Let's learn Buddhism together

[jonesboy]

Theravada

Theravada, practiced in Southeast Asia, emphasizes the practice of mindfulness meditation. This is done by focusing on the breath and the sensations in the body while sitting, and on the movements and intentions to move while walking extremely slowly. With mindfulness of the arising and falling of each moment, one gains an experiential realization of impermanence. When this understanding is applied to analyzing all one's experience, one realizes that there is no permanent, unchanging self that exists independently of everything and everyone else. All is momentary changes. In this way, one gains an understanding of reality that will liberate oneself from self-centered concern and the unhappiness it brings.

Theravada also teaches meditations on immeasurable love, compassion, equanimity and joy, but only in the last decades has it had a movement of what is called "Engaged Buddhism," starting in Thailand, for engaging Buddhists in programs of social and environmental help.

Theravada monks study and chant the Buddhist scriptures and perform ritual ceremonies for the lay public. The monks go on daily rounds of silent begging for alms, and the householders practice generosity by offering them food.

East Asian Mahayana

The East Asian Mahayana traditions deriving from China have two main aspects: Pure Land, and what in Japan is known as Zen.
·The Pure Land tradition emphasizes recitation of the name of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, as a method for going to his Pure Land of Happiness, a type of paradise in which everything is conducive for becoming a Buddha.
·Zen stresses strict meditation in which one quiets the mind of all conceptual thought so that the pure nature of the mind as compassionate and endowed with wisdom will shine forth.

Monks and nuns in both traditions chant scriptural texts and, in keeping with Confucian culture, perform ceremonies especially for the deceased ancestors of the lay community.

Tibetan Mahayana

The Tibetan form of Mahayana Buddhism found throughout Central Asia preserves the full historical development of Indian Buddhism, particularly the traditions of the great monastic universities such as Nalanda. Thus, it emphasizes study, particularly about the nature of the mind, the emotions and reality, through the medium of logic and debate, carried out in conjunction with intense meditation on these topics.

This approach is combined, in Tibet, with the Indian Buddhist tradition of tantra practice, in which one uses the powers of the imagination and works with the subtle energies of the body to transform oneself into a Buddha. This is done by concentrating on voidness (emptiness) and compassion, and within that context, imagining oneself to have become a specific Buddha-form. Although such forms are sometimes called "meditation deities," they are not the equivalent of God in meaning or function, and Buddhism is not in any way a polytheistic religion. Each Buddha-form is a symbolic representation of one aspect of a Buddha's enlightenment, such as wisdom or compassion. Visualizing oneself in such a form and reciting the sacred syllables (mantras) associated with it helps one to overcome one's deluded, negative self-image and to develop the qualities embodied by that figure. Such practices are very advanced and require close supervision by a fully qualified teacher.

Tibetan Buddhism also has a great deal of chanting and ritual, often designed to eliminate negative forces and interference visualized in the form of demons. While performing such rituals, one imagines oneself in an extremely forceful form as a meditational aid for gaining the energy and confidence to overcome difficulties. There is also great emphasis on meditational techniques for cultivating love and compassion, also involving the use of visualization.

Summary

Whether one looks at the mindfulness practices of Theravada, the chanting of Amitabha Buddha’s name in China, or debate and visualization practices in Tibet, all forms of Buddhism fit within the same context. They each provide effective methods for overcoming suffering and realizing one’s potentials, not only for one’s own sake, but also for being able to benefit others as much as is possible.

https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan...es-of-buddhism

[jonesboy]

If someone wishes to continue to post on the history of Buddhism please feel free. Moving on to the Path of Enlightenment section.

https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan...-buddhist-path


The graded path, lam-rim, is a way to access and integrate the basic Buddhist teachings into our lives. Buddha lived 2,500 years ago, with a community of monks, and later on, a community of nuns. He not only taught the ordained communities, but was often invited to various people’s homes where he was offered a meal and, afterwards, would give a talk.

...Atisha’s prototype presented a method through which everyone could develop themselves toward the state of a Buddha. Just to read sutras randomly doesn’t necessarily give us a clear spiritual path of where to start, or how to achieve enlightenment. All of the material is there, but it’s not easy to put it all together.

This is exactly what the lam-rim does, by presenting the material in a graded order. After Atisha, there have been many different, more elaborate versions written in Tibet. We’ll be looking at the version written in the fifteenth century by Tsongkhapa, which constitutes possibly the largest elaboration of the material. An outstanding feature of Tsongkhapa’s work is that it includes quotations from the sutras and Indian commentaries, so we can be confident that he isn’t just making anything up.

