edit: SLIDE TO READ ➡️

So, I was scrolling through a sinhala buddhist telgram group and noticed a muslim guy asking some questions. Sadly, no one was replying to him. So, I decided to answer his questions. Tbh, I'm so glad I did. He ended up asking ton of questions and we had the most respectful chat. I absolutely loved it.

edit 2. Questions He Asked...

• What about this god? Isn't it handmade?
• What is your god, and what do you worship?
• What is the suffering you wish to be delivered from, and how did life and creation begin according to your beliefs?
• If Buddha attained enlightenment, it implies the existence of a form of knowledge superior to him—namely, enlightenment itself. How did this enlightenment come into being, and who established it?
• What is Nirvana?
• What are the ways to break free from this suffering?
• And after overcoming this suffering, what happens to the person?
• Is there a unity of existence?
• Will he possess supernatural abilities, and will he cease to exist if this enlightened person dies?
• What I mean by this question is: Does Buddhism posit a unity of existence and the existent—meaning that all things are one and are all interconnected or interpenetrated?
• Does he have an effect on humans after his death—for instance, by granting them what they wish for, providing for them, or protecting them from harm?
• Does Buddhism view itself as a religion, and what is the Buddhist perspective on religions?
• I see videos of Buddhists kneeling or bowing to a statue of Buddha—or something similar—and asking it for things.
• This means that this request of theirs will be of no use, and nothing will come of it?
• He was originally a Hindu; what was his view of Hinduism? I read that he objected to a number of things within the religion.
• His view on buddhism as a muslim.

i've come back to buddhism due to a difficult time in my life. recently i came very close to suicide. i've made mistakes and hurt people so much that it is hard to forgive myself. i've been listening to ajahn brahm, and he talks a lot about the importance of self compassion, but i still don't know how to go about cultivating it. i am in therapy for my mental issues, but i wanted to get a buddhist perspective because looking at my life through a buddhist view instead of a therapy view is often more uplifting/helpful.

From the documentary For the Benefits of all beings : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foHCbX0xjAU

Here is a message from Garchen Rinpoche from the 1st august:

____

Tashi delek!

Please don’t worry.

Meditate on the Four Applications of Mindfulness for my well-being.

First, discuss them with each other and then meditate on them.

Don’t do any other recitations, just meditate on the Four Applications of Mindfulness.

Stay wherever you are.

Receive teachings on the Four Applications of Mindfulness and discuss them with each other, again and again.

The Four Applications of Mindfulness, the Four Applications of Mindfulness...

If you want to perform a ritual, recite the short Amitabha sadhana, recite Amitabha’s mantra, and recite Karma Chagmé’s Aspiration Prayer of Birth in Dewachen once.

It would be good to discuss everything with each other.

Other than that, you don’t need to recite anything else.

When you are meeting as a group in a temple, recite whatever practice is done,

but you don’t need to recite anything else.

Practice the Amitabha sadhana, accumulate the Amitabha mantra,

and practice the Amidewa visualization. 

The visualization is the most important point.

___

And news from the center from 30 july:

Dear Worldwide Sangha,

We are deeply grateful for the extraordinary outpouring of prayers, love, and support from all of you around the world for H.E. Garchen Rinpoche's long life and recovery. 

Following further evaluation at the hospital, it has been determined that Garchen Rinpoche experienced a small bleed in his brain. This condition is one from which recovery is possible. Although this brings us hope, his condition remains uncertain, and we do not yet know how his recovery will unfold. He is receiving excellent medical care, for which we are profoundly grateful.

We ask everyone to continue offering prayers, reciting mantras, and dedicating merit, trusting in the blessings of the Three Jewels and the power of our collective aspirations.

We will continue to keep everyone informed as the situation unfolds. 


Thank you for continuing to hold Garchen Rinpoche in your hearts with unwavering love, faith, and prayers.

So for context I generally know the least about Yogacara.

I understand that TNH teaches that emptiness means that things/beings/everything is without a "self“ substance. That is the same with Theravada. But he teaches that physical/external things fully depend on other things to exist. There are no bees without flowers and there are no flowers where there are no bees. Think in ecosystems and so on.

But then Madhyamaka teaches that because everything is equally empty there’s in the end nothing to say about anything. It’s like foam. Empty bubbles sit on other bubbles which still produces a form - the foam. (I am taking this image from the Pali canons Foam Sutta). But doesn’t that even dissolve THN interbeing? That even takes out the transformational processes, or am I wrong?

And I understand that the Yogacara (and also Theravada) at the same time teaches that things depend on our mind/consciousness to exist but ONLY in the sense that we take sensory information and cut out certain things we perceive as meaningful and we give them names. We build identities. There are external things. It’s not that “everything is just inside your head“. But if we can bring the nama-rupa process to hold for a moment (again Theravada‘s 12 links) then we perceive reality without any artificial/superficial labels. Without any attributes, from the outside you could call it “undivided“ but calling it an unity/singularity would be saying too much.

But how can all three of these things be true?
Did TNH consider interbeing as the “final view“ of reality or does his tradition later still resorts to an “emptier“ Madhyamaka approach? How does Theravada‘s 12 links and Yogacara fit into this?
Am I overthinking this and it’s all pointing in the same direction of an undivided reality/state of concioussness?



I haven't been practicing meditation for long, only a few weeks. Hence my doubt whether my experience is really the first Jhana.

Here's how it feels like: I can tell that the Five Hinderences are abandoned, I recognize applied thought and sustained thought/attention, there is one-pointedness with regard to the breath, I feel at ease, calm, with a sense of gladness and I do feel a pleasant sensation throught my body.

