Best Of
Re: Is it better to believe in one life or in many?
I'm not sure it matters. Yes, if you are afraid of creating negative karmic imprints within yourself which might cause a bad rebirth, it might matter. But fear is not a very good motivator when it comes to the matter of mind-training (such as doing your Buddhist meditation).
Buddhism tells us that the Past is just a memory and no-longer matters. And that the Future never arises -- it is always tomorrow. All we have is THIS moment, but when we handle this moment as working on enlightenment, then the internal future we are creating will be positive (and the only thing which really matters IS the internal moment, at this moment in time, Here and Now).
Lastly, it is said that when we die our self-identify and memories also die and all that passes on is a very subtle energy carrying our karma imprints.
So focusing on past/future lives is focusing on something which doesn't really matter. It is this moment, and how we are relating to it, which matters.
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
@ Jeroen:
It appears we are talking about the same gem through different facets.
That said, I offer an additional observation.
A beneficial act is a chosen act. It is not an accidental act, but an act deliberately made. The level benefit derived to the individual who performs the act is ultimately dependent upon said individual's intent. There is benefit from and act performed from a selfish intent, but that benefit is reduced and can even be nullified by the coutervalence of the degree of selfish motivation of personal gain.
To preform beneficial acts without regard to expectation of personal gain generated a different kind of personal benefit or gain. Said may appear as inconspicuous or conspicuous benefit or gain, but is more profound, more meaningful and more lasting.
This is the difference between a predatory act of word or deed dressed up as an act of kindness, of selflessness and an act of word or deed arising from the heart freely given free of the chains of expectancy of reward.
Such differences may be invisible to other parties, but the mind, the heart of the person knows, catalogs, remembers.
This is not to say that having an expectation of benefit or gain is exclusive of the selflessness of the specific words or actions. But that the primary reason for the words or actions is not "Where is my gain ? Where is my benefit?" but that gain or benefit will derive from the selfless actions organically. The benefit is already there. The benefit may not manifest immediately or appear in a manner expected. But it is there. It arises through the quality derived from the actions of the heart, not strategy.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“This is very difficult for the logical mind to understand. The logical mind asks you, "Where are you going?" It wants to know about the goal, it is goal oriented. And existence is not going anywhere, it is simply enjoying. In the flowers, in the birds, in people, in rivers, in clouds, in stars, it is simply enjoying. It is not going anywhere.
There is no goal.”
Jeroen
Re: The AI tsunami
Yes it is. It’s about the concern that people will just leave the hard tasks of thinking up to the AI’s. You already see this in the research on young adults and why they choose to use AI for schoolwork, and mostly it’s because they don’t feel like doing the hard work. I think very soon we will be so used to AI that we won’t be able to do without it.
I do think curiosity is a human trait, and everyone will query AIs to find things out, in much the same way that we periodically dip into Wikipedia. But that is different from a directed course of study, which teaches us a whole field of knowledge in breadth and depth. You typically only take a course if you have to for your work…
Jeroen
Re: peace
@_lobster _
Indeed, we are each the sum of our parts. The people we encounter see only a one or a few parts. Few, if any, ever see the whole. What each sees is the real you. But, it is only part visible "above the water".
When the Spanish first entered the Pacific, it was calm, peaceful (after passing through the Straight of Magellan), hence the name, PACIFIC. Later, they found that this ocean also had a nasty temper.
We are the same. Whenever a person interacts with another, depending upon both the circumstance, the situation, prior actions or lack thereof, will see one aspect, one facet
of that other person. It is said that people tend to judge others in the first seconds of initial contact. Sometimes that initial contact yields a correct analysis of the the person, often the initial contact, like the Spanish and the Pacific, is only partial and thus erroneous, incorrect.
We are all deep pools, only the surface is what others see. As a person becomes familiar to us, we are able to see deeper, but never more than a fraction of that depth.
Everyone has a story. The story makes each and all unique.
The difficulty is to look deep enough into the pool to interact with and understand as much of another as can be understood and accepted.
Returning to the you, the me, the we...Before we can understand another, we must first understand ourselves. So many fail to probe their own depth. Those persons fail to prob beyond the surface and think they understand their pool.
We must not forget to be courageous enough to probe.
Peace to you
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: peace
Peace is 
“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.This is but half the truth.You are also as strong as your strongest link.To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of its foam.To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, quote from The Prophet
lobster
Re: Being a light unto yourself
All my impediments are mined. Fortunately all The Buddhas (and others) are also Mind. We have to inflate and burst until our Bodies and Bodhi shine and our buddhas just a shoo step away...
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”
~ Kahlil Gibran, quote from The Prophet
lobster
Re: Is it better to believe in one life or in many?
I think rebirth would work like the hydrological system here on Earth. Clouds transform into drops which fall individually and through the path of least resistance they eventually evaporate and again form clouds. It's all the same water but no individual drop ever repeats.
Re: Being a light unto yourself
I remember from transcribing a talk into text where my teacher had referred to a written teaching, the subject of the talk, as "frozen awakened mind/heart". So being frozen it's not the same as the actual mind of the author (or orator) but we get something from that mind and we try "to defrost" it I guess
Jeffrey
Re: Being a light unto yourself
I think this is one of those things that are correct only through certain lenses. As @person points out, we don't cut off the finger pointing to the moon. There is a Middle Way.
Like a teaching that teaches how to think rather than what to think, Buddhism is more like a practice as opposed to a belief system.
The First and Second Noble Truths make sense. That which lives suffers unease either through physical and mental maladies or the stress that comes with them. As we work on the Fourth Noble Truth which is the Eightfold Path, we can directly witness the Third Noble Truth which is that suffering can be transformed.
Beliefs are ok to put to the test but I try not to have faith in them. Especially my own.