[jonesboy]

Giving Rebirth the Benefit of the Doubt While Thinking Only to Improve This Life

https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan...-buddhist-path

For most of us, we’re probably aiming to make this life a little bit better. And that’s a completely valid aim. It’s a beginning and very necessary step. When we’re at this level of Dharma-Lite, however, it’s important to acknowledge that it is Dharma-Lite and not the real thing. By confusing the two, we reduce Buddhism merely to another form of therapy or self-help. That’s rather limiting and not fair to Buddhism.

We also need to acknowledge if we don’t even understand what Real Thing Dharma is all about, let alone believe that it’s true. We should be open-minded, thinking, “I’m not sure if what they say about future lives and liberation is correct, but right now I’ll work at a Dharma-Lite level. As I develop further and study and meditate more, perhaps I’ll understand more about Real Thing Dharma.” This is a perfectly valid and sound approach, based on respect for Buddha and conviction that he wasn’t just speaking nonsense when he taught those things

We can also acknowledge that certain ideas we might have ourselves that define and explain future lives and liberation, for example, might be totally incorrect, and that Buddhism wouldn’t accept those preconceived definitions or explanations either. So what we think something means, or what we find ridiculous, Buddha might also find ridiculous because it’s a completely wrong understanding. For instance, that we are like a soul with wings that flies out of the body and then enters another is something that Buddha would not accept either. Buddha would also reject the idea that we could become almighty God ourselves.

Meditation

When the Dharma process is described as working on ourselves, this is what is meant. When we meditate in a quiet, controlled atmosphere in our room, we are practicing generating these types of understanding and these more positive states of mind. We use our imagination to think about other people and develop constructive attitudes toward them.

Once we’ve developed sufficient familiarity with a certain positive state of mind, we try to apply it in our daily life. That’s the whole purpose. Just thinking loving thoughts when you’re sitting on a cushion, but then getting angry with your family and colleagues, is not the desired outcome. So, we must never treat our meditation practice as an escape from life, where we just want to spend some minute calming down for ourselves. It’s also an escape if we go into some sort of fantasy-land, thinking up all sorts of incredible things. Meditation practice should be quite different; we are training to be able to deal with the problems of life.

Next section is Introduction to the Graded Path

[Bohdiyana]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

Buddhism has accepted teachings with accepted meaning.

So just like learning a subject in school. We all may be unique but we can all come to understand the facts of things.

Yes that's why I said what I did because of my interest in Buddhism. You said this thread was about Buddhism but in your first post you contradicted Buddhism's core teaching that there is no self. You posited that arguments were not entirely false and self created. It is only wanting others to agree with us that causes an argument. There is no external cause. It is only our own false self, our attachments, that can cause us to react in a negative way to what someone else believes or states. So one fact of Buddhism's core teachings is nothing outside of us causes an argument. If we have arguments or experience them or see them as a reality or an experience, it is because we chose to. Really it is because we are attached to arguments and want to experience them. Of course related to all of this is we are mostly unaware of what we ourselves are doing so it is probably an unconscious activity. So saying it is a choice is not entirely right because to have the choice to not do it means we have to be aware first we are doing it. But Buddhism teaches us to be self aware. So if one is practicing Buddhism or understands what it is about, one is aware of what one is doing. So a true practitioner of Buddhism cannot have an argument or experience one. They are no longer a reality. They are unattached to trying to control what others say or believe and they are self aware of their own reactions to things and understand they themselves and their thinking and attachments are the cause of their reactions and so can be clear of them.

A thread on a forum is for sharing ones understanding of things. It is a group activity. To just post ones thinking or someones elses thinking in "book form" where no one else is allowed to differ in opinion, is more appropriate as a book or as a personal blog somewhere where no one else is allowed to post. I think you are quoting and posting sections of books and then wanting a discussion of them? So of course all will have different views and understandings of what you posted. That is the whole point of a group discussion.

Originally Posted by jonesboy

Theravada

... the practice of mindfulness meditation. This is done by focusing on the breath and the sensations in the body while sitting, and on the movements and intentions to move while walking extremely slowly. With mindfulness of the arising and falling of each moment, one gains an experiential realization of impermanence. When this understanding is applied to analyzing all one's experience, one realizes that there is no permanent, unchanging self that exists independently of everything and everyone else. All is momentary changes. In this way, one gains an understanding of reality that will liberate oneself from self-centered concern and the unhappiness it brings.

