Questions tagged [tibetan-buddhism]
A body of Buddhist doctrine associated with Tibet and surrounding central Asian areas. It is popularly associated with Vajrayāna or Tantric Buddhism however it a comprehensive path composed of teaching from all three Buddhist vehicles. Prominent exponents include the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa.
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Lineage change possibility
I formerly practiced with the local Shambhala group. I took my Refuge Vows there, received some random Buddhist name that had nothing to do with my studies or who I am; and was told I was now a member ...
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Could Dukkha be interpeted as anxiety?
I have an anxiety disorder and I sometimes wonder if Dukkha could be viewed as anxiety. In other words in the four noble truths:
This is anxiety.
This is the cause of anxiety.
This is the cessation of ...
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Visual representations of the Tripitaka
Are there visual representations of the Tripitaka? Its threefold division suggests a correspondence of vinaya to "body", sutta to "soul", abhidhamma to "mind", a rather ...
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B. Alan Wallace’s students
Is it possible to connect with students of B. Alan Wallace through this forum?
I have been desperate to get blessings/ initiation in his lineage.
Thank you!
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How to reconcile emptiness with dependent origination?
Already in the dedicatory verses of the MMK, Nagarjuna tells us that there is no origination or cessation of any kind. There is no arising whatsoever. I understand that this absence of arisen things ...
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How is Cittamatra practiced in the Gelug school?
I'm new to studying Tibetan Buddhism. I'd like to ask how the Cittamatra doctrine is practiced in the Gelug school. I'm not referring to the hierarchy this school establishes of Yogacara as a ...
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What does this prayer flag say?
I don't know much about Buddhism. Sorry if this is off-topic.
Where I live, Buddhism is rather uncommon, but in recent years, Tibetan prayer flags have become more and more widespread. These ones were ...
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Where can I practice phowa online?
As a lay person, I’d like to find resources online to practice phowa because of a lack of masters I can meet in person where I live. Are there any good resources on the internet to achieve phowa? And ...
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Have large Buddhist reference library to donate
Dear Friends in the Dharma,
Over the years i have accumulated a large Buddhist reference library along with other associated topics.
The collection together is far more valuable and useful than the ...
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Buddhism and Mental Illness(Depression, Schizophrenia, Hallucinosis, etc)?
Hello,
I'm a Vajrayana practitioner since 2018, Nyingma School, and have been taking medication for 3 years.
What's the Buddhist point of view of Mental Illness and Hallucinations ? I'm asking this ...
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Rimé movement and Theravada
I know that Tibetan Buddhism has the Rime movement, which is positioned as non-sectarian Buddhism. But I like Theravada methods. Can I practice Theravada while staying within Tibetan Buddhism?
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What is the Tibetan prayer recited by the Dali Lama at the beginning of his 1989 Nobel Prize acceptance speech?
At 2:48 in this video of the acceptance speech, a Tibetan prayer is recited. What is its translation into English?
I think it's something like "Gautama, the true Buddha... free from all precept&...
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Rolling a kasaya
I am trying to wear my kasaya while awaiting temporary ordination.
I have watched some videos but I seem to be getting stuck after finding the center point and rolling towards me. When I try to put my ...
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Anatta & reincarnation [duplicate]
Buddhism
Anatta (no-self doctrine)
Reincarnation (death-rebirth cycle in samsara)
How can something that doesn't exist reincarnate?
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Vajrayana Buddhism: Teachings the Buddha reserved for "only some individuals"?
Wikipedia says this about Vajrayana Buddhism:
"According to several Buddhist tantras as well as traditional Tibetan Buddhist sources, the tantras and the Vajrayana was taught by the Buddha ...
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Can there be other paths to end suffering
Why should we consider Buddha's path as the one and only path to end suffering? Can there be a path (let's say through science) where we get to understand how everything got created including ...
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Could anyone please help me identify/translate this mantra?
It appears at the top of two different thangkas in a gompa, one representing Sakyamuni and another one with Vajrasattva in yab yum, and I am unable to find what it means.please help me clarify what ...
Shumu
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Preparing for the Bardo while remaining detached
In the "Tibetan Book of The Living and Dying" it is said that the state one dies in, is the state one enters the Bardo in. Are there any resources someone can point me to that can clarify ...
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Books for understanding Tibetan Buddhism
I have been practicing Buddhist meditation for a few years, mostly from reading translations of the Buddha's original discourses, as well as some Prajnaparamita sutras from Mahayana Buddhism. I've ...
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Multiple meditation practices
Would there be a conflict if I were to practice meditation from various schools? For instance mahasi insight meditation, Tibetan Samantha meditation, as long as the skills are kept separate?
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What are the original colors of the 7 main chakras?
I've seen variations on some of the last few chakras as white instead of violet or purple, so I'm wondering what are the official/original - from Sanskrit (?) - colors?
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What is the "magical net" in the Guhyagarbha Tantra?
The Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra says "This universal tantra of the great Magical Net is a secret among secrets".
Later it says:
Accordingly, mahāyoga teaches the ...
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What is the mandala of the ground?
When you first learn about mandalas, you learn about sand paintings:
But in the Guhyagarbha tantra, outlined in Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra, it is said:
The subject matter of ...
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What is meant by "secret" in the Guhyagarbha tantra?
I am starting to explore Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra, where in the first section on the "title", says:
All phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are inseparable with the ...
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What is the wheel in the Guhyagarbha tantra?
I am starting to explore Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra, where in the first section on the "title", says:
All phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are inseparable with the ...
