Questions tagged [papanca]

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2 answers
37 views

Does the Pali word "vinaya" in the suttas always refer to the Vinaya Piṭaka?

I read the following comment on the secular internet in relation to the closing paragraphs of DN 2, where a King or layperson made an admission of a moral transgression/sin to the Buddha: Yes that ...
2 votes
3 answers
103 views

What is the difference between Theravada "papanca" with regard to objects and Mahayana "selflessness of phenomena"?

In a previous question I asked whether the Theravada posits the selflessness of phenomena? Where the best answer I understood to essentially state that it does not. At least, it did sound like there ...
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2 votes
8 answers
962 views

At what point do we arrest reification?

Further to my last question on reification, I want to know the specificity of the application. Gathering from the answers; ...reifications are overcome by questioning them. and Start by watching ...
0 votes
2 answers
44 views

Does anatta cause dynamic emotions?

I read the following on the internet: In an uncultivated individual the emotions rule the self. This is the result of lack of understanding of Anatta and somehow the individual is putting conscious ...
0 votes
1 answer
85 views

Is the tranquil mind vipassana; assessing before consciousness; and dualized self?

I read the following on the internet: Vipassana, the tranquil mind, is the core. When emotions arise, the tranquil mind observes and assesses before the conscious is involved. The tranquil mind will ...
0 votes
1 answer
49 views

Is intention "conscious energy" in Buddhism?

I read the following intentional thought on the internet: Intention is directed conscious energy. When we think about doing something, where does that energy go? Thoughts like these are created ...
0 votes
2 answers
101 views

Does kamma define the universal law of cause & effect?

I read the following verbal kamma on the internet: Karma can be expressed like the magnetic push or pull that defines the universal law of 'cause and effect'. Karma follows a similar rule as le ...
-2 votes
2 answers
91 views

Is inventing "defensive" biological weapons right livelihood?

I read the following on the internet: Working for DoD contractors could give a very fat paycheck. However, there're ethical issues involved. If you decide to work for them, make sure to make it clear ...
1 vote
3 answers
288 views

Is samadhi the same as samatha? Is there khanika samatha?

I read the following on the internet: Notice there's a wide spectrum on the Samatha/Vipassana scale, but even on the extreme spectrum of Vipassana, the "dry-insight", there's still element ...
1 vote
4 answers
132 views

Why are pleasant feelings "stressful" & "unpleasant"?

I read the following in the internet: All feelings are categorically classed as unpleasant in the Dhamma...'Three feelings have been spoken of by the Blessed One: a feeling of pleasure, a feeling of ...
2 votes
2 answers
119 views

Can a puthujjana have unshakable faith in the Buddha-Dhamma?

I read the following on the internet: According to my present understanding of Dhamma, nobody will be able to shake my faith. Can a puthujjana (unenlightened commoner still immersed in self instinct)...
2 votes
2 answers
809 views

Is it demerit to give donations to sick non-Buddhists?

I recall reading words or translations in the Pali suttas suggesting the following: It is a path of decline to give donations to non-Buddhists. It is most meritorious to give donations to the Noble ...
-1 votes
3 answers
125 views

Does the Foam Sutta (SN 22.95) say there are "no things" or, otherwise, discuss emptiness similar to Nagarjuna?

I read the following on the internet: I think your saying that "Nagarjuna that purports there are no things" was an oversimplification or misrepresentation -- conversely the quote or summary ...
2 votes
7 answers
154 views

Is Nibbana devoid of a permanent and eternal substance?

I read the following on the internet: According to Wikipedia by the way, Nagarjuna wrote, in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, "[A]ll experienced phenomena are empty (sunya). This did not mean that ...
0 votes
6 answers
316 views

Emptiness in mind and in reality

Recent exchange here got me thinking. Nagarjuna's karika, 1.3 (Batchelor) Na hi svabhāvo bhāvānāṃ pratyayādiṣu vidyate Avidyamāne svabhāve parabhāvo na vidyate The essence of things ...
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0 votes
3 answers
3k views

If Buddha had unconditional love, why did he "kill" some of his monks?

I recall there is a sutta where the Buddha said he "kills" some monks, that is, completely ignores them or something similar. Is this contrary to metta (unconditonal love)?
0 votes
2 answers
144 views

Are the majority of humans reincarnated from the lower worlds?

