Linked Questions

My mother and I come from a non-Buddhist culture/background/society/country/family. At one point when I had an opportunity to explain to her what Buddhism is, I was doing well (i.e. she was listening ...

I have some friends who are Christian that I can't avoid the subject with. We used to see each other very often for some events. Normally those are friends of friends. Examples of the unpleasant ...

I am sure everybody in this world thinks that 'my religion is the only true religion' etc and its variables. As we live in a diverse society, in today's age of information we invariably bump into ...

Is it possible to be Buddhist and a misanthropist? I've realised I actually despise humanity and sometimes I fantasise about the sun exploding and wiping us all out. I believe that the majority of ...

Buddhism begins with The Truth of Suffering. That seems like the best point to get someone's attention, and is basically indisputable. The Truth of Impermanence is fairly easy to accept, because we ...

I love most aspects of Buddhism but I can't agree that animals have a "lower" rebirth than us. Dogs for example sometimes have enormous love and compassion for their owners, even if they are being ...

the one place where the Buddha was asked point-blank whether or not there was a self, he refused to answer. When later asked why, he said that to hold either that there is a self or that there is ...

Orthodoxy in Christianity is the holding to the oldest beliefs. It is of course impossible for the religion not to evolve at all as new questions and there answer have to addressed. The "Orthodox" ...

How can a small woman in a small country who does not understand many of these questions, let alone the answers, ever hope to become enlightened.

I have four parts of this question, Is Nibbana a state of mind or a dhamma? If Nibbana is a state of mind, is it merely the uprooting of craving? If the answer for the second question is "Yes", then ...

I just came to a very upsetting realisation : Almost all my motivation for the things I do in my daily life (mostly playing the piano and studying math in college) comes from bad things, such as ego, ...

My teacher has been talking about how each person's reality (including the body) is in fact an illusion generated by the mind in each moment. As an extension of this, she teaches that there are no "...

I am wondering what is the antidote to loneliness, or the approach towards it, within Buddhism. I am finding myself quite lonely despite being previously familiar and at ease with solitude. I am ...

They seem to be both elements that promote a healthy perception about things in life. I have a hard time differentiating between one and the other.

I have noticed in my meditation / mindfulness practice the following: as the idea of self dissolves, the ideas of compassion, happiness, sorrow, and basically everything that a "person" might ...

I don't know how else to phrase this question, but please advise. I have this constant irritating feeling that I am kind of enlightened. It is confusing. I don't really know if it is my ego which is ...

What is the concept of "Ego" or "self "? In buddhism there's concept called no self.Does is mean there's no "me" at all or does it mean that "me" cannot understood with out " you ".

Simple question: Is the Noble Eightfold Path a path of celibacy? [Note that this isn't given for Sex, stacks, trade, exchange but for escape from this wheel]

I'm asking this question because I want to know if I'm misunderstanding or misinterpreting something. I hope I'm not offending anyone, I want to genuinely know how to interpret my experiences with the ...

Does Sotapanna have the fear of death? Recently I spoke to a monk about Sotapanna. He said the best test to understand whether someone is Sotapanna is to see whether he has fear of death.

Just like the title my question is as simple as it gets. Please give your thought as short as possible. I just wanna confirm my idea.

Lately I've been noticing how often people in my everyday life mention being proud of themselves or their loved ones for some good effort or action or being ashamed of themselves (or decrying others ...

I've studied both "Western" and "Eastern" philosophy (mainly Buddhism) for some time, and enjoying it a lot. Western philosophy is all about clarifying concepts. The exception might perhaps be ...

It's mentioned in many references that when someone becomes Sotāpanna (= stream-entrant = Person-who-has-seen-Dharma) then the first three fetters (saŋyojana) are dropped. My question is, if the ...

Namo Buddhaya! My neighbor is a hardcore Christian & is a very nice man, the only thing is that he goes outside every once & a while with a water gun & kills insects (and even shoots ...

