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 ...
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7
votes
Accepted
I am asking personal help, I want to renounce my home?
There once was a potter named Ghaṭīkāra, who was the chief supporter of Buddha Kassapa. He was a lay person, deeply devout, and was once asked why he did not go forth.
MN81:11.2: ‘Dear Ghaṭīkāra, you ...
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6
votes
Is the experience of suffering or enjoyment completely reducible to physics e.g. such as in materialist views i.e. materialism?
Your question is quite interesting because it starts out with an openness regarding identity view. Awesome! You ask about what is and are puzzled at the rise of feelings pleasant, painful or neutral. ...
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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 ...
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6
votes
Crippling fear of hellfire &, damnation, please help?
Along with all the excellent answers I would like to add a few cents of mine.
A student asked Zen master Hakuin, What happens after we die? The Zen
master replied, "I don't know."
"But you'...
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5
votes
Did the Buddha ever define what he meant by "self"?
"Self" is this highly childish, simplified, vague, unexamined idea in your mind: "This is me". It's not a concrete thing, it's an overall thing, it's a blob: "I am such, overall". It's an ...
- 59.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Need some pointers about the current phase
Good story. Maybe a bit too focused on your life (almost no mentions of other people) – but good nevertheless. My overall impression can be summarized with this allegory:
Imagine, Mowgli always ...
- 59.1k
5
votes
Does any sutta talk about the right conditions for teaching the Dhamma?
Part Three: The 16 Dealing with Teaching Dhamma
57. I will not teach Dhamma to a person with an umbrella in his hand who is not ill: a training to be observed.
I will not teach Dhamma to a person ...
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5
votes
Are Buddhists supposed to feel superior compared to other people, and to brag about it?
This is a typical (and common) stage in spiritual development. In my country, I mainly see it in a wide variety of Christians; it's common enough in Buddhist circles as well, but the Buddhist ...
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5
votes
Non-Self vs. depersonalization disorder
In depersonalization and derealization disorders one recognizes a self that one is not, and that one believes one should be. This creates stress and anxiety, along with distortions of one's perception ...
- 5,615
4
votes
Practice of Dhamma and loss of masculinity
It is difficult and challenging to be the target of danger, violence, hate, anger and abuse. These threats to self give rise to fear and dread, with a compulsion towards fight or flight as a solution ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Perceiving or not perceiving?
Another more precise and concise translation of the Diamond Sutra renders it differently, Chapter 29:
“Subhuti, if someone said the thus-come comes, goes, sits, or reclines, this person doesn’t ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Does any sutta talk about the right conditions for teaching the Dhamma?
When somebody wants to know and is receptive. For the most part if you consider the way the Buddha taught, you notice he’s usually only directly addressing the sangha without being asked. Otherwise ...
- 199
4
votes
Accepted
Vaccination, Ethics and Morals
Let's think for a moment about the choice this question (apparently) leaves us with. Do we:
align ourselves with the set of anxieties and angers that coalesce around conceptions of highly ...
- 5,615
4
votes
Flickering light during meditation
It's just an apparition of the mind and nothing particularly important. Things like this will arise from time to time. Like Max said in the comment, the mind subconsciously tries to entertain itself....
- 231
3
votes
What motivates a fully awakened person in a loving relationship?
Remark: This is not (yet?) a full answer, but more an extended comment.
For one impression of how might a loving relation be revered see "A.IV. 55 Nakulapitá und Nakulamátá" ; although the ...
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3
votes
Is the experience of suffering or enjoyment completely reducible to physics e.g. such as in materialist views i.e. materialism?
The way I understand the present physics teaching does not address the consciousness.
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3
votes
How do your thoughts appear to you? (asking for mechanics)
To me, thoughts appear as relationships or associations. When I think of something, I remember something else related to that, and then the next thing, or several next things. All these memories are ...
- 59.1k
3
votes
Does any sutta talk about the right conditions for teaching the Dhamma?
Well then, Lord, does not the Blessed One teach Dhamma in full[1] to some, but not so fully to others?"
"I will reply to this question, headman, with another. Answer as seems proper to you. ...
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3
votes
Crippling fear of hellfire &, damnation, please help?
These rituals exist for the living, not for the dead. They are designed to inspire very lazy, shameless people to try become better. In your case, looks like the medicine was too strong, for someone ...
- 59.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Buddhism and entrepreneurship
I require that we treat our team members with compassion, refraining
from false speech (teamwork, marketing and sales), and avoid taking
what is not given (intellectual property, competition, ...
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3
votes
Vaccination, Ethics and Morals
The monastic rules of the Vinaya has rules pertaining to food, lodging, medicine, conduct etc. There are rules pertaining to medical care. The Buddha ate, slept, wore robes, took medicine when he was ...
- 37.9k
3
votes
Accepted
I have a question, but feel it's far to sensitive to share here
Remarkably, for every single question I would have asked the Buddha or the Sangha, I've always found an answer in the suttas. There are a lot of suttas, so searching them can be overwhelming. The ...
- 9,557
3
votes
Accepted
Why is “identification“ with a form always problematic?
Labeling transforms lived experience into mental constructs. Say you take a morning walk in the woods, feeling the sun and the wind and hearing all the nature sounds: that's lived experience. Then you ...
- 5,615
2
votes
Need some pointers about the current phase
I read most of what you wrote. Not every word, but I am really impressed that you found Goenka. Was he the instructor? You must really have very good karma, to be rejected by the Osho group. The Sufi ...
- 339
2
votes
Need some pointers about the current phase
Today I feel certain energy in head moving towards chest, from guts to the chest. A constant under current. I can feel lag while I walk,
like the body is following me or visa versa. It seems like ...
- 43.8k
2
votes
Practice of Dhamma and loss of masculinity
Sounds very familiar, I went through a similar phase. Whether you call it "feminine" or a "pushover", there is certainly the tendency to get exceedingly soft if one truly takes Buddhist practice to ...
- 59.1k
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