I read the following on the internet: Birth as a human is extremely rare the majority of humans most likely came from hellish worlds, the animal realm, or the realm of ghosts prior to this ...
0 votes
2 answers
80 views

Is forgiveness a fruit of evil wicked kamma?

I read the following on the internet: Yet there were still a few who could not forget that Angulimala the bandit, with his superior prowess, had shown them in their weakness and thus had ...
0 votes
3 answers
164 views

Do the suttas say the "old kamma" of an Arahant continues to fruit?

I read the following on the internet: But when the view of "self" ends, kamma also ends Is that plausible? Are you saying that kamma is conditioned by self-view? And saying that kamma -- the ...
2 votes
4 answers
321 views

Have Arahants have eliminated all Sankhara?

I read on the internet: Arahants have eliminated all Sankhara. So there is no need for accumulation of memory. Have Arahants really eliminated all Sankhara? Please answer with Pali sutta ...
3 votes
5 answers
401 views

Is there a kind of consulting service in Buddhism?

Similarly to psychotherapy counselling/consulting service, is there an equivalent form in Buddhism, in that the counselor is trained in Buddhism instead of clinical psychology? I haven't heard of such ...
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3 votes
5 answers
154 views

Does Buddhism give methods to ask questions when you are proliferating?

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 ...
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2 votes
2 answers
337 views

What is the difference between papanca and sankhara, and in particular citta-sankhara?

While contemplating both terms I could not find a difference between mental elaboration and mental fabrication. Aren't they one and the same?
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2 votes
1 answer
141 views

How could craving be the habit of reification?

Below, it says that "craving" is the habit of reifying things, resulting in the notion that we need ever-increasingly more things to live happily. How could craving (tanha) be the habit of ...
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0 votes
4 answers
138 views

Are we born on this Earth because of our personal kamma?

I read the following words on the internet: A person ends making Kamma when he becomes an Arahant. The Vipaka of his Kamma continues until he attains Parinibbana. These words appear to say it was ...
2 votes
5 answers
373 views

What are the "seven stations of consciousness" supposed to mean?

DN 15 includes the utterance of the "seven stations of consciousness", where the later six equate with the six of the eight jhanas, namely: 1. There are sentient beings that are diverse in body (...
1 vote
2 answers
112 views

Is insisting on calling “consciousness” a real thing appropriate?

Someone who likes to ask rhetorical questions on the internet once questioned whether it was appropriate to describe “consciousness” as a reification since in one sutta (MN 43) it is said that ...
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-4 votes
2 answers
167 views

Did the Thai monk Bhikkhu Buddhadasa teach Anapansati incorrectly? [closed]

I read the following comment on the internet: Buddhadasa, his health failed him revealed he had no attainment in "Anapanasati", though written 550 pages on it. He was just a Bhikkhu-scholar ...
-1 votes
1 answer
87 views

Is the "life force" and the "breathing" the same thing?

I read the following comment on the internet: A corpse has lost its life-force, hence a corpse, dead. A meditator has attainment would be free from disease, for the vibrant internal-breath kept ...
1 vote
2 answers
99 views

Can students evaluate qualifications and accept a person as their teacher?

Assuming students are unenlightened, how can students have the chance to evaluate qualifications and accept a person as their teacher? For example, recently there have been more sexual misconduct ...
2 votes
4 answers
577 views

Is the Mahayana shunyata same as the Theravada papanca?

I originally wondered whether the Mahayana shunyata (emptiness) is same as the Theravada sankhara (conditioned and compounded phenomena). The problem here is that Mahayana shunyata says even Nibbana ...
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-2 votes
2 answers
131 views

Dhammaṭṭhitatā and Dhammaniyāmatā versus "Ontology" & "Phenomenology"

In AN 3.136 and SN 12.20, it is said the Three Characteristics and that suffering arises via Dependent Origination are "sā dhātu, dhammaṭṭhitatā dhammaniyāmatā", namely: law of nature, regularity ...
6 votes
8 answers
1k views

What is papañca?

One word in Pali Canon seems to be especially challenging for translators to convey. This word is "papañca" (e.g. MN18, DN21, Sn 4.11, AN4.173). Some attempts at translating papañca include "...
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