Buddhism Thread: Bitch I just told you about kshitigarbha

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Buddhism Thread: Bitch I just told you about kshitigarbha

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Buried alive posted:

Hey Guys. I've been perusing Buddhism for a while and I've recently gotten more into it, in my own ways, what with needing a way to deal with climate change providing motivation and the pandemic providing opportunity and all.

One of those ways was to join a Kik group, just to chat and get my feet wet. Some of the people there seem to be SUPER into the idea of other religions being wrong, that certain aspects of other Hindu religions involves consorting with demons, passionately rejecting metaphysical arguements about God, and one of the guys there (who is from Sri Lanka) seems to have quite the hate-boner for anything Hindu in general. Apparently there was a lot of conflict and supression of Buddhism by Indian (or maybe British Colonialist) forces in Sri Lanka in recent history, so it's understandable, but drat. I've also seen a lack of nuance towards other topics in some of the discussions. For example, trying to point out that just because someone thinks X should be legal, that is not the same as saying someone should therefore go out and do X.

.. Some of that is me venting I think, but I'm going to leave it there for discussion and commentary (or not) anyways. My concern is that I've definitely got an appealing vision of Buddhism (and Buddhists) in general mostly engaging in calm inquisitiveness towards such issues. While others (including mods) do intercede to try and calm things down, the fact that these flare ups exist is causing me to bounce off super hard. I guess I'm trying to suss out exactly why. I can feel myself wanting to discuss some of these issues, but a kik chatroom just feels like a poor format to do it in. Especially one where people are getting all up in arms about issues to begin with. Some of it might be miscommunications caused by whatever ESL or cross-cultural issues could be present. Some of it might be me clinging too tightly to my aforementioned appealing vision. Some of it might be the fact that my view of the world in general is doubtless influenced by growing up as a straight white dude in a (supposedly, anyway) 1st world industrialized nation that was a colonizer rather than a colonizee. In the spirit of trying to turn these experiences into a lesson.. I don't know. Wtf do I do next? Just spend some time ~~brooding~~ meditating on why it bothers me so?

P.S. There is a zen place near me that I've been meaning to check out for a while. Maybe I'll finally do that in a month or so when it's deemed safe to do things outside again.

Either find a different Kik group, try to make friends at a temple in your area once quarantine ends, or just ask actual monks your questions. You're second-guessing yourself here because you think maybe you're just being an ignorant privileged white dude and while its good to have that caution or self-awareness in this case your instincts are right. Sri Lanka had a 30 year civil war betqeen the Sinhalese ethnic group which is mainly buddhist and the Tamil minority which is mainly hindu. It ended 10 years ago but there was a lot of death, a lot of destruction, and a lot of human rights violations and theres still a lot of bad feelings and tension as a result of that war.

Long story short, in Sri Lanka saying you're buddhist is almost the same as saying you're sinhalese and saying you're hindu is almost the same as saying you're tamil. Thats why that one dude is so anti-hindu in particular and when you're having discussions on buddhism with these guys you're really having discussions on the civil war which ravaged their country.

BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Apr 29, 2020

# ¿ Apr 29, 2020 02:17

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 16:06

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Sleng Teng posted:

More vegan oriented but thread is really good:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3729596

e: and not explicitly buddhist, sorry. but the mindset is less western vegan than what I've seen elsewhere because of the op's efforts

Dinos posts in that thread I remember are really good too.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 14:58

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Paramemetic posted:

All composite phenomena are impermanent.

i disagree

# ¿ Jun 25, 2020 11:57

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

I’m going to be posting from the hungry ghost realm

Accidentally went to a pure land. Its cool but nobody here knows how to poo poo post.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2020 14:17

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Buddhas hate him! One weird trick to achieve enlightenment that boddhisatva's don't want you to know

# ¿ Jul 5, 2020 16:48

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

About to lay Chapter 6 of The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life on you fools.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 21:08

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Spacegrass posted:

I've been a Christian for along time, but Buddhism is something I feel that's in my heart, and really makes alot of sense to me, even though Ive been treating it as a philosophy. Any help for this confused soul?