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What are the names of all the books or subsections of the Tibetan Kangyur (and Tengyur)?
From AsianClassics.org you find downloadable copies of the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur. I have copied the Kangyur Table of Contents to a CSV here. You'll notice many things are missing titles, some ...
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Tibetan Buddhist Deities
Are Tibetan Buddhist Deities real (external)? I've been to two Medicine Buddha pujas and a Tsog offering and I can't figure out if it's all just hocus pocus. Professor Tom Yarnell's definition of ...
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What are some of the ways to practice confidence/ self-confidence?
In many Buddhist doctrines, confidence or self-confidence is thought as a virtue. I am still struggling to see how it does not contradict with arrogance or pride.
A few expansions are:
"...
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How do you know if you are competent in your job?
To my understanding, Buddhism teaches humility, humbleness. I am trying to practice this quality. But I have started to feel that no matter what I do, I am not good enough. How do you know whether you ...
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Can't find much info on Tsem Rinpoche, was he a genuine lama?
Does anyone know anything about Tsem Rinpoche?
I watched a few of his talks on Youtube recently, and found him to be incredibly charismatic.
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How to understand this teaching: "Whenever others treat me badly, may I accept this defeat myself and offer the victory to others"
Below is one of the verses from the "Eight Verses for Training the Mind" by Geshe Langri Tangpa
Whenever others, because of their jealousy, treat me badly
with abuse, insult, slander, or in ...
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Should I practice a single mantra or multiple?
I've received empowerment for Seven Line Prayer & have been practicing it consistently ever since.
Once in a while, a thought arises that I would like to practice other mantras for 'worldly ...
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Heterosexual attraction in rebirth process?
In his book "Tibetan Buddhism from the ground up", Alan Wallace describes a part of the (human) rebirth process as follows:
"In [this vision] one sees (...) [the parents-to-be] in the ...
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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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Why cannot a mindstream be separated into two, or two mindstreams merge?
As far as I understand, Buddhism (Tibetan Gelug is what I am most familiar with) holds that a mindstream is always individual.
Is there any reason against the notion that one mindstream can separate ...
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Tibetan Four Immeasurables: what is the meaning of "happiness that knows no suffering"?
In Tibetan Buddhism, there are the Four Immeasurables, as follows:
The Four Immeasurables as a Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Prayer
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they ...
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What fault is found in denying Dharmakirti's notion of "substantial cause" as necessary in the arising of things?
I have read here argumentation for the continuity of mind, coming from a Geshe in Tibetan Buddhism.
From what I have learnt it is asserted that:
Consciousness could not arise from matter (could not ...
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How do novice Tibetan monks meditate 23 hours a day?
According to Lama Surya Das, novice monks traditionally meditate 23 hours a day, with one hour for sleep. I met another American lama who said the same thing. How is this even possible? Even if the ...
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Vajrasatva Practice as training in ultimate Bodhicitta?
I am doing Vajrasatva purification practice, and wonder whether this is a training in Ultimate Bodhicitta?
As stated in the Scriptures related to Mind Training: one should first train in Ultimate ...
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Is Chögyal Namkhai Norbu correct when he says our life is unreal and that Buddha taught that life is just like a dream?
In this video clip you can see renowned Tibetan master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu saying that life is unreal and that the Buddha taught it is just like a dream. Is he correct? I've transcribed below:
...
user13375
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Is the role of rogyapas in sky burials considered unclean by Tibetan Buddhists?
I just came across a Reddit comment referencing the Human Planet documentary about sky burials, in which there was an implication by the narrator that the rogyapa (body-breaker) performing the ritual ...
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What do Buddhists believe in? [duplicate]
Does Buddhism say everything is an illusion? For Buddhist, are all other people just an illusion (philosophical zombies)? For example, when I talk to a Buddhist, he thinks I'm a philosophical zombie ...
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In the Tibetan book of the dead, Chapter 2, what is the significance of NOT renouncing the 3 poisons
I am reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead Chapter 2 page 26, "A prayer for union with the spiritual teacher [entitled], Natural Liberation, without renunciation of the three poisons".
Now in ...
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Is their any books where the collection quotation of Milarepa are available?
Is their any books where the collection quotation of Milarepa are available ?
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References for the history of Śāntideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
Śāntideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a renowned Mahayana text and the source of many ideas, prayers and practices, down to today, particularly the Bodhisattva ideal, Bodhicitta, and practices for ...
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Pure Perception
I've read here, that:
As Dza Patrul Rinpoche candidly says (AKC 15): Ritual sessions four
times a day without the generation and completion stages, pounding
drums and clashing cymbals without ...
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How is the Tibetan Kangyur actually laid out?
I have been trying to gather Tibetan etexts like the Kangyur, and have found two sources:
Adarsha
AsianClassics
Later I realized there are multiple editions of the "Kangyur" composed at ...
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How to choose a career?
People say, "Do something that you love. Such that you work does not seem like a burden". This is also something that we hear in pop-culture. Like "Follow your passion"
On the ...
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Why I keep repeating the same mistakes?
I am new to Tibetan Buddhism and I am fascinated by it. One thing that bothers me in general is that I keep making the same mistakes. For example, every now and then I find myself procrastinating ...
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Buddhist views on talking with the dead? Is it possible?
In Tibetan Buddhist teaching it is stated that we will be in bardo state for 49 days before rebirth. So during this period we can still communicate with the dead?
What is the Buddhist view on this? ...
