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64fanatic posted:I know nothing first off, but would like to change that. Unfortunately, not much to choose from near me. I'd need to travel 30 minutes via highway to get to the closest place: I don't follow the Tibetan tradition beyond occasionally attending a local Nyingma center about an hour away, but with all of the taint-breathing going on around here, I'm sure someone could weigh in with more authority. The NKT is pretty sketchy, though. There's the Dorje Shugden disagreement thing in Gelug and the rejection of Tibetan cultural traditions and the weird Chinese funded anti-Dalai Lama stuff, but more so as a group they are pretty culty. Tricycle has a decent article about it. The actual practice or instruction they offer at the centre near you may be fine, I wouldn't know, but I would be aware of all that going in. It looks like there are several other options in Edmonton that you could try as well. I regularly attend a Vietnamese Thiền temple near my home that I enjoy and find immensely helpful. My personal practice is more Theravada oriented, but besides the very small and understated aspect of Pure Land that comes up every now and then at the temple, it meshes quite well.
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Sep 26, 2019 13:41
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64fanatic's question got me thinking about my own practice. I've thought about bringing it up here before, but honestly was hesitant to do so because I figured no one would want to be bothered by yet another random internet yahoo's boring personal business, so please feel free to ignore. I've been practicing for four or five years now. Mainly I've been going to the local Vietnamese temple and keeping a simplistic home practice. This past year or two has been particularly tumultuous and full of upheaval, and it included almost succumbing to and finally overcoming near-crippling alcoholism and all of the associated anxiety, depression, and many of the other issues that go along with it. The last six months or so have been a complete change, mostly thanks to study and practice, and to a loving and supporting wife who helped me maintain that practice even though she herself doesn't directly share it. While employment and finances are an ongoing problem, I feel physically, emotionally, and mentally healthier than I have in more years than I can remember. I've also been driven to dive into my practice much more deeply, and that's where I've come to a point where I feel I need to make some sort of decision about tradition. I love the Rhinoceros Sutra, but it isn't exactly exemplary advice for a lay practitioner, at least at a basic level. I feel the need to seek out instruction and support within a tradition and stick with it, rather than piecemeal everything together and try to make sense of it on my own. Just the Pali Canon? What about the wisdom in the Parjnaparamitas? How important is esoteric knowledge? What sutras do I take at face value, and which do I simply read as metaphor? How much cultural context am I ignoring that may be intrinsically important that I'm not aware of? How much of a role does language play? I love languages and am not afraid to study them to deepen my understanding, but which ones? Sanskrit? Pali? Tibetan? Classical Chinese? What about meditation techniques and methodology? What am I doing wrong, and am I doing anything beneficial? Strive for Arhatship, or fulfill Bodhisattva vows? I'm so full of questions. My local Vietnamese temple, while welcoming and comforting, doesn't offer much in the way of instruction or anything on a personal level beyond weekly guided group meditation and Dharma talks, which is fine. I'll continue participating there no matter what. There is a local White Plum Zen group, but they seem more interested in monthly book club meetings about Japanese Zen perspectives on modern English literature than much else. The Nyingma Tibetan group I've been a guest with is more than an hour's drive away, and as I'm mostly bound to a motorcycle, weather is a often a serious impediment to travel. That, and Tibetan practice seems to be somewhat daunting and frankly sometimes intimidating, at least in the services I've attended. Beyond that, there isn't much near me to explore. Retreats are beyond my financial means. I've considered online groups, and have had some interactions with Plum Village online "sanghas" which are quite pleasant, but not really helpful. I'm not champing at the bit, but I'm not really sure where to go from here. Mushika fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Sep 27, 2019 |
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Sep 27, 2019 18:15
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Paramemetic posted:For my part, I will say one key factor is having a Lama. Not necessarily a Tibetan Lama, but some Guru, some spiritual teacher and spiritual friends who can help you with questions like these and others. We don't need to try to walk the path alone. Buddha has given us a roadmap, but we can go forward more confidently with a guide. So, there's that to consider, too. Thank you for responding! This, I think, is my crux. Perhaps it's not so much a tradition I'm looking for as much as someone trusted I can look to for some form of guidance. It's not so much a set of rules to strictly adhere to that I'm looking for, it's someone who can help me put all of this together in a way that is coherent. We have so much information from such a vast span of time and experience with the Dharma now that no one individual in past generations has had like we do now. Eighty-four thousand threads in a fluid web with historical and cultural contexts that can't be revoked from their development, but often can't be reconciled with each other. I found van Schaik's Tibetan Zen fascinating for that very reason. At the same time, I'm just a kinda dumb, simple dude just trying to get by living a simple life and making the world around me better who tends to overthink things.
