|
I wanted to gain clarification on one aspect of Buddhism: Love. Love seems to be one of the most important concepts to the Buddha, from my very little research and understanding on the topic, but the Preta, or "Hungry Ghosts", are supposedly attached to the world for a variety of reasons, one of them being Love. How does this work? Is it particular kinds of love(i.e. Platonic vs. Romantic vs. Friendship), or ways of loving, or is it an intensity thing? I always thought about it like this: the Buddha wants us to love and bring happiness to others always, but accept their deaths as an inevitability, allowing us to be both deattached and attached. But again, I'm not a Buddhist. Thanks in advance!
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2013 04:44
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 15:31 |
|
|
Gods are just beings that, through millions of lifetimes, consistently gained enough good karma to be born as gods. The disadvantage, at least according to some Buddhists, is there life is too good, and they can't understand suffering, leading to them inevitably failing to grasp the Dharma. I've heard it said most gods go straight to hell for the inevitable bad karma they aquire through their enormously long lives. Animals are kind of the opposite, they are too dumb to get the Dharma, so they inevitably just do what's easiest and rarely follow moral action, leading to negative karma and crappier rebirths. Some schools, like a lot of Tibetan schools, emphasize how awesome human life is because we're in a sweet spot.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2018 04:28
|
|
|
Paramemetic, I have to say, as someone who's going to Nepal to learn Tibetan, but has little experience with actual Tibetan Buddhism outside of an academic context, I love your insider perspective. I've thought about taking refuge in a Tibetan tradition, but I always worry that all the people will be the weird astrology/tarot/new age Buddhists I keep seeing on Facebook groups, so it's refreshing to get a legitimate perspective that isn't spouting dumb nonsense.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2019 06:48
|
|
|
Thanks, man! I'll PM you later today. Also, sorry to anyone about the dig at astrology. I was just thinking of someone in particular in a group I'm in that keeps trying to advertise her business.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2019 16:28
|
|
|
I don't want to bring things back to the climate change issue too much, especially if the discussion has more or less ended, but I did feel like my own experiences may be helpful. I was also a frequent lurker in the D&D climate thread, and it caused a lot of problems for me. Like, frequent nervous breakdowns, needing to go to therapy expressly to deal with it problems. I still generally avoid news on the issue now, as it can sometimes bring me into mini-spirals if I'm not careful. My own Buddhist practice has helped, but I know for me I feel like I could only gain comfort from people within the greater climate science community. With that in mind, I might recommend Inheritors of the Earth by Chris D. Thomas. In many ways, the book, while being primarily an ecological science book, felt like it reflected the Dharma quite well. He takes the approach that, instead of despairing at the changes that are an unavoidable and clinging to a pre-industrial ideal nature, we can find beauty in the changes that inevitably result from the Anthropocene. For instance, while humanity has been responsible for immense suffering and the extinction of many species, humanity has also increased (local) biodiversity throughout much of the world through invasive species, even while we lower global biodiversity significantly. While that may sound bad, Thomas argues that the vast majority of invasive species are ultimately beneficial, with the local ecologies finding places for the new comers. I don't know the wider reaction the ecological community had to this book, but I did see other scientists recommending it, so I think it's more on the "optimistic" side rather than the "denial of basic science" side. Hiro Protagonist fucked around with this message at 06:37 on May 9, 2019 |
|
#
¿
May 9, 2019 06:04
|
|
|
As someone who was just diagnosed with ADHD myself, thank you for this. It was something I'd also been struggling with, and I'm glad for your advice
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2019 20:40
|
|
|
I know it will likely vary from traditions, but in your experiences, is it better to read sutras alone with the possibility of misinterpreting them, or to wait to read until one is in a community or with a teacher that can clarify the sutra in question?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2019 21:50
|
|
|
Caufman posted:Well, are you ever really reading the sutras alone?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2019 06:41
|
|
|
The pronunciation has drifted so far from script that almost nothing is actually pronounced as it's spelled.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2019 16:16
|
|
|
Mushika posted:
I'll be honest, I only have experience with Standard Tibetan, so I don't know how much Classical Tibetan compares. All I'll say is that modern Tibetan is probably more accurately described as a language family rather than a singular language. Many of the "dialects" aren't mutually intelligible. Other people in the thread with more experience can definitely expand on this, as they have more experience. I've also heard that most older Tibetan scripts are readable by modern speakers because of the static nature of their spelling, which definitely is a plus for them. I've heard that Thai is similar.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2019 20:14
|
|
|
Really weird question out of nowhere: is Theravada Buddhism particularly popular in Germany? Many of the scholars and monks in the Theravada tradition seem to be German. Am I just seeing a weird pattern that isn't there, or have other people noticed this?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2019 01:45
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 15:31 |
|
|
It's also worth pointing out that no sect of Buddhism expects every Buddhist to enter into the Sangha. Lay Buddhism inherently means that there will be Buddhists in politics, and it's only natural that they would seek out guidance from the Sangha. Further, while there are definitely hardcore monastic groups in the middle of nowhere, most bhikkhu/bhiksu or bhikkhuni/bhiksuni are part of local communities, making political statements an inevitably.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2019 20:07
|
|