﻿Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 29th, 2021 at 12:26 AM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:
zerwe said:
In short, if you are NOT practicing Vajrayana, whoever has had the greatest impact on moving your heart/mind is your root guru.

Malcolm wrote:
No, there is no such thing in Mahāyāna or for that matter in lower tantra, as a root guru.

zerwe said:
Otherwise, whoever you first received HYT initiation is your root guru by default.

Malcolm wrote:
Any guru from whom you receive the four empowerments from is a root guru. Not merely the first one from whom one received such as empowerment. If you received Kalacakra from one guru and Hevjara from another, each is your root guru for that system.

zerwe said:
I catch the drift that, from a Dzogchen perspective, this is whoever you first received direct introduction from?

Malcolm wrote:
No, the one from whom your actual understanding of rig pa arose. Not necessarily the first person one has received Dzogchen transmission from. Case in point, ChNN had already received the complete teachings of Dzogchen from 13 different teachers before he met Chanchub Dorje.

zerwe said:
I understand that there may differences between the two (direct introduction and receiving the 4 empowerments), but I (not a Dzogchen practitioner) tend to equate these as being the relatively the same--I don't think I have the terminology to adequately describe.


Malcolm wrote:
The fourth empowerment and direct introduction/pointing out are equivalent. In general, Gelukpas and Sakyas do not accept direct introduction as a ripening empowerment. Some Gelukpas do not accept direct introductions at all, even after empowerment. Some Kagyus and generally all Nyingmapas do.

Even so, there is still some argument in Dzogchen tantras which indicate it is much better to receive the four empowerments in the Dzogchen intimate instruction system, and that direct introduction alone is not necessarily sufficient as a ripening empowerment, so even Nyingmapas and Kagyus generally err on the side of caution.

zerwe said:
And, then there are teachings on how to see all the gurus as one, all as the dharmakaya, and all the activities of many gurus as originating, being initiated, from our root guru.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, but this is common to all four schools.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 29th, 2021 at 12:13 AM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:


Soma999 said:
What i am saying is that the essence of empowerment is not necessarily dependent upon a specific form.

Malcolm wrote:
The essence of an empowerment is the arrangement of a special dependent origination by the master upon the disciple according to the methods taught by Buddha Vajradhara in the authoritative tantras, realized by mahāsiddhas, practiced by bodhisattvas, and translated by qualified translators out of Sanskrit and other dialects of India in Tibetan, and thence into English and other languages. There is no other essence than this.

These days however, people take it upon them themselves to just make up whatever doctrine feels good to them, disregarding the clear words of the sūtras and tantras about how to follow a virtuous mentor or a guru. They buy books and attempt to practice their contents without transmission. Such people close the doorway to liberation for themselves by inappropriately using methods taught in the tantras.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 11:04 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Zhen Li said:
I may change my opinion after reading it, but it seems like he is suggesting here that brāhmaṇas simply passed over passages that didn't work for them, and that's their canon.

Malcolm wrote:
he actually makes a more interesting proposal, that brahmins were more interested in dhyānas, while non-brahmins were more interested in insight.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 11:00 PM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:
Soma999 said:
« Empowerment » is a ritual.

Malcolm wrote:
Not just a ritual. It is misunderstandings like this that cause harm to the teachings.

There is no guru in Vajrayāna without empowerment, and there is no authorization to explain the details of Vajrayāna practice at all to someone who has not received empowerment. The Mahāmudrātilaka make this abundantly clear:

First, once empowerments are conferred
upon the disciple,
at that time the great secret may be explained
because they have become suitable recipients.

If there is no empowerment, there will be no siddhi,
just as there is no oil from pressing sand. 

When someone arrogantly explicates
the collection of tantras to one lacking empowerment,
both master and disciple will go to hell
as soon as they die, even if they attained siddhi.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 10:39 PM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:


FiveSkandhas said:
The reason I ask at all is this interesting quote from Gampopa: "For anyone who wishes to see me, studying THE JEWEL ORNAMENT OF LIBERATION and the PRECIOUS GARLAND OF THE EXCELLENT PATH is the same as meeting me."

Malcolm wrote:
This simply means that if you met Gampopa, he couldn't tell you anything more about the essentials of Dharma than what's contained in these two texts.

It is just a restatement of the Buddha's declaration. "Those who see dependent origination see the Dharma. Those who see the Dharma see me."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 10:00 PM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:
zerwe said:
It is pretty common to encounter Vajrayana practitioners who are very confused about this subject.
How could one receive empowerment, instructions, and teachings (thus entering into the vehicle) and be confused about who their root guru is?

Malcolm wrote:
People are often confused about this point, and think that only one guru can be a root guru or mūlaguru. In reality, any qualified person from whom one has received the four empowerments in a proper way is one's root guru.

In Nyingma and Kagyu circles is common to understand that one's principle guru is the person from whom one has received definitive instructions through which one has understood the nature of the mind. The Sakyapas and others talk about one's karmically linked root guru as being one's principle guru, which has the same meaning as the Nyingma/Kagyu idea.

Some people think that their root guru is the person from whom they received refuge, this is another common misunderstanding. Some people in organizations like Shambhala, are encouraged to think dead teachers like Trungpa are their root guru, thus adding more confusion to the pot. Some people think they can just pick a famous figure, like HHDL, the Karmapa, etc., to be their root guru without having ever received teachings from them, but this is yet another misunderstanding.

All of this confusion comes about from not studying proper commentaries like the 50 Verses on guru devotion, and other texts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 8:07 PM
Title: Re: Is it permissable in Guru Yoga to choose an historical guru?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
It is permissible, and it is valid.

Malcolm wrote:
Neither permissible, valid, nor taught in any tantra.

A root guru is a person from whom one has at minimum received empowerments. No empowerment, no guru.

It’s amazing how people like you get all upset about minor issues, but boldly proclaims doctrines that harm the essence of the Dharma with barely a thought.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 5:49 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Sherab said:
I was talking about direct knowing.

Malcolm wrote:
Perhaps because you still have not defined what you mean by “direct knowing.”

Direct perceptions are, in ordinary people only the consciousnesses of the five physical senses.

Yogis have different capacities, called abhijnana, “higher or direct knowing,” Knowledge past lives, etc. these are also five in number.

The sixth, unique to Buddhists, is insight.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 1:58 AM
Title: Re: La Palma vulcano eruption
Content:
Aemilius said:
Ufo-contactee Billy Meier, or his extra terrestrial sources, made a prediction concerning the volcano on La Palma some three decades ago. What is happening now is mild compared to the predictions of Billy Meier. No lives have been lost, only some buildings. It could have been much worse.

Malcolm wrote:
That guy is a total fraud, an antisemite, and a homophobe.

Toenail said:
The last one is unacceptable.

Malcolm wrote:
Umm, it's acceptable to be an antisemite? Why?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 11:35 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
Sentient and have Buddha nature.

Killing them to eat would contradict the refuge vows.

Malcolm wrote:
Not sentient and no buddha nature.

Eating them does not contradict the commitments of refuge.

Sonam Wangchug said:
Well, it may surprise you to know that at least one of your teachers disagrees.

Malcolm wrote:
Some Buddhist schools argue that causing an abortion is a parajika, other schools disagree.

Sonam Wangchug said:
Since you are a Buddhist teacher and your misinformed opinion could the death of sentient beings and cause other Buddhists to go against their vows, why don't you, instead of putting up authoritative statements like they are not sentient which contradicts various Buddhist Teachers I have heard, do the sensible and ethical thing and email a teachers whose opinion you regard someone like HHST to clarify.  It's the humble thing to do.

Malcolm wrote:
I am not telling people to eat oysters. People are free to eat what they want according to their own conscience. I personally think it is fine. You disagree.

Könchok Thrinley said:
Oysters are clearly an animal and a living thing. Just see what wikipedia says on their anatomy and how it is described:

Malcolm wrote:
Plants are clearly living things too, with anatomy, physiology, gender, and so on, the ability to communicate the presence of threats from disease, insects, etc., share nutrients with ailing plants in within their reach, and so on.


Könchok Thrinley said:
There is a reasearch which found out that oysters respond to sound, apparently perceiving sound

Malcolm wrote:
Plants respond to sound as well.

Könchok Thrinley said:
The neuron count of an animal can suggest whether or not that animal has enough complexity to support consciousness.

Malcolm wrote:
So now we are depending upon physicalism to define sentience?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 8:50 AM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Toenail said:
Would you eat live oysters?

Malcolm wrote:
Of course. On the half shell is the best way.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 5:47 AM
Title: Re: Making sense of types of thought
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Well, actually the I-making habit, the basic knowledge obscuration, has no real existence as a self, but it functions as an agent of karma and a recipient of karma, so there is that, even though the "I" it imputes does not exist at all.

Astus said:
...it is rather the mistaken view is what defines intention and action and experiences are generated by them.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is an imagined, nonexistent self that causes and experiences everything, for example, when a car is in accident, it is the imagined car for which one pays the damages, not the wrong view of the imagined car. But perhaps this is a special point of Candrakīrti's Madhyamaka, unlikely to be found the Visuddhimagga.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 5:23 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Sherab said:
Budhas know things directly without sense mediation.  Therefore, we too can know things directly without sense mediation because without that ability, we can never become Buddhas.  It follows that direct knowing makes sense only if it is not mediated by sense consciousness, unless we have one definition of direct knowing for Buddhas and another for the rest.

Malcolm wrote:
So, are you talking about yogapratyakṣa? If so, what inhibits this is traces of ignorance, which is why the yogic direct perception of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is incapable ot realizing all objects of knowledge due to the presence of traces of ignorance.

Generally, however, pratyakṣa is confined to the five sense because manas is always a cognition of a direct perception of the five sense bases, aka a simple impression.

Yogic direct perception is a personal intuition (pratyatmyavit), not an ordinary direct perception, for example the direct perception of a hawk hunting mice.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 4:09 AM
Title: Re: Making sense of types of thought
Content:
LastLegend said:
When you finely see that which sees or knows, and realize it’s not anything either. Yet it’s functions it knows, quite clearly it knows that means you are touching pure consciousness.

Astus said:
There is no knower/seer (i.e. self) to be found, but to say that what cannot be found (i.e. does not exist) can nevertheless function is like saying that the daughter of a barren woman is a good singer.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, actually the I-making habit, the basic knowledge obscuration, has no real existence as a self, but it functions as an agent of karma and a recipient of karma, so there is that, even though the "I" it imputes does not exist at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 2:56 AM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Toenail said:
So sentience etc is depended on central nervous system and sense organs? Then do spirits or devas not have sentience? Because they do not have a central nervous system? I always thought animals like that are experience very heavy dullness karma like being absorbed in dull shamatha for many years or so. And now they are some weird dull sponge livigg for 1000s of years floating in the ocean or an oyster living in darkness etc.

Malcolm wrote:
We are talking about the physically embodied. Devas have physical bodies, actually, feel sensations, etc. Please consult chapter three of the Kośa on this point. So-called spirits, on the other hand, are disembodied, having no form, etc.

The point is that where the line is drawn between sentience/nonsentience is very ambiguous. If oysters can't think, etc., they are not sentient. I don't think they can think, YMMV. I don't think they possess minds. The Buddha is not around to ask anymore.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 2:02 AM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
seeker242 said:
I wonder if traditional Korean temple food or traditional Japanese temple food is allowed to have oysters, clams etc.? Traditionally those are vegetarian foods so I don’t see how it could be allowed. I know that my Korean temple would never put oysters in anything but I don’t know if that’s traditional or not.

Malcolm wrote:
People complain mostly about eating things that have faces. There are massive environmental benefits in oyster farming, and they provide a pain-free source of animal protein. Oysters have no central nervous system and no sense organs, so they do not feel pain; and like plants, they respond to temperature and other environmental factors for feeding, breeding, etc. They may technically belong to the animal kingdom, but they are not sentient in any meaningful way. If it is argued they have sexual reproduction, so do plants.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 1:40 AM
Title: Re: Children Covid Vaccinations
Content:
Queequeg said:
When did Buddhadharma become some hokey faith healing shit?

Malcolm wrote:
Sakya Pandit complained in the 13th century about this view in Illuminating the Muni's Intent:

Here someone claims, “If one obtains a medical diagnosis, recites texts and so on, one will have no confidence in the jewel of the Dharma. Having obtained a medical diagnosis, it is best to then go for refuge to the Three Jewels. One will damage one’s refuge in the Three Jewels if one takes medicine.” 

In that case, it is said in the Bhaisayavastu of the Vinayāgama that doctors and medicines are to be relied upon by sick bhikṣus. Since food and drink are included together in the four kinds of medicine, if one eats or drinks one will be damaging one’s refuge. Therefore, just as one eats and drinks, how can it be reasonable to claim “One harms one’s going for refuge if one takes medicine?” If a scholar sees this, he will be disgusted.

So, it has been around for a long time...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 1:31 AM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Karma Dorje said:
I guess the bigger question is “Do vegans swallow?”

Malcolm wrote:
I don't see how they could, it's animal tissue, after all.

However, with a little shallot mignonette, you never know.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 12:09 AM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Giovanni said:
I suspect that Malcolm is being a little provocative..

Malcolm wrote:
All I was saying was that I prefer oysters to semen. Others prefer okra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 9:10 PM
Title: Re: Children Covid Vaccinations
Content:
Tills ljuset tar oss said:
Medicine Buddha is real.

treehuggingoctopus said:
...And among his activities today is distributing the vaccine and helping people understand they need to maintain social distancing and wear masks.


Sādhaka said:
That’s an assumption.

Malcolm wrote:
A reasonable one based on the fact that 99% of all people presently in hospitals with covid did not receive vaccination when they could have. But some people just continue to be dumb as shit and listen to morons like Joe Rogan.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 9:05 PM
Title: Re: What to do after attaining insight into emptiness
Content:
yinyangkoi said:
After one perceives all five skandhas are empty (no self), what should one do? Sit in a cave until death? Continue being a householder but awake?

Malcolm wrote:
Perceiving all five skandhas is empty is one thing, but realizing all five skandhas as empty is quite another.

yinyangkoi said:
What is the difference

Malcolm wrote:
The former is conceptual, the latter nonconceptual.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 9:00 PM
Title: Re: What to do after attaining insight into emptiness
Content:
yinyangkoi said:
After one perceives all five skandhas are empty (no self), what should one do? Sit in a cave until death? Continue being a householder but awake?

Malcolm wrote:
Perceiving all five skandhas is empty is one thing, but realizing all five skandhas as empty is quite another.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 8:57 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
I will just observe that seeing this on the front page without any context was one of the more surreal experiences I've had on DharmaWheel:
Screenshot_20211026-215313.png

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, this is good dharmawheel as Jikan would say...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 8:50 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
If a creature weren’t sentient, it would never have evolved a protective cover, as with mollusks.

Malcolm wrote:
So by this argument, trees are sentient because bark.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 8:46 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
So do Buddhas only have four out of five eyes, according to either you or your tradition? Or rather, they have fleshly eyes and don't use them, never letting them make contact with a visible to produce the corresponding visual consciousness?

Malcolm wrote:
Buddhas can smell with their eyes, taste with their ears, hear with their tongues, and so on.

In any case, Sarvajnana is unmediated knowledge of reality and all knowables included with aggregate, senses bases and sense elements.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 8:02 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:



seeker242 said:
That's not true. The overwhelming majority do not. If I had to guess, maybe less than 5% do.

Malcolm wrote:
Which means it is true and vegans eat them. I” m afraid you just blundered into the “No true Scotsman” fallacy.

seeker242 said:
Saying vegans eat oysters is like saying Buddhist monks drink alcohol, simply because Japanese monks are not forbidden. It's much more accurate to say Buddhist monks do not drink alcohol. It's much more accurate to say that vegans do not eat oysters. That has nothing at all to do with “No true Scotsman”.

Malcolm wrote:
I’ve seen a lot of Buddhist monks drink alcohol. Some do regularly. So, poor example.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 7:53 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Oysters are not sentient. Even vegans eat them.

seeker242 said:
That's not true. The overwhelming majority do not. If I had to guess, maybe less than 5% do.

Malcolm wrote:
Which means it is true and vegans eat them. I” m afraid you just blundered into the “No true Scotsman” fallacy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 7:42 PM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Adamantine said:
This article cites relevant scientific sources, seems the little ones do experience pain and react to predators..it’s just not
that simple to comprehend or quantify such a different form of experience.

https://medium.com/@jd.feliz/the-case-for-vegans-eating-oysters-mussels-other-invertebrates-961747367305

Malcolm wrote:
Every argument introduced here can also be made about plants.


Adamantine said:
Yes, well, there are good arguments to be made for sentience in plants as well.. most contemporary science tends to support such. I realize that may contradict Abhidharma, however we know what HHDL has said about what to do when science and dharma dogma contradict… you don’t agree?

Malcolm wrote:
Most contemporary science does not support that, and even if it did, your argument against eating oysters would have to extend to plants. Then what would one eat? Soylent Green?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 7:34 PM
Title: Re: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
Sentient and have Buddha nature.

Killing them to eat would contradict the refuge vows.

Malcolm wrote:
Not sentient and no buddha nature.