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Sep 27, 2019 19:35
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Paramemetic posted:Tibetan Zen is a great read, a lot of that work was sponsored and encouraged by HH Chetsang Rinpoche, the head of my lineage, who has also written a very comprehensive history of the Tibetan Empire. You're absolutely right that Tibetan Zen is a great representative of living traditions and their intersections and various windows of time. Thanks for the advice. I'll think about that. I may give the Tibetan center another try. It's a Katog Choling center under Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche. I'm not sure about much more than that, but the people there are pleasant and welcoming.
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Sep 27, 2019 20:44
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Caufman posted:In the 40 Tenets of Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, "The true arhat is also a bodhisattva, and the true bodhisattva is also an arhat." I do appreciate the way TNH and Vietnamese Thiền in general seems to incorporate Theravada and Ch'an without really missing a beat. I really benefit from Theravada practice, but it's strict adherence to what seems to me to be a historically false orthodoxy does seem to be, I don't know, needlessly exclusionary? The sectarianism that gave rise to the Mahayana/Theravada schism isn't nearly as simple and cut and dried as modern divisions would have everyone believe. The "schism" itself is really more of a modern dichotomy, relatively, and far more complicated historically. That being said, I love my Pali Canon, but you can pry my Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya from my cold, dead hands. Speaking of attachments, I recognize the value of ritual, but one of the things that kind of turns me off of Tibetan practice is the vastly ritualistic approach as compared to other streams of Buddhist practice. Am I misinterpreting my very limited experience in that respect, Paramemetic?
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Sep 29, 2019 22:11
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I understand that ritual is a necessary part of practice. I welcome it. But what body of ritual? What tradition, what lineage? Should I trust myself with these questions, or do I put my trust in someone else? I guess one huge question I have to ask of myself and answer to myself is, what do I want? I'm not going to make any milestones towards liberation in this life. I know that. My attachments run too deep. More than anything, I love my wife far more than my desire for the path of monasticism. Sorry, self-that-is-not-self, that's just going to have to wait for another go around or two. I'm just trying to live a good life and help those around me. The Dharma is very good in that respect, but I know that I can learn more than simply watching YouTube dhamma talks and focusing my breath on my upper lip. E: Thanks for your reply, Herstory. I do appreciate it. Mushika fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Sep 30, 2019 |
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Sep 30, 2019 02:13
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Paramemetic posted:Within a Tibetan Buddhist context, the answer is "whatever your spiritual master has told you, or if you do not have a spiritual master, don't worry about it because you should be finding a spiritual master first." Admittedly, though, Tibetan buddhism does make a lot of supernatural claims that are difficult for me to reconcile with the Buddha's stress on empirical skepticism. It is supremely condescending to simply hand wave them away as psychological metaphors, surely, but it is a doubt that lingers in the back of my mind. As far as finding a lama, I guess I'll just have to widen my search. The head of the lineage of the Nyingma center I visit definitely does not resonate with me. My eyebrow first went up when they mentioned his third house in Hawai'i or something to that effect. He also sniffed way too much in his prerecorded chanting. There was a general sense of starry-eyed devotion that turned me off a bit as well. I will say that Tibetan is a beautiful language and hands-down has the best script of any language. Also, Tibetan Buddhism has Ani Choying Drolma.
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Sep 30, 2019 13:53
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Now that I think about it more deeply, I think that's why I keep trying to find something in Tibetan practice to fit myself into: its beauty, its trappings and ritual, and its fascinating history and surrounding culture. That's a terribly superficial reason to choose a spiritual path, and demeaning to Tibetan practice as well. I may not be fully committed to the Theravadin orthodoxy, but neither am I ready to jump onto a path for the wrong reasons. Maybe the Thiền boat I've been on is the boat I should have been on all along, and instead of looking for another boat, I should keep my eyes on the Other Shore. It's super cheesy to say it like that, but it is an interesting realization. I certainly don't mean to say anything to demean or diminish anyone's personal practice, much less Tibetan Buddhism in general, but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm moving at a good clip and I'll take change as it comes.