When you state, "this is how mindfulness meditation is done" you are only posting the opinion of the person who wrote the book you are quoting. It is one persons way of understanding what it is or trying to express to others through words and language "what it is." I would paraphrase what they were trying to say above as this:

... the practice of mindfulness meditation. This is done by understanding what one is and choosing emptiness. By emptiness I mean no longer following one's thoughts with the attention and instead being free of ones conditioning. With mindfulness, or freedom from the thought based self in each moment, one gains an experiential realization of the emptiness of reality. This "emptiness" is not a void or some other imagined negative state. Void and empty are also "things" and not a part of it. It is simply an experience of oneself and now without ones conditioning or thought based realities. So this emptiness can also be described as being full. One is more fully themselves and experiences that. When this understanding is applied to all of one's experience, one realizes that the thought based permanent, unchanging self that is believed to exist independently of everything and everyone else is not necessary and can be put away. In this way, ones experience of now changes and one gains an understanding of reality that will liberate oneself from ones conditioning and attachments and the unhappiness such things bring.

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by Bohdiyana

Yes that's why I said what I did because of my interest in Buddhism. You said this thread was about Buddhism but in your first post you contradicted Buddhism's core teaching that there is no self. You posited that arguments were not entirely false and self created. It is only wanting others to agree with us that causes an argument. There is no external cause. It is only our own false self, our attachments, that can cause us to react in a negative way to what someone else believes or states. So one fact of Buddhism's core teachings is nothing outside of us causes an argument. If we have arguments or experience them or see them as a reality or an experience, it is because we chose to. Really it is because we are attached to arguments and want to experience them. Of course related to all of this is we are mostly unaware of what we ourselves are doing so it is probably an unconscious activity. So saying it is a choice is not entirely right because to have the choice to not do it means we have to be aware first we are doing it. But Buddhism teaches us to be self aware. So if one is practicing Buddhism or understands what it is about, one is aware of what one is doing. So a true practitioner of Buddhism cannot have an argument or experience one. They are no longer a reality. They are unattached to trying to control what others say or believe and they are self aware of their own reactions to things and understand they themselves and their thinking and attachments are the cause of their reactions and so can be clear of them.

A thread on a forum is for sharing ones understanding of things. It is a group activity. To just post ones thinking or someones elses thinking in "book form" where no one else is allowed to differ in opinion, is more appropriate as a book or as a personal blog somewhere where no one else is allowed to post. I think you are quoting and posting sections of books and then wanting a discussion of them? So of course all will have different views and understandings of what you posted. That is the whole point of a group discussion.

You are way over thinking this.

1: we either accept there are accepted meanings and teachings in Buddhism.
2: The Buddha liked to debate with others a lot. Another name for that is an argument. Debates are not bad and can be very fun. If you notice you are getting upset, that is an attachment and something for you to work on.

3: We are discussing chapters that help explain everything to us. That way one doesn't think that emptiness is something one experiences or can feel.

When you state, "this is how mindfulness meditation is done" you are only posting the opinion of the person who wrote the book you are quoting. It is one persons way of understanding what it is or trying to express to others through words and language "what it is." I would paraphrase what they were trying to say above as this:

... the practice of mindfulness meditation. This is done by understanding what one is and choosing emptiness. By emptiness I mean no longer following one's thoughts with the attention and instead being free of ones conditioning. With mindfulness, or freedom from the thought based self in each moment, one gains an experiential realization of the emptiness of reality. This "emptiness" is not a void or some other imagined negative state. Void and empty are also "things" and not a part of it. It is simply an experience of oneself and now without ones conditioning or thought based realities. So this emptiness can also be described as being full. One is more fully themselves and experiences that. When this understanding is applied to all of one's experience, one realizes that there is no thought based permanent, unchanging self that exists independently of everything and everyone else. Ones experience of now changes. In this way, one gains an understanding of reality that will liberate oneself from self-centered concern and the unhappiness it brings.

I would disagree with your definition of void and emptiness as a thing.

Which is why all I am suggesting is that we learn from someone who is respected so we don't argue or have false understanding of terms and the various states of being.

The other was giving a broad overview of the different traditions. Not trying to go deep on what mindfulness is. Right now it is just a overview.. as we progress in the chapters it gets a lot more detailed on various teachings.

The Author of the website is Alexander Berzin:

Berzin was born in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He received his B.A. degree in 1965 from the Department of Oriental Studies, Rutgers University; his M.A. in 1967; and, his Ph.D. in 1972 from the Departments of Far Eastern Languages (Chinese) and Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University.

Berzin served as the Dalai Lama's archivist and occasionally his interpreter.[2]

Berzin is on the Board of Advisors of Tibet House Germany[3] and the International Center for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding of the College of Religious Studies of Mahidol University, Thailand.[4]

He currently lives in Berlin, Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berzin_(scholar)

[Bohdiyana]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

When we’re at this level of Dharma-Lite, however, it’s important to acknowledge that it is Dharma-Lite and not the real thing. By confusing the two, we reduce Buddhism merely to another form of therapy or self-help. That’s rather limiting and not fair to Buddhism.