Eating them does not contradict the commitments of refuge.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 11:05 AM
Title: Re: Children Covid Vaccinations
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
Long Covid is poorly understood and there is no "likely" with it until there is an understood mechanism, more data etc.

Malcolm wrote:
I am talking about unvaxxed people who are not suffering from long covid, who, when imaged thoroughly, MRI, CAT scans, tomography, etc.,, show extensive damage to their internal organs, people who had little or no symptoms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 10:35 AM
Title: Re: Children Covid Vaccinations
Content:
Unknown said:
The risk of severe disease to children is simply much lower than for adults period, even with Delta.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, we don’t know this. As I said, the harm this virus wrecks on people who are unvaccinated is astonishing, and is only revealed by extensive imaging. Pancreas damage, lung damage, kidney damage, etc. Look, one of my friends is the head nurse of Boston Medical Center, another friend is a surgeon at the top hospital in Mexico City. Most people have no idea the shitshow this virus creates, and long term effects are likely to be severe and ongoing in many who have been infected prior to vaccination, even if they showed no symptoms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 7:52 AM
Title: Re: Children Covid Vaccinations
Content:
treehuggingoctopus said:
The vast majority of the Western Buddhists I know consider the jab an evil concoction from outer space.


Sādhaka said:
Then Dharmawheel.net does not represent the views of most western Buddhists afterall then...?

Good to hear.

Malcolm wrote:
He lives in Eastern Europe, so not representative of Western Buddhists as a whole. But anyway, anyone who thinks the covid vaccine is harmful is dumber than shit.

The amount of damage this virus can wreck on the unvaccinated, even when they never show symptoms, is astonishing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 7:44 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
Sure, a Buddha will have to consult his teacher if he has a new experience.  And his teacher will have to consult his teacher if that experience is new to him as well.

Malcolm wrote:
This is strange. Buddhas are omniscient with respect to all paths and the experiences on those paths. But yes, they too once had teachers.

Sherab said:
Of course it is strange.  It is what would logically follow from all that you have said previously.  From what you have said previously, Buddhas too must have their experience mediated via sense consciousness based since there is no such thing as direct knowing without mediation via sense consciousness.  Therefore it has to be teachers all the way because certainty cannot be obtained without consultation with teachers since sense consciousness can be faulty.

Malcolm wrote:
Buddhas know things directly without sense mediation. But they didn’t start out that way, and neither do we. Hence there is no beginning to tathagatas, and this infinite regress is not a fault.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 1:22 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness practice off the cushion
Content:
desert_woodworker said:
Is it "necro"-mancing to reply in a thread that's 7 weeks old?

Rick said:
Not for me (the OP), I just happened to revisit this thread yesterday, so good timing! (Btw I was shocked to find out the thread is just 7 weeks old, I would have guessed a year or two, guess I've transcended time ... or it's transcended me.)

Thanks for your good simple tips for how to "keep empty." I find that with emptiness, dependent arising, the three marks, awareness ... I'm getting better and better at practicing all of these on the cushion, but carrying that practice into everyday life remains very elusive. It's as if some part of me is happy to go into a different mode of being while on the cushion, but finds it an unwanted intrusion off.

Malcolm wrote:
In post-equipoise, just keep in mind everything is just an illusion, an echo, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2021 at 1:02 AM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
There is also a Buddhist version of, unless I'm mistaken, the Ramayana in the Taishō Canon which I've yet to read.

Malcolm wrote:
It was also translated into Tibetan, though I am not sure it survived. Some Tibetans fluent in Sanskrit, like Sa skya Paṇḍita in the 13th century, read widely in non-Buddhist literature such as the Mahābharata; similar with the 20th century master, Kunnu Lama, who was fond of reading the Bhagavād Gita, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 11:35 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
I don't think that Buddhist Tantra is inherently syncretic, but it seems very obvious it arises in a period of extreme mainstream syncretism. Many Tantras between Hinduism and Buddhism have identical material in them. Someone copied someone. Who knows who?

Malcolm wrote:
There is some limited intertextuality, but not as much people infer based on a very small sample, which both Sanderson and Hatley admit. And what borrowing there is goes both ways, according to Hatley. This is not surprising (Nyingmapas on some occasions borrowed from Bonpo texts, this kind of syncretism is commonly found in Chinese Buddhist texts and so on). But such examples are limited, and cannot be said to indicate that Vajrayāna represents a Hindu corruption of Buddhism. As I pointed out, Indians are Indians, and made use of common themes and tropes for their own reasons and purposes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 10:44 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:



Caoimhghín said:
No questions. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Malcolm wrote:
Any one who has actually studied these questions knows that the depiction of the rise of Vajrayāna as a Hinduization of Buddhism is silly. If it is true, then since all the name of a stupa correspond to parts of the classic brahmin burnt offering precinct, Buddhism has been "Hinduized," to use a coarse appellation, from the start.

The fact of the matter is that without Buddhism, there would be no modern Hinduism (Gaudapāda, etc.). All of these tradition coevolved, and the common people, well, they just followed whatever the king told them to follow.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 10:33 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Zhen Li said:
The point of manifestation in Buddhism, however, is different than an avatāra in purāṇic texts. A manifestation leads beings to awakening in whatever form suits their inclinations, regardless of whether they realise it or not. Avatāras are more about restoring cosmic order or punishing evil. So, it makes no sense for an avatāra to manifest in infinite forms to suit beings' needs in the way a buddha or bodhisattva does.

Malcolm wrote:
I wasn't referring to the distinction between an avatāra and a nirmāṇa. Both are docetic in nature. I was referring the obvious adherence by Buddhists to standard forms of Indian mythopeia, the use of common tropes, which indeed can include avatāric themes, such as Rudra Cakravartin's aka Kalki, defeat of the mlecchas in the final battle to restore world peace from mleccha domination, after the latter attack Shambhala; or the taming of Mahādeva by Śrī Heruka in the Cakrasaṃvara literature or the taming of Rudra found in the lower tantras, etc., in which these beings initiated an age of chaos and inequity, requiring Vajradhara to step in and intervene, etc.

So, still Team Indra.

Its true that the Bonpos work in some Iranian themes into their quasi-Buddhist mythopeia, and that the Chinese and Japanese work in native cultural themes into their mythopeia, and there is indeed some reason to think that the Iranian "paradise", that is the walled garden, may have some influence on the conception and depiction of Sukhavati. Nevertheless, Indian mythopeia is so strong a current wherever Buddhism spread from India that it completely dominates the local myths, which only survive through being appropriated, like domestic animals.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 9:48 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Isn’t amazing though that it is totally the case that Buddhist overwhelmingly derive their mythopeia from common Indian sourrces?

tingdzin said:
Read Zhen Li's reply.

Malcolm wrote:
Also, Zhen Li's reply does not count for one to one correspondences with Shiva, Umadevi, Sarasvati, Tāra, and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 8:12 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Isn’t amazing though that it is totally the case that Buddhist overwhelmingly derive their mythopeia from common Indian sourrces?

tingdzin said:
Read Zhen Li's reply.

Malcolm wrote:
I was kidding, however, when we look at the tropes in Buddhist literature, we frequently see myths that employ the destruction of Tripura, the churning of the milky ocean, the abduction of Sita, and so on. Asuras are always the bad guys, devas always the good guys, etc. Thus, Team Indra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 9:06 AM
Title: Re: Opinions on dream yoga course?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
So do you guys have the same criticism of ChNN putting out his Practice of the Night Book, or TWR publishing his dream/sleep books?

Malcolm wrote:
This book is mostly Michael Katz’s trip, with very little actual practice of the night content. And it’s not dream yoga per se.

Dream yoga is a completion stage practice, and as such depends on the creation stage and proper empowerment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 7:02 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
You yourself said that sense consciousness can be faulty.  If sense consciousness is CAN be faulty, you can never be certain that at the time of an experience through the sense consciousness, that it is not faulty. If so, there can be no certainty of the truth of an experience especially when the experience is something new.

Malcolm wrote:
This is why we have teachers. And in an ordinary way, if we are not sure of an experience, we confirm it with someone else, such as "Did you hear that? Did you see that? Did you feel that?" etc.

It is not the big mystery you are making it out to be. Sheesh.

Sherab said:
Sure, a Buddha will have to consult his teacher if he has a new experience.  And his teacher will have to consult his teacher if that experience is new to him as well.

Malcolm wrote:
This is strange. Buddhas are omniscient with respect to all paths and the experiences on those paths. But yes, they too once had teachers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 6:58 AM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
tingdzin said:
Favoring Indian (Hindu) mythology over Iranian is not particularly Buddhist, strictly speaking.

Malcolm wrote:
Isn’t amazing though that it is totally the case that Buddhist overwhelmingly derive their mythopeia from common Indian sourrces?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 5:16 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Of course one can be certain of the truth of an experience, even mundane experience. If one's senses are healthy and there is no obscuring conditions, one can be confident that one's sensory experience is veridical. For example, seeing one moon rather than two.

Sherab said:
You yourself said that sense consciousness can be faulty.  If sense consciousness is CAN be faulty, you can never be certain that at the time of an experience through the sense consciousness, that it is not faulty. If so, there can be no certainty of the truth of an experience especially when the experience is something new.

Malcolm wrote:
This is why we have teachers. And in an ordinary way, if we are not sure of an experience, we confirm it with someone else, such as "Did you hear that? Did you see that? Did you feel that?" etc.

It is not the big mystery you are making it out to be. Sheesh.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 2:14 AM
Title: Re: Time, Space and Knowledge
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Over the years this book has gone from being an oddity to me to being one of my favorite Dharma books, as idiosyncratic as it is.

I'm curious if anyone knows whether the exercises in this book were Tarthang Tulku's creation specifically, or whether they are part of any kind of traditional teaching. Some of them are easily identifiable as Mahamudra/Semde type teachings, others I have not seen.

Malcolm wrote:
His own thing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 2:11 AM
Title: Re: If all is mind then how is Zen not monistic? II
Content:
desert_woodworker said:
People who practice have of a chance of awakening, especially if they have good conditions, good teacher, good sangha, and something like a good practice and an element of good luck and timing.  I'd say it's "incumbent" on each practitioner to awaken at least once...

Malcolm wrote:
I think we have a different understanding of bodhi. It happens once.

Prior to that we can have experiences known as "peaks" which resemble awakening, but they are not actually awakening, because they are still conceptual.

Anyway, this is the Chan forum, so I will leave it here.

desert_woodworker said:
Thanks, Malcolm.  I hope you'll please post more about this, and your certainty about bodhi happening once, please.  I think you mean only once.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, just once.



desert_woodworker said:
I didn't bring in bodhi, but spoke (and do speak) of true wisdom (prajna), which I note arises spontaneously and in seamless accord with conditions and events just as they arise or occur, and our response is immediate and unmediated, simultaneously with the operation of true compassion (karuna) in our action or response.  This is in everyday life, when one is awake.

Malcolm wrote:
Awake = bodhana. This means truly realized. An ārya, not a common person.

desert_woodworker said:
Now, awakenings occur, and one has this opening of/to spontaneous true wisdom and true compassion, on a daily and continuing basis, for some time.  When one is not blessed with these -- say, when the awakened state is no longer supported by the eight elements that one has developed within the eightfold-path -- and hence the awakened state has submerged again, eroded, evaporated -- one is then an ordinary deluded being, again (even if with a memory of "the way things 'really' are", as obvious in the awakened state).

Malcolm wrote:
While on the impure bodhisattva stages, which begin with the path of seeing, one can forget one's awakening upon taking rebirth. In this lifetime, however, it is impossible for awakening to erode once attained. In other words, there is no way to fall back from the path of seeing in this lifetime. However, on the path of application, one's similitude of awakening can certainly come and go.

desert_woodworker said:
I'd appreciate knowing how you will expand on the notion and understanding of bodhi, as distinct (if distinct... ) from prajna which arises naturally and unbidden in the awakened state.

Malcolm wrote:
Prajñā is the cause of awakening (bodhi), on this we both agree. However, there are two kinds of prajñā: contaminated and uncontaminated, and all prajñā of ordinary people, no matter how subtle, is contaminated.

desert_woodworker said:
I'm not sure this is the thread in which to do it. I'm new at the board, and perhaps you feel it would be better to begin a new and dedicated thread along the lines you envision which could address these things.  Thank you!, very much.

Malcolm wrote:
This kind of discussion between practitioners of Chan and practitioners of Vajrayāna are not that fruitful. The principle reason is that Vajrayāna practitioners, following Indian Mahāyāna precedents, make very clear distinctions between the paths below and above the path of seeing, and categorize experiences accordingly. So to us, the idea that one's awakening can be eroded does not make any sense. If it can be eroded, it is not awakening, but rather a peak on the path of application, which itself has four stages: heat, peak, patience, highest mundane phenomena. The last, highest mundane phenomena, is where one rests prior to making the final breakthrough on the path of seeing. Once one has obtained the path of seeing, it is impossible that one's awakening can be eroded at all in this life, and in future lives, if and when one meets the path again, one will swiftly recapture this awakening, though it might be thousands of years hence. Nevertheless, such people who have woken up once in past lives will be characterized by uncommon compassion and selflessness in deed, their minds "perfumed" by the realization of emptiness. But they will not realize emptiness again until they meet the Mahāyāna Dharma again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2021 at 1:58 AM
Title: Re: lerab lingpa's commentary on chetsun Nyingthig
Content:
mingweicello said:
just heard from another senior translator that adzom drukpa wrote an excellent commentary on chetsun Nyingthig. almost guide step by step with detailed illustrations of different experiences. is this already translated to English?

Malcolm wrote:
Probably, but not that has been published, as far as I know.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Title: Re: Quitting smoking
Content:
Tills ljuset tar oss said:
I've managed to cut down smoking to one pack a week with the help of something called snus. You put it under your upper lip and it will give you nicotine.

The good thing about this product is that it has no bad effects on your health. Especially the all white slim pouches with no tobacco in it but only plant fibre and nicotine. The minty flavors makes it feel rather fresh compared to other nicotine administration strategies. It is also way better than patches. I feel that snus is what nicotine patches and gums were meant to be. And there are so many flavors and strenghts to choose from so you can find your sweet spot and end the craving for cigarettes forever.

The one i use is called volt dark frost and it tastes like forest berries and mint.

Malcolm wrote:
Tobacco takes up an isotope of plutonium, called polonium 210. This what causes cancer. Using tobacco in any form is just freaking stupid.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 7:51 PM
Title: Re: If all is mind then how is Zen not monistic? II
Content:
desert_woodworker said:
People who practice have of a chance of awakening, especially if they have good conditions, good teacher, good sangha, and something like a good practice and an element of good luck and timing.  I'd say it's "incumbent" on each practitioner to awaken at least once...

Malcolm wrote:
I think we have a different understanding of bodhi. It happens once.

Prior to that we can have experiences known as "peaks" which resemble awakening, but they are not actually awakening, because they are still conceptual.

Anyway, this is the Chan forum, so I will leave it here.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 9:51 AM
Title: Re: If all is mind then how is Zen not monistic? II
Content:


desert_woodworker said:
But the fact of One Mind and one mind only is not evident AT ALL until one awakens.

Malcolm wrote:
How would you know this? Are you awakened?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 5:12 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
So, when your body is free from disease, it does mean that the disease is absent in the body.

Malcolm wrote:
In this case it simply means the mind is free from any grasping outer and inner sense objects. It does not mean that mind lacks apprehension of outer and inner sense objects.

Sherab said:
So, free from objects = free from apprehension of objects.  Who would have thought that they meant the same thing.  It is not a conventional way of understanding the phrase, it seems to me.

Malcolm wrote:
I did not say that. I said, "In this case it simply means the mind is free from any grasping to outer and inner sense objects. It does not mean that mind lacks apprehension of outer and inner sense objects."

How things seem to you is not under my control.

Sherab said:
As long as it CAN be faulty, there is no way of having certainty regarding the truth of an experience since all experiences have to be mediated by a sense consciousness according to you.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course one can be certain of the truth of an experience, even mundane experience. If one's senses are healthy and there is no obscuring conditions, one can be confident that one's sensory experience is veridical. For example, seeing one moon rather than two.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 4:54 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
Can the direct knowing by Sem Nyi which precedes the experience of mental consciousness be faulty if the physical or mental sense consciousness is faulty?

conebeckham said:
Sem Nyi, Mind Itself, is the nature of consciousness--saying it "precedes" in a temporal fashion is incorrect--I pointed this out in a subsequent post.  Whether the physical or mental sense consciousnesses are faulty or not is not relevant--whether the consciousness is faulty or not, the nature of the consciousness is primordially beyond fault.  As I said, it's not really correct to say that Awareness "precedes."  Let's just say that it imbues all our experience--"Unborn" is just a descriptive word.

You asked: The Buddha said, when this arises, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases.
When the mind is free from inner and outer objects, what object still remains in order for that mind not to cease as per dependent origination?
If the mind is free from inner and outer objects, is there still a "mind?"

Sherab said:
Since the first instance of an experience is mediated by a sense consciousness, and since a sense consciousness can be faulty, how can the experience of the Mind Itself be free from error?  It does not matter if the experience by the Mind Itself is atemporal, it's experience is still mediated by a faulty sense consciousness according to you.

