Best Of
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
Although I live in a country with an astounding number of firearms, I personally do not own a firearm.
Some people own firearms as collector's pieces. They will never be fired except in rare safe displays and absolutely not on a living being.
I know individuals who have firearms who only use them on approved ranges.
I must point out that, in certain situations, even martial arts are potentially fatal.
Again, it matters not the potential weapon, gun, bow, club, rock, hand or foot. What matters is not the potential choice of weaponry, it is the mind set of the individual.
a knife to an assassin is a deadly weapon while a knife to a sushi chef is an indispensable tool. Archers were the field artillery until modern weaponry took over the battlefields.
Now, we have bow hunters and, while bows an arrows can be lethal, competitive and recreation target shooting are the prevailing uses. In Japan, archery is stylized and meditative in nature. Their ritual of the archery is the point, the target is an afterthought.
I could go on with various examples, but these will suffice.
Again, as a Buddhist, it is intent and mindset that matters, not the specific weapon. With the proper intent and mindset, weapons become not-weapons. Tool of death and destruction become tools of mending, healing, teaching.
Peace to All
Lionduck
Why Sangha?
“The next Buddha will be a Sangha” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Sanghas are communities of monastic and/or lay Buddist practitioners. A sangha is the best way to practice meditation, as it offers deep support and wisdom for beginners and seasoned practitioners alike, and can start with a minimum of four practitioners. Not only do they help create a routine and improve individual practice, but the energy of a community of practitioners can create ripples of understanding and compassion that reverberate throughout society and the world.
Why Sangha?
Alone we are vulnerable, but with brothers and sisters to work with, we can support each other
We cannot go to the ocean as a drop of water—we would evaporate before reaching our destination.
But if we become a river, if we go as a Sangha, we are sure to arrive at the ocean…
You need a sangha;
you need a brother or sister, or friend to remind you what you already know.
The Dharma is in you, but it needs to be watered in order to manifest and become a reality.
A Sangha is a community of resistance, resisting the speed, violence,
and unwholesome ways of living that are prevalent in our society.
There is no religion, no philosophy, no ideology higher than brotherhood and sisterhood.
Not even Buddhism.
In society, much of our suffering comes from feeling disconnected from one another. Being with the
Sangha can heal these feelings of isolation and separation. We practice together, share a room
together, eat side by side and clean pots together. Just by participating with other practitioners in the
daily activities we can experience a tangible feeling of love and acceptance.
A sangha is a garden, full of many varieties of trees and flowers.
When we can look at ourselves and at others as beautiful, unique flowers and trees
we can truly grow to understand and love one another.
One flower may bloom early in the spring and another flower may bloom in late summer. One tree
may bear many fruits and another tree may offer cool shade. No one plant is greater, or lesser, or the
same as any other plant in the garden. Each member of the sangha also has unique gifts
to offer to the community.
We each have areas that need attention as well. When we can appreciate each member’s contribution
and see our weaknesses as potential for growth we can learn to live together harmoniously. Our
practice is to see that we are a flower or a tree, and we are the whole garden as well, all interconnected.
https://plumvillage.app/a-short-guide-to-joining-or-starting-a-sangha/
Let’s work on our online Sangha here, at NB. With all that’s going on in the world….I miss my little safe place to practice. 🙏
Any ideas? Ways to foster the community feel and participation? More Buddhist topics, yes?
Vastmind
My Dharma practice today
Dear everyone,
I thought it would be beneficial and encouraging for us to have a thread in which we could post our concrete, daily Dharma practice wins and activities.
General guidelines, at least from my perspective:
- Focus on wins. Mentioning "wins", in addition to activities, is intentional. Focusing on the wins and the progress, rather than the long distance ahead and how we fall short of our ideal, helps us get into a mindset of celebration, positivity, encouragement, determination, increased energy and commitment, etc. This promotes a positive feedback loop of further progress.
- No win or activity is too small. No win or activity, if done intentionally with wholesome intent, is "small" or "insignificant" or "not worthy of posting". Literally.
- Start where you are. The only person who can practice is us, as we are, now. There is literally no other place to practice. So, no one is too spiritually "behind" or "ahead" to not post their wins and activities. We all start where we are. Daily. Ours is a very large tent, inclusive of all aspiring to practice Dharma.
- Dharma practice is comprehensive. Finally, the idea is for this thread to be both about meditation but also all other aspects of Dharma practice.
- With comments to others, try to be encouraging. Maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling that we're all too self-critical already. Some say it's a "Western thing". Encouragement brings forth all of the aforementioned goodies: increased resolve, inspiration, determination, energy, a genuine desire to practice more, etc.
