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Validus
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Simonthepilgrim;65021 said:With all due respect, I think that you are falling into an old trap of separating 'mind' and 'body', as if they were two distinct entities. It is also, I suggest, an interesting but unproven assumption that depression is r…
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I think we have little disagreement here. I was spacifically talking about depression that is psychological in nature rather then chemical. Obviously chemical depression cannot be cured through any form of "insight" and must be dealt with through …
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Dhamma Dhatu;64985 said::eek: :eek: :eek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIJhO8ipgs :eek: :eek: :eek: Except of course the Buddha was an ordinary human being that had acheived enlightenment...not a magic-wielding messiah like Jesus. To b…
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TheFound;64979 said:so now on the brink of extinction.... is our best chance at enlightenment? I'm not sure I understand your meaning here, Found.
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Dhamma Dhatu;61144 said:But one subject that is not debated by learned Buddhists and accepted by learned Buddhists and that is the reality that certain minds are capable of possessing supernormal or psychic powers. You are joking when you say t…
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hinny;64677 said: I have a real tendancy to pick up the burdens of others (by making their problems my problems) especially my family. I am begining to see how this leads to guilt and general tension (which then serves to add to the burdens my famil…
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Indeed...you make the world each time you open your eyes. As for evolution, I think Darwin was dead wrong. Obviously we are still apes.:banghead:
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TheFound;64927 said:who thinks Jesus really existed? :confused: I've no doubt that there was once a Rabbi named Yeshua ben Yoseph (Jesus, son of Joseph) who had some interesting ideas, unwise political asperations and that he came to a bad end li…
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Commentary: Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Rupan shunyata shunyataiva rupan. There are many ways to view this statement. From a purely historical point of view, the first part was aimed at the Sarvastivadins, who believed such dharmas …
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TheFound;64925 said:....man I've been trying hard to crack dualities I have trouble with that....u know state of flux that's left over, how to describe it? bewildering... sometimes i get into it and see: a shapeless, colorless, non nonexistent n…
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Dhamma Dhatu;64903 said:Validus You started it brother, by stating Theravadins could learn from the 'nothingness' philosophised in the Heart Sutta. If you did not transgress sectarian boundaries with your fundamentalism, I would not have responded…
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fivebells;64878 said:No, emptiness is not the key. The practice is the key. Striving to understand intellectually is useless at best. Why must we sacrifice one for the other? "Practice" is essential for those who wish to follow the Buddha's Dharm…
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fivebells;64876 said:Dhatu is correct. Buddhist practice is a practice. Buddhist theory leads nowhere but to the practice. We are all in agreement here I believe. Implementation of the Buddha's teachings requires action...but it helps if ones act…
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Thanks...I'll check it out when I have time but honestly I'm reading too many different books right now to consider adding to my reading list. I just picked up The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley and the writings of Meister Eckhart (Christia…
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Then you are locked in the Hell with no doors. -Gassho
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Dhamma Dhatu;64843 said:The Pali canon is exceptionally consistent and very repetitive. The only way you can overcome your mind's 'not-knowing' is to read the Pali suttas yourself (rather than form views from others). You yourself made authentici…
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-and as you yourself have clearly understood this then I take it you are yourself a fully enlightened Buddha, correct? You'd have to be if, as the sutta states, you have "seen this [impermanence] with wisdom and turned away from suffering." Corr…
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As you are reading these words you should consider that the computer which is in front of you and makes this possible is empty. Obvious question: "empty of what?" It is empty of an independent seperate self*...it has no existance without being conne…
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bushinoki;64820 said:True free market capitalism is an utter failure. A free market Health Care system will leave those without a good job hurting. ...or dead.:nonono:
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You say, "The Sky is big." I say, "The Sky is blue." Who has lied and who has spoken truth? -Gassho.
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Your confusion is understandable. I strongly suggest that you put it aside and re-read my post more carefully.
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It seems, given the vast number of schools of the Buddha's teachings (or Dhamma as you'd no doubt say) it seems to my mind more then a little superficial to claim that one school has supremacy over another. Once we start doing that we'll begin to s…
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Bakers that debate the color of the rolling pin won't get very far trying to make a cake or anything else.