Entrust yourself to the buddha of infinite light

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 03:08

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Legit though it sounds like you have issues with certain parts or underpinnings of christianity. I'm also curious what your experience with buddhism is. Most westerners treat buddhism as a "philosophy" when they first start exploring it myself included but large parts of buddhist philosophy and ideas that are nominally secular require the supernatural aspects in order to make sense imo.

I would figure out what your issues are with Christianity and then figure out what buddhism does differently (or what you think buddhism does differently after I converted I kept comparing buddhist teachings to bible scripture I learned that made me see that scripture in a different light than how the pastors taught it bu stoll made me feel the religions taught many of the same lessons "under the hood") that makes you feel attracted to it. Then I would read some buddhist scripture and teachings and maybe some small practice. Then you could figure out whether you would be best off continuing your current path, reforming your personal christianity to reconcile your issues with it, or just converting.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 03:19

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Spacegrass posted:

]
Also, the idea of animals and insects having souls makes no sense unless they screwed up in a previous life. How could a just god do that though.

The Buddha himself actually responded to this sort of question about the creation of the universe with the parable of the poison arrow:

Shakyamuni posted:

Suppose there was a doctor who one day had a man stumble into his office with a poisoned arrow stuck in his leg.

"This is bad." said the doctor, "the first thing we must do, before anything else, is to remove this arrow from your leg."

"Stop!" the poisoned man exclaims "before you remove this arrow from my leg I need to know who shot me!"

"How should I know?" the doctor replies "What I do know is that I can't make you healthy until the arrow is removed from your leg."

"And what about his age?" says the poisoned man "Is he young or old? Do you think he's tall or short? Is it even a man?! Could a woman have done this?"

"The arrow is still poisoned!" the doctor cries "We have to take it out! Please, sir, let me operate on you."

"And what of his parents? What were they like? And his childhood? Now that I think of it, I'm sure some sort of trauma must have happened to him to drive him to shooting poisoned arrows at random passers-by. I suppose I should feel sorry for him. But then despite all of that he still shot a poisoned arrow at me. I wonder if it was a short bow or a long?"

Now the doctor loses his patience and he yells at the man:

"Stop asking silly questions! Time is of the essence! If you don't want to die, let me take it out and give you some medicine and then you can ask all the questions you want!"

While its natural to be curious about the circumstances that led to you being shot by an arrow out of nowhere, the answers can only amount to speculation and it ignores the much more pressing issue of having a poisoned in your thigh. In the same way metaphysical questions about the exact nature of god, whether god exists at all, the circumstances that led to the creation of existence are all treated in Buddhism as being like the man who insists on figuring out all the particulars that led to him being poisoned before he will allow himself to be treated. The buddha said on another occasion:

Shakyamuni posted:

�Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same.�

regardless of why or how a just god would allow such a thing to occur is completely irrelevant. What matters is that it has occurred. And that it possesses a solution: by following the eightfold path you liberate yourself and end your suffering.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 05:36

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Karma creates a just world hypothesis superficially. Under the hood the injustice of it becomes readily apparent. A person who is born into painful circumstances will often afflict others with pain because its all they know. Karma does not account for these differences or reasons. All it cares about is that pain is inflicted.

Because of this a being born into hell has great difficulty escaping hell. Buddhism may provide one with a moral basis to improve their merit and ascend to higher planes but what are the chances that you will be born into a form where you can hear and comprehend buddhism? As Shantideva said a person who is lucky enough to hear the dharma is like a blind scavenger who finds a diamond while rustling through a pile of poo poo. While living impurely, without guidance, and thinking only of their own survival, they have through no earning of their own something of enormous worth.