Whadyathink? Sounds good? 
marcitko
Re: Radicalism
Most people are firmly entrenched in their label-identity and work really hard to defend it, no matter which "side" they might be on. The same people are almost all "guilty" of the same behaviors that they accuse their supposed enemy of. People do so little introspection into their own minds, hearts, and behaviors that they just enjoy accusing someone else of doing something while they do it themselves...and they truly don't see it because they are so entrenched in the importance of their assumed identity labels that they feel justified in defending those labels no matter how hateful they have to be to do it.
I live in MN where our democratic state legislators were attacked and killed in June. People who I know actually said things like "That's what you get for being a liberal." And now when someone says the same thing about Charlie Kirk, they say "You are a horrible person, NO ONE should die for their political beliefs." And they absolutely refuse to see how they are exactly the same thing. And there is no hope to point it out to them, even if you screenshot it side-by-side they do mental gymnastics to convince themselves they are not the same.
What frustrates me the most right now is that our politicians and political activists (on all sides) seem to believe it is ok to say whatever you need to "stick it to" the other person, but that they believe themselves to just be playing a game, that words don't matter, that they are just campaigning and that's how it works. They don't accept that their words have consequences, that they contribute to devaluing people and creating desperation and desperation always breeds violence. Then they say, "Political violence should not exist, people shouldn't die for their beliefs!" As if the games they play during fiery speeches don't have very real world impacts on people's lives.
The older and more curmudgeony I get, the more I think social media is the worst thing to happen to humanity. It allows people to immediately share the diarrhea of their thoughts (most of which do not deserve the power of a voice) and cement it as real. Then they are shown algorithms that reinforce the collective mind diarrhea. The amount of hate hiding in people's minds is astounding.
I am endlessly grateful for my meditation practice and my time spent in Nature, which, as Mary Oliver said, "they save me, and daily."
karasti
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
I've been working towards losing weight. As of today, I'm officially under 90kgs (-5 kgs) and going by BMI, not obese anymore, just overweight!
marcitko
Re: Welcome, new members!
Hi all,
I'm from Sydney Australia and am awaiting my initiation into Vajrayana. I've taken my refuge and boddhisattva vows and after years of dancing around the dhamma, I got serious about it about 4.5 years ago. I joined a local Sangha and have done three Empowerments so far.
I was born and raised Catholic and still have a lot of love for the faith (not necessarily the people). Even though for me, the jury is still out about the divinity of Jesus, his teachings themselves are what I try to live by. In fact, I am a "bad Christian" in the fact that I only think his actual words are what Christians should live by. The rest of the new testament was largely written by people who THINK they have interpreted his words correctly. I was not popular with the nuns at my school LOL
I'm a mum of four with a rescue puppy and work in Infrastructure. So yeah, that's me.
Re: New? Introduce Yourself to NB Members!
I figured I shouldn't start a new topic just for introducing myself, but I wasn't sure which one to use, so I did a search and picked one, hope that's alright.
So. I'm at the end of my thirties, I'm married and I feel that there are aspects of my life that make more sense in a more spiritual context, so I occasionally gravitate towards religion. Hinduism and Buddhism always fascinated me, but I was never really in connection with either, apart from a few occasions when I did try meditation and experienced its calming effects. I have all kinds of attachments and I don't feel like giving all these up (become a vegetarian? let's go for it. Reduce habits that trigger my anxiety and strengthen my depression? Let's work on that. Not to prioritize my loved ones over strangers or even my own spiritual needs? Never say never, but every cell in me revolts against such notion, which is partly why I'm not a Christian for example, I could not imagine placing some higher authority before my family.)
So I'm an emotional being and I as an "artist" I find beauty in all kinds of illusions, and I'm probably not a great candidate to reach enlightenment in this life, but that's okay, because I'd rather stick around and do good. If anything, I aspire to follow the steps of Bodhisattvas who care for all beings as I never express ill wishes towards others and suffering, no matter what the context is deeply affects me. I rarely ever concern myself with "what people deserve", because I don't find that to be relevant, I like to concern myself with what people need in order to realize their potential for goodness, and that's probably kindness, at least in my read. So according to some, that is a form of... relative bodhicitta and the more I read about that, tonglen, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism... etc, the more I want to visit a local Buddhist community and find an offline Sangha where eventually, if I'm confident enough, I can take refuge. But since I'm introverted without any close friends who are Buddhists and since such places only have monthly or from the Fall, weekly or bi-weekly events nearby, + since my work schedule is rather hectic, I thought I'd look for an online community before I'd get the chance to visit a nearby center.
I've read a rule on a chatroom some time ago, it was the only rule and I liked it so much that I try to keep to it ever since. It wasn't a list of what's not allowed, what things to look out for when policing yourself, it wasn't an assumption that you have to be spoon-fed basic etiquette and whatnot. It was simply this: "Treat this place as if you were a guest invited into someone's home." So in the light of that: thank you for having me over. I hope my contributions will be in the spirit of the community, however wonderfully imperfect we all are. 
RobinH