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TheFound;64794 said:the whole thing that's holding me back, is.. i can't kill my 'self' it's the only thing i 'have' I can recognize what it is, but I ...i'm like the guy the feels he'd rather be in the matrix...you know!? In Zen they say, "Kil…
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That wonderful Buddhist scholar and monk Thich Nhat Hahn wrote a very highly respected commentary on the Heart Sutra. I'm not certain if this Sutra is of particular importance in the Theravadan tradition, but it is invaluble to those who wish to co…
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America's involvement in Vietnam actually began after World War II. When the French were there we agreed to pay for their supplies and weapons and they supplied the soldiers. Eventually the French decided they'd had enough, so Kennedy eventually s…
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Nirvana;64770 said:How, in this modern, very technical world, is it possible to continue to subscribe to all the tenets of the Christian religion? One simply cannot take every word literally. Moreover, the pace at which we move about makes many of t…
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We are now having two different conversations my friend.:skeptical You are debating the specifics of the Vietnam War from a historical perspective. I am debating no such thing...I am debating the morality of our intervention into that nation as I…
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"Namu Amida Butsu" is Japanese and a direct translation would simply read "Praise Amida Buddha." However, that hardly does it justice. Amida Buddha is the Buddha of infinite light and life and is, for Pureland(Shin) Buddhists the embodiment of Bu…
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Lurking behind all of this hand-wringing and the movements of untold billions of dollars (and pounds, yen, yuans, euros, etc) are two ugly truths that no one seems to want to address. 1. Money is a lie. Once upon a time the paper we carried arou…
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Cameran;64752 said:Can anyone say that they are buddhist? I mean, ever since i've been introduced to buddhism i've fallen in love with it, I find it as a very peaceful life and when someone asks me "What religion are you?" i'm not quite sure what t…
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It's funny how a little perspective makes things look different, don't you agree? I've often thought how very different Christianity would be if each of the 4 Gospels and the letters of Paul each began with the words "Thus have I heard..." As Bud…
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gearhead;64404 said:Hello all. I dont mean to moap and bring a somber topic to an otherwise cheery site, but I'm up a creek without a paddle. I wanted to reach out to you all, the only source of person to person buddhist learning I have, to ask …
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buddhafoot;53581 said:Why is it that there are so many people who, being, drawn to Buddhism, are those who have had bad experiences with other religions in the past? Does this seem to be you? What is your refuge? Are you simply taking "refu…
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samahita;64657 said:The body's nature: 300 bones, jointed by 180 joints, sewn into a chain by 900 sinews, plastered over with pieces of flesh, enveloped by inner membrane, fat and outer skin, with 9 openings constantly dribbling and trickling with…
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Brigid;64719 said:Hello all newcomers! Lovely to meet you. -Gassho, its very nice to meet you. I see that you have many posts, how long have you been here?
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Name: Validus (Dan Hettmannsperger III) Age: 41 [individual aggrigates may vary] Sex: Male Orientation: Bisexual Politics: Liberal Democrat Children: two: Daughter, Carrie (19). Son, Jayson (8) Marital Status: Divorced Ethnicity: Europian (German ba…
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As a veteran and also as a Buddhist, I believe that there is a time for talk, and ultimately there is a time for action. I don't think that being a follower of the Buddha's teachings [Dharma] means that we should sit back passively while planet Eart…
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Certainly the Samurai of Japan were warriors who also followed the Buddha Dharma with mixed results, not unlike the so-called Knights of Europe's Middle-Ages who thought they could follow the spirit of Jesus with a cross on their shields and a sword…
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I myself cannot see any noticible contradiction between the Buddha Dharma and information gained through the use of the scientific method. The Buddha teaches us to be compassionate to all living things, correct? Isn't the scientist who strives to…
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federica;1033 said:has anyone ever considered this...., Buddha was born and existed about 500 years BC. Is there a possibility that they are one and the same....? That is to say, that notwithstanding his passage into parinirvana, Buddha may have dec…
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This might be helpful to you. It is important at all times to remember exactly what depression really is. Depression is simply anger that has been turned inward because it has nowhere else to go. Nietzsche once wrote, "in times of peace, the war…
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The above quote reminded me of the following I also thought worth sharing: Profound words are not cleaver. Cleaver words are not profound. Wise people are not quarrelsome. Quarrelsome people are not wise. Those who are intelligent are not ideo…
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The Buddha's teaching on Anatta (no-soul/no-self) is certainly one of the most difficult of his teachings to grasp...partly because there is nothing to grab.;) When the Buddha tells us that self is an illusion it seems to me that for most of us th…
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The problem with talking about Jesus (Yeshua ben Yosif) is that we cannot know anything about the "historical" Jesus because he did not himself write anything, and the four Gospels were all written many decades after his death in what is obviously a…
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I am convinced that trying to explain Nirvana to anyone is like trying to explain what it means to "fall in love" to an eight-year old boy. This is to a certain extent what Lao Tsu meant when he said, "The Tao[Way] that can be spoken of is not the e…
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My own Buddhist practice is, I admit, somewhat convoluted and probably not really "orthodox" by the standards of any one school. This is because living here in California, one has a wide variety of options with regard to practice. I attend service…
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Greetings to you all. I'm new and this is my first post, so I hope you'll forgive me if I just dive in. Philosophy: Derived frim the Greek Philos[Love] and Sophia[Wisdom], thus Philosophy is most clearly understood as "love of wisdom", or Prajna …