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Thank you for being awesome and for starting a new thread, Paramemetic. What is merit, and how does merit work?
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Feb 17, 2020 12:00
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 02:40 |
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Thirteen Orphans posted:Thich Nhat Hanh and his Sangha are Vietnamese Zen! Well, in a way. In English, we tend to refer to all systems that derivate from Chinese Chan as "Zen" because we encounter it mostly from Japanese contexts. Vietnamese Thiền and Korean Seon are also interpretations of Chan but are independent from each other in practice, doctrine, and their cultural contexts. Also, Thich Nhat Hanh has been very syncretic in his works when it comes to Mahayana versus Theravada canons in a way that I very much appreciate. Old Path White Clouds is a wonderful book that transcends those divisions.
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Mar 11, 2020 16:27
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After a lot of self searching and some advice of my therapist, I reached out to the Thay of my temple in regards to my alcoholism, and also my spiritual practice. I was honestly afraid to do so; my problems are so small to the world at large, why would I bother someone who has an entire community to attend to? The Vietnamese Buddhist community here in southern Louisiana is quite large, and then there is the non-Vietnamese community that often go to him for guidance. I also didn't even really know where to begin. I emailed him and he enthusiastically agreed to meet and have tea on the temple grounds. It turns out that he has a PhD in addiction counseling and agreed to take me on as his pupil. He has agreed to meet with me for once or twice a week sessions with him as well as him being always on call via phone, text, or email. He also invited me to wander the temple grounds whenever I feel the need. The only thing he asks is that, once I'm comfortable with my progress, that I go out and help other people like myself who battle with addiction. I can't quite describe how happy and hopeful I am about this. Paramemetic and Herstory, thank you for your thorough and continuing contribution to this thread. And all of you other posters as well. You are most graciously helping the Dharma reach people. I, for one, dearly appreciate it.
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Nov 18, 2020 19:49
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If anyone is as interested as I am in the Pali Canon, Bhikku Bodhi's new (to me at least, it's from 2017) translation of the Suttanipata is great. It pretty much opens with the Rhinoceros Sutra after the commentary and goes on from there. It's quite good.
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Sep 29, 2021 10:09
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Shen Yun is poison and Falun Gong is the root. They make my life a loving living hell for one week every year and it always falls in a huge dearth of work, so it's difficult to refuse to do the lighting work for them because if I don't work, I don't eat, but I'm getting too old and I can't justify perpetuating this bigoted, insane poo poo. I'm venting here because they claim to be a Buddhist sect and they are anything but and because they have have made my life hell for the last time and I'm going to the temple today to help do some work on the roof and purge this from myself. Oh, and work with Brother Duke on his English reading the Sutta Nipata. I'm sorry, I don't have many people I can vent this to.
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Jan 5, 2024 15:35
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Shen Yun is the profit arm of Falun Gong. They make the majority of its cult leader's money. There are at least eight groups performing internationally at any given time to profit their Deerpark, New York campus. e: None of their personnel are paid wages, they are simply fed and clothed. We're talking classically trained dancers, musicians, technical crew, you name it. Mushika fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 18:11
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Heath posted:Big dick Buddha energy Herstory Begins Now posted:if u meet a samsara on the road, give it a boot to the head Good thread titles.
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Feb 20, 2024 13:55
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I've never quite understood this discussion, because to me, the desire for mercy seems self-evident beyond any doctrine or dogma. If you need to search for justification for mercy... well, what are you doing? "Practicing" mercy seems like a farce to me. Why practice what should be inimical to the human condition? Are we to assume that all humans are just unreformed psychopaths? Mushika fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 15:55
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Achmed Jones posted:what are you talking about? you practice good things to get better at doing them, until behaving that way is automatic and thoughtless. That's my point: that should just be normal behavior! It shouldn't require practice, much less full liberation. That should be normal. Compassion, empathy, mercy; these should all be normal human qualities. This is how people should interact with each other, not a thing to aspire to. If that's work, than there's more to look at than your daily practice.
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Mar 11, 2024 16:23
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I apologize to the thread, as I've had a really rough and long night at work. However, I will still maintain that empathy is an intrinsic human trait and enlightenment is not required for it. It is beaten out of us.
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Mar 11, 2024 16:39
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Nessus posted:I think that’s an example of the occlusions Jones referred to. It may also be valuable for someone with less occlusion of their empathic qualities to do deliberate practice, just like a big strong person may end up even stronger with purposeful effort Maybe I've just surrounded myself with people that share my sense of empathy? Perhaps I avoid people who don't share that, and that's definitely a shortcoming of myself? I don't know. I really don't know.
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Mar 11, 2024 16:51
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 02:40 |
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A lot to respond to here. I'm genuinely sorry that I can't address it all.Visions of Valerie posted:This is a lot of "should". Normative statements risk losing sight of the nature of the world as it is in favor of some ideal. It is tanha when we cling to this ideal, and we bring suffering through judging the world/ourselves/others/etc. for failing to live up to our ideal. This is perhaps the best response I could hope for. It's ultimately my failing for my own expectations. It is truly tanha, you are correct.
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Mar 12, 2024 00:12
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