Annual Prophet posted:

not a related question, but what school / tradition do you practice in?

Reene posted:

I never know quite how to answer this question but I started with Tibetan and Mahayana traditions and I was interested in Theravada for awhile but most of my influences and interests still rest with Mahayana.

possibly someday I will find a teacher and figure more out but for now I just study and read what I can get my hands on.

Annual Prophet posted:

many thanks for the reply! some areas have more centers and richer opportunities and others fewer, but I'm a bit remote, so it's more the latter here, which always leaves me interested in others' experiences and sanghas. (fortunately, though it was pure serendipity, i happened to find a good group in what for the most part is my own tradition: Soto Zen, though I am shamelessly syncretic and mostly practice oriented).

Rennyo Shonin posted:

When we carefully consider the transiency of human life, we realize that the living will certainly end in death and that the prosperous will eventually decline. This is how life is in the human world. Even so, we vainly live days and nights, spending spending months and years to no purpose. Indeed, we may lament about it, but I feel that we could never really comprehend the true extent of this pitifully sad situation.

How true it is that importance is difficult to escape for all, from the Great Sage, the World-honored One, at the highest level, to Devadatta, who committed evil acts and grave offenses, at the lowest.

Moreover, to receive life as a human being is indeed rare and difficult, and even more so is the opportunity to encounter the Buddha Dharma. However, even if we have met the Buddha Dharma, the way of emancipation from birth-and-death through the practices of self-power is difficult to follow at the present time in the latter days. Therefore, our lives would be spent in vain unless we encountered the Primal Vow of Amida Tathagata.

Fortunately, however, we have now been able to meet this unique teaching of the universal Vow. So the only thing we should aspire to is the Pure Land of bliss, the only one we should rely on is Amida Tathagata. For this reason, we should settle our entrusting heart and say the nembutsu.

On the other hand, what people in the world generally conceive in their minds is that if only recite “Namo Amida Butsu” aloud, they will be born in the land of bliss. But this idea is completely groundless.

What then is the meaning of the six-character Name, “Na-mo-a-mi-da-butsu”? We should understand that when we entrust ourselves unwaveringly to Amida Tathagata, the Buddha fully recognizes this and saves us; this is manifested as the six-character name, “Na-mo-a-mi-da-butsu"

How then should we entrust ourselves to Amida Tathagata in order to resolve the matter of the greatest importance of the afterlife? We should rely singlemindedly and unwaveringly on Amida Tathagata, entrusting ourselves to Amida without any qualms and discarding the inclination to perform various practices and miscellaneous acts of virtue. Amida recognizes this, sends forth rays of light and embraces within them the sentient beings who rely on the Buddha.

This is expressed as "receiving the benefit of Amida Tathagata’s embracing light.” It is also referred to as “receiving the benefit of the Vow that never forsakes us."

Once we have thus been received within Amida Tathagata’s light, we will be born in the true fulfilled land immediately after our life comes to an end. There should not be any doubt about this.

Beyond this, what is the use of relying on other Buddhas or practicing other meritorious good acts? How deeply happy and grateful I feel for the benevolence of Amida Tathagata! How could we express our gratitude for Amida’s benevolence, which is like the vast sky and lofty mountains?

We should bear in mind that we simply say aloud "Namo Amida Butsu, …” to express our deep gratitude for Amida’s benevolence.

Humbly and respectfully

18th day of the 8th month, 6th year of Bundmei (1474)

Nessus posted:

I have a question for the Jodo Shinshu folks such as Senju (I think? Forgive me if I'm missing a nuance):

The core concept of Jodo Shinshu is that you have to abandon yourself to "other power," right? I am curious how this is made compatible with dharma study, organized temple/sangha organization, and so forth, since it seems like these things suggest that you are still trying to do things by "self power."

Also am I searching wrong or are the resources for Jodo Shinshu online kind of lovely, lol.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

I have a few questions about vipissana meditation posture.

I started practicing meditation when I became interested in Buddhism almost a decade ago, but have rarely practiced in the past 5 years. I have started practicing again, but I am having a lot of trouble with my posture. I have weird knees, I could never sit cross-legged as a kid, and would actually sit the opposite way when I was really young, with my legs folded towards the outside of my thighs. Even now sitting in cross-legged is uncomfortable at best. Both my knees are at least a foot above the ground, and I feel very unsteady if I'm not pressing my back firmly against a wall when I sit that way. And if I do that I kind of have to push out against my knees/ankles to maintain a straight back posture. I also have extremely tight hip flexors. I'm also about 6'4, and while I have decent posture standing, I feel like everything about my physical person is very unsuited to meditation postures.

How should I go about acclimating my body? I know the answer is "just practice", but if I try and meditate not leaning against a wall I can only go a few minutes before my back aches and it breaks my concentration deeply. I have typically been meditating on a sort of futon with a soft back, and I have been using that for support, but I don't want to rely on that forever.