Malcolm wrote:
Just because a sense consciousness can be faulty does not entail that it must be faulty. A sense consciousness can also be veridical, provided the organ is healthy and there are no other deceptive conditions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 4:49 AM
Title: Re: Ekajati, one leg?
Content:
Fishfingers said:
Does anyone know why Ekajati is sometimes depicted having a single leg?

Thanks

Malcolm wrote:
This is the Drigung version from the termas of RInchen Phuntsok.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 4:45 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
The Buddha said, when this arises, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases.
When the mind is free from inner and outer objects, what object still remains in order for that mind not to cease as per dependent origination?

Malcolm wrote:
"Free from" does not mean "in absence of," thus there is no fault.

Sherab said:
So, when your body is free from disease, it does mean that the disease is absent in the body.

Malcolm wrote:
In this case it simply means the mind is free from any grasping to outer and inner sense objects. It does not mean that mind lacks apprehension of outer and inner sense objects.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 3:34 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:


Tata1 said:
He gave a rigpa tsel wang a few weeks ago.

Malcolm wrote:
Really? Where you there?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 2:52 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
Has Longsal volume 7 always been something that was open to anyone who has received DI?

Malcolm wrote:
Definitely not. They are just trying to work with circumstances as best they know how.

dharmafootsteps said:
I thought so. What's your take? From the point of view of a student, rather than someone making the decisions, now that they're doing this do you think it's ok to watch it and read the book given the circumstances, or would you advise sticking to restrictions Rinpoche established?

Malcolm wrote:
I would advise sticking the restrictions Rinpoche established. If you didn't receive the transmission for it, or the Jñānaḍākini long or don wang, don't read it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 2:33 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
Has Longsal volume 7 always been something that was open to anyone who has received DI?

Malcolm wrote:
Definitely not. They are just trying to work with circumstances as best they know how.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 1:39 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:


treehuggingoctopus said:
(1) some of our senior practitioners/instructors buckle up, do what is necessary and start teaching, with or without the blessing of the IDG, or
(2) we radically and dramatically alter the very idea of the DC so that it becomes an umbrella institution which helps make the teachings of living Vajrayana teachers available to the world. A noble purpose, btw (but one essentially unrelated to the preservation of Rinpoche's teachings).

Malcolm wrote:
(3) Find other qualified teachers, who are somewhat numerous, and begin to follow them.

treehuggingoctopus said:
Of course, but what I wrote was "if one is hoping for the DC to survive somehow." If one just wants to practice Vajrayana, things are vastly simpler.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, there are good Dzogchen teachers out there. People get stuck on "only my master," but this is dumb, especially when one is still an ordinary person.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 24th, 2021 at 12:57 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:


treehuggingoctopus said:
(1) some of our senior practitioners/instructors buckle up, do what is necessary and start teaching, with or without the blessing of the IDG, or
(2) we radically and dramatically alter the very idea of the DC so that it becomes an umbrella institution which helps make the teachings of living Vajrayana teachers available to the world. A noble purpose, btw (but one essentially unrelated to the preservation of Rinpoche's teachings).

Malcolm wrote:
(3) Find other qualified teachers, who are somewhat numerous, and begin to follow them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 8:54 PM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:


Si-va-kon said:
And yet, the main difference between ind logic and the euro is the presence another reality,

Malcolm wrote:
Not necessarily.

Si-va-kon said:
OK. There are no discrepancies regarding "our" level of reality.

Malcolm wrote:
I was responding to your assertion that Buddhist logic points to another level of reality—it does not. There is only conventional truth. Ultimate truth, in Buddhadharma, is the simple absence of inherent existence (svabhāva) of conventional entities, despite TRV Murti's complete and total misunderstanding of Candrakirti.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 8:51 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:


thomaslaw said:
Both external and internal factors should be considered and discussed carefully and objectively for understanding Buddhism's decline in India. However, the internal factors within Buddhist communities themselves are particularly important.

Malcolm wrote:
You have zero proof that Buddhism became "Hinduized."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 5:41 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
When the mind rests alertly free from inner and outer objects, this will reveal the fundamental consciousness (gnyug ma'i shes pa), also called tha mal gyi shes pa and so on.

Sherab said:
The Buddha said, when this arises, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases.
When the mind is free from inner and outer objects, what object still remains in order for that mind not to cease as per dependent origination?

Malcolm wrote:
"Free from" does not mean "in absence of," thus there is no fault.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 5:38 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Sherab said:
In other words, the ultimate truth cannot be directly perceived.


Malcolm wrote:
Of course it can, if not, the Buddha was not a buddha.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 5:32 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:


oldbob said:
Nowhere does it say that the worldwide transmission is a recording.

The worldwide transmission is a live event

Malcolm wrote:
Furthermore, October 31st falls on the Anniversary of Master Adzom Drugpa, and is one of the days on which the Master used to give the Worldwide Trasmission. . We will do the Worldwide Guruyoga Practice together, simultaneously all over the world, via webcast.

No transmission given here bob.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 5:06 AM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:
ManiThePainter said:
...the loss of patronage led to the demise of Buddhism well before the Islamic raids.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 4:42 AM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
I disagree. I never mentioned the "point" of the tetralemma, merely that it uses a two-valued logic.

Malcolm wrote:
My point, which everyone seems to either ignore or miss, is that these negations referred to real positions people held. That's all. Therefore, discussing them as if they are any more than simple negations is mistaken.

Other than the dispute between Sakya and Geluk over whether two or four negations are appropriate with respect to ascertaining the ultimate, you will not find, in Indian Buddhist texts, a treatment of the so-called tetralemma as a logical device on its own, unlike say syllogisms, and so on.

Javierfv1212 said:
who held a view rejected in the fourth corner?

Malcolm wrote:
Eel-wrigglers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 3:05 AM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:
mabw said:
There've been a lot of external factors discussed.

Malcolm wrote:
The most simple explanation is loss of patronage from the upper class. We can see this pattern repeated in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Shrivijaya, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 1:24 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


conebeckham said:
I edited my post while you were replying, but I think we are saying the same thing?

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe, but when people start talking about rig pa, ye shes, sems nyid, etc. as if they are some other sort of mind not included in the vijñāna skandha, it is a little strange.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 1:09 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Archie2009 said:
But, there is also a kind of vidyā called "Vidyā that apprehends characteristics. One’s nonconceptual knowing consciousness which is defiled by many cognitions." And this kind of vidyā can be faulty and is sort of preliminary?

Malcolm wrote:
Rig pa is a characteristic of the mind, there are basically three: clarity (gsal ba), cognizance (rig pa), and emptiness (stong pa). Often you see "gsal rig" as one adjectival phrase, but when we examine more closely, we see them parsed separately.

As for your question, yes the vidyā that grasps characteristics is faulty, not intrinsically, but merely because it is consciousness which grasps outer and inner objects.

There is nothing apart from the mind that can be found which can be called "rig pa." That's a rabbit hole down which many people fall.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 1:04 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
conebeckham said:
I should also say that "precedes" is not quite the right word, as the naturally present awareness cannot be "temporal" and in fact imbues experiences as well.  It is beyond the ability of conceptual mind to contain or define.  But it is not a "thing," or any sort of permanent entity either.

Malcolm wrote:
This is just consciousness. Otherwise, you are proposing a consciousness which does not belong to the six or eight consciousnesses and this is erroneous.

Consciousness is not necessarily dualistic. When you subtract "vi" from "jñāna" you only have jñāna as a remainder. But this still is not outside the manodhātu.

conebeckham said:
So, is Jnana a "Consciousness?"  Would we classify "Sem Nyi" as a consciousness, in the usual sense, as a dualistic "perception?"

Malcolm wrote:
Citta dharmatā is the nature of citta (dharmin). No citta dharmin, no citta dharmatā, cittatā (sems nyid) for short. When the mind rests alertly free from inner and outer objects, this will reveal the fundamental consciousness (gnyug ma'i shes pa), also called tha mal gyi shes pa and so on.

Jñāna just means "knowledge," knowing, etc. There are both mundane and transcendent jñānas, meaning the object of this knowing is mundane or transcendent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 12:53 AM
Title: Re: A Quick Walk Through Kensington Ave Philadelphia
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Where I live it also has to do with the fact that the urban, left-leaning communities actually have services whereas the more conservative, rural ones do not, and some just run people out of town, sometimes literally bussing them out.

There are a lot of tough questions and it’s always a NIMBY thing to some degree, people are great with homeless services etc. but tend to freak out once there is a a service center near their house, not without good reason sometimes, it’s a big problem that’s only getting worse.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, what you say is true. The Mormons, bless their magic underwear, figured out it was cheaper to build housing for homeless people in Utah than have them stress emergency services...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 12:42 AM
Title: Re: A Quick Walk Through Kensington Ave Philadelphia
Content:
Sādhaka said:
By the title alone (I haven’t listened to the podcast yet), I was under the impression that it is along the lines of the right pointing out that big cities are overrun with junkies, defecating in the streets, etc., due to the left usually running said cities and their leftist policies in those cities....

Malcolm wrote:
This, of course, is bullshit. In San Fran and Cali in general this state of affairs exists because housing prices are absurdly high, and there are zoning regs all over the state that forbid the construction of two family+ dwellings. Who instituted those zoning regs? California racists in Berkely:

Those behind the recent changes to state law contend that single-family-only zoning is a relic of a past that is no longer justifiable. It originated in the city of Berkeley a century ago as a segregationist practice to prevent a Black-owned dance hall from locating near a white-only subdivision.
https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2021-09-17/what-just-happened-with-single-family-zoning-in-california

This is not a problem in Boston, Providence RI, Portland ME, Hartford CT or New Haven, Albany NY, Concord NH, etc., etc.

It is a left coast problem, not a left wing problem.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 12:36 AM
Title: Re: A Quick Walk Through Kensington Ave Philadelphia
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Well according to Malcolm in his above post, it’s the red state’s fault.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, because it is a fact that red states are an expense for the federal government, whereas the blue states are earners.

In other words, red states take more money from the Feds than they return, while blue states return more money to the Feds than they take in.

https://apnews.com/article/north-america-business-local-taxes-ap-top-news-politics-2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2020/05/12/blue-state-bailout-red-state-residents-received-largest-stimulus-checks-and-millions-in-federal-aid/?sh=9ac4d4835243

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2004/09/red_states_feed.html


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 at 12:31 AM
Title: Re: Gaṇḍavyuha Sutra coming 10/27/21
Content:
udawa said:
That is news indeed! How wonderful. I really like PA Roberts' translations so that's another plus.
Not sure about Stem Array as a translation of the title though. Presumably it's more accurate than Flower Garland or whatever, but it doesn't seem to mean anything as a phrase in English. Any thoughts on this?

Malcolm wrote:
Peter: The title The Stem Array is a translation of the Tibetan interpretation of the Sanskrit title Gaṇḍavyūha, though I think its original meaning is probably something more like, “an array of episodes.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 10:03 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:
Javierfv1212 said:
Well, the similarities between the Buddhist tantras and the Shaiva tantras are well known.

Malcolm wrote:
Quite overstated, in fact.

Javierfv1212 said:
Of course, it is still quite different philosophically, but there are many similarities as well. They even used the same sacred sites often (the pitha lists are very similar) for example.

Malcolm wrote:
All Indians also bath in communal pools, or did at one time.

Javierfv1212 said:
So this similarity can't really be completely denied.

Malcolm wrote:
Using the presence of pan-Indian cultural themes and tropes in Buddhism to explain away the demise of Buddhism in India is lazy scholarship. The reality is that Buddhism was first weakened by the invasion of the White Huns and the collapse of the Guptas, then systematically hounded out of India by hostile Hindu kings (evident because of the frequent references to magical battles between Hindus and Buddhist Mahāsiddhas, especially from the ninth century onward), and the fatal blow was delivered by the Muslims at the end of the 12th century, though there were Buddhist holdouts in Bengal until the 16th century.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:56 PM
Title: Re: A Quick Walk Through Kensington Ave Philadelphia
Content:
Queequeg said:
Let's be clear about something here - what you see is not poverty per se.

That's opioid addiction. Those people are strung out of their gourds.

Knotty Veneer said:
This is poverty. Street sleepers are invariably addicts and the mentally ill. You seem to imply that it is all their own fault. The tragedy here is that in the wealthiest nation in the world, there seems to be little help or care for those whose addiction means they end up living like this.

I saw similar scenes in my last visit to San Francisco. Where are the public programs to deal with this?

Malcolm wrote:
Ask the GOP. They systematically try to defund all social services in order to reduce taxes for their corporate overlords. As a result, we in the wealthy blue states pay for the red states, and as a result, cannot afford to address the needs of our own citizens, because the red states are a bunch of welfare queens, by design.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:35 PM
Title: Gaṇḍavyuha Sutra coming 10/27/21
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://84000.co/the-stem-array?fbclid=IwAR2gx_n7rd__Cav-PGFmwOOiqQcsNHUu6mU9baAJkTqSClI2i9tLvjNWJQE

The Stem Array | A sūtra that “overwhelms the mind”
The Stem Array, which tells the beautiful story of the young layman Sudhana’s quest for awakening through encounters with a variety of spiritual teachers, forms the forty-fifth and final chapter of the Buddhāvataṃsaka (A Multitude of Buddhas) Sūtra. We recently sat down for an interview with Peter Alan Roberts, the translator of this text, to hear more about his experience of translating what he calls a sūtra that “overwhelms the mind.”

This sūtra will be published on the auspicious day of Lhabab Düchen, October 27, 2021...

Peter Allen Roberts is simply one of the best Buddhist translators alive.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:06 PM
Title: Re: Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism: Emptiness, Power and the Question of Origin
Content:


Zhen Li said:
Jayarava's articles/blog posts are useful...

Malcolm wrote:
Well, to the extent that he does not really know Sanskrit or Pali, blathers on and on egotistically about his "findings," bombards his critics with venomous retorts, rejects rebirth and karma out of hand, and so on, I guess so.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 8:37 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
conebeckham said:
I should also say that "precedes" is not quite the right word, as the naturally present awareness cannot be "temporal" and in fact imbues experiences as well.  It is beyond the ability of conceptual mind to contain or define.  But it is not a "thing," or any sort of permanent entity either.

Malcolm wrote:
This is just consciousness. Otherwise, you are proposing a consciousness which does not belong to the six or eight consciousnesses and this is erroneous.

Consciousness is not necessarily dualistic. When you subtract "vi" from "jñāna" you only have jñāna as a remainder. But this still is not outside the manodhātu.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 7:53 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:


thomaslaw said:
This finding supports that the Buddha was regarded as part of the ninth incarnation ‘avatar’ (avatāra) of Vishnu, and India Tantric Buddhism (c. 500-1200 CE) was also similar to Hinduism. That is, Buddhism became similar to or being part of Hinduism at that time as one of the main causes for the decline of Buddhism in India.

Malcolm wrote:
Completely false.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 7:14 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
That which experience the first moment of an experience prior to the conceptualization of feeling, pain etc., what is it?

That which experience the first moment, is it dependently arisen?

Malcolm wrote:
A physical sense consciousness, I.e contact. Then comes sensation.

As for your second question, of course.

The consciousness aggregate is always nonconceptual and momentary.

Sherab said:
If a sense consciousness is faulty, the experience will be faulty.  If the experience is faulty, the knowing is faulty.  Can a faulty knowing be direct knowing?

Malcolm wrote:
Direct perceptions can be erroneous.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:49 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:


Sherab said:
That which experience the first moment of an experience prior to the conceptualization of feeling, pain etc., what is it?

That which experience the first moment, is it dependently arisen?

Malcolm wrote:
A physical sense consciousness, I.e contact. Then comes sensation.

As for your second question, of course.

The consciousness aggregate is always nonconceptual and momentary.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:24 AM
Title: Re: the most helpful and lucid dharma text/book you've read?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Differentiation of the Three Codes by Sakya Pandita, as well as his Clarifying the Sages Intent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 9:19 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:



Heimdall said:
But even assuming it not to be true, it will be a product of this time period, along with Arab depictions of Jesus and Dravidian depictions of the Buddha, just like Godspell Jesus and 15th century “French Maiden” depictions of the Virgin Mary.

Malcolm wrote:
So why complain? It's just proliferation. Useless. Complain about something of substance.

Heimdall said:
Again, pot calling the kettle black. If you’re so confident that you will win in the end, why even bother posting everything you do?

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t complain. I opine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 5:59 AM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:


Si-va-kon said:
And yet, the main difference between ind logic and the euro is the presence another reality,

Malcolm wrote:
Not necessarily.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 4:26 AM
Title: Re: ngondro transmission and commitments
Content:
Hazel said:
Hello,

Are there usually commitments associated with ngondro transmissions?

Malcolm wrote:
Without empowerment, there is no guru.
Without empowerment, no commitments to keep.
Ngondro transmission does not come with commitments.
Commitments come only with empowerment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 4:22 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:



Heimdall said:
But even assuming it not to be true, it will be a product of this time period, along with Arab depictions of Jesus and Dravidian depictions of the Buddha, just like Godspell Jesus and 15th century “French Maiden” depictions of the Virgin Mary.