How I like to say that is "In any given moment, there are more possible states of consciousness and awareness available to us which we may not be currently aware of."

Originally Posted by jonesboy

Once we’ve developed sufficient familiarity with a certain positive state of mind, we try to apply it in our daily life.

Yea at some point "meditation" turns into just being aware and awake all the time. One lets go of "wanting" to achieve something or become something or be something and instead just is. All the time one is self aware and free of one's thought based reality and conditioning. Including religious or spiritual conditioning. The free state itself becomes all there is.

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by Bohdiyana

How I like to say that is "In any given moment, there are more possible states of consciousness and awareness available to us which we may not be currently aware of."



Yea at some point "meditation" turns into just being aware and awake all the time. One lets go of "wanting" to achieve something or become something or be something and instead just is. All the time one is self aware and free of one's thought based reality and conditioning. Including religious or spiritual conditioning. The free state itself becomes all there is.

Nice post

[sky]

I would say Buddhism is about self help.

'No one saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path'
Buddha....

Self help....

[jonesboy]

Next I am going to skim over the 3 levels of motivation.

Please feel free to read each one and if you feel something is important and deserves further exploration please share.

The Three Levels of Motivation for Real Thing Dharma

The lam-rim presents three levels of motivation:
· Initial level – we think in terms of ensuring that we have one of the better types of rebirths, not just in our next lifetime, but in all future lifetimes.
· Intermediate level – our motivation is to gain total liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth; we want to become liberated.
· Advanced level – we aim to reach the state of a fully enlightened Buddha, in order to help everyone else also become free of uncontrollably recurring rebirth.

It’s quite obvious that each of the levels is based on the assumption of rebirth. Still, as we discussed earlier, each of the methods that’s presented in the material for these three levels can be applied on the Dharma-Lite level as well. These motivations are not something we should trivialize, because they’re really quite remarkable if we can develop them in a sincere way.

The initial motivation starts with appreciating this incredibly precious human life that we have. We have this body, we have opportunities, and above all, we have our human intelligence; there is almost nothing we can’t achieve if we put our minds to it.

This amazing situation we’re now in won’t last forever, because nothing does. It doesn’t matter how rich we are, or how famous we are, or how many friends we have, or how strong our body is, we will die. Not only is there nothing that can stop this, there is also no way of knowing when our time will be up. It has been said that if we truly realize death, then it will be impossible for us to lead an ordinary life.

When we see that this life is fragile and can be over at any moment, we’ll start to think about what lies beyond death. Because there are so many possible states, many of which are terrifying, in which we could be reborn, we put a safe direction into our lives.

This safe direction urges us to refrain from destructive actions, which cause future suffering, and engage in constructive actions, which cause future happiness. In this way, we ensure our own future rebirths in better states.

[jonesboy]

Voidness (Emptiness): The Total Absence of Impossible Ways of Existing


What we need to understand is called “voidness” or “emptiness.” Voidness means a total absence; something is not there at all. What is not there is a real referent of these projections that are impossible. They don’t correspond to anything real.

We can use the example of Santa Claus. Say we see somebody with a long white beard dressed in a red suit, and they look like what we call “Santa Claus.” We think he is Santa Claus, but why? Well, because he looks like Santa Claus. However, the appearance of Santa Claus does not correspond to anything real, because there is no actual Santa Claus. This is what voidness is talking about, an absence of a real Santa Claus that corresponds to this person’s appearance. This doesn’t in any way deny that there is a man there, and he happens to look like Santa Claus. We are just clarifying that the way the man appears to us is deceptive. It looks like Santa Claus, but it’s not really Santa Claus, because there is no such thing.

Our mind works in this way all the time. We project all sorts of nonsense, like this person is the most beautiful person, or that person is the most horrible person, or that we are God’s gift to the world or, instead, that we’re absolutely useless. We project these things as if we or they existed like that, totally independently of everything else, as though it’s true and unchanging.

In reality, nobody exists like that. In fact, it’s impossible, because everything exists relative to other things. His Holiness the Dalai Lama always uses the example of our fingers. Is our fourth finger big or small? Well, it’s big compared to the fifth finger, but small compared to the middle finger. So from its own side, by its own power, is it big or small? There is no answer because it’s only big or small in relation to other things. It is totally dependent on other things and also dependent on our concept of what is big and what is small. I think you get the idea.

At this intermediate level, we work to get rid of this fundamental misunderstanding by gaining an understanding of voidness. It is this very confusion that causes uncontrollably recurring rebirth, because it activates karma and karmic aftermath, as explained in the complicated mechanism of the 12 links of dependent arising.

https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan...-of-motivation