Dharma Wheel

I kind of feel weirdly sectarian asking this question, but is it OK to support (making donations etc) Hinayana teachers if you are a Vajrayana practitioner? I like some teachers from the thai forest tradition and I like to practice Samatha according to their instructions. I am obviously a Mahayana ...

I am sincerely interested in the Buddhist path but my doubts as a westerner raised in a secular environment are still lingering. I find the teaching of emptiness fascinating and I can agree with it the more I analyse phenomena. The issue I am grappling with is the doctrine of rebirth. There seems t...

Jewel Ornament of Liberation will tell you everything in a step by step manner. I second the Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas and White Tara idea. Garchen Rinpoche always recommends them.

So, if we negate the “projected status mistakenly granted” that still leaves us with the object, does it not? I’m not trying to create a trap, btw, nor am I an expert in The purported view of Tsong Khapa. But when one enters in to analysis of an object, creating a separate and distinct object of ne...

Is there a reason the book says to roll one die twice and every other depiction of Mo die has them as a pair?

Missed the good old days before Rinpoche has became so popular where I can still see him at close range like an arms length and squader precious chances asking useless personal questions (under private settings) or see him happily chatting with other practitioners during meal times. I had the oppor...

Missed the good old days before Rinpoche has became so popular where I can still see him at close range like an arms length and squader precious chances asking useless personal questions (under private settings) or see him happily chatting with other practitioners during meal times. I had the oppor...

bryandavis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:51 am his handlers.

The true mara of all centers.

The instructions to use them are in the Sadhana text you use to do your daily practice. To do a Sadhana, you need Empowerment. To receive an Empowerment, you need a Guru. To identify a good Guru and to be able to master the so called preliminaries for the Sadhana, you should study the Lam Rim or equ...

Ajahn Sona and Ajahn Punnadhammo says that when you give to Pretas there are three possibilities: 1. they are a recent relative 2. given infinite rebirths, they are a distant relative or 3. even if the preta is a stranger they benefit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EweYs8oy20Q&list=PLCXN1GlAup...

Tulshuk Lingpa's yangsi was not enthroned despite being recognized, and he left the monastery to live a normal, if somewhat troubled, life (but as last heard from, wanted to go back to Dharma more seriously). Not the same, but the idea is that these sorts of things happen. A tulku is not enthroned....

It seems to be talked about in many different ways. I can understand if it’s in the context tshog sha All meals are supposed to be ganapujas. When the tantras talk pure and impure food, they are not talking about feces vs. filet mignon. They are talking about meat (outcast) versus vegetarian (twice...

I feel as if there are a number of steps between "the chariot depends on its parts," which I freely concede, and "the chariot doesn't exist," which I have massive difficulty conceding. Without analysis it seems to me perfectly consistent and intuitive that a thing can both depen...

It's not really his fault-- there is no sustained discourse in Buddhism on governance and democracy, or for that matter, ethics. The Golden Light Sutra promotes absolute monarchy and Buddhist history promotes it as well, e.g. Ashoka and the Dharma Emperors. https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-budd...

If the guru really is a living Buddha, he can teach me effectively in the conventional way. In my experience, it is the lay members of the community who are most to blame for this mythology. I have never heard a teacher claim special powers. But I have met teachers I did not trust not to take advan...

I think back to the Trungpa podcast thread a while back which reported on how he was witnessed by a group of adults French kissing a 13 year old girl - and they all did nothing. that’s the 1970’s for you. Agree. It's just boomers booming. For decades, whenever I criticized Trungpa for doing drugs, ...

Alas, it appears again because of the emphasis on the role of the guru, TBist scandals seems to involve issues of consent in addition to the above. The ability to refuse consent is short-circuited by the belief that the abuser is incapable of wrongdoing and even to think such a thing is a wrong vie...

I am currently at the summer course of Diamond Way, and tomorrow there is an Empowerment of Amitayus, Buddha of Infinite Life. This will be given by Nedu Kuchung Rinpoche. However, having posted my doubts about Olé Nydahl’s Diamond Way Buddhism earlier here on Dharma Wheel and to receive feedback f...

If the Buddha already attained enlightenment aeons ago prior to his life as Shakyamuni...(side question: when? And how?) Hints to be found in the Lotus Sutra. He was the 16th son of an ancient Buddha, he was a king who became a brahmin's servant while seeking the Lotus teaching, he was a bodhisattv...

In my mind, that's a very big deal for a dharma teacher to be a between-the-lines Fascist. I don’t think this is correct. If anything, he is a monarchist, while at the same time he imagines himself to be an anti-imperialist. So, for example, he tried to blame the situation in Burma on the British. ...