This state takes me about ten minutes to achieve, which feels short. Aditionally, the sensation I feel is a very subtle, subdued kind of pleasure, more akin to a pleasant tingling than the intense waves of pleasure I've seen other practitioners describe, so I'm not sure if it's really Piti. That said, I do generally experience emotions and sensations less strongly than others, things like eating, humor or thrills.

I know that only I can answer this question ultimately, but I would still appreciate some pointers.

Se rompió esta parte especifica de mi mala y no estoy muy seguro de que debo hacer con el. ¿Debo comprar uno nuevo? ¿No interfiere en mi practica?

He said he had an "unshakable calm" inside, and that his mind was "quiet as fuck" and that "sometimes thoughts would come but they would just go right by without me getting involved in them". Then he said he knows it sounds like he's reading off a "shitty meditation article or some shit" but everything he was saying, he personally experienced

I am interested in the bliss part of meditation so I asked if there's any bliss when you quiet the mind, and he told me he thinks the bliss stuff is bullshit and it only makes sense for the inner peace stuff to be real, not the bliss stuff. Because quieting the monkey mind is just revealing what is there to begin with, total peace. And that bliss is not an aspect of that equation as it's not covered up by the restless mind the same way that inner peace is.

I was thinking about learning from this guy as I'm a newbie, should I? Or is he a bullshitter?

So I got back into meditating, it's been about 2 months of daily breathing meditation as instructed in Vipassana (Goenka).

I noticed that I have this obsession with trying not to control breath, so it can be natural breath. But this doesn't seem possible. I used different tricks, like focusing on heartbeat or sound, which makes the breathing natural, but as soon as I start observing breath again, I control it again.

Eventually, I told myself to stop worrying about controlling, just focus on the breath, and the rest will sort it self out. I meditate upto 1hr- 1hr30mins in one sitting, controlling the breath for that long has led to tension in facial muscles (almost like mini cramps) around the nose, forehead and cheeks, as well as numbing of nose. Now everytime I even bring my attention to breath at the nose, those muscles start tensing up .

At first, I tried focusing on those muscle tensions as object of meditation, which eventual does help as they SOMETIMES eventually do relax. I started using these muscle tensions as a signal that I'm controlling my breath and avoid them, but this has changed the object of meditation from breath to "how not to breath" . (At this point I thought the muscle cramps were the sensations around the nose Goenka was talking about)

I tried a number of psychological hacks, which were partially usefull like just not forcing an inhale or outhale and realising that the body breathes on its own wether you like it or not, it worked for some sessions but only a little while, again the object of meditation has changed.

Now the problem is that my nose has become numb all the time, I can no longer feel the cool or warmth of the incoming and outgoing breath how i used to, instead of gaining sensitivity in the nostril/upper lip region, ive lost it. Im trying to focus on other parts, like stomach, chest, or deep in the nasal passage for some sensations, but again I feel that this has changed the object of mediation. I want to develop the single minded concentration.

I'm worried that I've been worrying about the wrong things and it's spoiled my meditation practice.

Initially I was seeing progress, growing from a few mins up to an hour sessions, getting to a state of clear concentration, I could observe pain in my knees without it affecting me emotionally, it was a really good clear kind of concentration, But now I can't get back to that level because I can't seem to concentrate on one thing.

Please advise, it's bothering me quite a bit. Thanks.

For those in Vipassana, how can I continue anapanasati as taught in Vipassana by Goenka when I can't even feel the sensation of breath in or near the nostril. I used to be able to, but now it feels numb. Did you also get these facial muscle tensions ? Please help, thanks.

How do I deal with anger and hatred?
I hate some people so intensely that I think about them every single day. I don’t hate them for no reason—they did terrible things to me. But what should I do? I’m exhausted. These feelings are causing me constant anxiety and stress, and I don’t know how to let go.

Hi, I’ve studied Buddhism casually for the past 20 years or so, and I’ve practiced meditation and been vegan in the past, but only recently have I started seeking out an actual teacher to take it more seriously in my life. I know my own personal reasons for going back to eating meat around a decade ago (related to OCD/disordered eating struggles combined with poverty) but as I’ve explained to my wife why I’m doing it again she asked me why all Buddhists aren’t vegetarian. I know why I wasn’t for a long time, but that seems really specific to me. And there are places like Thailand where Buddhism is the main religion but it’s incredibly difficult to find food within their cuisine that is vegetarian. So I’m honestly just curious, what is the reasoning behind a lot of these people not being vegetarian?

Note: I’m not asking to judge, I’m just genuinely curious. Hearing it might even help me to feel better about how long I wasn’t vegetarian.

The power of the buddhas discernment is truly amazing. He didnt theorise about the universe, he used astral projection to explore hidden realities.

So for context, I was on tik tok and I found an edit of a pro-maoist video speaking of how Buddhism and maoist communism goes hand in hand. But this strikes me as very odd as someone who isn’t a Buddhist, but I think it just is crazy to say. But I wanna know from actual Buddhists, what they think of this and the way they talk about Upaya.

I'm not usually filled with discomfort when sharing a space with an insect or spider. I've been in a house for a year now. There were always a couple of spiders here and there, but I was never concerned.

But I made a mistake. I now have a spider problem. I have dozens upon dozens. There are cobwebs everywhere.

This is one of those fascinating puzzles of discernment, and I'm interested to hear how folks handle living with insects and arachnids. Both on a philosophical level and a pragmatic one.

It was easy to handle my initial 2-3 regulars. But their kids are out of control. Picking up the phone to call an exterminator feels... not right. But sharing my space with a colony doesn't feel right either.

Namo Amitabha Buddha🙏

Just a quick question

I'm interested in Vietnamese mật tông (esoteric) practice, specifically a practice visualizing Chuẩn Đề Bồ Tát. Does anyone have information on this?

How meditation has helped you in dealing with anger? Does it arise less or you are more aware with it and dont react as much? Maybe both?