Malcolm wrote:
So why complain? It's just proliferation. Useless. Complain about something of substance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 3:20 AM
Title: Re: Any information about the early Tibetan Buddhist King Mune Tsenpo.
Content:


Sādhaka said:
But redistribution of wealth doesn’t always imply what Nagarjuna said; and what Nagarjuna said doesn’t always imply the redistribution of wealth.

Malcolm wrote:
We are talking about the social safety net, not the abolishing of classes, though personally, I think billionaires should be taxed out of existence.

He advocates universal health care, etc. I don't know if you have carefully read the Precious Garland, but if you haven't, when it comes to social programs, it is basic New Deal/Great Society in a nutshell.

This is why Stott's article, from which this thread branched, is so speciously reasoned. As if state-funded aid denies karma. What a laugh.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 3:11 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Heimdall said:
Yes, which is why for example the Lady of the Guadalupe was finally canonized in the 19th century...Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte is next:
“Our Lady of Guadalupe” even if it is a dressed up Mesoamerican goddess is still purported to be the Virgin Mary, just like all the statues in Europe and America that depict the Virgin Mary on Venus’s half sea shell.

Malcolm wrote:
Then why bother getting all worked up about such issues.

Heimdall said:
That makes the syncretism consistent with their own religious tradition, unlike Pope Francis’s divisive actions.

Malcolm wrote:
I am quite sure that in the long run, everyone will forget about the naysayers and the right wing nut jobs, and be perfectly content with Pachamama being respected in Catholic churches, and will consider Francis a great pope.


Heimdall said:
The Apostle Paul calls all the “Pagan gods” “demons”, so it only causes religiously devout people in that tradition anxiety and worry when a “Pagan god” is being honored

Malcolm wrote:
.

Paul was Jewish. So, not surprising. He was also a con artist.


Heimdall said:
Even if Catholics are stuck in “wrong view”, I know many people are are hurt, upset, suicidal, and even having an existential crisis over this politically motivated affair (having been in that world), so that’s why I’m so sympathetic.

Malcolm wrote:
In general, we Buddhists try to avoid encouraging attachment views. Supporting their attachment to views does not help them one bit.


Heimdall said:
The actions, even if valid intentioned to raise concerns about the Native American needs, weren’t very mindful to the needs of many devout Catholics.

Malcolm wrote:
And it was very mindful of the needs of many other Catholics, and potential converts. You forget, that old white guy in Italy is from South America, Argentina to be precise. I am sure he knows much better than you the situation among South American Catholics.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:48 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
“New Age” groups tend to not be about having discipline over your impulses and looking to higher spiritual goals, but are often a bastion of libertines with moralizing cliches that point to a delusion-based view of “spiritual freedom”

Malcolm wrote:
You may not moralize with cliches, but your posts are little more than moralization.

In Dharma, we use mirrors more than binoculars.

Heimdall said:
I try not to condemn others while trying bold to what I perceive to be objective, selfless, moral standards.

Malcolm wrote:
You just spend five posts condemning Pope Francis. Don't be daft. You are not an arbiter of any moral standards, other than for yourself.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:45 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
“New Age” groups tend to not be about having discipline over your impulses and looking to higher spiritual goals, but are often a bastion of libertines with moralizing cliches that point to a delusion-based view of “spiritual freedom”

Malcolm wrote:
You may not moralize with cliches, but your posts are little more than moralization. Constant disapproval and moralization. Seriously, either relax or join the Templars or something and go slay heathens.

In Dharma, we use mirrors more than binoculars. All faults we see are a reflection of our faults; all qualities we see are a reflection of our qualities.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:41 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Heimdall said:
The Amazon region is a multinational and interconnected whole, a great biome shared by nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela and the territory of French Guiana.
I think one of the goals of the Synod was to “have the natives speak about consumerism and ecology”, mainly the Amazonian native Americans who aren’t “colonized”.

And the Synod wasn’t organized by Native Americans, it was organized by an old white dude in Italy.

Malcolm wrote:
So what? Old white dudes in Italy are forbidden to have an interest in the ecological health of the Amazon? Since when?


Heimdall said:
The fact is that this all began when a Catholic Activist, Alexander Tschugguel, threw a statue of Pachamamma into the Tiber that had been installed by the bishops of the Amazonian Synod themselves
Well “idolatry” is forbidden in that religion (at least of non-Catholic cosmological beings) as a consequence of Pre-Second Temple Jewish Henotheism.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, which is why for example the Lady of the Guadalupe was finally canonized in the 19th century...Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte is next:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:31 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
But by virtue of repeating those two lines, even mentally, at least once a week, a person will naturally come to the conclusion “The past is the past, I did evil, now is a fresh start to move forward”, and that will guide you morally in ways superior to not having these lines at all.

Malcolm wrote:
How is this any better than New age affirmations?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:27 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Heimdall said:
You actually miss the point. Syncretism starts from below, not from above. The penetration of pre-Colombian mother goddesses into Catholicism began back in the 16th century, when Catholicism was introduced to the Americas. Francis merely acceded to something that has been happening in South America, and the Spanish dominated parts of North America for half a millennium.
So using an Andean goddess that the Amazonians don’t actually even worship organized by the Pope wouldn’t be syncretism then, right?

Malcolm wrote:
Some Amazonians do. There are Quecha speaking people in the Amazon basin, as well as Aymara speaking people.

Heimdall said:
I agree. It’s white people feigning moral virtue by playing into a historically illiterate “Noble Savage Brown Person” fairy tale. The inner colonial spirit of the white man who thinks he is intellectually superior to such an extent that he can speak on behalf of another nation’s cultural traditions without having practiced it himself.


Malcolm wrote:
And of course, you are misrepresenting the Pope himself:

The Amazon region is a multinational and interconnected whole, a great biome shared by nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela and the territory of French Guiana.

The fact is that this all began when a Catholic Activist, Alexander Tschugguel, threw a statue of Pachamamma into the Tiber that had been installed by the bishops of the Amazonian Synod themselves. Francis didn't put it there, they did.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/11/11/top-five-takeaways-amazon-synod

The Amazon region is not just Amazonian Indians, but includes parts of Peru, etc., where people of Andean descent also live.

Frankly, you sound really uptight and weird. Relax. Enjoy life. Stop looking for things of which to disapprove. It will be better for your health.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 22nd, 2021 at 1:14 AM
Title: Re: Any information about the early Tibetan Buddhist King Mune Tsenpo.
Content:
alderjerry@gmail.com said:
Thank you Malcolm and by the way I have appreciated your comments on another post regarding 'The myth of progress'. I am at a friend's house who happened to have a copy so I just found information on page 251 regarding King Mune Tsenpo's three attempts to equalise the rich and poor.

I was interested as there was a very brief mention of this event on page 94 in the book 'Wisdom in Exile' by Lama Jampa Thaye.  To put it in some context starting on page 93 "In conclusion, we must be aware the possibility that, out of insufficient understanding of compassion in the teachings of the Buddha, one will hurry to ally Buddhism with whatever ideologies intone the term 'compassion' more seductively. Such systems usually promise that a state of general perfection can be attained just by external changes, but, as we have already discussed, such a view is not Buddhist - apart from anything else, it is a denial of karma, the law of cause and effect. The story of the failure of King Mune Tsenpo's well intentioned but unwise policy of redistribution of wealth in eighth-century Tibet is somewhat instructive in this regard."

I wondered if some people would read this and conclude that, for instance, taxing people to set up a social security system or National Health Service was somehow not in accord with Dharma.

Malcolm wrote:
His point of view is completely inconsistent with the chapter on Royal Policy by Nagārjuna in the Precious Garland, and a host of other śastras:

Cause the blind, the sick, the lowly,
the protectorless, the destitute,
and the crippled to equally obtain 
food and drink without interruption.

In the collections for enlightenment chapter in the same text there are recommendations to the king to set up shelters (housing), etc. Indeed, he touches on the necessity of rulers to provide for the nation, etc., in order to generate positive merit.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 11:47 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Heimdall said:
What do Buddhists care about the Protestant Work Ethic?

Malcolm wrote:
Personally, nothing. I was raised an atheist. Perhaps one can view atheism as the final stage of the Reformation. I would be comfortable with that. But work ethic? I prefer festival cultures.


Heimdall said:
Not internally. Luther and the Two Popes led to a split of organization.

Malcolm wrote:
What is disunity but the splitting of a group of people?

Heimdall said:
Regardless, it doesn't change the fact that this Pope is incredibly divisive.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in my opinion the Catholic Church is completely corrupt bunch of hoary old pedophiles. It needs to be broken up just as much as Facebook and Amazon.



Heimdall said:
Plus, Catholicism has survived for centuries through syncretism. This is why Francis' incorporation of Pachamama is just par for the course.
Which is why it created such a scandal for the devouted members?
Plus, "syncretism" is a centuries long process, not a "shock" political maneuver.

Malcolm wrote:
You actually miss the point. Syncretism starts from below, not from above. The penetration of pre-Colombian mother goddesses into Catholicism began back in the 16th century, when Catholicism was introduced to the Americas. Francis merely acceded to something that has been happening in South America, and the Spanish dominated parts of North America for half a millennium.

I give you Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Coatlaxopeuh):


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 11:34 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
"Amen" - but some wrong views are worse than others. It is better to be a Buddhist who is mistaken on the nature of the 5 Skandhas than it is to be a Nazi Occultist who sacrifices human beings to pictures of Hitler.

Malcolm wrote:
Agreed, some wrong views are not merely wrong, but perverse. This is why mahāsiddhas like Virupa went around India putting an end to practices of human sacrifice and animal sacrifice.




Heimdall said:
If the Latin Mass has produced such compassionate "Saints" like Francis of Assisi, Bernard of Clairvoux, John of the Cross, John Bosco, or even Maximilian Kolbe, there probably is something good in the Latin Mass liturgical praxis that leads one there.

Malcolm wrote:
I doubt it. How do you explain Torquemada? You place too much emphasis on external conditions, friend.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 11:10 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Queequeg said:
You take a strange tack to criticize Francis. The Latin Mass devotees are creating a schism, aside from the fact that its become a cult of the reactionaries in the Church. The Church resolved to move in a certain direction with Vatican II. Francis was undoing a mess that Benedict, the Quitter (see the irony of that in this thread?), created.

Heimdall said:
Projection. The Catholic Church has never been more divided than under this Papacy.

Malcolm wrote:
So what? What do Buddhists care about this?

Heimdall said:
Noting has been as disunifying as Pope Francis's decision to include Mother Earth worship in his Amazonian Synod.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh come on. Be serious. Luther? Two Popes? There have been plenty of fractious periods in the history of the Church. This is nothing compared to that. Plus, Catholicism has survived for centuries through syncretism. This is why Francis' incorporation of Pachamama is just par for the course.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 11:05 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
That's one of the functions of religious praxis. It's an external, objective ideal that you can orient your life towards. So, frankly, liturgical chant, incense, silent meditation and prayer, solemnity, and moral / theological instruction does matter.

Malcolm wrote:
Anything based in wrong view, at best, might get you a birth as a hedonic deva, fated to fall in the hell realms when your merit is exhausted, your flowers fade, and your body begins to smell repellant to the other devas...


Heimdall said:
While Catholicism is flawed, it's a much better alternative compared to a cult or New Age praxis.

Malcolm wrote:
What is Catholicism, or Christianity in general, but a new religious cult that disrupted the Roman Empire, and spawned plenty of so-called new age movements, including the modern New Age?

Sorry, just not seeing it. I stand by my earlier statement, if your beliefs do not make you a more kind and compassionate person, they don't matter at all, chanting, incense and the whole lot (and this applies to Buddhism as well).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:


tingdzin said:
Indra was only a "good guy" from the standpoint of Indic mythology. To the Iranians, he was the arch cattle-thieving bloodthirsty warrior deva that Zarathustra condemned. It all depends on whose ox is being gored, I guess.

Malcolm wrote:
As I said elsewhere, Buddhists are Team Indra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:54 PM
Title: Re: Vikings confirmed in Newfounldand Canada 1021 CE confirmed with carbon dating
Content:
Queequeg said:
I'm petitioning the village to replace the statue of Columbus with Leif Erikson.

Malcolm wrote:
The Asatru crew will be thrilled. Mohawks, not so much.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:47 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Queequeg said:
typified by Fox news' Hannity and O'Reilly.

Malcolm wrote:
Who are in reality William F. Buckley wannabes, with a tenth of the wit and far less educated.

Ah the good old days, when conservatives were actually conservatives in the tradition of Burke, etc., rather than these shallow libertarians trying to pawn themselves off as conservatives.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:41 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Heimdall said:
Had we kept the pagan gods we would not be here.
Most of what you lament about Christianity is only a consequence of its implementation in the Roman Imperial Structure. The Western world "civilizing the barbarians" is a theme that goes back to Julius Caesar himself in his conquest of the French and German "Barbarian" tribes.

Malcolm wrote:
Then the opposite is also true: most of what you celebrate about Christianity goes back to a political structure embedded in Western Europe. So what was that you were saying viz spiritual vs. political ideologies? Hoisted on your petard again, I see.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:38 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


Heimdall said:
Anyone who places political ideology over the spiritual well being of the laypeople deserves criticism.

Malcolm wrote:
Unless of course, that political ideology is judged to be in the best spiritual interest of the lay people.

Why do you privilege mundane religious ideology, such as Catholicism, over political ideology? They are two peas in a pod. They are both mundane. Neither can promise anything more than temporary happiness and contentment.

So, frankly, whether the Catholic mass is chanted in Latin, facing the alter, or chanted in the local language facing the congregation, should not matter one iota to a dharma practitioner. The only distinction that can possibly matter is that whatever mundane ideology one follows, political or religious, is that it renders one a more compassionate, caring person. Otherwise, it does not matter at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:32 PM
Title: Re: Core Scriptures For Each School
Content:
Nalanda said:
As I understand it, each school has their own set of core scriptures. The Nyingma have the kama and the terma texts and systems, for instance, with core texts for specific yanas (i.e. the Guhyagarbha tantra as the core Mahayoga text, etc...).

Each lineage within a school has their own core scriptures (i.e. Dudjom sung bum as the collection of texts that make up the Dudjom Tersar).

Have you seen a list somewhere of what each school has as their core Scriptures and what the lineages of teach school uses as their main texts?

Malcolm wrote:
The basic list is pretty simple:

The basic tantra for Sakya and Kagyu is Hevajra. The basic tantra for Geluk is Guhyasamāja. The basic tantra for Nyingma, as you have identified, is Guhyagarbha. The basic tantra for Jonang is Kālacakra.

The monastic curriculum for study is pretty much the same for all schools: Nagārjuna, Candra, Śantideva; the five treatises of Maitreya (in varying degrees); Abhidharma of Vasubandhu and Asanga; the Abhisamayālaṃkara commentaries of Vimuktisena and Haribhadra; Dignaga and Dharmakīrti's epistemology, and the Vinayasūtra of Gunbhadra and commentaries.

In terms of practice cycles: for Sakya it is Hevajra and Naropa's Khecari. For Geluk, Guhyasamāja, Cakrasamvara and Vajrabhairava. For Kagyu, Cakrasamvara and Vajrayogini of various traditions from specific subschool to the next; for Nyingma, too many different practice traditions to mention.  Jonang, Kālacakra and the six limb yoga.

Then of course there are many hundreds of practices which wind through all schools. So, it is pretty hard to quantify.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 9:49 PM
Title: Re: Any information about the early Tibetan Buddhist King Mune Tsenpo.
Content:
alderjerry@gmail.com said:
Thank you.  I have read the Wikipedia entry.  In 'The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism' by Dhongthog Rinpoche this information is given:

"Three princess were born to the Dharma King Trisong Detsun the eldest being Mune Tsepo..." and  "During the reign of Mune in particular the four great cycles of worship were instituted and the gap between poverty and wealth among Tibetan people were equalised three times''.

Malcolm wrote:
You should obtain Crystal Mirror by Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 9:33 PM
Title: Re: Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism: Emptiness, Power and the Question of Origin
Content:


Zhen Li said:
Jayarava

Malcolm wrote:
Speaking of cranks...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 9:28 PM
Title: Re: Core Scriptures For Each School
Content:


Ayu said:
From Gelug POV at least, I think it's difficult to single out some few texts as "main", because there are so many branches of teachings. For beginners there are different main texts than for the various vajrayana practitioners.
What is main for one part of the Gelugs may not implicitly be "main" for other practitioners.

But I can name the Lamrim of Tsongkhapa and the Lojong teachings as basic for example.

Malcolm wrote:
The core scriptures for Geluk are Guhyasamāja, the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, as well as the works of Nagārjuna father and son, Candra, Haribhadra, and Atisha.

And of course, Tsongkhapa, Gyaltsabje, and Khedrupje.

And more recently, Pabhongkha was and remains prominent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:03 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:



Queequeg said:
If people have enough to eat and a roof over their head and that becomes the baseline, people start asking, "Why am I doing this work thing again?"

"I would prefer not to."
-Bartleby

This freaks Republicans out. Their response is, "Life is too easy. Turn up the suffering", from the comfort of their seat on a private jet.

