Best Of
Re: Liberation for all sentient beings
There’s no quick, easy answer to this. It can depend on the school/sect you are following.
For example, this is a general Mahayana approach, with some reading references attached, but you’ll notice they mention the Tibetan approach as well. From my experience, there’s some reading involved in learning not only the basics of Buddhism, but also where the schools branched off and where there are some different approaches and ways and lanes, many being culturally different and influenced.
What Are The Five Buddhist Paths to Liberation?
https://mindworks.org/blog/what-are-the-five-buddhist-paths-to-liberation/
https://www.ourbuddhismworld.com/archives/1775
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/492/a-short-history-of-the-buddhist-schools/
When you do some reading…or not…What do you think? Do YOU think you could help liberate
Someone else without “finishing”? How do you feel about someone thinking they could help
Liberate you without “finishing”?
Vastmind
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
@person said:
hate to break it to you, but we are the odd ones.
I don’t know if that is true, I think it is more like a very gradual course of being brain washed. Children’s programming used to be very much more gentle, but it slowly leads you into more serious matters.
The thing is, the violence and the things people supposedly reach with it are all fake! The movies tell us lies, glamorising money, crime, guns, fighting and death as a way of solving problems. I don’t like being lied to.
Happiness, peace of mind, contentment lie elsewhere.
Jeroen
Re: Liberation for all sentient beings
Can you help liberate other sentient beings when you have not finished working on one's self?
As you may have read, beginners mind is as close as you will get at the start, in the middle and at the end.
If you have not read that. You have now. 
The End
https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=34092&sid=ec181e2d7c227c21c27b18304534c6c4
lobster
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
@Jeroen said:
@person said:
hate to break it to you, but we are the odd ones.I don’t know if that is true, I think it is more like a very gradual course of being brain washed. Children’s programming used to be very much more gentle, but it slowly leads you into more serious matters.
The thing is, the violence and the things people supposedly reach with it are all fake! The movies tell us lies, glamorising money, crime, guns, fighting and death as a way of solving problems. I don’t like being lied to.
Happiness, peace of mind, contentment lie elsewhere.
Being outliers isn't the same as being wrong. Being normal, common isn't the same as being right or good.
person
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
I don't like violence happening to unwilling people in a movie. Like a horror movie or a traumatic scene in a movie. But a friend asked me to watch a movie in the John Wicks franchise and I liked it. All of the violence was between professional assassins and it was a sort of guilty pleasure to watch.
Jeffrey
Re: Liberation for all sentient beings
Can you help liberate other sentient beings when you have not finished working on one's self?
Sometimes, guidance on the path arrives in unexpected forms.
One may even learn profound lessons from the mistakes of others.
Even if a practitioner is not yet enlightened, they can still guide others who are just beginning the path. The teachings may not be flawless, but sincere effort and intention still plant the seeds of understanding. In time, newcomers find their own footing, and sometimes, the imperfect teacher learns just as much through the act of teaching.
As an old Indian sage once said, “If you don’t feel that you are enlightened, you can always try to be.”
Shoshin1
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
First snowfall of the season here. Only about 1 inch, but more will inevitably follow. Winter comes and the snow falls by itself - no need to stress over it.
Saw a squirrel on the bird feeder today, doing shikan taza for about 20 minutes - equal to my own average session. How is this different from human shikan taza? For one thing, the squirrel is not likely to be thinking about whether human shikan taza is the real thing or not. No monkey mind there?
I had a friend who held that squirrels would give rise to the next dominant life form on earth, after the humans die off from their own mistakes. I'm not sure that they will be any wiser than we are, unfortunately. They seem to be at least our match in delusional egotism.
Fosdick