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Sep 30, 2019 14:49
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Paramemetic posted:This holds true right up until you start trying to read it, lmao. Really? Why is that? Is the alphabet/syllabary/abugida difficult to wade through?
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Sep 30, 2019 16:12
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zhar posted:They may be more explicit in Tibetan Buddhism but fwiw supernatural powers are prevalent in both the Pali and Sanskrit canons, so there's no real getting away from it. Not to say you should blindly believe in them though and probably not worth worrying about unless they pertain to your practice. That's true, and not something I was unaware of, but thanks for bringing it up. Hiro Protagonist posted:The pronunciation has drifted so far from script that almost nothing is actually pronounced as it's spelled. Is that something true of only liturgical Tibetan, or is that the case with modern written Tibetan as well? Does that explain the difference between Wylie transliteration and common transliteration? Sorry if I'm nerding out on language, but it fascinates me and I'm more interested in someone's personal experience with it than textual examples.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:24
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Yeah, I love language but that sounds like inflection by orders of magnitudes. I'll stick with uninflected languages, thankyouverymuch. Like Vietnamese. Pronunciation is tricky, but the grammar makes sense. Unlike Russian or Romanian or Swahili or even Sanskrit or Pali. If your root word becomes unintelligible, it doesn't matter what the prefixes or suffixes do to affect it. Yes, a highly inflected language can express a whole sentence in a single word, but if it means obfuscating root words amongst a slew of affecting modifiers, it just gives me a headache. What I mean to say is, I'm sorry and good luck.
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Sep 30, 2019 20:51
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Wait wait wait, the Dhammapada? The Dhammapada? Plenty of early Buddhist scriptures have been available to Tibetan monastic scholars for centuries, surely?
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Oct 2, 2019 03:18
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How do y'all feel about secular Buddhism? In the Stephen Batchelor vein. Is it white appropriation? Is it an interesting perspective on western Buddhism? I'm curious especially how goons who may have been raised Buddhist feel about that.
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Jan 19, 2020 05:08
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Achmed Jones posted:It's better than no buddhism, but only just. mostly because unlike many corporate-sponsored mindfulness and meditation programs, at least it's honest that it's taking a rich and beautiful tradition and removing large chunks because people feel weird about approaching stories in a way other than "is either literally 100% true or is nonsense". Tbh it's not like it's the individuals' fault here; that is how a lot of communities approach christianity and it makes a lot of people bad at reading texts. I agree, but which full deal? I guess that's a problem I still wrestle with. ToxicSlurpee posted:It's effectively impossible to appropriate Buddhism. The Buddha himself said that the teachings and the path were fundamental truths of the universe that nobody owns. He didn't invent them; he found them and decided to share. All Buddhists are working toward the same destination regardless of denomination. That's the part that matters; everything else is just going about it a different way. I think this is nice and succinct. Thank you. Nessus posted:I agree with everyone above regarding the idea that the dharma is for everyone in whatever way they benefit from. I believe the phrase is 84,000 dharma doors. Yes, this is what I'm wary of as well. The thing is, I've always felt conflicted as to what tradition to follow. I feel grounded in Theravada and the Pali Canon, but I can't deny the wisdom of the Mahayana sutras even if their "mystical" (for lack of a better word) aspects don't resonate with me. The Heart sutra in particular really speaks to me. The temple I attend regularly is Vietnamese Thiền, and I really get a great deal from practicing there, even though I don't really ascribe to the concept of Amitābha or the Pure Lands. I've always thought that the best approach would be to choose a tradition and stick with it, but the breadth of Buddhist literature and teaching spans so much time and so many vastly different traditions that I often feel overwhelmed when it comes to finding one that really resonates with me that I can functionally practice. I've also been told that finding a proper teacher and relying on their guidance is the best way to go, but that is also quite difficult. The nuns and monks at my temple are really busy performing their regular tasks, and really few people have the time to simply volunteer to be a mentor, and I wouldn't really know who to trust with that anyway. Secular Buddhism seems like it might be a workable way to practice without bogging myself down with the worry and doubt about whether to follow this tradition or that one; not approaching secular Buddhism as a doctrine itself, but rather a framework of practice that supersedes the approach of doctrine. I feel like it's better to practice than to not, and the question of how to practice is really hindering me from doing so.