Malcolm wrote:
Ministry of the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. This book was discussed recently on the forum, and I finished it over the weekend...much food for thought. One of the nicer ideas was blockchaining all money, to eliminate fraud and tax evasion, as in no private transactions any more, etc.

Kim O'Hara said:
I'm glad you read the book and got something out of it, Malcolm, because I did too (having read it because someone else recommended it here, and then recommending it here in my turn).
For those who haven't read it but may just like a vision of a possible path to a liveable future world, please read it.

If SF of any kind is not your thing, you could try A Banquet of Consequences Reloaded by Satyajit Das. He's a mainstream financial writer and it's a bit dry and technical in places but his analysis is rather similar. In brief, the neoliberal model has failed everyone except the super-rich and the consequences are upon us. Roughly speaking, voodoo finance + rising inequality + demographics (ageing population, shrinking workforce) + climate change + the loss of trust in institutions = collapse of the existing system, within years rather than decades.
To go back to an earlier writer, in 2009 Joe Romm asked "Is the global economy a Ponzi scheme?" - https://thinkprogress.org/is-the-global-economy-a-ponzi-scheme-2c06fbd46c3/ - and answered his own question thus: This global Ponzi scheme is not just a metaphor ... but for me a central organizing narrative of how to think about the fix we have put ourselves in." He was speaking primarily about the climate crisis but the metaphor works equally well for the field which spawned it.


Kim

Malcolm wrote:
And let’s toss in a bit of monkey wrenching, with sometimes fatal consequences for %0.01.

I had bought it before it was recommended here, but the Children of Kali twist was unexpected.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 10:00 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:


FiveSkandhas said:
Least you think I'm being overly Japan-centric here let us not forget the famous and agonizing tower-building travails Marpa forced Milarepa to undergo before receiving teaching.

Malcolm wrote:
Which has been shown to be a legend not based in fact…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 6:03 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:



KristenM said:
And then you read the recent article in the NYT about rents going up enormously and a lack of affordable housing nationwide. Maybe we can figure out some solutions to making life more liveable for the average Joe. What I see in my community is the adults are so poor that their teens are sick of (hyperbole alert) living in a one-bedroom apartment with no money to eat out or go anywhere, so they are taking fast food jobs to make some cash because they aren’t getting it from their parents and then dreaming of going to college. Anyhow, it’s complicated.

Malcolm wrote:
How about convincing W. Va and AZ to replace Manchin and Sinema with a reasonable progressive Democrat? Not likely...They are totally the spoilers, they may as well join the GOP.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 4:47 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
You’re coming round to blockchains?

Malcolm wrote:
I never said I was against blockchain. I simple don't regard it as the panacea that some people do. If you recall, I very specifically said it was useful for such things as tracking shipments, etc. In this case, it would require that the major central banks coordinated the major world currencies, the dollar, yuan, euro, etc., in such a way that any currencies not in the system would simply be worthless. Drug traffic would dry up overnight. Taxes would be paid. Everyone's transactions would be open to public scrutiny by anyone anywhere.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 3:56 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Archie2009 said:
In a sense being disabled and found unfit for work was a godsend for me. In terms of having a social life it's proved a major obstacle (autism), but I was always a loner anyway. I don't miss the mental exhaustion of unceasing human interaction.

Malcolm wrote:
One needn't be autistic to find unceasing human interaction exhausting...I find it pretty exhausting myself.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 2:51 AM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Queequeg said:
That would require states to intervene and make their blockchain currency the only legal tender, wouldn't it? Sounds like a good idea. I imagine the new tax havens would be jurisdictions without such traceable currency.

Malcolm wrote:
Read the book, if you haven't. It's compelling for its ideas, if not its writing (the editor is atrocious and should be fired).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 11:41 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
This is a global phenom...

Queequeg said:
If people have enough to eat and a roof over their head and that becomes the baseline, people start asking, "Why am I doing this work thing again?"

"I would prefer not to."
-Bartleby

This freaks Republicans out. Their response is, "Life is too easy. Turn up the suffering", from the comfort of their seat on a private jet.

Malcolm wrote:
Ministry of the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. This book was discussed recently on the forum, and I finished it over the weekend...much food for thought. One of the nicer ideas was blockchaining all money, to eliminate fraud and tax evasion, as in no private transactions any more, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 10:54 PM
Title: Re: Making sense of types of thought
Content:
Aemilius said:
In a sutra Shakyamuni says, in the last part of his life, that his body is old and worn out like an old and many times repaired chariot. Did becoming really end?

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, he did not take rebirth again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 7:47 PM
Title: Re: REBEL! Down with the Protestant Work Ethic!
Content:
Queequeg said:
Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/opinion/quitting-jobs-resignation-employment.html

Whaddaya think?

Malcolm wrote:
Just make sure your parents are able or willing to let you move home.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 9:00 AM
Title: Re: If one is Transgender and Dzogchen/Vajrayana practice…
Content:


Michael126unknown said:
Here is my question. If one is transgender then does this mean they cannot practice Vajrayana or Dzogchen because I remember hearing some things about the channels in the body having relation with the gender, etc. and also I am wondering if since the h*rmones and also g*nitals are changed it has an impact on the practice? Or not?

Thank you


Malcolm wrote:
No, it does not mean one is unable to practice Vajrayana or Dzogchen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 5:01 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
"Designate" means "label." For example, "library" designates a collection of books. "Book" designates a collection of pages, and so on.

Rick said:
So to designate a set of parts as a table is an act of mere naming, like assigning a ID number to a person, no reification of the designated object is involved, yes?

Malcolm wrote:
When one does not know the nature of things, indeed tables are thought to contain tables. When one knows the nature of things, one knows that tables do not contain tables.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 at 1:00 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
A collection appears, it is then given a designation.

Rick said:
Does giving it a designation impute existence to the collection? (I'm not familiar with the term 'designate' as used in dharma teachings.)

Malcolm wrote:
"Designate" means "label." For example, "library" designates a collection of books. "Book" designates a collection of pages, and so on.

Rick said:
In order for there to be becoming and transformation, there should be an entity which comes into being and is transformed.
So Buddhism doesn't buy the notion of a 'pure' becoming/transformation *without* an entity that becomes/transforms.

Malcolm wrote:
Correct, since there is no entity, an inherent existent, that comes into being or transforms. All things are simply dependent designations, which are empty.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 11:20 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:


Heimdall said:
Remember as well that Indra is in incessant warfare against the Asuras...

Malcolm wrote:
It is worth noting that Buddhists are Team Indra with respect to the destruction of Tripura, the Three Cities of the Asuras.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_%28mythology%29.

We just substituted Mahākāla and Śrīdevī, Shiva and Parvati's children, for Shiva.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 10:46 PM
Title: Re: indestructible wind-and-mind
Content:
Fig said:
The other day I came across the phrase “indestructible wind-and-mind” and it struck a chord in me so I searched online. Most references I saw seemed to be referring to completion stage practices from a Kadampa perspective.
I have not been able to find a Tibetan translation of this phrase and I am wondering if this is something specific to Kadampa or if it refers to something that is known in Dzogchen by another name.
The other day I came across the phrase “indestructible wind-and-mind” and it struck a chord in me so I searched online. Most references I saw seemed to be referring to completion stage practices from a Kadampa perspective.
I have not been able to find a Tibetan translation of this phrase and I am wondering if this is something specific to Kadampa or if it refers to something that is known in Dzogchen by another name.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, in Dzogchen is it called the "rgyu'i thig le," the causal bindu, which has the same meaning as "mi zhig thig le," the indestructible thigle, which is the fusion of the mind, winds, and the original reproductive tisues of the father and mother in the body that acts as the support for our life.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 10:43 PM
Title: Re: Working With Spirits Towards Worldly Goals
Content:


Gaden_Wangchuk said:
The worship of spirits is considered wrong when the sacrifice of a living being such as an animal is involved. This includes making offerings to spirits of the dead, nature spirits,, or any unseen beings related to prosperity, good fortune, and the like.

So the first half of course is obvious, and I'm in agreement with it, but the following finishing clause has me a little confused, and again could be due to my current understanding (or lack thereof).

Malcolm wrote:
This passage in its entirety refers to blood sacrifices. It is a condemnation of animism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 10:40 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Rick said:
1. What does 'designate' mean in "impermanent collections of causes and conditions are designated by mere conceptual labels?"

2. Does this passage explain why there is no becoming, no transformation (from your quote above) ?

Malcolm wrote:
A collection appears, it is then given a designation.

In order for there to be becoming and transformation, there should be an entity which comes into being and is transformed.

When the meaning of "arising through conditions" is understood, at that point, the meaning of dependent origination is understood, and at that point, emptiness is also understood.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 10:20 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Heimdall said:
they'll kill you to prove their point about their loving god
I'm glad there's no Buddhists in history who did the same thing.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, they didn’t kill heathens for not believing in their god, in the case of Shri Lanka for example, they just killed them for lebensraum——millions, according to the Dipavamsa.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 9:00 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Zhen Li said:
So, it is probably not meant to specifically be Pṛthivī

Malcolm wrote:
Pṛthivī was called to witness the Buddha's awakening when he made the bhumisparśa mudra. This passage, "when we touch the Earth" is a reference to bhumisparśa mudra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 8:06 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:


Zhen Li said:
Right, it's definitely a misunderstanding for people to conflate Vairocana with the sun. The sun is limited, and Vairocana is unlimited.

Malcolm wrote:
Vairocana is an alternate name for the sun, Surya. This is well known.

Zhen Li said:
As for Gaia Bodhisattva, actually, I don't think it is Pṛthivī. I cannot find Pṛthivī mentioned as a bodhisattva in any text, only as a devā. Probably the appropriate equivalent would Vasudhārā Bodhisattvā (持世菩薩). These are often conflated but I can't find any texts that make the identity explicit.

Malcolm wrote:
Definitely Pṛthivī.  Vasudhara is Laxmi, not Mother Earth.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 5:56 AM
Title: Re: Killing animals... Is it acceptable in Dzogchen
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Only if you can bring them back to life.


Michael126unknown said:
Can we kill or hunt if we are a Dzogchen practitioner, or should we avoid killing animals unless it is necessary?
Further, may the meat/corpse from a dying animal be given in any type of offering practice (At least visualizing it as offered) or would it be disrespectful (not sure if this is the right term) toward the deities?
Thank you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 at 12:58 AM
Title: Re: History of Gelug and Rime Gelugpas
Content:
Javierfv1212 said:
Also, a related question I have concerns the Rime movement and Gelug figures. So far I can only find one Gelug figure that was associated with the nonsectarian study and practice movement, Minyak Kunzang Sonam. Of course, there is also Shabkar, but he is before the rise of Rime proper. Were there others?

PeterC said:
There's always Gendun Chopel, though I'm sure the Gelugpas won't claim him as one of theirs...

Brunelleschi said:
He was an interesting figure but apparently he was an avid visitor of brothels. Also the fact that D*nald L*pez, that famous hater of all things good and true, seems fond of him makes me a bit skeptical.

Malcolm wrote:
I personally enjoyed hanging out with Don Lopez. He is quite bright and far more open-minded then he gets credit for. And as for Ganden Chophel, he was a very interesting character indeed, and his mastery of Madhyamaka is very evident in his Ornament of Nagarjuna’s Intent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 18th, 2021 at 4:28 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:



Adamantine said:
I hope not on the half-shell? Those little guys are still alive, so that’s sadly adharmic…

Malcolm wrote:
Oysters are not sentient. Even vegans eat them.

Crazywisdom said:
Mollusks are in the animal family. Vegans by definition do not eat animals. You'd have to prove that claim.

Malcolm wrote:
Bivalves are not sentient. Google oysters + sentience + vegan. You will discover there is no consensus among vegans on this issue.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 18th, 2021 at 4:23 AM
Title: Re: History of Gelug and Rime Gelugpas
Content:
Javierfv1212 said:
I was wondering what are some good sources for the history of the Gelug school in general (not just of individual figures like the Dalai Lamas). Particularly I am interested in the later periods (after the great 5th) since there doesn't seem to be a lot of sources on this. Who were the greatest and most influential scholars and practitioners? What were the big events?

Also, a related question I have concerns the Rime movement and Gelug figures. So far I can only find one Gelug figure that was associated with the nonsectarian study and practice movement, Minyak Kunzang Sonam. Of course, there is also Shabkar, but he is before the rise of Rime proper. Were there others?

Malcolm wrote:
Tsongkhapa was a nonsectarian master. And there are many others in the history of the Geluk schools. Indeed, in Geluk, rivalry amongst different colleges was far more intense than extra-sectarian impulses.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 17th, 2021 at 8:10 PM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Adamantine said:
This article cites relevant scientific sources, seems the little ones do experience pain and react to predators..it’s just not
that simple to comprehend or quantify such a different form of experience.

https://medium.com/@jd.feliz/the-case-for-vegans-eating-oysters-mussels-other-invertebrates-961747367305

Malcolm wrote:
Every argument introduced here can also be made about plants.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 17th, 2021 at 4:21 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:



Adamantine said:
I hope not on the half-shell? Those little guys are still alive, so that’s sadly adharmic…

Malcolm wrote:
Oysters are not sentient. Even vegans eat them.

ManiThePainter said:
Are molluscs not sentient?

Malcolm wrote:
No, I don’t think so.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 17th, 2021 at 2:46 AM
Title: Re: Working With Spirits Towards Worldly Goals
Content:


Gaden_Wangchuk said:
I've recently come to learn however that it's considered a minor transgression of vows to make offerings to worldly spirits.

Malcolm wrote:
False.

Gaden_Wangchuk said:
Specifically, it said sacrifices such as animals or living beings, but it did seem to read as generally anything to do with worldly spirits is to be refrained from, other than pacifying practices or karmic debts.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, no live sacrifice. Generally, unless HYT, no meat.

But there are offerings to worldly spirits, for example, there is the Jvalamukha Water offering to pretas. It is a sutra rite, anyone can do it without transmission.

And in HYT, there are offerings made to Indra, and so on, the eight naga kings, etc. These are all worldly beings.

Gaden_Wangchuk said:
Leaving the HYT and practices that are still relatively Buddhist in nature aside (I had to quote the whole post however so that I can hopefully post this), your first point on it being a minor transgression is false is what I wanted to investigate further.

I came under the impression due to a portion of a text stating that in the Jonang Kalachakra tradition, It could have been a misunderstanding on my end, but that is how i initially interpreted it. The book to my knowledge is not restricted, so I can find and cite the passage if that helps any. Your response indicates however that this is not a common view or practice, so i did want to see if you have any insight into the Jonang Kalachakra practices?

Malcolm wrote:
Post the passage….


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 17th, 2021 at 2:44 AM
Title: Re: Ice is melting on the North Pole
Content:
Inedible said:
This isn't a new thing. Shipping lanes are opening up and resources such as gold, diamonds, and natural gas are becoming available. Now that so much North Pole ice is going away we are already fighting over who gets to exploit the new opportunities up there.

Malcolm wrote:
The point of my post was to respond to Amelius’ complaints about absence of photos.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 16th, 2021 at 11:28 PM
Title: Re: Ice is melting on the North Pole
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Gaping hole opened up in 'Last Ice Area' of the Arctic, NASA images show

https://mashable.com/article/arctic-climate-change


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 16th, 2021 at 8:29 PM
Title: Are Oysters Sentient? (Split from Giving up Masturbation)
Content:



Toenail said:
There is a known hyped teacher that tells students to eat their semen after masturbation. This is rubbish and has no benefit? I dont do this btw, LOL.

Malcolm wrote:
Who is this person so we can laugh at them?

I mean, there is some protein in semen, but I'd rather eat an oyster.

Adamantine said:
I hope not on the half-shell? Those little guys are still alive, so that’s sadly adharmic…

Malcolm wrote:
Oysters are not sentient. Even vegans eat them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 16th, 2021 at 8:24 PM
Title: Re: “Bodhisattva Gaia” and “Vairocana Sun”
Content:
Heimdall said:
I got a translation of Thich Nhat Han’s book on Buddhist ceremonies, prayers, and various sutras, and during one of the opening prayers, there is an explicit prayer to “Bodhisatva Gaia” and “Vairocana, the Sun”.

While I do not question Thich Nhat Han’s wisdom given his experience as a monk and his Plum Village movement, there’s a part of me that red flagged this questioning of this was really from Buddhism.

While searching for Bodhisattva Gaia, I only found references to his work and Plum Village.

Was this him incorporating Western ecological theological concepts into Buddhism where it didn’t belong? Is there an equivalent to Gaia in Zen Buddhism that I didn’t see before? Why would Earth be a Bodhisattva other than sunyata (but wouldn’t that be like making a prayer to a monkey because the monkey is Sunyata)?

Malcolm wrote:
Prithvi = Gaia Vairocana is a name for the sun.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 3:41 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Matt J said:
That's absolutely terrible in my mind that people would make others feel adharmic for one's sexual orientation. Traditional Buddhism has a lot of things wrong with it--- beliefs in flat earth, strange models of atoms, Mount Meru as the center of the universe, and bigotry especially toward women and people with different sexual orientation/gender identities. I don't think we should accept such things simply because some ancient worthy said so. And there are plenty of teachers out there who agree.