Buddhism fundamentally does not believe that existence or karma are just. That is why the goal of the religion is to escape it. Karma is used by buddhists and taught despite its injustice as a sort of improvised weapon. The fight to achieve nirvana is too great, too long, and too difficult to go around passing up potential tools to achieve liberation or make the suffering experienced by the beings of the world smaller even temporarily.

Karma is samsara. So long as you are in a conditioned existence you are subject to it so you would be a fool to ignore it. You would also be a fool however to believe that it is your friend.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 21:11

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Nessus posted:

In the sense of the ethical systems, I do not believe there are great gulfs between Buddhist moral philosophy and Christian moral philosophy. I do think that there are aspects of the narrative of Jesus's life that conflict with aspects of the dharma, mostly involving Christ getting furious a few times and letting it rule his actions.

He was just acting as a wisdom king!

# ¿ Sep 25, 2020 15:42

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

There's a reason Buddhism's the one major world religion where it always seems to just merge with the indigenous religion rather when it spreads to a new place rather than replacing it.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2020 16:33

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Thirteen Orphans posted:

At work (I work in a cafe inside a bookstore) we have an ant problem. They often congregate on the counter, and they�re had to see, so I�ll wipe down the counter and pick up a dozen of those little guys. I�m stuck; I don�t want to kill the ants, but I can�t let them get around and into the food and drinks, for obvious reasons. It isn�t my authority to call a professional, but can they do anything outside of termination? To me that sounds like being complicit in taking life. I�m curious about the Buddhist(s) perspective to this moral quandary. For the sake of the argument presume I took the precept vow not to take life.

maintaining purity is impossible while engaging with an impure world. this is the reason why monks go to monasteries where they don't engage with the world in order to train and purify themselves. do what you can, accept your bombu nature and that you are not capable of maintaining your purity in this matter, engage in merit transfer so the ants may be reborn in a less squishy form, and use this as a lesson in your own humility.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2020 04:42

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

I like any story that involves peoples heads exploding and the buddha just going "yeah that'll happen. Let me give you 7.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2020 15:45

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

echinopsis posted:

Can someone tell me (because I don't know how to ask google this) about the kind of aesthetic surrounding buddhist stuff, especially tantric stuff.

Does that aesthetic arise from some kinds of meditative practices, or is it simply local art trends?

It would help if you posted a picture of what you're talking about with maybe some more detailed questions about what parts of the aesthetic you're most curious about. The use of "tantra" makes me think you're talking about tibetan buddhism but I'm not a vajrayana (the technical term for tibetan buddhism) practitioner so I'm not comfortable talking about it as an authority. Especially when there are tibetan practioners who post actively in the thread.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2020 17:38

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Nessus posted:

I got a nice thick translation of the Lotus Sutra for the new year's and boy this is some somewhat heavy lifting. I can see why the Soka Gakkai people just decide to say its name over and over; it would be easier.

Of course a lot of this is just the repetition in details.

All of the sutras are very clearly written to make it as easy as possible for monks to memorize them accurately and easily back when they were passed down orally. Now that they're written down they would all benefit from being edited down to be easier to read like what Ambedkar did

BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Jan 13, 2021

# ¿ Jan 13, 2021 05:51

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Transferring my merit to beings in Avici but no idea how to do it to a guy 3 towns over by computer

# ¿ Mar 7, 2021 15:20

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Brawnfire posted:

Hi! I just got finished reading through the thread, and am considering re
ading the previous thread as well because it sounds like there were some interesting discussions therein.

I want to be proactive in following the eightfold path. Since becoming a father, many painful aspects of life have apparently increased in my awareness. Truly fixing myself in the cycle of human birth and death. Recognizing that death will come for my parents in a surprisingly short time. Knowledge that my children are aging and I will never re-experience the beauty or the pain of these moments again. Raising moral beings in a world with such problems. Physical desires and longings that cannot be met. The general fear we all experience.