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Jan 19, 2020 14:22
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mike12345 posted:Someone published a book (McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality) about this, there's an interview with the author online. Here's an excerpt: That is abhorrent. Nauseatingly abhorrent. The "mindfulness" industry is a disgusting marketing tool to justify consultants' careers as they struggle to find relevance. Herstory Begins Now posted:It is 1000% possible to appropriate buddhist culture and practices in bad ways. Buddhist teachings are, in theory somewhat a-cultural and are certainly meant to be more or less freely offered to all who won't be hurt by them, but in all of their recorded or repeated forms I don't think I've seen one that lacked a cultural context so it is hard to fully separate them. I want to say that to some extent it's alright to take them and see what fits with your life, but also taking something and using it purely for your own purposes is generally the exact definition of appropriation. This is also what I'm wary of. I don't want to cherry-pick what I find useful and strip it of any cultural or religious context. I know that the dhamma is the path that I want to follow, but which of the eighty-four thousand paths that leads to the boat to the Other Shore do I choose to take? That's largely a rhetorical question.
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Jan 19, 2020 15:02
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Well, then I guess I consider myself a non-orthodox Theravadin who practices at a Vietnamese Mahayana temple and who respects a great deal of Mahayana Sutras. I respect the Bodhisattva vows, but still believe that arahantship is required before leading others to liberation or otherwise it's the blind leading the blind. I absolutely respect the Mahayana sutras, but still believe in the primacy of the Pali canon. Am I still picking and choosing my dogma here? Because this is what I believe, but I also don't hold my beliefs to be unshakeable or free from correction. e: If I had to choose a tradition that spoke to me specifically, it would be the Thai Forest tradition, but that's largely a monastic tradition and I'm not ready to release myself from the fetters of my wife or my dog, though I would love to take a Dhutanga regularly. Mushika fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Jan 19, 2020 |
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Jan 19, 2020 15:24
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Achmed Jones posted:I struggled a lot with this issue for a long time. I wouldn't call myself a buddhist because I didn't want to be that guy, and I had some metaphysical hangups that I briefly described above, so I thought I wasn't a "real" buddhist. But I was wrong. Now that you say that, I think I have. I think I should refrain from trying to reconcile my personal practice with the temple ceremonies that I share with others. I may not believe in every bit of minutiae that Vietnamese Buddhism exhibits, but at the same time I see the wisdom in it. I also recognize that, while I do feel that the Pali Canon is the closest we have to the direct teachings of the oral traditions of the Dhamma as the Buddha taught it, it is also fallible, being an oral tradition, and subsequent Mahayana commentaries are on the level of the Pali Abhidamma, especially considering that there is so much Buddhist oral and written histories missing from our literature simply because those schools died out and we don't have a record of them. In conclusion, Buddhism is a land of contrasts.
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Jan 19, 2020 18:41
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ToxicSlurpee posted:The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. Good thing I'm not a Taoist! I kid, I kid! Thank you, and I really do appreciate that.
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Jan 19, 2020 19:05
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Caufman posted:
I genuinely chuckled at this. Thank you. Caufman posted:I caught a break in that no one tacks white appropriation onto me because I am not white, but if they looked deeper, they may say I am guilty of western appropriation (and apparently there are those who've criticized Thich Nhat Hahn of creating un-Buddhist interpretation perhaps to appeal to a western audience) because although I'm Asian, there are no known Buddhists in my family or recent ancestry. Back in China, my ancestors appear to be mostly Confucian in practice and became at least nominally Catholic when they emigrated to Indonesia. However, I still maintain that if you really want to take the measure of someone's spirituality, whatever form that spirituality takes, then go and taste the fruit of their practice. A vexing person is self-evidently vexing. A pleasant person is self-evidently pleasant. I'm actually a big fan of Thich Nhat Hanh, but I'm aware of the criticism of the Plum Village tradition. While I respect the tradition a great deal, I do have to admit I'm often off put by its "new agey" tone and feel, for lack of a better term. I sometimes participate in Plumline online sangha meditations and dharma talks, and do appreciate the environment, but it just isn't for me, at least as a full-time practice. The Magnolia Grove sangha is not too far away from me, and I've often thought about taking a pilgrimage there for a retreat. I'd like to think of myself as a pleasant, non-vexing person, but I'm really not the best person to ask. Nessus posted:I think you have a good overall attitude here and I think that a whole lot of it boils down to, "Can you respect the difference in peace." Thank you. I most certainly can, and it's why I don't want to demean any particular method of practice by paying it mere lip service and incorporating it into my own practice as an act of flippant appropriation. At the end of the day, though, I just have to accept that my beliefs are reflected in multiple traditions and I have to pay them as much respect and honesty as I can. Mushika fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Jan 20, 2020 |
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Jan 19, 2020 23:57
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Paramemetic posted:This holds true right up until you start trying to read it, lmao. I know this is from many pages back, but good lord, you weren't kidding. I'm a huge language nerd but even I can't parse this language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btn0-Vce5ug
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Jan 20, 2020 04:36
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Nessus posted:I think - to answer your question from a little ways ago - is that the answer is that all of the doors lead to the other shore. I can certainly understand why, if you don't dig on rebirth, you would be especially concerned about getting it right within a period of a few decades, though. To be perfectly honest, if I may? I'm mostly concerned with reducing human suffering, rather than my own enlightenment. I'm less concerned with ending my Self than I am with helping others.