Heimdall said:
One's knowledge on gravity is distinct from how one should conduct their life in relation to other human beings.

If instead of changing ourselves to the Dharma, we demand the Dharma to change to ourselves, don't you fear that you may not be practicing Dharma to begin with?

Malcolm wrote:
We all do our best. That’s all anyone can expect. Our karma belongs to ourselves alone, so, unless we are harming someone, what we do and how we practice is no one’s business. Savitri Devi’s view were perverse, beyond the wrong views she held as a pseudo Hindu.

Further, taking an inordinate interest in what other people do in their bedrooms as well as having a lot of judgement about it is rather pathetic, no? It’s none of our business.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 8:10 PM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You are missing the point.

Caoimhghín said:
I disagree. I never mentioned the "point" of the tetralemma, merely that it uses a two-valued logic.

Malcolm wrote:
My point, which everyone seems to either ignore or miss, is that these negations referred to real positions people held. That's all. Therefore, discussing them as if they are any more than simple negations is mistaken.

Other than the dispute between Sakya and Geluk over whether two or four negations are appropriate with respect to ascertaining the ultimate, you will not find, in Indian Buddhist texts, a treatment of the so-called tetralemma as a logical device on its own, unlike say syllogisms, and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 8:06 PM
Title: Re: Working With Spirits Towards Worldly Goals
Content:
Earl Grey said:
Could you please share information on where to find this, how to do it, and perhaps if you are willing, your own experience in it?

Malcolm wrote:
Not sure were you can kind the Jvalamukha rite, though there is a stray translation of mind out in the wild of it. Otherwise, the HYT material needs to be learned from your teacher and tradition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 9:08 AM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
the tetralemma...

Malcolm wrote:
Rejects actual positions people held in Ancient India, it is not a logical formula in the modern sense.

Caoimhghín said:
IMO, it is precisely because the Buddha uses a simple two-valued logic that the tetralemma is not a logical proposition. In a system with more than two valid logical values, let's say with "true," "false," and "truthy-falsy;" the tetralemma can be construed as a logical proposition. It can't be construed so with simple two-valued logic.

Malcolm wrote:
You are missing the point. Some proposed that existents arise from existent (Samkhya), others proposed they arose from nonexistents (Vaishesika), still other from existents and nonexistents, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 6:53 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Toenail said:
How can we restore the winds after doing all these things you mentioned?

Malcolm wrote:
Good question. Refrain from doing them, if you have disturbed the winds.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 5:27 AM
Title: Re: Evergrande should make you nervous
Content:
Sādhaka said:
big gov

Malcolm wrote:
Is here to stay. Someone has to keep those pesky, juvenile delinquent red states in line. Anyway, the blue states pay for the red states. If they don't want the big bad government interfering in their affairs, they need to reject the massive federal stipends we send them to pay for their absurdly poor governance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 2:45 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:


Könchok Thrinley said:
But from your personal standpoint do you see any reason for modern practitioners with condoms, lubes, douches, privacy etc etc to follow these prohibitions (together with the other ones such as not during day, etc which do not directly harm partner/s)?

Malcolm wrote:
Nope.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 14th, 2021 at 12:52 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
If it is something that is seen as inherently harmful (be it because it shows too much lust, or damaging energies or whatever),

Malcolm wrote:
Anal sex can mess up the penetratee's downward voiding vāyu. And the penetrator can get E. coli, etc.,  infections from it. The former is the energetic issue. The latter is the hygiene issue. Also aggressive fellatio (gagging) can cause problems with both prāna vāyu (responsible for swallowing) and the ascending vāyu (talking etc.).

Likewise, intercourse during menstruation can cause problems for women.

But obviously in India we can see oral and anal sex were well known and understood, for example the Khajuraho, etc.

https://www.holidify.com/pages/sex-temple-in-india-4413.html


And in the end is really none of my business what people do, solo, in couples, or in groups.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:43 PM
Title: Re: Prayer Wheel Questions
Content:
Seeker12 said:
I wonder if it would be distracting or confusing for me to know that there are two different mantras inside

Malcolm wrote:
No, it would not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:42 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
The difference with web3 is you have to share your code...

Malcolm wrote:
And the companies like Apple will take it and incorporate it into their products. Case in point: MacOS is based on FreeBSD. I am sure the unix boys who wrote it are regretting it.

narhwal90 said:
It is an alarming trainwreck inside.    I ran an file/email server on MacOS for a while, for a small independent business- each successive OS update would subtly break things; there is a tremendous amount of undocumented magic stuff that happens with little regard to backwards compatibility.   I eventually punted all the server functions over to a Linux box w/ raid and have lived a calmer and more peaceful life ever since.

Malcolm wrote:
To a hammer, everything is a nail.

But these days, I would not bother running an in-house mail server.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:28 PM
Title: Re: Working With Spirits Towards Worldly Goals
Content:


Gaden_Wangchuk said:
I've recently come to learn however that it's considered a minor transgression of vows to make offerings to worldly spirits.

Malcolm wrote:
False.

Gaden_Wangchuk said:
Specifically, it said sacrifices such as animals or living beings, but it did seem to read as generally anything to do with worldly spirits is to be refrained from, other than pacifying practices or karmic debts.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, no live sacrifice. Generally, unless HYT, no meat.

But there are offerings to worldly spirits, for example, there is the Jvalamukha Water offering to pretas. It is a sutra rite, anyone can do it without transmission.

And in HYT, there are offerings made to Indra, and so on, the eight naga kings, etc. These are all worldly beings.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:24 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
Very Kagyu of you today. Let's play the flip game. The guru us an illusion. The Yeshe Lama is one's own mind.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really. It is a formula found in Sakya texts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:23 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
The difference with web3 is you have to share your code...

Malcolm wrote:
And the companies like Apple will take it and incorporate it into their products. Case in point: MacOS is based on FreeBSD. I am sure the unix boys who wrote it are regretting it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 11:21 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Josef said:
It is very much like the pseudo-patriotism of the American right.

Malcolm wrote:
There is an interesting and noticeable correlation between the Nyingma pseudo-conservatives and the American right, noticeably, they both spend an inordinate amount of time bitching about American liberals on Facebook.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 10:13 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
I’m still very much on the fence about whether web 3 will take off at all, and whether it will have a positive impact if it does, but I think there’s quite a lot of misunderstanding in the thread so far, which doesn’t lead to any meaningful discussion.

Malcolm wrote:
Web 3 is Web 2. There is no significantly new technology here. Blockchain is old tech, and not efficient.

The basic OSI model is still the same, really the only difference now is that the physical layer has gone wireless, but the data link layer, the network layer, etc. are still based on TCP/IP.

dharmafootsteps said:
Right, if you go far enough down it's the same technology, but what's new is building on top of the blockchain isn't it?

Malcolm wrote:
TCP/IP is already a kind of blockchain. You sent data out in packets with unique ids, they find the fastest route to the target, and the data layer reassembles the packets, etc., until its presented to the the user.

dharmafootsteps said:
We're only on cusp of that. Currently if I want to engage with a web application it's running on a remote server with a remote database locked away by the corporation that owns it. With web3 the applications runs on decentralised networks that the users participate in, those participants of the network own it and are involved in its governance. If it's profit making, they are the recipients, not a single centralised corporation. In fact it all sounds rather socialist no?

Malcolm wrote:
The problem is, as been discussed elsewhere, is the trust issue. Corporations are never going to trust anonymous users to maintain data integrity of the block chain database. Blockchain might be useful for supply chains, but only if controlled by the suppliers and distributors themselves.

dharmafootsteps said:
Whether this vision will be pulled off or not I don't know, but if it does it would seem that it will radically changes things. Imagine all the users of Facebook owned it, voted on its use, decided if it was going to use paid advertising for example, and if so receive the benefits of that revenue between them.

Malcolm wrote:
For this reason alone, your vision is a pipe dream. Or maybe, bong dream is more apropos these days, since no one smokes opium anymore.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 10:07 PM
Title: Re: Evergrande should make you nervous
Content:




Sādhaka said:
I’m kind of surprised that no one around here has brought this^ up.

Now those towards the further left would often see Russell Brand as an “conspiracy theorist” and those towards the further right seem to see him as an gatekeeper; however one of the biggest red-flag things that he pointed out in the above video is:

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/partners/?id=2983

See under the heading “Partners”^.

Those corporations are as unsustainable as you can get.

Malcolm wrote:
Page has been hacked.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/partners/?id=2983

All it says is Monsanto. But Monsanto is not even Monsanto anymore. It was bought by Beyer.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:39 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Giovanni said:
The problem is that those who see all teachers as perfect, not just their own, will invent more elaborate woo woo stories to excuse it.

Josef said:
This is because their actual practice is incredibly fragile. So fragile is their faith that they have to just though hoops to excuse the abuses of people they have never even met in order to feel secure in their identity as Buddhists.


Malcolm wrote:
Its kind of like white fragility amongst white conservatives—constantly accusing liberals of brittleness, when in reality it is they who are brittle, when their cherished icons are found wanting.

I also find it of interest that the most arch conservative voices in all of this come from establishment Nyingmapas, who, of course, are the least conservative when it actually comes to innovations. One detects a little insecurity there? I imagine they must freak out when they hear that Chogyal Namkhai Norbu dismissed the notion that every word attributed to Guru Rinpoche in the Rinchen Terdzo, for example, could actually have been set down or spoken by Guru Rinpoche. He didn't give a percentage...he just said that it was impossible that it all could possibly come from Padmasambhava.

This is why harping on "This one and that one is a terton" really makes no sense. Of course, if a terma does not contradict the teachings of the Buddha, there is no reason to immediately condemn it and say, "This is a false Dharma," as long as it is correct in its essentials; the same goes with dream teachings, pure visions, and the like, which are found in ALL schools. I also practice termas, so I am not criticizing termas per se (most of the Sakya and Nyingma sadhanas in my cyclical practice regimen were composed by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo). But I am critiquing the constant refrain heard here that the conduct of tertons is absolutely beyond all judgement. This is just gaslighting.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:36 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
narhwal90 said:
thinking maybe in 10-15 years Amazon/Microsoft/Google will have sunk claws deep enough into their customers to have worn the shine off.

Malcolm wrote:
Subscription software is annoying.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:35 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
I’m still very much on the fence about whether web 3 will take off at all, and whether it will have a positive impact if it does, but I think there’s quite a lot of misunderstanding in the thread so far, which doesn’t lead to any meaningful discussion.

Malcolm wrote:
Web 3 is Web 2. There is no significantly new technology here. Blockchain is old tech, and not efficient.

The basic OSI model is still the same, really the only difference now is that the physical layer has gone wireless, but the data link layer, the network layer, etc. are still based on TCP/IP.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:10 PM
Title: Re: Making sense of types of thought
Content:
Hazel said:
I've been watching myself sleep (creepy!) and have noticed some things about types of thoughts, both as falling asleep and while awake.

Here "thought" refers to auditory thoughts.

* There's a thread of thought I'm holding onto deliberately.

Malcolm wrote:
Mindfulness.

Hazel said:
* There's a thread of thought I wander off on without really realizing it or being very aware of it until after the fact.

Malcolm wrote:
Distraction.

Hazel said:
* There's a series of disjointed thoughts that don't really connect or make logical sense. I often notice this after the fact as I'm falling asleep.

Malcolm wrote:
Conceptuality.

Hazel said:
* Babble. Chatter that's not quite clear what's being thought, but just makes the sound of thought. Like someone mumbling.

Malcolm wrote:
Conceptuality

Hazel said:
* Babble (not my voice). Incoherent words from an assortment of voices I might have heard throughout the day. This happened to me a LOT as a kid often as a cacophony of different voices, but less frequent and less intense as an adult.

Malcolm wrote:
Conceptuality


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:08 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
Queequeg said:
This brings me back to something I'm becoming more and more convinced of everyday - the left is making a huge strategic mistake by not emphasizing "fairness". Everyone knows what fair play is, and everyone, even cheaters, know where the lines are. This is what should be emphasized in every situation and then the particular obstacle to fairness is easily identified and its remedy measurable. We have all of this language and logic worked out in common law - it doesn't need to be reinvented.

Malcolm wrote:
Agreed. However, Bernie does emphasize it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:33 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
This board has been pretty hard on crypto/blockchain from what I’ve seen. I’ve been skeptical/agnostic on it myself, but am starting to see an inkling of positive and practical use in web 3 and decentralized apps.

This tweet from Naval Ravikant sums it up:


Anyone else geeky enough to have an opinion on this stuff?

Malcolm wrote:
Web 4: Corporations buy everything.

Queequeg said:
If they bought it, that would at least imply a bargained for exchange. Nah. More likely, they just figure out how to take it.

Malcolm wrote:
The simplest way to take things is to buy them. You just make an offer no sane person (who is by now piss poor and struggling) can refuse. Data will be the new blood. Right now, we are so dumb, we just give our data away.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:26 PM
Title: Re: Any thoughts on web 3?
Content:
dharmafootsteps said:
This board has been pretty hard on crypto/blockchain from what I’ve seen. I’ve been skeptical/agnostic on it myself, but am starting to see an inkling of positive and practical use in web 3 and decentralized apps.

This tweet from Naval Ravikant sums it up: Web 2: Users are the data, corporations own the platform, and the code is closed.

Web 3: Users own their data, contributors own the platform, and the code is open.
Anyone else geeky enough to have an opinion on this stuff?

Malcolm wrote:
Web 4: Corporations buy everything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:23 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
PeterC said:
The stuff that goes on with indian gurus is on a whole different level.  But all the same excuses are used - it was for the student's benefit, the guru didn't take pleasure in it, other great gurus have said he's an enlightened being, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
Accolades and endorsements all the way down.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:22 PM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
the tetralemma...

Malcolm wrote:
Rejects actual positions people held in Ancient India, it is not a logical formula in the modern sense.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:21 PM
Title: Re: Beyond True and False Buddhist logic Vs Western Logic
Content:
Dan74 said:
Then his tetralemma

Malcolm wrote:
Rejects actual positions people held in Ancient India, it is not a logical formula, as you correctly induce.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:19 PM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Sādhaka said:
Malcolm,

The guy was a respected M.D. from Oxford; and if he fell off the wagon and became an “quack”, then whatever; but I did a little digging myself, and well, just read the wikipedia article on him, and since it’s wikipedia it likely has an leftist & pro-pharma slant. Therefore it’s probably not going to give his side of the story.

Malcolm wrote:
I did not derive this idea from Wikipedia. The Medical establishements respect for him in Britain is not all you think it is, and you still have not provided any evidence-based studies for the claim you are making, which is essentially a medical claim.


Sādhaka said:
Yoga practice

Malcolm wrote:
Monks practice with a hastamudra, a lag gi phyag rgya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:14 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
end on how one evaluates “practicing Dharma”. It might be the case that I practice Dharma quite badly. I’m lazy, inattentive, forgetful, uncaring, and stingy.

Malcolm wrote:
There is a slight twist on this:

I supplicate the guru so that dharma becomes the Dharma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:43 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:



nightbloom said:
I don't know..... when I think about the behavior of the pre-Christian Romans, or the Celts & Germans, I definitely don't come away with the feeling that polytheism is particularly peaceful.

Malcolm wrote:
Who made the claim they were?


nightbloom said:
The only reason why the infamously violent Celts didn't murder and enslave everyone on the Italian peninsula is because they were much more disorganized and fractured by constant internal warfare than the Romans (whose rise to power was probably provoked in part by their encounter with these invading tribesmen).

Malcolm wrote:
The Roman Empire was consolidated under Augustus. The Romans however did not bind their empire together with a unified belief system. That’s why Rome fell, but Christianity ruled Europe for 1500 years in the remains of the former Roman Empire.

nightbloom said:
Weren't you arguing that mono-theism in particular tends to lead to an impulse towards conquest?

Malcolm wrote:
Romans were not so as much interested in conquest as they were in land and defense. Thus began with the Celts launching raids against Rome beginning 390 bc. Then there was the era of the Punic wars, etc. But during this period Rome did not actually subjugate their defeated enemies, they just forced them to pay tributes. The period of garrisoning Roman troops in conquered lands really didn’t begin until the end of the Republic, and the rise of the Imperium, but even here, Romans were generally more like raiders than conquerors. They really didn’t have a program to spread their culture to other nations, unlike ideologically motivated theists such as Christians and Muslims.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:28 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Virgo said:
If people don't know how to judge a tree by it's fruit, there isn't too much that can be done for them.

Virgo

Knotty Veneer said:
I don't think Mukpo's actions were genetic. I think they were a product of the groupthink that exists in Shambhala. If you set up a belief system where you refuse to apply societal norms to the leader, it's almost inevitable he will not apply them himself. I am by no means excusing Mukpo but I doubt many people would act differently when surrounded by that type of unthinking adulation and apparent lack of consequences.

PeterC said:
Mukpo Jr was heavily abused as a child, then put into a position where he was adulated and told he has complete power over his followers, people who considered Mukpo Sr’s conduct as the “authentic” dharma.  The results should not be surprising to anyone.

