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The Dark Wind posted:Have you considered checking out the Shambhala Center? Perhaps the fact that it was founded by Trungpa Rinpoche might bother you, but all the craziness and alcoholism from the 70's is virtually nonexistent. I attend the Shambhala Center over in Boston and it's full of incredible, brilliant, and warm people with tremendous hearts who really know their dharma. It's very practice oriented, but through their retreats and classes you'll eventually be exposed to a combination of the Shambhala terma and Buddhism. I'd highly recommend it, if the Vajrayana is a path that interests you. We belong to a small Shambhala sangha near our rural hometown and the people there are aces. Kind, sweet and not to woo-woo. That has been our experience with meeting people from other Shambhala sanghas too. We've been to NYC for a class and Philly too. It's also pretty approachable which is nice.
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May 15, 2014 12:48
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:32 |
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This is pretty old but gives some indication about the NKT weirdness and how we got here. I know the whole NKT comes up once in a while and this info isn't usually all in one place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp0N72-uv58
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May 29, 2014 17:34
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Pancakes by Mail posted:
Well written set of questions. Thanks for posting. Zen doesn't do away with rebirth or karma but it places less emphasis on them. Zen doesn't deny that those things exist but Zen practitioners (from what I've found) focus more on the present moment and acting appropriately. Your karma is your karma, how you react to things as they arise in each moment is what generates your future karma i.e. if you act with compassion and kindness in every moment, your future karma is taking care of, so to speak. So zen focuses on the present moment and being fully aware. Rebirth, since it is part of the Mahayana, is also part of the Zen tradition but again, it is downplayed because if you life a good life as a good person, you'll have a good rebirth. In all of these things, the real focus is to be present and follow the teachings here and now. The other things take care of themselves. At least that's how I understand it.
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Jul 24, 2014 22:05
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The Dark Wind posted:Hey guys! I'm moving to NYC in September, and I'm wondering if any of you know some good dharma centers in the area, preferably in Manhattan or Brooklyn? I'm looking specifically for places that practice Tibetan Buddhism, preferably Kagyu or Nyingma but I'm interested in Gelug too. I've been with Shambhala for the last year or so, and while I love the practices and will probably keep doing retreats with them, I'd love to find a place where I can have direct access to a lama and learn from them if possible. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks! I listened to a few older podcasts by the Interdependence Project that were ok. Ethan Nichtern (a shastri from Shambhala) was one of their teachers and he started it. It seemed like a nice crowd back then but I'm not sure how it is now. It might be worth a shot. It was a much more secular peek into the Buddhist viewpoint when I last checked in.
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Jul 29, 2014 18:13
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Paramemetic posted:It's something close to "ka jyoo". Kagyu is an approximate English spelling, the wylie for the Tibetan is bka'brgyud, so a lot of Americans will pronounce a hard G, but it's actually a soft G with a Y after, a lot like "George." I didn't know this. Thanks 
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Sep 5, 2014 13:31
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Despite having him on ignore, I have been piecing together what our ol pal OCHS has been spewing in this thread from people's quotes. I would recommend everyone to set him to ignore so he goes away again. He needs help but it's clear after three long and painful episodes in this thread, he won't get the help he needs. For those who think he's interesting, let me sum up: - He openly advocated in the past that people taking medication to help them avoid depression stop taking it because "its all the mind, mannnnn", the power of meditation and positive thinking is all you need. He doesn't consider that maybe the clear thinking brought about by meditation would lead you to medicine to help you but hey, the thought processing only goes so deep with this guy - He openly hates women. That should be enough to shun him right there but in case you still find him "interesting".... - He openly states he is enlightened while displaying the most un-enlightened. confused, muddled thinking ever dumped in this thread. - He doesn't read and attempt to understand what people are asking when they try to dig into what he says. He will either attack or divert when proven wrong. It is a vicious cycle which people feed because they are trying to be nice. Enough's enough. It's really not helpful to anyone, including him, for him to post here. I get that we want to help people and be kind but maybe the best way to be kind to this guy (who is obviously in a lot of mental pain), is to tell him to get some help and then ignore him until he goes away. He feeds off of the attention and I'd suggest not giving it to him, for his sake, if not for the sakes of people who come here with legitimate questions looking for non-batshit answers. Sorry we're going through this again.
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Nov 29, 2014 14:23
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Max posted:I understand. I'm newish to this thread, so I wasn't aware of the history. I've met other practitioners in real life who had the same problems, so I sort of figured that was going on, but I didn't slam the ignore button until the hating women thing came out. It's no problem at all. I understand what it must be like to people seeing this fellow for the first time. He seems like he knows what he's talking about at first but once you push back on some of it, his defense mechanism teeters between disdain and arrogance. He's definitely not good for this thread which is meant to cater to people looking for guidance, education, patience and help. His circular logic, obtuse "i'm enlightened so I can't be expected to make sense" and rants help no one.
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Nov 29, 2014 15:52
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Paramemetic posted:Conventionally, there is mind. Absolutely, there is no mind. While at some level it is useful to recognize that mind itself is emptiness, this is in fact a problem when it leads to nihilism. "There is no mind" is a nihilistic statement that is not helpful, despite, on an absolute level, being true. This is a great post. I'd also say "don't worry so much about jhanas" either. And if you don't know what a jhana is you're a step ahead.
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Jan 14, 2015 21:09
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:32 |
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goodness posted:I have started to look into Meditation, found this thread via the small questions. I have a copy of Mindfulness in Plain English otw and working on listening to AudioDharma. My world outlook has really been changing lately and I have started to feel like a new person almost. Everything just feels right. It's pretty cool how that happens. It takes a while and that's good. Meditation sometimes take a while to sink in. I know it did for me.
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Jun 12, 2015 21:22
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