Obviously some of it is depression, and it makes it hard, it muddies the waters. But reality is what it is, and I want to respond to it in a manner that has the potential to reduce my suffering and the suffering of others around me. Buddhism seems to speak in many of the same terms.

So I may say some stupid things and ask some stupid questions in this thread, if you don't mind. But I wanted to thank the OP for a frank and informative post. I've been looking for some words about Buddhism that are plain speech and not pulling any punches and this seems to really fit, tonally.

consulted amitabha and he said these videos will answer your questions and bring enlightenment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mULvGLOKVCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssx67FDiYFI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_4AoQvIQ_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UN8x1ZRdYI

# ¿ Apr 26, 2021 05:55

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

100 degrees Calcium posted:

What's the buddhist view on being reborn in another world, like maybe as a monster or a traveling adventurer.

easily done. the bigger issue is retaining memories of your past life so you can easily dominate the world through your superior knowledge. not many ways to do this that don't involve spiritual training and if you have to take a vow of chastity so you can't enjoy big titty anime babes what's even the point.

# ¿ May 10, 2021 21:47

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

100 degrees Calcium posted:

Thanks for this post. You've freed me from my last attachment (big titty anime babes) and now I can focus exclusively on guiding my fellow humans to enlightenment.

you actually want to maintain exactly one attachment (big titty anime babes) so you can follow the bodhisattva ideal. sorry for the confusion. hope you enjoy nirvana though

# ¿ May 10, 2021 22:31

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

in all indian religions, hindusim and its descendents, a river is traditionally used as the metaphor for the separation between the mundane world and the supernatural divine world. one shore of the river is our limited unenlightened understanding and the other side is the enlightened understanding. crossing the river or "stream" therefore means moving from an unenlightened state to an enlightened one.

Jainism, a cousin religion of Buddhism, even refers to its prophets as Tirthinkara or "ford-makers" (Ford meaning a shallow part of the river you can wade through a la Oregon trail not the car) while Buddhism refers to non-Buddhists as tirthika (also means ford-maker but with more emphasis on trying to cross the river than actually crossing the river.)

Buddhism, early buddhism especially, also refers to how "advanced" someone is as a buddhist through river imagery, so a person who has just started to figure out buddhist concepts and apply them in their own life is a "stream-enterer".

The raft is a mahayana ( the school of buddhism which predominates in China and traditionally Chinese influenced countries) elaboration on the traditional imagery. Mahayana practice places a very high empahisis on the idea of "skillfull means" and the idea of there being a "conventional truth" and an "absolute truth". this is known as two truths theory. the absolute truth is transcendent and non-dualistic and therefore beyond human language, which is fundamentally dualistic, and so the buddha and buddhist teachers are incapable of teaching it directly. they therefore have devised a series of conventional truths which explain most things but don't form a complete picture. Sort of like how in college chemistry they teach you a bunch of models that aren't really how electrons work but model 95% of cases and are way easier to understand than the models that actually show how they work which they teach later. As you progress in the Buddhist path and find situations in which the conventional truths from earlier don't hold or explain, you then receive a new conventional truth which is closer but not quite there. this process repeats until eventually you arrive at the absolute truth which comes from personal realization after being pointed in the right direction not from it being transmitted directly.

the raft is one metaphor used to explain this concept. once you're on the other shore you have no intention of going back so you can just get rid of the "raft" of conventional truth you have no more use for it.

another popular metaphor is the hand pointing at the moon. The moon is a traditional symbol of enlightenment in buddhism because it provides light in the darkness. if you'd never seen the moon before and asked someone to show you this moon you'd heard so much about and they pointed toward the sky, you might confuse the hand for the moon itself. Buddhist doctrine shows the way to enlightenment, it is not enlightenment itself.

BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 06:46 on May 16, 2021

# ¿ May 16, 2021 06:44

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Waiting for the pope to get into my clutches so I can hadouken him with the fact the Bible calls bats birds. This will destroy Catholicism.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2021 14:10

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

1. Buddhist theory says over and over again that the most fortunate of the 6 worlds is the realm of humans as humans are best equipped to realize enlightenment. Animals rely too much on instinct, gods and Asuras have lives filled with too much pleasure to develop the intention to set upon the path or realize these pleasures are temporary while hell beings and hungry ghosts are too consumed with suffering too even imagine the possibility of an existence free from it. If material conditions were completely irrelevant to the pursuit of the dharma, none of the sages would have told us this.

2. As Buddhists we give offerings to the Buddha as thanks for providing us with a gift of such immeasurable value as the dharma. It�s natural to want to serve those who have served you. The Buddhas have told us that they are served best when we serve other sentient beings.

3. The doctrines of Anatta, karma, and interconnectedness mean that the suffering of others is the same as our own suffering. An enlightened one would not even need to protect others out of compassion but in could in self-interest alone understanding that their misfortune is theirs. both now and in the future.

4. If the issue is not with compassion but the idea that society and institutions should act within this compassion is unbuddhist why did Shakyamuni speak about Chakravatrins? Why did he minister to King Bimbisara? Why is Ashoka revered by Buddhists? Why for that matter does anyone pray to boddhisatvas or gods? It is a fact that those with power possess greater ability to alleviate other suffering or to cause it. Just as they possess greater ability to do anything. People resolve to become bodhisattvas due to a recognition that they do not yet have enough power or wisdom to help the world? Should we critique Avalokitesvara and Kshitigarbhas understanding of Buddhism?

To stop critiquing your friend however (assuming I�m not misunderstanding his point; extremely likely since all I have is a secondhand summary) but instead critique your theory: you�re greatly overthinking it in my opinion. One comes to understand the dharma through righteous behavior. if you never engage in righteous behavior because it is pointless to do anything except try to understand the dharma you will never understand the dharma and the point is moot.

BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Aug 10, 2021

# ¿ Aug 10, 2021 03:33

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

And then I said that�s no self that�s an lllusion causing my suffering!

# ¿ Aug 19, 2021 01:58

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Cephas posted:

These jokes are proof of the First Noble Truth.

you must accept these jokes as they are not as you wish them to be. this is the second and third noble truths.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2021 06:27

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Spacegrass posted:

I may have become a Buddhist today. Jesus Christ is good and all, but SOMETHING IS SERIOUSALY WRONG with the poor guy/religion. How long is Hell in Buddhism? Because I feel like I'm going there.

Hell lasts as long as it takes for all negative karma you�ve accumulated to be used up. You can be there for as little as a minute or as long as several trillion years depending on whether you were a jaywalker or literally Hitler. Humans can dedicate their good karma to specific loved ones in hell or all sentient beings and in doing so shorten the amount of time others spend in hell.

There is also similar to evangelical Christianity, a Buddha known as Amitabha, who takes all beings who ask to a pure land where you�re taught the dharma directly by a Buddha without the distractions/bad influences that are inevitable in Samsara and can become Buddha in as little as two months.

L

# ¿ Aug 31, 2021 15:00

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

eSporks posted:

Do we have a thread for Taosim, is Taosim allowed here?

For my personal path I'm finding Taoism to be more beneficial than Buddhism, and it contains even less of the trappings of religion. Someone who objects to the Christian ideas of hell and damnation might find a lot of value in Taosim.

Dude someone in the general religion thread was literally just asking about Taoists so they could ask Taoism questions

# ¿ Aug 31, 2021 16:46

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

eSporks posted:

I'm not sure.

At this point the idea of becoming a monk is starting to sound appealing. I already lost everything last year so it doesn't even feel like I'd be giving anything up.

This was basically Upali�s reasoning for becoming a monk

# ¿ Sep 16, 2021 17:34

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

eSporks posted:

The threat of homelessness has also been sucking the joy out the things I enjoy. Want to eat food that tastes good? That costs money, don't do that. Want to go hang out with friends? That costs money too. Listen to music? That costs money. Go to the river? Better pay for parking and gas.

I just feel such immense guilt for even trying to enjoy something right now, and my life is forcibly getting more and more ascetic. I know I'm in a horrible place and trying to not to make any decisions out of panic. I do often feel like I'm not aloud to have "a good life", and maybe its just time to accept that.

There is also all this moral weight, of just knowing that everything I do is contributing to the destruction of the planet and collapse of mankind.

Yeah I would highly recommend you seek spiritual guidance from someone especially since you can�t afford a therapist rn. You�re p obviously in a spiral and are letting the stress of the situation overwhelm and paralyze you from doing things that may help you avoid or deal with the situation (completely understandable). Go to a Temple, church, mosque or synagogue and ask the staff for someone to talk to.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2021 18:33

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

womb with a view posted:

I'm just an absolute beginner with very, very minimal knowledge, so I apologise if I come off as ignorant here.

Buddhism seems like a very chill religion, where the emphasis is on doing the best you can day to day for yourself and others. That in mind, to me Buddhist hell just doesn't seem to line up with the general tone. Being reborn into a lower life seems like a natural progression, whereas hell seems like a deliberate leap into straight up punishment and torture.

How terrible does your karma have to be to end up there? Do you have to be a genocidal dictator to get there? Or is it enough just to be non-vegetarian, given all the lives you will have a hand in ending? Do you go to hell before every rebirth, or can you only end up there after being reborn to the lowest rung first? I suppose it can't be the latter, since the descriptions talk about harm done to physical appendages pretty exclusive to humans.

It's probably something that falls under the "don't worry about it" umbrella. But from what I've read this seems to be an absolute fact of Buddhism, straight from the Buddha himself, so it seems fairly important to accept.

I�m on my phone and about to go to work so I don�t have time for a more detailed answer but the biggest denomination of Buddhism is devoted to liberating the beings in hell and placing where others will get reborn on equal importance with where you will get reborn

# ¿ Sep 17, 2021 14:56

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

echinopsis posted:

exactly what part of �you� gets reborn? the observer?

the only part of me that is consistent and resembles a �me� is my memory and that my experience is generated by my specific brain. when I die, all of me that makes me me will die with my body.

There is no part of you which is consistent. There is no self. All things are impermanent and constantly changing. You have hit upon the reason the illusion of a permanent self is created: memory. Through continuity of experience we gloss over the differences in emotion, will, perception, thought and body that occur from moment to moment which would mark us as being different beings.

As this continuous experience is interrupted at the moment of death the illusion is briefly dispelled but when it re-presents itself due to our desire for mundane existence which causes us to be reborn we misinterpret this to be a new self; unrelated to our own; rather than their being no true permanent self; with this new being the direct consequence of ourselves just as a shadow is not a person yet belongs to a person.

What we call �self� is the product of five aggregates or skandhas, these are emotion, will, body, thought, and perception. Like sticks resting against themselves or two playing cards supporting each other they all support each other. They are empty which is to say that their characteristics are derived from and �supported� by the other four aggregates and the world at large.

All five skandhas are reborn into the new being, if it was carried in any one skandha in particular that skandha would carry the self and be considered the �true� self. There is no self. My thoughts cannot exist without my emotions, my will, what my senses perceive or a body to hold it together. My emotions are based on what I perceive, what I think, what my body does (have you heard just smiling makes you happier) and my will. And a body without thoughts, emotions, will, or perception is commonly known as a corpse. Therefore none of these things can be the self.

After death all five skandhas shall according to your karma manifest towards a new form. All five shall be different than they were at the moment of death and because of this you would not recognize it as being you if you were to see it but this lack of recognition is the result only of the interruption in consciousness you experienced.

You say the self is contained in the memories. If a dear friend of yours experienced amnesia like on TV would you recognize them as being them? They would be greatly different yes but would you call them by the same name? Talk about them to others about how they used to be . You undoubtedly would. This is because you experienced no interruption in consciousness while your friend did.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2021 02:13

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Achmed Jones posted:

except my posts

This is wrong view. Each post is terrible in an incredible new way

# ¿ Sep 24, 2021 02:27

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

TehSaurus posted:

I have a feeling Madhyamika means something quite specific, and he is just elaborating on that concept. He starts off by talking about religion despite also saying "respect the entire world," but goes on to say that:

Madhyamika refers to a Mahayana school of thought that was started by Nagarjuna. It heavily stresses the emptiness of all things which extends even to dharma the Buddha and emptiness itself.

Madhamyika is also noted for two truths theory. That all the truths espoused by Buddhism are conventional truths that are imperfect and flawed but point toward an absolute truth. He�s talking badly about fanaticism specially because becoming dogmatic about Buddhist doctrine blinds one to their imperfections and the transcendent absolute truth they point toward.

This is also why you�re struggling with the idea of holding two seemingly contradictory ideas at once. You�re trying to engage with the idea rationally when it is explicitly anti-rational and can only be truly understood through experience. He�s attempting to point you to a difficult absolute truth. There�s no way to understand what he�s talking about without trying the technique in question personally.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2021 21:47

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

eSporks posted:

This seems like the heart of Taoism to me, and also highlights where I tend to fall off of Buddhism and other spiritual teaches. The focus on the dogma and ritual.

Taoists were the first ones to translate Mahayana scriptures into Chinese 2000 years ago and the religions have not traditionally been considered incompatible in China so there�s been an incredible amount of cross contamination between the two.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2021 00:54

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Spacegrass posted:

Thanks, that makes sense...sort of. But if the lower realms are true, wouldn't there be people talking about how they use to be a God or a cockroach, or a lovely cat, or a dog with lots of personalities?

Unless you can't remember this stuff. This is why I'm usually on the Christian/Muslim side because they believe once you die you remember your past lives. Ahhh it's all a mind F***.

Is there a way to get out of the Hell realms? I've made so many mistakes in my life; but I think generally I'm a good person.

I also know something (I hope not a demon) is giving me signs about a creator. We had an in ground hurricane (which I dreamed before it happend) IN Iowa....f..ing Iowa.

I guess after all this thinking I'm staying a Christian, this Buddhism is messing with me.

Thanks for your thoughts though!

remembering past lifes is accessible only after intense spiritual training.

Hell is only temporary in buddhism and there are methods to shorten existence.

The mahayana path requires you to care deeply about where everyone goes after they die not just you.

Good person/bad person is not a real thing and a concept that will completely gently caress you up. All things are empty and devoid of inherent qualities. All people have done both good and bad things and possess both good and bad karma. The love of the buddha is equal for the good and the wicked. He is generous like a rain cloud which gives rain for no other reason than that the rain cloud is there.

Are you in therapy? You're posting seems like you're in the middle of a crisis and those kinds of posts happen with some regularity between here and the religion thread. You have enough posts of a different more well-thought out style that I don't think its just your natural posting style. And the reference to drinking an entire bottle of hard liquor at once and never being happy is a big red flag. Religion is all well and good but it seems like you're having difficulty with the trauma of prison and guilt for the crimes that got you in prison (I believe you've mentioned this before). You need a personalized relationship with an expert who can help guide you through this.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2021 15:10

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

i am not trolling but merely posting as a wisdom king, that my wrathful compassion will chase you to enlightenment.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2021 13:19

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

22 Eargesplitten posted:

I'm not a Buddhist but I read a Buddhist story as retold by Tolstoy years ago, and then when I went back to reference it, I found I remembered it wrong. The story is the one about the man who is chased by a beast/tiger off of a cliff, where he hangs by a vine, then sees three dragons underneath him at the base of the cliff, and two mice gnawing away at the vine. As he hangs, facing inevitable death, he sees that a flower on the vine has nectar flowing from it, and savors it. Hopefully that's a familiar enough story to be known by the description because I don't think he gave any other information relating to it.

This is portrayed as foolishness, but I'm confused by it. There's no way out in this parable, the man is going to die very soon. Finding what joy there is to find in the face of oblivion seems like the most reasonable action, what am I missing? I understand that Buddhism has an idea of escaping the recurring suffering of reincarnation, did the original story give the man the option of doing ??? to escape the cycle?

Buddha repeatedly used the inevitability of death as reason alone for living righteously and renouncing sensual pleasure. He said in the dhammapada: �when men remember they will one day die they set aside their quarrels�, there is another sutra where he tells a story about a powerful king who faces a black apocalyptic cloud that comes from the east killing everything in it�s path. The king asks every wise man he could find what he can do to get it to spare his kingdom before realizing he can only rule justly and treat others with brotherhood until it comes.

in everyday life people seek sensual pleasures to distract themselves from the inevitability of their own demise and fear of death. It is not possible to avoid death but neither is hedonism (what is portrayed in the story, although they maybe could have chose something stronger than a berry) the correct answer.

Related to this is your use of the word �joy� to describe what the man is doing. He is not seeking joy but happiness. In Buddhism this is an important difference as happiness is based upon experiencing pleasing phenomena and getting things you want which then inevitably produces unhappiness when you experience unpleasant phenomena and don�t get things you want or get something you don�t want. Joy is not based at all upon the senses but is cultivated through training, contemplation, and wholesome actions and is accessible to those who have cultivated it in all circumstances.

The man finds happiness in the sweetness of the strawberry yes but don�t you think the dragons tearing him apart limb from limb will be very painful? If he places his happiness in the sweetness of the strawberry he will place his unhappiness in the dragon tearing out his spleen

BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Dec 15, 2021

# ¿ Dec 15, 2021 15:26

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Thank you for that thorough answer, I'll read it again when my brain is working better so I can hopefully understand more thoroughly. My gut reaction is that some of the logic is similar to how I thought about happiness when I was severely depressed, not wanting to be happy because it would make the inevitable following unhappiness worse, which is not the thinking of a healthy mind, but I'm also not thinking clearly today so I might be misunderstanding. I don't see why enjoying whatever circumstantial pleasures necessarily equates to having a harder time enduring suffering, or the opposite, refusing to enjoy circumstantial pleasures equating to having an easier time enduring suffering.

1. it doesn't if its enjoyed with wisdom. the issue is that a person forms attachments to the sensual pleasures. as all things are impermanent when the sensual pleasure inevitably disappears they then suffer. it is not the strawberry, or the eating of it, but doing it without thinking or thinking that it alone will produce joy that causes suffering. the two posters before me explanation is equally true as the explanation i gave and you can't really understand the truth without understanding both explanations simultaneously. this is v common with buddhist stories.

2. with your severe depression mindset it sounds like you were still saying "I want this, i do not want that" and suffering when the thing you did not want came to pass. you just placed extra steps in between and made it so everything was something you did not want when it came to you and everything was something you did want when it was away from you. Obviously that's way worse than the normal way of seeing things.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2021 18:50

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

just go to the centers, bring a token gift (vegetarian food or toiletries can't go wrong. its traditional etiquette, shows your humility and respect for the contemplatives also they're supposed to live off the community) and explain you're just exploring. No one really cares that much or is going to expect you to commit right away unless its a cult or a scam. If its for you great, if its not its not.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2022 21:39

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 16:06

BIG FLUFFY DOG: Feb 16, 2011; On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Bilirubin posted:

I am very sorry to hear it. I know he was a personal inspiration to many here, and I have been getting a lot from his teachings in the past few days.

i mean hes coming back

# ¿ Jan 22, 2022 03:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Buddhism Thread: Bitch I just told you about kshitigarbha

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