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12 votes
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How come enlightened people don't have any laziness?

Speaking from the first hand experience, laziness comes from attachment, fear, or ignorance. No attachment, no fear, and no ignorance - translates to no laziness. And how does attachment cause ...
Andriy Volkov's user avatar
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9 votes

Why is desire the root of suffering?

Working on your hobbies, advancing your career, growing a business, developing a family, nurturing a child, improving your health through good diet and exercise, going on vacations, increasing your ...
ruben2020's user avatar
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8 votes
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Is it helpful to stay single if I am not going to become a monk?

What matters is what you do when you are single. If being single means using prostitutes to satisfy one's sensual desires, it could lead one further away from the path as compared to a person who ...
Sankha Kulathantille's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Sexual Desire, Masturbating and Asuba Bawana

So basically caught up in the social norms, i used to watch porn videos and masturbate and got a bit attached to it. Kept on doing it for a few years. Do not underestimate the harm & addictive ...
Dhamma Dhatu's user avatar
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8 votes
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Is masturbation a sin when we do it to avoid intercourse with other people?

First off, Buddhism and karmic faiths generally don't really have a concept of 'sin'. 'Sin' is a Western conception — a feature of Abrahamic (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) faiths — that points at ...
Ted Wrigley's user avatar
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7 votes

"Guard the sense doors"- What does this mean, and what is it's application?

Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu answers a question about "guarding the senses" in this video (at time 34:40). Guarding the sense doors is a way of protecting ourselves from being overcome by passion for the ...
Hugh's user avatar
  • 1,603
6 votes

How do you balance your desire for liberation with your wordly desires?

One of my friends asked me if I talk to her just out of compassion instead of out of real feelings of friendship. That question really freaked me out, especially because it seems to be pointing to ...
Dhamma Dhatu's user avatar
  • 38.5k
5 votes

Is Buddhism against scientific attitude?

No. I'd say that Buddhism is or can be pro (in favour of) a scientific attitude. The structure of the four noble truths, for example, are analogous to medical thinking: symptoms, cause, cure, and ...
ChrisW's user avatar
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5 votes

"Guard the sense doors"- What does this mean, and what is it's application?

With each contact your perceive the experience: a pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling arises which you also perceive as either favorable, unfavorable and neutral. "Guarding the sense door" is you ...
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena's user avatar
5 votes

Why is lust considered as being unskillful?

It is not morally wrong. The question is if it is helpful or not! Clearly, lust and pornography are helpful for temporally satisfying the craving of sexual gratification. In that sense, they are ...
Yeshe Tenley's user avatar
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5 votes
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Why is lust considered as being unskillful?

On the mundane level, all the other answers are okay. On the supramundane level, it's not as much about partaking of sex as it is about your attitude, the implications of the relationship, the ...
Andriy Volkov's user avatar
  • 57.2k
5 votes

How do enlightened people think?

Enlightened people do not overgeneralize. (This can be supported by both Pali Canon as well as Mahayana sources.) Concepts like "enlightened", "person", "I", and "thinking" are all ...
Andriy Volkov's user avatar
  • 57.2k
5 votes

Is it correct view, as in renunciation, or desire, to want to die

In the first sutta (Dhammacakka) that was preached by the Buddha at Baranasi, it is mentioned three types of Desire that is the cause of Suffering. Kama tanha Bhava tanha Vibhava tanha Herein, ...
Blake's user avatar
  • 368
4 votes

Is it helpful to stay single if I am not going to become a monk?

As you've said, it all varies from individual to individual. The bottom line is one should not do what other people expects one to do. Instead, do whatever is best for oneself in terms of peace, ...
santa100's user avatar
  • 9,691
4 votes
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Detachment : What are we really parting from?

Attachment (and the other things you mention) are described among the Twelve Nidānas. For example chocolate exists as: Name ("chocolate") and Form (the form of chocolate) Sensuality (sight, taste, ...
ChrisW's user avatar
  • 45.2k
4 votes

Is Buddhism against scientific attitude?

Is Buddhism against scientific attitude? Is it against scientific research? Kalama Sutta embodies scientific thinking where nothing should be accepted due to various non scientific reasoning. The ...
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena's user avatar
4 votes

Is Buddhism against scientific attitude?

The word ‘vijja’—translated here as clear knowing—also means ‘science.’ And just as science implies a method, there is a method—a discipline—underlying the knowledge that leads to Unbinding. If Dhamma ...
Saptha Visuddhi's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

buddhism in real life

It's not desire that leads to pleasure, it is ("good") action that does. Desire in and of itself is blind, it just wants, craves. Desire does not always translate into good action. Instead, 1) There ...
Andriy Volkov's user avatar
  • 57.2k
4 votes
Accepted

Why is desire the root of suffering?

I think that the Pali distinguishes two words: tanha -- "craving" or more literally "thirst" chanda -- "desire" or maybe intention One of the six occasional mental ...
ChrisW's user avatar
  • 45.2k
4 votes

What is the difference and relation between chanda and cetana?

OP: What is the difference between chanda and cetana? Chanda is the desire to act. E.g. if you stand from a seat you have to have the "intention" to do it, but can choose not to if you want A ...
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena's user avatar
4 votes

How come desire and sati causes sleepness?

Sloth and Topher is the fifth Mara. It activated when all other previous four maras are inactivated. For instance, when you watch TV the first mara is in charge. When you listen to Dhamma if the ...
SarathW's user avatar
  • 5,616
4 votes

What does it mean in Bhikkhu Bodhi's *Life of the Buddha* when he describes Maha Maya as being possessed of the five kāmaguṇa

When the Bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb, no thought of man associated with the five strands of sensual desires came to her at all, and she was inaccessible to any man with lustful ...
frankk's user avatar
  • 1,650
4 votes

Is it correct view, as in renunciation, or desire, to want to die

No. It is not a mindset of renunciation. It is simply craving. SN45.170:0.3: Craving SN45.170:1.1: “Mendicants, there are these three cravings. SN45.170:1.2: What three? SN45.170:1.3: Craving for ...
OyaMist's user avatar
  • 9,246
3 votes

buddhism in real life

In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the Buddha said "craving (tanha) is source of all suffering". So, tanha (craving) can be avoided. It does not have to be part of life. The Buddha said there was a ...
Dhamma Dhatu's user avatar
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3 votes
Accepted

Three types of characteristics to achieve a goal

I think the question is on the four iddhipada, the four mental factors of achieving a goal: chanda (intention), citta (thoughts), viriya (effort), wimansa (investigation). According to this section in ...
dmsp's user avatar
  • 4,233
3 votes

Is Buddhism against scientific attitude?

Strictly speaking, Buddhism doesn't say "desire" is the cause of suffering, but that craving rooted in attachment is the cause of suffering. Sometimes scientific curiosity is rooted in attachment, ...
rob_mtl's user avatar
  • 796
3 votes

Sexual Desire, Masturbating and Asuba Bawana

Sometimes when you are doing Asubha meditation you might get averse to the thoughts about Suba. There was a situation when some monks committed suicide because they got averse to their bodies as dirty....
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena's user avatar
3 votes

Wanting something

As my teacher explained (sorry, this looks silly, but I always have to start my answers with something like this, since I'm not quoting texts but none of this is my invention), there is a difference ...
Andriy Volkov's user avatar
  • 57.2k

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