SpaceCadetBob posted:

Perhaps you should try sitting in the Seiza position on a short stool like one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/Seiza-Meditation-Bench/dp/B00U0LDAHY

I've never really felt comfortable on a bench like this, but plenty of other people have if they don't find comfort on a zafu.

Paramemetic posted:

Posture is important but not that important. One thing you mentioned, though, is your knees being up in the air. That's going to put a lot of strain on your hips and isn't "proper" anyhow. You should sit on a cushion such that your knees are on the groundYou want to create a very stable base with a triangle where your body is resting on the ground on three points with the knees and butt.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

I used to practice Aikido, which required a lot of Seiza, so I can do it but I feel that it is less stable than sitting cross legged. Sitting Seiza always felt more natural to me than cross-legged, but it becomes very painful after just a few minutes, especially in my thigh muscles. I've never tried a bench though, maybe I'll look into one.


Could you explain what you mean by this further? Even if I sit on a raised cushion and have my legs in contact with the floor in front of it, I'm nowhere near being able to touch my knees to the ground. The only way I can sit cross-legged is with my right foot under my left calf, and my left foot out a little further with the heel resting under my shin. In this position it isn't even possible for my knees to connect with the ground because if I pushed them down with more force (which at this point I could only do for maybe a minute, and that would push me into real knee/hip pain) they would just be mashing into my feet.

I would very much prefer to practice sitting as opposed to a chair or walking. I used to do yoga, but I don't have access to a class or teacher and I always get burnt out doing it alone.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

My only question with that is what to do with your hands while using a bench? Having your thighs slope down and away makes it seem like your hands would slide away from you in a typical posture, which would not be good.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

Can anyone expound on the procedural differences and practical purposes between Vipassana and Zazen? When I first started meditating I was very against the Zen tradition (for reasons I can't even remember now) and never looked into it at all. Reading about it recently a lot of people are saying "Purpose of both is the same, Zazen focuses more on a posture and typically has shorter meditation sessions".

Reene posted:

Oh good, I guess Buddhists aren't exempt from the whole "mistake for being Muslim, then commit a hate crime" thing.

Reene posted:

Oh good, I guess Buddhists aren't exempt from the whole "mistake for being Muslim, then commit a hate crime" thing.

cerror posted:

At least the terrorists were intentionally targeting Buddhist statues. People defacing Buddhas, thinking they're related to Islam, is just plain confusing, and sad. But, you know, 'Murica.

CountFosco posted:

I just watched "Hannah: Buddhism's untold story." Anyone else here seen it? Afterwards, I looked up this Ole Nydahl guy and he seemed a bit... controversial. Just nasty rumors? Or is he genuinely more of a black sheep of Buddhism?

Paramemetic posted:

I had to look him up, but he's from a different lineage than I am so that's not surprising. He does not seem all that controversial. His teaching lineage is legitimate as are his authorizations to teach. It looks like his main controversies come from statements he's made about Islam, which are not great, but also aren't uncommon.

The other bit of controversy comes from his support of Thrinley Thaye Dorje as the 17th Karmapa. This isn't a controversy about him, this is just him taking a side of a controversy that is contrary to what has become the de facto "normal" side. Not being from the Karma Kagyu lineage, I don't have a dog in that fight and have no reason to comment but I will say that it is very likely there have been deliberate campaigns against Nydahl as a result of the decision he's made regarding who to support as the Karmapa.

As far as it goes, some things I find very encouraging about his teaching style is that he does not claim to be some kind of enlightened master, he defers to his own Lama's teachings, and he's not teaching anything outlandish or abnormal. His centers appear, from my cursory reading, to be focused on the standard progression for Vajrayana practitioners. There is sometimes a kneejerk impulse to dismiss Western teachers and sometimes it is warranted but I see no reason for it here.


Personally I was dubious about Diamond Way as I had mentally associated with Diamond Mountain, which is a legitimate black sheep operation of a rogue demon worshiper.

CountFosco posted:

I was actually more thinking about what seems to be a cloud of sexual impropriety which seems to exist on the internet. I grant that it may be all just nasty rumors or anonymous stirring of the pot, but it does make one wary.

Crack posted:

Anyone had any experience with the Dzogchen Community, specifically in the UK? There's a centre close to me and I'm thinking about checking it out.

Paramemetic posted:

By chance I just stumbled onto finding out this was founded by Choegyal Namkhai Norbu. It will be fine. It's going to be Dzogchen as heck so that is a thing. I am from a Mahamudra school so I don't have much comment on that. Westerners are often very attracted to Dzogchen because it is very flashy and also very powerful, but actually succeeding in it requires as much diligence as any other method.

In short: should own, definitely check it out.

ChNN incidentally has also been responsible for disseminating a lot of Tibetan cultural things and Buddhist magical practices such as namkha knots, and I was just reading a book by him on the Bardo earlier today after someone dropped a bunch of random books off at our center. He's legit and Dzogchen Community is legit.

Paramemetic posted:

a rogue demon worshiper

Siivola posted:

cerror posted:

Am I the only one who thinks the name Amida Butsu is super fun to say? Give it a try. It's pretty rad.