24
votes
Relationship with bad parents (kamma and issues)
My father was an alcoholic, and I suffered a lot of grief from him - so I might as well try and answer this one.
The way my first teacher taught me about this (back when my father was still alive and ...
- 57.7k
21
votes
How not to kill the mouse in my house?
"Without wisdom, effort, restraint of the senses, without giving up everything, I see no well-being for beings."
-- The Buddha (SN 2.17)
You can't have your cake and eat it too, unfortunately. ...
- 24.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Can being a vegetarian actually be a temporary hindrance for some?
I have been vegetarian since 1/1/2000. It was originally a New Years Resolution, but it became a New Millenia Resolution. I figured that given impermanence it would not be too hard to keep. :D
That ...
- 9,284
13
votes
Are actions in computer games bad for karma?
There are two parts to karma: 1) external forces/energies you set in motion with your action and 2) latent tendencies and inclinations in your psyche - that later become your action and reaction, that ...
- 57.7k
13
votes
Why did the Buddha suffer before he died?
Buddha did not experience suffering(mental). He experienced pain due to poor health during his final days. Enlightened beings do not create new Karmas. Also, they have removed the potential of all ...
- 25.7k
13
votes
What is the best way to forget bad choices in the past?
Short answer is, you should not forget bad choices. You should learn from bad choices.
Long answer:
Kukucca is characterized by regret. It's function is to grieve about what has or what has not ...
- 57.7k
12
votes
Is making art bad or sinful?
Art can be a continuation of samsaric inertia, or it can be an expression of the enlightened mind. What message are you sending with your art? What impulse does it carry forward into the future?
- 57.7k
10
votes
What is the Buddhist perspective on child abuse?
The Pali scriptures (SN 12.17) state, from the perspective of ultimate truth, that the cause of suffering is 'ignorance' (rather than 'one-self' or 'another').
However, in the conventional scenario ...
- 39.4k
10
votes
How not to kill the mouse in my house?
In the past, I had some success with a no kill mouse trap like this one. It allows you to catch the mouse and release it in an appropriate area outside.
Now we share our home with 2 dogs and a cat. ...
- 855
10
votes
Accepted
Won't bad karma cause a chain reaction?
Your bad Karma does not cause bad Karma for others. If another person gets a mindset to kill, it's not a result of your bad Karma. It's a result of his own aversion and volition. But your bad karma ...
- 25.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Killing a bigger animal causes more bad karma than killing a smaller animal?
My knowledge in Buddhism is quite poor. IMO it is a greater sin to kill a larger animal than to kill a smaller animal but this cannot be the case always! Let me ask you a question. Which is easier, to ...
- 952
10
votes
Is there a way to wipe out ones Karma?
You are asking not about how to eliminate kamma, but about how to escape the results of kamma.
There is no escape from the experience of the results of kamma. What there is is modification of the ...
- 101
9
votes
Is rebirth essential to Buddhist philosophy?
From Ven. Bodhi's excellent short essay "Dhamma Without Rebirth?":
The aim of the Buddhist path is liberation from suffering, and the Buddha makes it abundantly clear that the suffering from which ...
- 9,707
9
votes
Can somebody remove their bad karma by believing that it doesn't exist?
You are expressing the stock definition of 'wrong view':
And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong view as wrong
view, and right view as right view. This is one's right view. And what
...
- 2,026
9
votes
Accepted
If someone steals my goods/harms me then is it ok to take revenge on him/her?
I think that the opening verses of the Dhammapada, for example, make it clear that "revenge" is not a way to appease emnity; and that "the wise" would "cease their quarrels" instead.
"He abused ...
- 45.7k
9
votes
"Lower rebirth" -- Are animals really "lower" than us?
Lower is not meant as a moral judgement nor a pejorative in this case. It is meant simply as a statement of the more dire predicament most animals are in compared to most humans. There certainly exist ...
- 4,366
9
votes
Accepted
"Lower rebirth" -- Are animals really "lower" than us?
So can I still be a Buddhist, with these beliefs?
Yes of course.
Maybe don't over-idealise animals though, e.g. a real dog might chase and kill grass-hoppers or mice or anything else unless you stop ...
- 45.7k
9
votes
My job requires me to shuck oysters
The Buddhist teachings do not exist for you to create suffering for yourself. Oysters are extremely primitive life forms. While they breathe oxygen, they are very close to plants. Oysters have a ...
- 39.4k
9
votes
Crippling fear of hellfire &, damnation, please help?
I hope SN 42.6 quoted below will give you comfort. A person's actions while they were alive determines their outcome, and not rituals performed after death.
Then Asibandhaka’s son the chief went up ...
- 36.9k
8
votes
How not to kill the mouse in my house?
Mice are intensely territorial, it's hard to get them to walk away from their turf. Luckily they are also short lived. We often have little mice come in for a bite, and I try to block their entrances ...
- 7,433
8
votes
Will Karma 'balance out' in most cases by the end of a lifetime?
Clearly there are already different answers to this. In fact the different answers are indicative of the problems of Buddhist karma. I've published two articles which touch on this question:
Did King ...
- 4,285
8
votes
How did this material world come into existence if the ultimate reality is voidness?
Looks like you misunderstand Shunyata (Voidness, Emptiness, Hollowness). Shunyata is not nothingness, it is lack of solidity. It is interdependence. Famous Zen teacher Thích Nhat Hanh coined a new ...
- 57.7k
8
votes
Where do “new” humans come from?
We are not necessarily re-incarnations of prior human beings. There are 31 planes of existence in Buddhism. So the present human beings could result from any of the 26 planes out of 31 planes of ...
- 1,621
8
votes
Accepted
Is Karma different for accidental killing than intentional killing?
The background story to the first verse of the Dhammapada is of an arhat killing insects accidentally, because he's blind.
The verse says,
All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they ...
- 45.7k
8
votes
Invalid logic pertaining to karma in sutta AN 5.129?
The way my first teacher explained karma, it works like a matching machine, it just puts the "victim" in the situation when the odds of encountering a certain kind of people are increased. It's like, ...
- 57.7k
7
votes
Are actions in computer games bad for karma?
There weren't PC games in the Buddha's time, but there were stage shows and music, and he asked people to eschew them both.
One time an actor approached the Buddha and asked him if he would go to ...
- 7,433
7
votes
Are good deeds superficial?
Doing good deeds is very beneficial because our moral character is changeable. When we do good deeds, our moral character improves. When we do bad deeds, our character worsens.
However, according to ...
- 7,442
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible