Buddhism Thread: Bitch I just told you about kshitigarbha

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nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Thanks for sharing that article Nessus, it's a good reminder that we should approach things as a beginner and led me to some other writings by the author. A small child would have performed way more admirably than the monks.

Virgil Vox posted:

Does Zen hold that things [rūpa] actually exist? Or perhaps I mean to ask does Zen view that we [beings and matter] are actually in some sort of samsaric �container� [I can�t find the right word at the moment]. Or is that not a valid question to ask. Thank you.

I'm not knowledgeable at all about zen, but the main thrust of zen teachings seem to be the emphasis on upaya. There is no philosophical understanding that can fully comport with reality or the needs of others. Hence all the contradictions and weirdness. People can be deluded about rupa and nama not mattering, when they matter a lot if we want to function with others, especially as a lay person. There's a quote about how the mind of nirvana is the mind of killing mother and father to emphasize this danger. So the idea is the mind ultimately can't dwell anywhere. It has to be responsive and understanding of form as well as emptiness to help others with whatever obstacles they are facing. If we find this to be challenging, this is evidence of something that we need to explore or work on.

Some of the Tathagatagarbha sutras do the unthinkable and explicitly proclaim an atman as an antidote. Some people think that their understanding of the absolute shields them from the everyday reality of being, or that they can rest on their laurels in a half-baked state. The Angulimaliya Sutra says that practice is like churning butter, and the point is to finish churning quickly to enjoy and share the butter. So asserting more rupa, self, or even a real 'self' may be helpful for some people, especially those caught in some of the more esoteric delusions due to their practice or understanding of say philosophy or how the brain functions. This may not be appropriate for others. In some ways, zen is a return to focusing on the purification of the citta and perfection of the paramitas regardless of circumstances.

So I guess it's totally valid and not valid at the same time. I just like talking and thinking about this stuff, so sorry if that's not super helpful. It also puts a fire under my rear end as I'm transparently hypocritical

# ¿ May 19, 2023 16:53

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 22:11

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Great stuff. I would say that part of both Christianity and Buddhism, or just how the brain works really, is that compassion is a two way street. The best way to be part of either is often to take a step back, to care for yourself as if you were learning to care for another person in your shoes, and to use whatever resources are available to you as, Bilirubin said. Sometimes this involves confronting fears or accepting our limitations, and taking that in stride in order to learn how to help others rather than trying to 'fix' ourselves can be very freeing.

# ¿ May 21, 2023 12:41

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Thirteen Orphans posted:

My apologies if we�ve discussed this and I forgot. Do ya�ll know any good Buddhism podcasts? Not practice oriented but more like doctrine, history, philosophy, or practice from a scholarly perspective. Basically I�m looking for lectures.

For something with an academic philosophy bent, The History of Philosophy Without any Gaps podcast did a series on philosophy in India that was very well done. It has a good number of episodes on Buddhist philosophy and the broader intellectual context in which it developed. It's on the same RSS feed as the now current African/African diaspora philosophy podcast.

https://historyofphilosophy.net/series/classical-indian-philosophy
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/history-of-indian-and-africana-philosophy/id1039976787
https://hopwag2.podbean.com/

# ¿ Jul 8, 2023 00:22

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:

The lotus sutra if you pay attention does something clever with this where it doesn�t actually say �No that previous doctrine was wrong� it instead has shakyamuni give out these predictions freely and for the smallest thing. If you hear a single syllable of this sutra shakyamuni�s given you your prediction and you�re now going to be a Buddha whether you like it or not

The Lotus Sutra is often held to do many very clever things, and it may be helpful to assume that if what we are reading isn't relevant to our actions and intentions towards others and ourselves it will be at one point. It seems like the people who wrote this stuff down weren't inclined to performing or preserving idle speech, or something like that

Starting from ch1:

quote:

The bright light from between the brows
shines into the eastern quarter,
causing eighteen thousand lands
all to become of golden hue.

And from the Avichi hell,
upwards to the peak of being,
within each of the worlds are seen
the beings within the six paths,
their destinies in birth and death,
their karmic conditions, good or evil,
their retributions, favorable or ill--
all of this is seen, herein.

If we share the assumption of some Mahayana sects that phenomena interpenetrate and that the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha, the mind, and the body are not separate, at one point it may resemble meditation instructions. The light between the brows may resemble some activity of the orbitofrontal cortex or perhaps part of the corpus callosum, and the eastern quarter with 18,000 lands may resemble the right forebrain. The depths of avici hell may be the body maximally contracting inwards on itself in suffering, and the peak of being may be the opposite.

Or maybe that's totally the wrong approach, or more likely, just one of a multitude of approaches that can be fruitfully taken and then set aside for something more immediately practical. It makes some sense to my embodied experience. It seems worthwhile to approach it in various ways as if the text is alive and changes with us.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2023 14:54

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Nessus posted:

I don't disagree with this, and I love Plum Village, but I wonder: Demystifying of what? But this just may mean that I'm outside of the exact space to which Thay and Plum Village address: to me, the prospect of Buddha as a fully enlightened being with transcendent vision and understanding, and that being a place that "I" (in so far as there is an "I") might, in many lifetimes, reach, is inspirational; but I can easily see how to many others, perhaps far more, it would seem discouraging and would just reinforce a binary with them on the bad side of it.

IMO Zen can be confusing when talking about Buddhahood or full realization. They often mean something more like reaching a state in which strenuous, compassionate action is just daily life, and in a sense effortless. So they might talk about a big Buddha like Shakyamuni, or a little Buddha: someone who has gone beyond who is fully committed to making use of what they have for others. It is emphasizing the Buddha-nature and depth of compassion rather than properties of individual beings, possibly as a corrective to some Mahayana texts which emphasize eons and eons of practice. Or any number of things that prevent people from identifying the entire path as something relevant to their life.

Cephas posted:

The Heart Sutra really cuts straight to the chase, doesn't it?

"Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.

Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain."

Yeah it's kind of annoying. Like someone telling you about a ton of extra work to do by leaving a sticky note at your desk

# ¿ Sep 2, 2023 19:42

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

I wasn't complaining about the depth, more like complaining about myself re:the depth. I shouldn't be so disrespectful, sorry.

I have meditation-induced sleep changes but have not been meditating recently and it's a bad combo.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2023 00:03

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Nessus posted:

I've wondered sometimes about this because it seems to suggest that nirvana is in fact fundamentally impossible since beings will continue to arise, although we may reasonably expect bodhisattvas to arise more and more as well. Is there some sort of bodhisattva singularity that will produce a buddha-hole? I think this was in a Masamune Shirow manga.

I have started reading Zhiyi to motivate me back into the swing of things and this is striking:

(after a crash course in the entirety of meditative practice- first two chapters here: https://www.kalavinka.org/book_excerpts/SGS_excerpts/SGS_X-08_Pref_Chapters.pdf):

quote:

Through relying on these dhyānas, the bodhisattvas realize the
fruit of the great bodhi. They have realized it before, they realize
it now, and they will realize it in the future. As for the ability of
�purification� to serve as a gate to the sublime, the conceptual basis
for it abides in this.

nice obelisk idiot fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Sep 4, 2023

# ¿ Sep 4, 2023 22:48

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

I read these verses at the beginning of Jacob L. Moreno's Psychodrama, and they struck me as a supremely perceptive thing to say. I would say supremely Buddhistic, although he was Jewish and had a secular early social-scientific and Jewish contextual understanding of these things.

pre:

In the place of the imperative steps the imperator.
In the place of the creative steps the creator.
A meeting of two: eye to eye, face to face.
And when you are near I will tear your eyes out
    and place them instead of mine,
    and you will tear my eyes out
    and will place them instead of yours,
    then I will look at you with your eyes
    and you will look at me with mine.

Thus even the common thing serves the silence and
    our meeting remains the chainless goal:
The undetermined place, at an undetermined time,
    the undetermined word to the undetermined man.

Also the quote on the following page:

quote:

God is spontaneity. Hence, the commandment is: "Be Spontaneous!"

It recalls Chan focusing quite a bit about spontaneity as the state of being a genuine person. (also the disease of performative spontaneity, which is an affliction)

Two weeks after reading that, I happened to poke around in Kunzang Pelden's commentary on Shantideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra (there's a googleable pdf of the work). He saw this as an essential practice, and outlines some meditation strategies regarding it. Of course it is in the moment, and everyone who is trying tries to put themselves in the shoes of others. But specifically training to break out of social habit energies, in step with training in compassion in meditation seems to be super useful. At any point in practice. I think that it can also help foster self-compassion and clearer thinking when facing difficulties.

Recently, I happened to be close to some atrocious suffering in others in a way that I have been isolated from for a while. I found myself turning away emotionally more than I would have liked. The specifics hit a little close to home. It set off some less than charming defenses internally, like otherizing the people in question for not managing or hiding something as well as I did, when I should have been relating to it deeply. Which is understandable and I need compassion for myself as well, but this is certainly something that I need to work on.

Just some thoughts. I like seeing activity in this thread.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2023 07:40

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

The traditional simile is like massaging water into soap powder to make a ball of soap. So the everyday mind and bodily awareness is kind of like dry powder and the breath is the water. You just pay attention to making everything soft and wieldy, perhaps gently massaging it as necessary, like breathing into a bodily or mental tension. The steps will occur naturally along the way.

The anecdote about Thich Nhat Hanh discovering the Anapanasati Sutta and feeling like the happiest person in the world is pretty interesting. IMO it shows the real benefit of engagement with things outside of one's own tradition. It reminds me of something that I read about Torei Enji, Hakuin's Dharma heir. He came across a (very obscure in Japan) Sutra which described meditation on the four divine abodes and was blown away by how critical it was and how it wasn't explicitly taught in Japanese Zen, like: "why the hell did nobody teach me this stuff. it would have saved me so much trouble." Of course he attributed it to Bodhidharma lol

# ¿ Nov 19, 2023 23:01

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Herstory Begins Now posted:

Interestingly you can focus on other bodily sensations but most are either less universal, kinda pointless, or allegedly have downsides (eg you can focus on a heart beat, but whenever I've asked about that I've always heard it is discouraged for either vague reasons or potentially being harmful(?)).

As someone very sensitive to interoceptive stuff, but without great concentration or a strong sitting practice: there's good reason for this. In a couple of suttas, it seems like some of the more advanced non-arahats could experience serious difficulties here.

Hands are good. I think that Beowulf's Ghost said that earlier itt. And Dogen endorses "putting your mind in the palm of your left hand" so there's a credible source right there. Hakuin's "soft butter" body scan meditation is great for physical difficulties, bodily anxiety, or autonomic/self-regulation stuff. It has a lot of similarities to 'crown' stuff in yoga.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2023 02:23

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Has anyone read anything interesting regarding the mechanisms of Buddhist meditation practices? I keep on thinking of how to relate things to brain functionality, like the connection between concentration and insight into ongoing mental processes. I'm not trying to make a claim about the relationship between the brain and the mind here.

Just some speculation, but it's been on my mind a bit: I think that there's something going on between the interplay of what's called the extrinsic mode network of the brain (concentration on an 'external' object, task-oriented cognition) and the default mode network (resting, unfocused normal consciousness, integration) when someone is for example working towards meditative absorption. If I had to take a stab at it, it seems like it can help restore normal functioning to the default mode network by suppressing it, and then when attention is removed from the object of concentration, we can process or gain insight into things like suppressed emotions as the default mode network comes back online.

I haven't read too much about it, and I wonder if there is anything written by neuroscientists, neurologists etc who are deep practitioners who might have some unique insights, or practitioners who have worked with researchers who have a knack for that kind of understanding. Thanks.

nice obelisk idiot fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Nov 24, 2023

# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 18:51

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Yeah that's very interesting, thank you. The understanding of the brain has changed massively over recent years and that dude is 98, but that's just about the best starting point that I could hope for.

Related to the discussion of the breath and developing abdominal vs thoracic breathing, I started getting into some basic Chan qigong stuff and it's kinda great. Yoga wasn't doing it for me regarding identifying and relaxing physical tensions. As someone who definitely doesn't believe in traditional explanations of what qigong does, it seems to be pretty effective for working on habitual embodied stress, especially at times when sitting seems to be counterproductive.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 19:30

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Great stuff, I'll check that out too. It reminds me of a Thai meditation teacher talking about someone who had complications from brain surgery. He suddenly began to get very angry when his wife did a specific benign thing, because something was physically going wrong. It actually gave him a great deal of insight into how his emotions and thoughts worked, because he could constantly see both the importance of being mindful of them as well as their fallibility.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 21:56

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Another thing that I've heard, which honestly makes me laugh, is "opposite thinking, instant suffering!" Good practice or bad practice, at least you're practicing or trying to practice.

From the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi:

Move and you are trapped;
miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation.
Turning away and touching are both wrong

I like to think of it like pandiculation: the involuntary or semi-voluntary act of stretching, yawning, etc. Housecats do it all the time, especially the very mellow and happy ones. The body and mind want to release tension and stress. Concentration is shifting the mind off of these latent tensions, almost like putting a dog in a crate so it calms down. The rest is just watching it unfold.

In fact if one has a lot of physical tension, these kinds of exercises may be very useful vs immediately going for the sitting practice in fixed posture:
https://kustomkitgymequipment.com/blogs/news/pandiculation-exercises/

nice obelisk idiot fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Dec 5, 2023

# ¿ Dec 5, 2023 05:34

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Thirteen Orphans posted:

What kind of philosophies and practices do you all have for fear of death/death anxiety? How do you frame it intellectually and what practices confront and transform the anxiety in and of itself?

Determined (not consistent) concentration practice helped me with fear of death in itself. It gave me the stability to remain mindful through anxieties about bodily processes and phenomena. I didn't direct it towards that stuff but that's where it went. I'm a big hypocrite here though as I've been avoiding practicing too much concentration recently for other reasons.

Related to that- fear of our death or the death of another is not one thing. It's a composite of many, many different anxieties and emotions. We don't need to address all of them at once day 1 of practicing. And every day is supposed to be like day 1.

Practice of the four immeasurables can lead to a more accepting, curious attitude towards unsettling things in ourselves and others. Satipatthana the same. A concentration practice that enters into and equalizes every moment of life like breathing or practicing a mantra such as Buddo or Mu is good. Basically anything, it varies on what works for one's individual character. Kind of a non-answer.

Philosophically I would say that the citta (heart-mind) was never born and never dies in ourselves and others. Practice is said to reveal direct and constant insight into this.

nice obelisk idiot fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Dec 20, 2023

# ¿ Dec 20, 2023 03:27

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Nessus posted:

Y'all got any practice resolutions for the New Year?

I'm thinking of setting one but I'm not sure if I should aim high or go for the basics.

1: adopting some kind of consistent devotional aspect to practice, to deepen sincerity and to develop a healthier sense of urgency.

2: working on sympathetic joy. I have a hard time not feeling ill-will towards people who behave maliciously, and it really sets me back with having a firm foundation. I think that developing a deeper appreciation for the potential for people to have healthy experiences, and an appreciation of the fact that many very bad people do this to some degree constantly can make it easier to navigate things for me.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2023 17:44

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Spacegrass has been through some rough stuff. Spacegrass, you don't have PMs, and this is a bit of a stock response as I don't know you. But in both Buddhism and Christianity it isn't a bad thing to recognize suffering. In fact, it's the first step towards lessening it. If you have a faith community with kind and trustworthy people in it, please let them know if you need help in finding resources or support. Or please engage other community resources if you need it. You're likely less alone in things than you think. Especially if you try to approach yourself and others with kindness.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2023 17:04

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

They are used contextually in ways that may be contradictory. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism is probably best for an academic definition. Or Oxford.

For a starting point, these entries are probably okay.
https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Dharma

Rupert Gethin re: various usages of "dharma/Dharma" posted:

(1) the �teaching� of the Buddha;
(2) �good conduct� or �good behaviour�, in general, but also more specifically the putting into practice of the good conduct prescribed by the Buddha�s teaching and constituting the Buddhist path, namely keeping ethical precepts (sīla), developing calm and concentration (samatha, samādhi, jhāna), and insight and knowledge (vipassanā, pa��ā, vijjā) through the practice of meditation;
(3) the �truth� realized by the practice of the Buddhist path;
(4) any particular �nature� or �quality� that something possesses;
(5) the underlying and objective �natural law or order� of things which the Buddha has discerned;[10]
(6) a basic mental or physical �state� or �thing�, a plurality of which, at least in the texts of the Abhidhamma, becomes explicitly to be conceived as in some sense constituting the �reality� of the world or experience.[11] (See dharmas as factors of existence.)

https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Karma

The Buddha re: karma posted:

'It is "intention" that I call karma; having formed the intention, one performs acts (karma) by body, speech and mind.'

# ¿ Feb 2, 2024 20:54

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

I think that's close. With the development of concentration, mindfulness, and ethics, provisional dharmas, such as internal or external processes, become means of freeing oneself and others.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2024 21:47

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

It's Parinirvana Day in many countries.

The Mahā Parinibbāna Sutta
https://suttacentral.net/dn16/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=true&script=latin

quote:

Then Venerable Ānanda entered a building, and stood there leaning against the door-jamb and crying, �Oh! I�m still only a trainee with work left to do; and my Teacher is about to become fully extinguished, he who is so kind to me!�

Then the Buddha said to the mendicants, �Mendicants, where is Ānanda?�

�Sir, Ānanda has entered a dwelling, and stands there leaning against the door-jamb and crying: �Oh! I�m still only a trainee with work left to do; and my Teacher is about to become fully extinguished, he who is so kind to me!��

So the Buddha addressed one of the monks, �Please, monk, in my name tell Ānanda that the teacher summons him.�

�Yes, sir,� that monk replied. He went to Ānanda and said to him, �Reverend Ānanda, the teacher summons you.�

�Yes, reverend,� Ānanda replied. He went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him:

�Enough, Ānanda! Do not grieve, do not lament. Did I not prepare for this when I explained that we must be parted and separated from all we hold dear and beloved? How could it possibly be so that what is born, created, conditioned, and liable to wear out should not wear out, even the Realized One�s body? For a long time, Ānanda, you�ve treated the Realized One with deeds of body, speech, and mind that are loving, beneficial, pleasant, undivided, and limitless. You have done good deeds, Ānanda. Devote yourself to meditation, and you will soon be free of defilements.�

Then the Buddha said to the mendicants:

�The Buddhas of the past or the future have attendants who are no better than Ānanda is for me."

# ¿ Feb 15, 2024 11:28

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

TO, I'd like to respond with a more personal answer given your thoughtfulness, but I'm not sure that I'm up to it now. I think it's very much like as you said. In the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra, it's put it as your old friend and teacher. One who has set you right again and again, and has many more lessons to teach you, but who has temporarily lost their senses. Again from the Lotus Sutra, a child trapped in a burning building.

If someone has very harmful tendencies or complex needs, being compassionate is obviously difficult to navigate, which is a good reason to let go of things that make it harder.

ram dass in hell posted:

mercy springs effortlessly from a heart-mind without expectation or comparison; to cultivate mercy in and of itself is not a bad thing, but it is akin to forcing oneself to burp thinking it will cure one's hunger, because those that are well-fed burp. the bodhisattva of compassion is not a bodhisattva because they are compassionate, they are compassionate because they are a bodhisattva

It's an excellent thing to cultivate. If someone wholeheartedly practices compassion with a straightforward mind, immense barriers to practice become opportunities to learn how to be with others in difficult circumstances.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 13:31

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Mushika posted:

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.

Well, like take a person in an abusive relationship. The abuser often exploits the abused person's capacity for compassion, empathy, and mercy to excuse intolerable behavior. Years of this can erode that capacity, and they may need a lot of difficult therapy, meditation, and positive social experiences before it can start to recover.

I think those are things to look at more broadly than a seated practice, and recognizing any problem behavior is too. A lot of people do crappy things because that's the way that they were treated, and it's painful to examine that.

I think that this is a good conversation, and as said before, I think that you are right to point out that the dichotomy between practicing and it happening effortlessly is ultimately a symptom of a problem.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2024 17:41

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Herstory Begins Now posted:

actually living ethically is a lot more important than a good sitting practice.

Thanks, I was trying to get at that practice is continuous but didn't articulate it very well.

RaisinPower posted:

Sorry to reply to a question from like two years ago. I'm new to SA, catching up on the Buddhism thread, saw this on page 34 and wanted to mention dhammatalks.org. There is a pretty big collection of talks there that don't require youtube and can be played directly or downloaded as mp3 if you like. I haven't listened to more than a few minutes, but it seems legit so far.

That site and accesstoinsight are invaluable, as well as Sutta Central (both of which are linked in the 2nd post itt). I personally found many of the writings of the Thai forest ajaans on dhammatalks.org to be very helpful, and I need to read them again. Ajaan Chah is super well known for a reason https://www.ajahnchah.org/book/index.php

# ¿ Mar 12, 2024 01:45

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

In my limited understanding that resembles coma rather than any meditation. Mental processes are calmed and suppressed by concentration, and once concentration is let go, stuff will just resume. It would be like falling asleep so deeply that you die, which would be more like something went wrong with say the brain stem, rather than just getting normal sleep deeply.

Now is it possible to get a profound dissociative problem by practicing very incorrectly, and you might not put stuff back together, kind of like Herstory was saying re:drugs? I would say yes.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2024 14:25

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 22:11

nice obelisk idiot: May 18, 2023; funerary linens looking like dishrags

Imo letting discursive thinking do its thing, and respecting that it can have significant connections to the rest of our minds and bodies can be very productive. We can sometimes quickly find a thorn that needs to be pulled out, or a way to let go of something. But it obviously requires practice to do not just be pulled about by the nose, like you said.

For an example of this relevance, koan practice can deliberately exploit pathways used in discursive thinking to make connections and identify problems in habit energies. The "mu" koan can evoke very primal physiological things, and illusory cognitive and emotional dichotomies. Kind of like aspects of yab-yum and chod in Tibetan Buddhism, but more overtly verbal than visual/sensual.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2024 09:47

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