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by Johnny Dangerous
Sat Feb 17, 2024 6:53 pm
Forum: Dzogchen
Topic: Dzogchen Historiography
Replies: 31
Views: 1913

Re: Dzogchen Historiography

Sorry, but it's a completely absurd concept to tell people they should not follow Mahayana in this context. If a person rejects the Prajnaparamita, it would make sense for that person not to become a Mahayana follower. This is not due to a lack of historical sources in Dzogchen. There are a number ...
by Johnny Dangerous
Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:39 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Politics in dharma center - article
Replies: 202
Views: 8149

Re: Politics in dharma center - article

I can't read the whole article, but I remember Zizek's critique. There's some truth to it, people will use Dharma to avoid tough decisions on what I'd call "collective ethics", but this is hardly unique to Dharma at all. Generally speaking the vast majority of people will use almost any ex...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:54 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

That’s a fairly traditional description of hell which can be found in various traditions. I really feel like you are not considering what’s being said to you here. Descriptions of certain states of course “sound real” because they are experiences beings can actually be reborn into, they just aren’t ...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:30 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

In the end, I think its simply more productive if anyone could please share a list of Buddhist sects which align with this view that they know of, rather than trying to convince me to accept something that I can't verify for myself in any genuine way (there being "concrete"/"material...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:14 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

In the end, I think its simply more productive if anyone could please share a list of Buddhist sects which align with this view that they know of, rather than trying to convince me to accept something that I can't verify for myself in any genuine way (there being "concrete"/"material...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:06 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

In the end, I think its simply more productive if anyone could please share a list of Buddhist sects which align with this view that they know of, rather than trying to convince me to accept something that I can't verify for myself in any genuine way (there being "concrete"/"material...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 14, 2024 12:52 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

Real and literal... And that is your first error. That explains your faulty reasoning. But I can't see a realm of Heavens and Hells... There is all kinds of shit that you cannot see (even in the human and animal realms), doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ...I don't even see the point of it as a system...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:13 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Inherent Existence? (continued)
Replies: 42
Views: 3658

Re: Inherent Existence? (continued)

Subjective, objective, inherent, not inherent are all just ways we use language to talk about relative truths, even when trying to discuss ultimate truth, we can only do it with language, which is by definition provisional. We can only make a really vague, partial facsimile. None of these distincti...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:52 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Inherent Existence? (continued)
Replies: 42
Views: 3658

Re: Inherent Existence? (continued)

Subjective, objective, inherent, not inherent are all just ways we use language to talk about relative truths, even when trying to discuss ultimate truth, we can only do it with language, which is by definition provisional. We can only make a really vague, partial facsimile. None of these distinctio...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:49 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

Okay, maybe I can accept such a view. What sect do you belong to, if you don't mind me asking. Is this a standard view there? For most Western practitioners ime it does not work like that, you don’t join a group then just accept their tenets and change your beliefs about reality. You learn and spen...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:41 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

Real and literal, but I live surrounded by humans and animals, so I can verify this. But I can't see a realm of Heavens and Hells, so I can't be certain that its true. I don't even see the point of it as a system of punishment and reward, like isn't rebirth and karma enough? If you do bad, you are ...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:33 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

Nevertheless, from what I've seen though I wasn't able to confirm, it seems that for many, if not most sects and schools of Mahayana Buddhism view Heaven(s) and Hell(s) as real and literal places. They are as real and as literal as the human and animal realm. How real and literal are those? Real an...
by Johnny Dangerous
Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:30 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell
Replies: 53
Views: 2408

Re: Looking to become a Buddhist, but I'm concerned about ideas of Heaven/Hell

Therefore, my question is whether they're actually literal about how do we know that they're real if we are genuinely unable to verify that they exist, either logically or empirically via experimentation. Also, if you know of any Mahayana sects which view Heaven(s) and Hell(s) as psychological stat...
by Johnny Dangerous
Mon Feb 12, 2024 10:09 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: What do you personally derive from Zazen meditation?
Replies: 9
Views: 938

Re: What do you personally derive from Zazen meditation?

On a relative level it should make you calmer, more understanding, etc.

On an absolute level there is no purpose at all, and in fact the real practice is beyond purpose, or self-accomplished if you prefer.
by Johnny Dangerous
Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:55 pm
Forum: Prayers and Aspirations
Topic: Request for...practice support?
Replies: 11
Views: 1453

Re: Request for...practice support?

If you have a teacher they’d probably say you need to spend time on preliminaries. Generally when meditation does not work for beginners, ime the recommendation is to return to preliminaries. Sometimes even for non-beginners. If you have no teacher or guidance in the first place, there’s your proble...
by Johnny Dangerous
Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:55 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: GPT starts nuclear war
Replies: 11
Views: 669

Re: GPT starts nuclear war

These jokers just use this rhetoric because they want their AI on top, and want to craft the parameters of what things look like to their advantage, just like Zuckerberg advocating for the regulation of social media. These guys aren’t about the public interest. Not saying the risk isn’t real, just t...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 07, 2024 6:16 am
Forum: Dzogchen
Topic: When are you teaching dzogchen?
Replies: 29
Views: 1774

Re: When are you teaching dzogchen?

I'm assuming everyone means well here. However, it's instructive that even discussions about the parameters of proper discussion of Dzogchen go in a certain direction here. That being the case, I'm going to go ahead and give this thread a break and once again urge people who see inappropriate discu...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 07, 2024 3:42 am
Forum: Dzogchen
Topic: When are you teaching dzogchen?
Replies: 29
Views: 1774

Re: When are you teaching dzogchen?

I think you’re looking at this from the perspective of a forum moderator. Many of us are also looking at this from the perspective of students of Dharma. We are here to learn from each other how to discern what is right view, right conduct, right motivation… It’s not useless speculation about Dzogc...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 07, 2024 3:22 am
Forum: Dzogchen
Topic: When are you teaching dzogchen?
Replies: 29
Views: 1774

Re: When are you teaching dzogchen?

Great, maybe report the threads that worry you, if it’s actually a concern and not just a fun thing to BS about. I’m not policing here. I’m just saying this so people will be more aware of the karma they are creating. If we’re willing to warn people about the bad karma they create by having convers...
by Johnny Dangerous
Wed Feb 07, 2024 12:52 am
Forum: Dzogchen
Topic: When are you teaching dzogchen?
Replies: 29
Views: 1774

Re: When are you teaching dzogchen?

Advice or experience from peers is in a different category than advice from teachers. If that’s not understood by the person receiving the advice, that is indeed a problem. How do you know? When a question is being asked, we are essentially requesting someone to turn the wheel of Dharma for us. Que...

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