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Jan 20, 2020 05:23
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:The Dhammapada. Most buddhist sutras are very dry and technical and hard to read because they were passed down orally originally and were filled with mnemonics and repetition that made memorizing easier but makes it a lot more dense when written down. The dhammapada is short and sweet and is used by both Therevada and Mahayana. I will second this. The Dammapada is an excellent source of wisdom that one can use day-to-day. I do. e: I try to.
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Jan 27, 2020 11:41
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Senju Kannon posted:you should read the tannisho Isn't the Tannisho rather specific to Jodo Shinshu? If referring someone to broadly accepted "canon" bodies, wouldn't the Lotus Sutra, the Prajñāpāramitā-hrdaya, or the various works of the Pali Canon that are accepted by many traditions (such as the Dhammapada) be a better reference? e: I think the best would be collections of works, but what collections to take into consideration is a big question. Mushika fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 07:03
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Wouldn't it better to start at the beginning and trace how differing schools of thought evolved and study in that direction rather than backwards?
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Feb 2, 2020 22:03
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Senju Kannon posted:why read other sutras when the tannisho is all you need Why concern yourself with the teachings of the Buddha?
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Feb 10, 2020 15:46
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Senju Kannon posted:it’s not like we can follow them Pardon? Aren't the words of the Buddha pretty definitively the basis of Buddhism?
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Feb 11, 2020 17:00
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Nessus posted:Senju is referring to the core theological argument of Jodo shinshu which is basically "it is impossible, or effectively impossible, to follow the original dharma in this decayed world; therefore, take refuge in Amida buddha and do it in Amida's pure land." Well, that sounds rather fatalistic. Especially when considering that we are able to follow the Dhamma regardless of how "decayed" our world may be. I guess I'll just avoid Jodo Shinshu, then.
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Feb 11, 2020 17:41
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That's really quite sad, considering Buddhism's origins as equalizing, even mendicant religion.
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Feb 11, 2020 19:00
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Nessus posted:I don't understand. What's the sad part? It's brought spiritual comfort to millions! Oh, no, I didn't mean that! I meant the pre-Pure Land aristocratic nature of Japanese Buddhism. It's sad that, in that context, it was a religion of the wealthy considering its origins as a religion that ignored class (and caste) boundaries. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
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Feb 11, 2020 19:20
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Yiggy posted:very good words See, I kind of have trouble with this. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are basic tenets to live by. Much of the Pali Canon, such as the Dhammapada, is as well. Meditation is wonderful, and liberation is something to be sought after, but at its basic core, isn't Buddhism as much, if not more than, about relieving suffering for all sentient beings in this life as it is about how we may fare in subsequent lives? It's not all going beyond-Self and conditional existence and breathing through your taint, it's also about suffering, about dukkha. About how alleviating dukkha benefits all beings, and not just for merit, but because we all are in this crazy cycle of samsara together and we can all do something about it right here and now and not just wait for a better go the next time.
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Feb 11, 2020 19:57
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Paramemetic posted:Alas, in this degenerate era,,, All eras are degenerate and wonderful. Sentient beings are capable of great kindness and great cruelty. There has never been a golden era, but we can still strive for it. There is no Shambhala, but that doesn't mean we can't work towards a better world for everyone in this life.
