All Questions

I've heard that patience has a big place in Buddhism. It is especially very important for monks. I can think two ways of patience. When we get angry, we have to have patience to avoid bad ...

travellers - I was struck by the term maññassavā in the Dhatuvibhanga Sutta. They have four foundations, standing on which the streams of identification don’t flow. And when the streams of ...

When a ‘person’ walks the path and reaches the goal of Nibbāna, ‘who’ actually reaches it? ‘Who’ walked the path and where did 'he' go when Nibbāna was reached, to be more exact? We as unenlightened ...

In this link and this link the Budha says that "there is stress" (or suffering or whatever your preffered translation of dukkha). The Buddha does not say that suffering(dukkha) is inherent ...

Do Buddhists use the Shambhawi mudra ? What kind of tradition use it and for which purpose? (if possible with some references)

Subject refers, can a Buddhist accepts prayer from other religion say Muslim or Christian? I understand the answer is yes.

Dependant Origination declares that from Consciousness (Viññana) arises Nāma-Rūpa, not just Nāma. Therefore it is implied that even in formless realms the entities that exist there also have a form of ...

This question is a sequel to my previous question about First Noble Truth. It seems that there is discord about the exact rendering of the word 'dukkha'. Sorry if I sound like a pedantic dou*h. I am ...

The Yogacara container universe model posits that shared reality is due to similar karmic traces or samskaras of sentient beings.this is perfectely fine,as sentient beings with similar karmic ...

I am following meditations as taught by Ajahn Brahm in his book Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond. I have almost reached to state of Silent Present Moment Awareness. The next stage is Silent Present ...

If I search for the 4 noble truths of Buddha on Google I get the following different translations of the first noble truth: Life is suffering. There is suffering in life. Life is unsatisfactory. and ...

We get pleasure and satisfaction by doing Mathematics. Thinking over math problems and solving them does give us some pleasure. According to Buddhism, what is this pleasure categorized as? A sensual ...

Are Buddhist Suttas describing beings known as witches. What can they do and how advanced they are, according to Suttas?

Sometimes we get an instant Karma. In other cases it takes time for Karmic fruits to ripen. I want to know in later case where does the Karma get stored or how is it remembered.

I am most perplexed about this aspect of the training as it is explained by Mahasi Sayadaw in Manual of Insight. He writes about path-oriented and fruition-oriented maturing of insight knowledges; If,...

The conventional Buddhist view of causality is that the present negative and positive effects we see in our lives are a result of negative and positive causes that we created in the past. So in order ...

Is shikantaza meant to spontaneously relax you, unlike ch'an meditation? I've never taken classes in the former, but the latter seems to teach you to relax -- and then follow the breath spontaneously. ...

The fifth of the precepts is "I undertake the training to refrain from intoxicants." does smoking marijuana count as an intoxicant ?

I have a question which has probably been answered before, but I'm unable to find it. Sorry about that. My mind is unfortunately very logically driven. My question is, is doubt removed after making ...

According to this Buddhist glossary (quoted below), there are six types of people i.e. people with six types of nature or temperaments. Apparently, it comes from the Visuddhimagga. There is some ...

When meditating on the breath, after a while the sensation of my eyes not being closed properly appeared. This then turns into vibrating, and my eyes feel like they are literally moving. I tried ...

Buddhism has slowly entered my life since the last 25 years. Though born a Hindu in India, I have always been open to practices that would help me answer my fundamental question about the meaning of ...

As I understand the cycle of birth and death produces suffering but ,once the truth is realized, there is no suffering ,so living in this world shouldn't be any longer a problem .So is freedom from ...

relying on Guru Rinpoche is nothing but a skillful means for realizing and empowering ourselves with the phenomena of our own pure, joyful, and powerful perceptions and experiences, which arise from ...

I ask this question as someone on Twitter was arguing that Buddhism is casteist. He claimed that only upper castes were permitted to enter monkhood. I told him this was completely false and shared the ...