If you do the right retreats and learn the right rituals you are qualified to give empowerments. If you spend enough time studying you are capable of explaining the Dharma.  But you could still be completely unqualified as a guru because you lack the qualities.  And you could also be a terrible human being because of the psychological damage you’ve sustained, in the case of Mukpo Jr.

This is why, contrary to the assertions of our friend Sonam, you cannot just take the endorsement of other lamas, however famous they are, at face value, because they give these endorsements far too freely and rarely go back on them when things go wrong.  You have to do your own due diligence.


Malcolm wrote:
For the refrain: Ah, this age of Decline is astonishing!
People make great effort
where none is required,
but in the selection of teachers and religious teachings
where diligence is truly needed,
they are seen to be satisfied with any at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:25 AM
Title: Re: Important New Publication: Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha, Hidas
Content:
Zhen Li said:
This may be of interest to some members:

Hidas, Gergely, Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021

https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/50224/9783110713367.pdf

Malcolm wrote:
Useful. Thanks.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 9:16 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


MiphamFan said:
Anyway I hope that the surviving polytheist peoples of the world today can still survive into the future. The Kalash, various tribes all over the world etc. Doubt they really have systematic theologies too.

Malcolm wrote:
They also don’t have empires.

nightbloom said:
I don't know..... when I think about the behavior of the pre-Christian Romans, or the Celts & Germans, I definitely don't come away with the feeling that polytheism is particularly peaceful.

Malcolm wrote:
Who made the claim they were?


nightbloom said:
The only reason why the infamously violent Celts didn't murder and enslave everyone on the Italian peninsula is because they were much more disorganized and fractured by constant internal warfare than the Romans (whose rise to power was probably provoked in part by their encounter with these invading tribesmen).

Malcolm wrote:
The Roman Empire was consolidated under Augustus. The Romans however did not bind their empire together with a unified belief system. That’s why Rome fell, but Christianity ruled Europe for 1500 years in the remains of the former Roman Empire.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 8:29 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


MiphamFan said:
Anyway I hope that the surviving polytheist peoples of the world today can still survive into the future. The Kalash, various tribes all over the world etc. Doubt they really have systematic theologies too.

Malcolm wrote:
They also don’t have empires.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 3:43 AM
Title: Re: Are we all destined for Buddhahood?
Content:
ConfusedOne said:
Because samsara is endless and infinite, does that mean we are all eventually destined for Buddhahood?

Malcolm wrote:
Not necessarily.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Arnoud said:
Those of you who have listened to episode 9 of the uncoverage podcast and still defend Trungpa should really be ashamed of yourselves.

Knotty Veneer said:
And what I don't get is that, horrible and indefensible though Osel Mukpo's actions were, they pale compared to the range and quantity of things Trungpa did. And yet, both factions in Shambhala refuse to see him as anything other than enlightened.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 2:50 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Arnoud said:
I sincerely hope you at least partially wrong.



Malcolm wrote:
Even in the selection of food and drink
for a single day, 
one applies a variety of means for tests of quality.
And in the building of houses or the making of clothes
or any other kind of undertaking
as array of selective tests is made
to determine quality and competence. 
Even in trivial business transactions
in buying and selling horses, gems, 
and the like, one proceeds only 
after research has been done and inquiries 
made of everyone. 
Such diligence is seen
even in the petty affairs of this life. 
Yet when it comes to the quality of this 
of this Noble Religion, 
though the quality of their own lives 
from here on out depends on it,
people do not make any investigation at all—
as if it were just dog food!
Instead they cling devotedly to whatever teaching
comes their way.

They are seen to throughly examine 
a guide hired for a single day,
or a spouse wed for a single lifetime,
and only then to accept them. 

Yet although their interests—
from now until they have become 
fully enlightened—depend on the choice
of an excellent preceptor, they accept
anyone they meet as their master,
like goods hastily bought in the time of shortage. 

Ah, this age of Decline is astonishing!
People make great effort
where none is required,
but in the selection of teachers and religious teachings
where diligence is truly needed, 
they are seen to be satisfied with any at all.

—— Sakya Pandita, A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes, SUNY, 2002, pg. 176-177.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 2:35 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Arnoud said:
Those of you who have listened to episode 9 of the uncoverage podcast and still defend Trungpa should really be ashamed of yourselves.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't worry, they are shameless. Remember, they judge their teachers not on their actions, but on the number of accolades and endorsements they received from other lamas, whom they think are awakened based on further accolades and endorsements by even more lamas. Its just accolades and endorsements all the way down.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 2:18 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
We don't need outrageous "teachers." We need teachers who can guide people and train them to the level where their vajras and bells levitate in space and beyond. And we are not even talking about the Vajrayāna path of seeing here

Arnoud said:
I don’t understand your view on this. Leaving prints is rock is fake but floating vajra and bell is possible. How do you reconcile or chose between them?

Malcolm wrote:
I didn't say that leaving footprints on rocks were fake. I said that such things can be and are faked. I clearly stated that to be able to do that, one would have to have some power over four elements, like the arhat who self-immolated at of life by entering into the fire element, as a result of his previous practice on the fire kacina.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 2:04 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
Practicing Dharma, itself, is not the cause for suffering to occur.  It’s not like suddenly because you are sitting on the cushion or doing visualizations that now all these demons are released.
But, it’s like a journey, a road trip. If your car never leaves the driveway, you won’t experience anything. As soon as you hit the highway there are going to be bumps and potholes. It’s because you are making progress on the journey itself. It’s not because there’s anything being caused by the vehicle.
The only difference is that the bumps and potholes are things you yourself created in the past.

Crazywisdom said:
Suffering emerges for a dharma practitioner who has doubts and enters non dharma or confuses the path.

Malcolm wrote:
Then axiomatically they are not practicing Dharma. But this of course is why we supplicate the lineage so that our mind turns to dharma, dharma becomes the path, the path removes delusion, and delusion arises as gnosis. Right?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 2:01 AM
Title: Re: Evergrande should make you nervous
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Yeah my parents were organic farmers for a while, it’s a noble thing and all but doesn’t scale for large scale agriculture very well.

Malcolm wrote:
Things have changed. There are huge organic farms in Bakersfield. My friend's parents own one. Its massive, on the level of Iowa cornfields.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:35 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
AlexanderS said:
I think you could do it if it was entirely in English. I was very dissapointed in HDLL's english when I attended his teachings.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, that would not be representative at all. My education, compared to HHDL's, or any serious geshe or khenpo is like high school education compared to a PhD. In terms of Tibetan degrees I have two: a bka' bzhi pa (four doctrines) from His Holiness Sakya Trichen, and sMan pa bka' chu pa (medicine/ten doctrines) degree from Tso Ngon Medical College. Pretty educated in the Dharma for a westerner, pretty average to less than average for a Tibetan Shedra.

any way,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:29 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sonam Wangchug said:
I think that would be very tactless, disrespectful and corny to pit two eminent teachers in imaginary philosophical battles vs each other.

Malcolm wrote:
Not at all. Debate was the main sport of Tibet. I just know that Gelukpa geshes are generally more well educated than khenpos in the other schools, and in particular, this is true these days. That may be due to the resources the Ganden Phodrang has that other schools do not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:25 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
Not really. HHDL is a master of sūtra, tantra, and the teachings of all four schools.

Sonam Wangchug said:
He is, but to say he would defeat anyone living in debate, is an opinion, one which is impossible to prove at that, and one that some do not agree with.

AlexanderS said:
I doubt HDLL could take on Malcolm

Malcolm wrote:
Are you kidding? I wouldn't last 15 seconds. I am quite sure a 15 year old in any decent shedra would have me wrapped up in knots in ten minutes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:21 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
He is, but to say he would defeat anyone living in debate, is an opinion, one which is impossible to prove at that, and one that some do not agree with.

Malcolm wrote:
You are the only person I have encountered that would constitute 'some,' though I supposed some ego-maniac khenpo in the other three schools might disagree because they follow either gzhan stong, Gorampa, or Gorampa's little brother, Mipham. But I am very certain HHDL has read it all. I remember HHDL chastising the Gelukpas because he thought the Bonpos were better at debate. I bet that got their goat, because the Bonpos learn debate from the Gelukpas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:13 AM
Title: Re: The best English translation for "P'owa"
Content:
Zhen Li said:
Best is probably a matter of preference. It's transliterated 'pho ba in Wylie.

Malcolm wrote:
"Transference" is just fine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:10 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
as to the 2nd point, I would say that is subjective.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really. HHDL is a master of sūtra, tantra, and the teachings of all four schools.

There are some who are expert in two schools, almost none expert in three. But he is expert in all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 1:01 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


PeterC said:
It’s a travesty that they gave the name Mipham to Mukpo Jr.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, HH Penor Rinpoche never really displayed the best judgement in recognizing western tulkus...and I know of a Tibetan disaster or two as well, but decorum prevents me from discussing it. But, that said, he recognized a lot of tulkus, not all of them were likely to turn out good.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 12:54 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:


Heimdall said:
He was given several women as a handsome young prince by his father to tempt him to remain a prince but only married one of them. And then he renounced her anyways by becoming a monk.

Malcolm wrote:
You really have this wrong.

Heimdall said:
There on his perfect couch, he lay surrounded by his wonderful retinue of consorts, who all resembled goddesses. All the girls were virtuous, agreeable, and wholesome in conduct.

Malcolm wrote:
https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-046-001.html#UT22084-046-001-701

You are right about one thing, he gave it all up, consorts and all.


Heimdall said:
First of all, I would like to know what actual sources show that Amrapali was actually a prostitute.

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddhist tradition makes it clear she was a very high-priced call girl, in other words, a sex worker. You can look up her entry in the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism on page 36.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 12:33 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
He requested teaching from them.

Malcolm wrote:
And they requested teachings from him. They all received many empowerments from him, in fact (with the exception of Chatral Rinpoche who both refused to give teachings to HHDL or attend teachings by HHDL).

But your point as has nothing to do with anything. In Geluk people debate their teachers all the time. It's expected.

I am just saying that they could not defeat him in debate, on any subject.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 12:16 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sonam Wangchug said:
There are very eminent Nyingmapa masters who did not agree.

Malcolm wrote:
They would not be able to defeat him in debate on any subject, from vinaya to Dzogchen. No one alive can.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 at 12:14 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Related News:

Shambolic International has decided to remove itself from the authority of Mukpo:

Here is a letter of protest about it:


Constructelf said:
Is whatever Blaine is reacting to in this letter public yet, or is it still internal/private?

Malcolm wrote:
Its public.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 11:52 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Related News:

Shambolic International has decided to remove itself from the authority of Mukpo:

Here is a letter of protest about it:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 11:36 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Toenail said:
I refer frequently to Sapan's Three Vows because he gives clear instruction about how to evaluate anything that presents itself as Dharma. Of course, you won't read it, because it will offend you, since he questions everything that Tibetans do, apart from what is actually found in the sūtras and tantras and that which agrees with what is found in the sūtras and tantras
How to read it? Is it translated?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, A Clear Differentiation of the The Three Codes translated by Rhoton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 11:25 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
So his opinions are not blankets for other lineages.

Malcolm wrote:
He is the greatest living scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism alive today. His opinions have weight for everyone.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:52 PM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Heimdall said:
If we are strictly going off of what the traditional sources tell us, I'm not projecting Western mores anywhere near to the degree that many on this thread are, like Malcolm claiming that "sex work" and "polyamorous relationships" are fully in line with Buddhist mores.

Malcolm wrote:
Lets see, Central Tibetans were often polyandrous, Eastern Tibetans are often polygamous, as were Indian men, like the Buddha himself. The Buddha counted active sex workers among his disciples, like Ambapali, who met the Buddha towards the end of his life. He certainly never condemned her, and even accepted her invitation to dinner:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrapali

What were you saying about traditional sources, now?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:36 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sonam Wangchug said:
That is where we differ, you view him as a man backed by the "Institution of the Karma Kagyu"...

Malcolm wrote:
Yup. You can keep your pure vision. It's just as much a conceptual proliferation as my impure vision. The difference is, I don't need to spend any time at all using casuistry to explain away all of the appalling things Trungpa is reported to have done, which often have third and fourth sources.

Sonam Wangchug said:
Then there is the glaring fact that U-tsang and for instance Khampas are very different.

Malcolm wrote:
You do know that Longchenpa wrote a scathing piece of verse blaming Khampas for ruining his college, right?

Sonam Wangchug said:
Is that good old Sakyapa puritanism I hear?

Malcolm wrote:
Western Buddhism could use a bit of that right now. That's why I brought up Lha Lama Yeshe Ö.

You seem to really get off on relating stories about teachers and their unconventional conduct.

I prefer stories about truly great beings like Sapan, Longchenpa, Ngorchen, Tsongkhapa, etc.

The stories of the Indian Mahāsiddhas often cannot be taken literally. That's why, for example, in the Caryagiti, the inner meaning of many of their dohas is exposed.

Moreover, as I pointed out, both Virupa and Saraha poke fun at those who do not really understand the meaning of mahāmudra, etc., making fun of people who ape vratacaryā without understanding its purpose, which is to test one's own stability. And here, there are clear signs of when one is ready to begin that conduct. In the case of Tilopa and Naropa, Tilopa was testing Naropa's stability, since Naropa had been practicing Vajrayāna for years already. But frankly, to bring up Sogyal and Trungpa, their students had no stable equipoise to test, actually. Thus, presenting their actions as "unconventional behavior" in order to benefit their students, who I will remind you were by every measure beginners in the Dharma, is a false pretense, and a dangerous one.

Frankly, I think that Tibetans as a whole have taken away, in many instances, the wrong message from their reception of the Mahāsiddha tradition. Not only that, but the fragmented way the Mahāsiddha tradition has been received by Western Buddhists has caused many of us to become deviants and enablers of deviants, excusing deviant behavior and lauding frauds as awakened beings because we really can't know who is and who isn't realized. That means depending on anyone's authority other than our own eyes and ears is a huge error. We can only observe whether someone's behavior and teachings correspond with the Dharma as it is taught in the sūtras or tantras or not.

I refer frequently to Sapan's Three Vows because he gives clear instruction about how to evaluate anything that presents itself as Dharma. Of course, you won't read it, because it will offend you, since he questions everything that Tibetans do, apart from what is actually found in the sūtras and tantras and that which agrees with what is found in the sūtras and tantras.

You can claim until the cows come home that this master and that master is realized, but you don't know this from your own realization and clairvoyance. This is the main reason your missives, Sonam, and others like them, are such pious farces.

We don't need outrageous "teachers." We need teachers who can guide people and train them to the level where their vajras and bells levitate in space and beyond. And we are not even talking about the Vajrayāna path of seeing here.

Now of course, I assume that my principle gurus are realized beings. I am also sufficiently aware of my own limitations to understand that this is strictly for my own benefit, this is my concept. It is not an objective fact. This is why on the one hand I feel free to share my unfavorable opinion of Trungpa, Sogyal, etc., and on the other hand, encourage their students to maintain pure perception of them despite whatever opinion I may have, because as Peter pointed out, the former was a qualified vajrācarya, and as you pointed out, the latter did have a sound understanding of Dzogchen according to Nyoshul Khenpo, at least intellectually—and Dzogchen, like dependent origination, is not easy to understand.

You on the other hand insist that the realization of this person and that person you mention is an objective fact, and that therefore, whatever they do is the action of a bodhisattva on the stages. That is, I am sorry to say, is completely deluded. It is not even conventionally deluded, it is fully deluded. You cannot possibly know this. You can only believe this. It maybe a useful belief for you. However, insisting that your subjective beliefs are objective facts is sad, and possibly harmful to others.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 8:33 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sonam Wangchug said:
The same Do Khyentse Yeshe dorje who gave him pointing out instructions, drunk, after having dragged him by his hair and spat in his face, yes an action that would be labelled as abusive today.


Malcolm wrote:
And that compares to 40k annual cocaine budget how?

Sonam Wangchug said:
How much do you think Virupas stolen Bar tab was worth?

Malcolm wrote:
A few rupees for a few liters. And it wasn't stolen. The king paid his bill.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 11:28 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
These are fast day vows.

Heimdall said:
Yes, as ideals for the lay people. Ideals. Not "exceptional behavior that's no longer relevant in our day and age".

Malcolm wrote:
The Upavasa vows have only ever been one day vows for lay people to emulate the conduct of arhats twice a month.

Heimdall said:
Why is sexual misconduct one of the 8 precepts?

Malcolm wrote:
You don’t seem to understand the parameters of sexual misconduct.

There are four categories of sexual misconduct when defined from the point of view of the individual: upasaka, upavasa, shramanera, and bhikshu. Eight, when multiplied by gender.

For the latter three, sexual misconduct is any sexual conduct, including masturbation, for the duration the vow is maintained. In the case of the upavasa, the fast day vow,  only 24 hours.

Otherwise, for the upasaka, sexual misconduct is defined in terms of partner, place, time, and orifice. A wrong partner is another’s spouse, partner, or fiancé, a minor, someone under guardianship, or a close relative. Wrong place means in public, a shrine or temple. Wrong Time means daytime. Wrong Orifice means oral or anal. That’s it, this is all described in chapter four of the Abhidharmakoshabhasyam of Vasubandhu, which is definitive on this subject for Sarvastivadin upasakas like myself.

