommend it?
I started a Buddhist NFP (501c3 in the USA) with the mission of fundraising for, building, and maintaining a monastery in Wisconsin. I currently serve as the president of that org's board. I have no business or marketing skills at all. For the most part, that is also true for the volunteer board me...
- Sat Mar 25, 2023 4:32 am
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: People with professional careers in Buddhist organizations: do you recommend it?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 683
People with professional careers in Buddhist organizations: do you recommend it?
I've fantasized about using my professional skills (marketing) to help Buddhist organizations for a long time. One of the biggest things stopping me is that 99% of people I've ever heard talk about working with nonprofits say it's a bad idea. Nonprofits are among the worst clients out there, they sa...
- Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:03 pm
- Forum: Buddhist Tantra Talk
- Topic: For students of Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, can the Vajrasattva pdf be turned into a complete ngondro?
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1178
For students of Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, can the Vajrasattva pdf be turned into a complete ngondro?
On the website, there's a 10-page pdf for Vajrasattva practice, titled Practica-Vajrasattva. It includes a refuge verse, a bodhicitta verse, and a mandala offering. If someone wanted to, could they use this text as a basis to do a traditional ngondro with 100,000 repetitions? I'm not sure if this pd...
- Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:43 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Meat Eating Mantras
- Replies: 114
- Views: 6211
Re: Meat Eating Mantras
I've never read it myself, but here's a quote from Lama Zopa Rinpoche crediting a meat mantra to a Manjugosha tantra. Interesting! Any chance you identified which tantra is being referenced? The tantra says, "those with compassion eat meat; those with samaya drink alcohol." Got a chapter/...
- Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:15 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Meat Eating Mantras
- Replies: 114
- Views: 6211
Re: Meat Eating Mantras
In the context of this conversation, outside = when you're at a restaurant for the purpose of eating food for sustenance rather than when you're in a ganacakra and eating them for the sake of non-dual wisdom. If you believe animals can only be benefited in a properly done ritual, you could eat some...
- Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:11 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Meat Eating Mantras
- Replies: 114
- Views: 6211
Re: Meat Eating Mantras
Since when is one who practices the two stages ever outside this context? In the context of this conversation, outside = when you're at a restaurant for the purpose of eating food for sustenance rather than when you're in a ganacakra and eating them for the sake of non-dual wisdom. If you believe a...
- Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:55 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Meat Eating Mantras
- Replies: 114
- Views: 6211
Re: Meat Eating Mantras
For a practitioner this is never, nothing is outside ones sadhana. This is why we have waking yoga, washing yoga, eating yoga, yoga of passion, etc. But we don't apply the instructions for waking yoga to yoga of passion, do we? This is my exact point. My claim is that the Indian tantric texts of co...
- Sun Feb 19, 2023 6:59 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Is it okay to eat meat & be in an unclean place while reciting the 21 Taras praises?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 987
Is it okay to eat meat & be in an unclean place while reciting the 21 Taras praises?
I thought the general rule for Green Tara practice was that you have to abstain from the black foods (meat, garlic, etc.) and maintain cleanliness. And these rules are the reason why Green Tara practice is generally done in the morning, before Tibetan people eat any meat. But I've heard that it's no...
- Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:37 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: How exactly do you "practice" the outer preliminaries?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1234
Re: How exactly do you "practice" the outer preliminaries?
Thank you to everyone for your help.
- Sun Nov 13, 2022 3:45 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: How exactly do you "practice" the outer preliminaries?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1234
How exactly do you "practice" the outer preliminaries?
I understand how to practice a prostration. You clasp your hands, kneel, etc. But what does it mean to "practice" the outer preliminaries? Reading a text about the 4 thoughts like Words of My Perfect Teacher 100,000 times?