Yogacara and Vasubandhu etc deny that matter exists by itself but rather that is comes from awareness and is merely a perception of the mind.what are the arguments Yogacarins make to prove their main ...

Existence, Consciousness, Bliss is described as Brahman by Vedanta but surely that only applies when viewed through the veil of Maya and experienced as the universe. As awareness/ consciousness is ...

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vasubandhu/#DisSenObj Vasubandhu seems to make arguments against the concept of atoms to prove all is appearance in consciousness.but doesn't this go against modern ...

Emotional intelligence is an ability to deal with one's emotions. I am wondering how does it affect and get affected by the practice of the Dhamma? Does deeper meditative absorption lead to heightened ...

I have been having questions from time to time about my practise. I do the cushion practise once a day in the morning for half an hour and try to follow the five precepts through the day. A lot of ...

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 ...

I am a graduate of Islamic metaphysics and theology with a focus on mysticism and mystical philosophy. I have kin interest in spirituality in general. Recently I started trying out meditation. In the ...

My question tag is similar to this one but I am asking a different question. I am reading DN15 the mahanidana sutta where the Buddha says; Suppose there were totally and utterly no rebirth for anyone ...

There seems to be two prominant websites/translations for learning the suttas: accesstoinsight.org suttacentral.net As I was going through DN15 I see that the translations of important words differ ...

Does a state called "Antarabhava" an existence between death and rebirth exist? Traditional Theravada sources, highly respected scholars and texts in Abhidhamma directly decline this as ...

I have recently given some interest to NDE stories. After reading a hundred of them, it seems pretty credible that people are telling at least some level of truth in their experience. One thing that ...

That's the question. Is there any advantage in being a lay Buddhist over being a Monk who has gone forth, that is in as far as following the Dhamma-Path to Nirvana is concerned?

As a lay Buddhist, given that it is terribly difficult to attain to Nimmata or the Jhana and at point when Nirvana seems to be just a wishful thinking able to be attained by superhuman ability and ...

In Buddhism, is the effect ontologically independent of the cause? I'm not asking if the effect makes the cause, which I think would amount to "ontic" dependence; but if the effect can exist ...

How close is English to Pali? If you look at the etymological pages in wiktionary, for English words, it often includes a "Proto-Indo-European" root, and sometimes mentions Sanksrit too. ...

Is there poetry in Pali, and where can I read it, in translation and in original? If so, who are the most important Pali poets, and is anyone still writing in it?

It's mentioned in the contents, here https://www.tantric-studies.uni-hamburg.de/research/publications/become-a-buddha.html I thought I had seen the phrase "no vehicle" in a discussion of ...

If I have the idea of an "apple" or its taste, is the idea as real as the apple itself? Specifically do the objects of the 6th consciousness depend on anything except the 6th ...

When one analyzes Saṅkhāras, where does 'unconditioned' fit in? The word means 'formations'[1] or 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. I take this to mean something ...

What is the difference between sex cults, and the tantric tradition? I understand that the latter has a lot of tradition and ritual behind it And while there is a strict monastic code, I imagine, in ...

How does the Nimitta occur? I mean does it come all of a sudden (like torch turned on) as a shining bright white light or does it come as light gradually increasing brightness of varied colors? I am ...

I am doing meditation as narrated in following steps by Ajahn Brahma to attain to Jhanas. Present moment awareness Silent Present moment awareness Silent Present moment awareness on the breath ...

There is a conventional self, so is anything conventionally permanent? Answer from any reputable tradition.

Buddhist teachers say things like Do not expect anything from anyone, and also: Do everything with good heart and expect nothing in return and you will never be disappointed. Such a wonderful ...

Perhaps with the exception of Laozi, most sages, founders of religion, & great thinkers from virtuous tradition do not leave us books authored directly by them. In most cases what we have is books ...