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Feb 11, 2020 20:49
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Yiggy posted:Sure and I think again I tend to agree with you. How does it go? “The dharma is good in the beginning, in the middle and in the end.” In particular a lot of the earlier sutras emphasize that the dharma is good for reducing suffering in the here and now. Thank you for this explanation. I have the utmost respect for the Bodhisttva vow, but I don't aim that high. Hell, I'm not even that terribly concerned with attaining arahantship. I see too much suffering that I can do something about in this life, even if I don't have the material ability to do that much. And oof, that link. Even as a (mostly) Theravadin, I recognize that there's plenty wrong with the monastic culture of southeast Asia. A colleague of mine was a monk in Cambodia for several years and has so many stories of how the monastic system there was basically a money making scheme that took advantage of believers. I don't know much about Mahayana/Vajrayana monastic culture, but I have a feeling that clergy systems everywhere breed corruption and exploitation of laity. The vinaya is written to prevent that, but religious, social, and political structures exist based on how people integrate them together, and it doesn't always happen according to the Tipitaka.
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Feb 11, 2020 23:09
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Nessus posted:Some of this may also be the question of what is easier to articulate, especially if you are a lay person. "I want a favorable rebirth" is pretty straightforward. Yes, but my question is, "how can I make the lives of other people around me better in this life" because I can't be certain I'll be able to do it in the next. Simply praying for a better rebirth is useless to me. And to others.
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Feb 11, 2020 23:22
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I wonder if I am following the wrong path. Placing one's faith in the hopes of a better rebirth, as opposed to working to better everyone's condition in this life, seems enormously arrogant to me.
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Feb 12, 2020 00:06
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Nessus posted:I don't think you are, though I do think that perhaps the Mahayana route isn't going to do a lot for you, and in general a lot of the old-fashioned Buddhist stuff does not move heavily towards social activism in a formal and direct way. Like you can get there from here, but it isn't like Shakyamuni said, "Incidentally, tax capital and fund civic improvements. You'll understand what that means later." Oh good lord, this would all be so much easier if he had. But then existence would be simple and easy, wouldn't it? quote:Is your desire to minister, or to channel Buddhist thought to further secular social improvements? These are not really mutually exclusive, as Paramimetic said, but this may help you guide your search. That's a really good question. I don't think I have any ability or authority to do the former, and I'm not confident that I do for the latter, either. quote:I would also say that you want to be careful about "everyone." "Everyone" is a great way to set yourself up to continue the interior pattern of suffering, perhaps even counterproductively: you can perhaps do anything in this life, but you cannot do everything. This is a good point. Thank you.
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Feb 12, 2020 02:47
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Nessus posted:When I say minister I mean in the sense of helping others in a direct and overt way. From what you're posting this is your primary motivation. It is laudable although you also want to care for yourself; you, too, are a sentient being who is suffering. You should cultivate mercy for yourself, because then you'll have the habits and thoughts of mercy to apply elsewhere. Yes, this is the crux of my attitude toward my practice. This also is one reason why I don't feel that I can take the Bodhisattva Vow. If I can't attain arahantship for myself, which isn't exactly one of my highest goals, how can I hope to lead anyone else to liberation? I can do what I can to help others in this life. I'm not knowledgeable or experienced enough to know that I can help them in the next.
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Feb 12, 2020 03:51
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Nessus posted:Keep in mind that you will have a lot of chances to work on it. For a certain value of "you," anyway. Therein lies the rub: I have this life here and now. I don't know what sort of life comes next, but I have been exposed to the Dhamma in this life. I understand suffering, and I feel I would be remiss if I didn't attempt to alleviate it. Putting it off because I expect a chance to do so in a future existence is, well, horribly selfish.
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Feb 12, 2020 04:47
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Whoops, sorry. Double posted somehow.
Mushika fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Feb 12, 2020 |
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Feb 12, 2020 04:47
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I simply can't reconcile the fact that there is work to be done here in this life with the idea that merit somehow opens up opportunities in the next. How do we know what the next existence entails? What we do know is that there is work to be done in this life. There is suffering that we can alleviate here and now. The choices that we make in this life have far-reaching consequences.
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Feb 12, 2020 13:37
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So it's spiritual Accelerationism, then. Hope that suffering in this life leads others to the Dhamma in the hope that their future lives will be alleviated of spiritual suffering. Dukkha in this life is irrelevant, only merit for the conditions of our rebirth is worthy of concern. Am I reading this right? Because that's what it sounds like, and that sounds like bullshit. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be combative, but that's what it feels like I'm reading.
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Feb 13, 2020 02:03
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