I read somewhere (perhaps in an unreliable introduction to Tibetan beliefs) that rebirth is conditioned by the last thought before death (or perhaps affected by a thought or desire that you have after ...

Would you say that it is appropriate for a monk to give advice to the laity in how to live life/dealing with obstacles? Now don't get me wrong, but monks certainly have "safer" environments. They are ...

This question came up when I really thought back on both my and many others' spiritual journey. In the New Age community, especially, the sense of viewing things as illusions and making progress in ...

Specifically when someone you love or whose opinion matters to you greatly attacks your way of life, your beliefs, or even on a smaller scale just makes you feel ignored, pushed around, etc. I find I ...

I have looked at a list of some wrong-views in Buddhism, and I'm somewhat confused about the meaning of the notion of 'view' [ditthi]. In Buddhism, what does it mean to hold a view? 1) I ask this ...

I was wondering if ego death and stream entry is the same? During what i call 'ego death' or 'experience of pure consciousness', i emptied out and saw the internal galaxy images. Insights came ...

I'm a bit confused about "not self". How do you take responsibility for your actions if you don't see them as your actions but just a process happening? For example if you're an alcoholic part of the ...

I don't presume to understand Buddhism very well, but I'm trying to increase my understanding of the Dhamma, so please don't take what I write the wrong way. I'm not being disrespectful, because even ...

From what I understand as far as the Theravadin tradition goes right view is seeing things as they are instead of through our own filters, conditioning, beliefs etc. So if I have some pain it is ...

Namo Buddhaya. Sabbe Dhamma Anatta. Form is Anatta too. Meaning form is not worth identifying as myself, me or mine. Does that mean that I should identify myself as formless ? Am I in form or am I ...

Which of the five hindrances does 'comparison' come under? I mean when the mind starts chattering, "he is better than me, he succeeded where I failed, he got this and I got nothing, he got better ...

In my interactions with other people I am sometimes very full of my self, proud and vanitous and it leaves me with a bad taste afterwards or it even stops me from taking action in a direction I would ...

I have on occasion seen commenters here and elsewhere who declare their achievements, such as being a sotāpanna. These comments are downvoted, so they do not appear to be appreciated. If comments ...

Just in case someone is interested, this is a question based on this thread, but it's not necessary to read such discussion to understand and answer this question. I'd like to know about the ...

Added: I am asking this because I am not sure if anything I observe would be considered "self" according to the Buddha. I don't have this problem with craving or suffering because I can observe/...

Say one reflects on the beauty of one's children, the beauty of one's husband or wife, the beauty of one's house or garden, or the beauty of a flower, and other such things: that is rooted in greed ...

What is "insight" the "knowing that I know" in Buddhism? I understand the concept of consciousness a bit better but what about having Insight.

Buddhist writers, such as Joseph Goldstein and Thupten Jinpa, say that although the self is not intrinsically real, that we still accept the "conventional" idea of self. For example: If we arrive ...

A few days ago I started reading books about Paticcasamuppada because I realized how little and shallow was my understanding on this capital matter. Despite getting the gist of it, I still have ...

After attaining Nibbana, Buddha had realized that there is no self. However due to practical difficulties of communication, he had to use personal pronouns like 'I' , 'me' , 'myself' many times during ...

I have been a practicioner of mindfulness and vipassana for a few years. I have felt that buddhism is at odds with striving towards professional success and ambition. Ambition and professional success ...

I have personal problems with the metta practice. I would say may I/you be happy and I would go in this wish fulfilment mode. Imagining myself and others happy would create a jinni in the bottle ...

I was thinking about this comment ... Yes, my target is to abandon the three fetters completely. I can make sense of 'Doubt' and 'grasping at precepts+practices', getting rid of the identity view ...

This is a follow-on to this question What's the connection or difference between joy (piti), and the "bliss" (sukha) and peace (santi) of Nibbana? Is one required to seek joy to attain Nibbana? Why?...

From What is the Buddhist view in Socratic questioning?, I get that it is important to ask questions to get out of sufferings. However, when we are getting stuck it is very difficult to realize that ...