One is not required to observe the vow of refraining from intoxication and sexual misconduct (the latter depends on the former for upasakas) if one decides one does not wish to hold all five vows. One can be a three vow holder, observing only the restraints from killing, stealing, and lying.

Of course, in Vajrayana, it goes without saying that desire is employed in the path,

As Zhen Li points out, the Tibetan tradition only recognizes Indian source texts of verifiable provenance for such issues.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 11:01 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha nowhere mentions sex work as sexual misconduct. Independent, unmarried people are free to do as they wish. If people are in polyamorous relationships, they are also free, since it is all consensual.

Heimdall said:
The Buddha very clearly prohibits sensual dancing, ornaments, and entertainment as a violation of the eight precepts.

Malcolm wrote:
These are fast day vows.

Heimdall said:
The Buddha also very clearly prohibits "sexual misconduct", which at the very least means sex rooted in lust.

Malcolm wrote:
No. It does not mean sexual activity which is a product of desire, you are simply wrong in this point.

The rest of your post is irrelevant.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:19 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


MiphamFan said:
Actually it seems to me that the pre-Christian European pagans weren’t really anti-democratic.

Malcolm wrote:
They weren’t really theists either. There is no evidence they possessed a systematic theology.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:05 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
I only think it's significant in relationship to the assertion that theism can only lead to absolutism/monarchies etc.

Malcolm wrote:
One of the chief early complaints about Buddhism was that it undermined the social order…

Thus is also true of early Christianity, but for starkly different reasons.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:01 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
The funny thing about this argument is that Epicureanism is itself extremely politically quietist. It's an ascetic, world avoiding tradition. Epicurus gets savaged by people like Cicero for having no fidelity to civil society.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, Epicureanism was politically quietistic in the Ancient world.

On the other hand, in the colonies it fueled political and religious dissent. This is obvious when one examines the first American atheist book, authored by Ethan Allen, and so on. Lucretius poem was regularly targeted by Christians in the colonies, abd so called Deists were regularly excoriated for their atheism and Naturalism. It’s not an accident that they used the term “nature’s god.”

I suggest you read Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic

tobes said:
The best illustration of the power and impact of America’s original philosophical radicalism may be discovered in the first sentence of the nation’s first founding document. Many historians today take for granted that the reference in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence to “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” amounts to a gesture of conventional piety—and no doubt it was written partly in order to be read in this way. Religious conservatives today routinely celebrate it as proof that America was founded as a Christian nation. These and similar interpretations serve mainly to express some deep and persistent assumptions about the nature of human experience: that we govern ourselves through acts of faith; that all authority must rest on the assertion of belief in some higher authority; and that all would be well if we could return to the simple faith of our fathers.

Yet “Nature’s God” properly belongs to the radical philosophical religion of deism. It refers to nothing that we commonly mean by the term “God,” but rather to something closer to “Nature.” It tells us that we are and always have been the source of our own authority; that we govern ourselves not through acts of faith but through acts of understanding; and that if we should find ourselves beholden to some other imagined authority, this can only mean that we have constructed the conditions of our own servitude. The Declaration of Independence—precisely where it superficially seems to invoke the blessing of the established religion—really stands for an emancipation of the political order from God.

Malcolm wrote:
Any reading of the Federalist Papers will confirm the above.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 9:45 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


nightbloom said:
1. Buddhism has frequently employed royal imagery and metaphors. It's all over the place in initiation rites, in the imagery of the mandala, the iconography of the deities, the concept of the cakravartin, and so on.

Malcolm wrote:
The one possible, and likely reading of this was that such tropes were subversive, as were a Buddhist claims that our version of fire pumas were more effective than the Vedic tradition, etc.

No longer were only people who were Kshatriyas by birth eligible to be anointed as cakravartins…now, everyone was.

Other readings might hold that much as the liberal movement in Mid-19th century continental Europe pushed for political power, the mercantile class in ancient India, the main patrons of Buddhism, liberalized their own influence by sponsoring the very public rituals that characterized much of early Esoteric Buddhism,

And prior to that, the obvious clash between Kshatriyas and Brahmins is quite evident in Pali literatures and so on, thus, also subversive.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 9:34 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
And yet, the only place where political liberalism arose was deeply theistic Europe, designed, engineered and built by theists.....

Malcolm wrote:
Political liberalism arose first in the British colonies, spearheaded by devotees of Lucretius, who were highly influenced by Locke and Hume (definitely an atheist, possibly influenced by Buddhism) also quite influenced by Lucretius.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 9:27 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
So many of these whiners moaned about ‘losing the freedom’ to the 10 bucks a month or whatever in union dues but we’re oblivious to the fact that it was their employer chomping to privatize their jobs.

Damchö_Dorje said:
Sounds like short-sighted thinking to me—unionization boosts wages over the long term, but people were put off by losing the dues.

Johnny Dangerous said:
I agree with Chomsky on unions, I think they are a form of political organizing that positively affect nearly everyone, and the effects of unionization trickle into all other kinds of areas and bring overall social improvement. Not to say there aren't corrupt unions and whatnot, but there are also some damn good ones who I trust as political entities -far- more than I trust any politician.

As someone who worked lots of crap jobs for years, I'm just amazed at the fact that so many working people will willingly give up any bargaining power or autonomy they could have at work in favor of "work at will" - it just shows how effective the anti-union propaganda effort has been here.

Malcolm wrote:
Right to work laws are anti-union by design, in the same, right to farm laws are anti-environmentalist by design,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 9:15 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
I’d like to see actual medical research on the subject. None of these assertions are evidence based.

A little digging shows that Horrobin was a quack.

Sādhaka said:
I couldn’t necessarily vouch for the following website overall, but there is some citation within the following quote:

https://www.healthaid.co.uk/healthaid-blog/Could-It-Be-Zinc-Deficiency

“Frequent sex and masturbation can be one of the key causes of zinc deficiency. David Horrobin, M.D. and Ph.D. from Oxford University, declared that, “The amount of zinc in semen is such that one ejaculation may get rid of all the zinc that can be absorbed from the intestines in one day. This has a number of consequences. Unless the amount lost is replaced by an increased dietary intake, repeated ejaculation may lead to a real zinc deficiency with various problems developing, including impotence… It is even possible, given the importance of zinc for the brain, that 19th century moralists were correct when they said that repeated masturbation could make one mad!” Also Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D., in his book on zinc stated: “In a zinc-deficient adolescent, sexual excitement and excessive masturbation might precipitate insanity.””
https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a19543996/sex-diet-foods-and-menu/

...low zinc stores have been blamed for decreases in semen volume and testosterone levels, explains Sara Brewer, M.D., author of Better Sex. "Each ejaculation can expend up to 5 milligrams of zinc, or one-third of your daily allowance,"

If one gets enough zinc and selenium (and also eat animal products in general, as has been mentioned before), then maybe it’s not an huge concern.

But there’s also the problem of addiction and dopamine issues  with wanking too. Like I said in my earlier post, it’s not something that is always easy to “do just everyone once in awhile”.

Therefore why not practice Yoga and/or get into a healthy sexual relationship instead (in the latter case, even if there is occasional ejaculation happening; there at least is not the same level of addiction and dopamine issues going on as with masturbation).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 9:13 AM
Title: Re: Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes?
Content:
Nicholas2727 said:
Kind of a side question but what is the difference between the different kind of undershirts (probably not the right word) that monastics wear? I have seen just a solid red, a solid yellow and many like in this picture with the yellow stripe down the middle.

jmlee369 said:
I mentioned the different colours of the donkha briefly in an earlier post in the thread.

Nicholas2727 said:
Your earlier post seems to be going over the outer robe I was referring to the vest worn under their robe. Unless I misunderstood your post. I was referring to how some monks are seen wearing a red vest, some a yellow vest and some a red vest with the yellow stripe down the middle.

Malcolm wrote:
That’s what Dongkha is, the “vest”, which is actually part of nuns gear in ancient India.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 8:52 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
But I also suspect it has emerged dialectically in the context of American religio-politics, and this context has pushed you too firmly into a position of hostility towards theism/theists.

nightbloom said:
The entire conversation is totally pre-defined by that context. This is already implicit in assertions made in this thread and elsewhere that theism leads to noxious politics, anti-democratic attitudes, etc. It's fine to think that, but it would be great if we could be up front about what's actually going on here when we assert (1) the descriptive accuracy of categories such as theist/atheist, and (2) the unambiguous position of Buddhism on one side or the other.

Malcolm wrote:
It is unambiguous that Buddhism denies any form of a prime mover, first cause, or ex nihilo creation by a supreme being. Thus alone caused theists in every tradition that have encountered Buddhism to see it as atheist, nastika.

As far as the political ramifications of theism go, it is irrefutable that every distinctly monotheist tradition has been imperialistic and oppressive by nature. Not all theistic traditions are necessarily monotheistic. However, since theistic traditions just reflect human absolute monarchies, even the tolerant theistic religions are anti-democratic  and despotic by nature.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 7:37 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Sādhaka said:
Also, even contemporary mainstream western doctors admit that you temporarily deplete your zinc & selenium stores with an single ejaculation.

Malcolm wrote:
Citation please.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 6:31 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Longchenpa in his Treasury of Philosophical Systems says that the Tantric Path (which is also a Mahayana Path of course), is basically easy (not mention is supposed to able to be achieved within a single lifetime). I can’t remember the exact quote, but part of it was something like, regarding Tantra & Dzogchen, paraphrased: ‘...that it is swift and has few difficulties’.

This is somewhat relative of course. I mean most of us in this contemporary society don’t have the leisure time to study a lot, and dedicate our entire life to practice; or even have the possibility of learning complex Tantric Yogas etc. (but perhaps  where there’s a will there’s a way) even though we’ve received Empowerments.

Therefore yea who knows, it could be thousands of years....

Malcolm wrote:
Well, if you keep your samaya very well, if you do not manage to wake up in this life or the bardo, then within seven lifetimes or sixteen. The later is still like a thousand years in the future.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 6:09 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sādhaka said:
I’d say that it is simply that he is able to emanate as animals in order to help them to some degree, due to the very fact of his having attained Buddhahood.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, that depends on the narrative you want to follow, really. If it pleases you to think the Buddha achieved Buddhahood a gazillion eons ago, that's fine, and I agree, being a Mahāyāni, but the whole point of the Jatakas and everything up to his demonstration of the twelve deeds was to demonstrate how a bodhisattva practiced the path, soup to nuts, and one cannot take birth as an animal if one has reached the patience of the path of seeing. So, even if he was "emanating" as the Hare King, it was to indicate how bodhisattvas below the path of seeing are to conduct themselves.

The bodhisattva path is arduous, deliberately so. It involves helping sentient beings right from the beginning through the six perfections.

One of the things you seem to forget is that bodhisattvas on the impure stages forget their realization during death, rebirth, and conception, and have to take rebirth again and again as ordinary bodhisattvas until they meet the path again. So what, are you claiming that you should only help sentient beings when you have reattained the path of seeing, that could be thousands of years from now.

And I not talking about attending political rallies. I am talking about being a nurse, doctor, etc., all the right livelihoods that we ought to follow as Buddhist practitioners. I am not talking about being a political activist. I am talking about being an ordinary human being motivated by bodhicitta.

BTW, Trungpa's teacher, Khenpo Gangshar, went around rousting people out of retreat telling them to get off their asses and go help people, whether they were realized or not. He is Trangu Rinpoches teacher. He was also reckoned to be a great dzogchen lineage master. So you see, not all Lineage Masters have the exact same idea.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:44 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:



Toenail said:
There is a known hyped teacher that tells students to eat their semen after masturbation. This is rubbish and has no benefit? I dont do this btw, LOL.

Malcolm wrote:
Who is this person so we can laugh at them?

I mean, there is some protein in semen, but I'd rather eat an oyster.

Toenail said:
It is just hearsay. It means I heard it from an at that time close student of his. So technically I did not hear it from him. I do not want to misrepresent what he said or claim I heard it directly from him if I did not. His name sounds similar to some kind of chinese cabbage.

Malcolm wrote:
Lama Bok choy?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:28 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Virgo said:
What are your thoughts on that?

Malcolm wrote:
Why put off till later what we can do now.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:25 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Tibetan monks—if they have a good teacher who takes these kinds of things into account—are likely taught Trul Khor in order to be able to control the sexual impulse.

Malcolm wrote:
This is immensely silly. The Sakya masters ridicule the idea that there is any inherent benefit to conserving semen, in relation to the misconception that some people have that the tantric vow of never giving up jasmine-like bodhicitta refers to semen.

Tibetan and Ayurvedic doctors understand that semen is a waste product. Geez. How many times to we have to go through this?

Toenail said:
There is a known hyped teacher that tells students to eat their semen after masturbation. This is rubbish and has no benefit? I dont do this btw, LOL.

Malcolm wrote:
Who is this person so we can laugh at them?

I mean, there is some protein in semen, but I'd rather eat an oyster.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:15 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sādhaka said:
breaking one’s Bodhisattva vows in one’s next lifetime before getting the chance to receive Tantric and/or Dzogchen Empowerment again?

Malcolm wrote:
One can only break bodhisattva vows by abandoning aspirational bodhicitta. Even if you break all of the other ones, if you never abandon to root of bodhicitta, you have not broken them completely.

I used to think it was important to achieve buddhahood as fast as possible. I no longer think it is that important. What's important is helping sentient beings. Buddhahood is a desiderata to be sure, but not the most important thing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:14 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sādhaka said:
Interesting.

But then how could one possibly regress before the Eight Bhumi, if the above is the case?

Malcolm wrote:
Once one hits the path of seeing, one has reached a certain kind of nonretrogression. At that point one will always take birth in the three upper realms. Buddha births as an animal indicate that he was exhibiting the path below the Mahāyāna patience on the path of application. This is one of the reasons why in other threads, I do not accept the idea that one must be a bodhisattva on the bhumis to help sentient beings. If one is any kind of bodhisattva one can help sentient beings directly, as the Jatakas show.

Of course, an eighth stage bodhisattva on up can emanate as any kind of being in the three realms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:07 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
I find this obsession with masturbation and no nut november and no fap movements quite silly. I mean ... come on. Seriously what is so bad about touching your willy? Do you feel you are doing it way too much? Well then try getting better things to do, that ought to stop you. But obsessing over masturbation is not helpful. Not to mention that I don't really see what benefit is there for us upasakas.

Malcolm wrote:
I think what they need is a device that gives them a shock anytime they touch it apart from having a whizz. Aversion therapy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:03 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Tibetan monks—if they have a good teacher who takes these kinds of things into account—are likely taught Trul Khor in order to be able to control the sexual impulse.

Malcolm wrote:
This is immensely silly. The Sakya masters ridicule the idea that there is any inherent benefit to conserving semen, in relation to the misconception that some people have that the tantric vow of never giving up jasmine-like bodhicitta refers to semen.

Tibetan and Ayurvedic doctors understand that semen is a waste product. Geez. How many times to we have to go through this?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:02 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Dharmasherab said:
excessive masturbation.

Malcolm wrote:
Excess anything is bad for you, including excess water. But you certainly are not going to suggest we stop drinking water because excess water can kill us, right?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 5:00 AM
Title: Re: Giving Up Masturbation
Content:
Dharmasherab said:
But it is a monastic offence to intentionally release semen according to the complete set of Pratimoksa rules. One needs to serve a period of penence for doing such an act.

Malcolm wrote:
Correct, because unless it is nocturnal emission, one has come under the influence of strong desire-- which is fine for lay people, not renunciants.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 4:58 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:



Toenail said:
Why do you think the weather was always terrible around Norbu Rinpoche? I noticed this also.

Malcolm wrote:
Eight classes.

Toenail said:
I remember eight or nine years ago or so, he was giving a Dorje Drolo Wang from tenerife. The internet connection was very bad. I was in Asia at the time, but they said it was because of horrible storms in tenerife. I would expect him to control these classes or I would think they pay homage with sun light or cool breezes and so on. How do you explain this? I know he was clairvoyant and could interact with these beings.

Malcolm wrote:
Does one always interfere with children when they are making a ruckus, or only when absolutely necessary?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 4:44 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Sādhaka said:
The relative Siddhis are part of the teachings; and I doubt that  the mention of them is there only to lure people into following the path and nothing more.

Malcolm wrote:
Mostly, but having developed them, one can benefit beings. I see little evidence that people are developing them these days.

Toenail said:
Why do you think the weather was always terrible around Norbu Rinpoche? I noticed this also.

Malcolm wrote:
Eight classes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 4:43 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Matt J said:
That's too weak of a correlation in my mind. The correlation in my experience is very tight. Of course, I say "seems" because who knows what's actually happening. Of course, the dharma is not responsible for the accumulation of karmic potential to begin with.

In Theravada Abhidhamma-based teaching it is fairly explicitly taught that meditation will lead to some deep, disturbing things to arise if one practices seriously and intensely. As the mind settles, karmic seeds ripen in an environment where there is no clinging/grasping. Some of this can get very intense--- one descriptor is the terror of a mother watching her last son being executed. The idea is that one prepares oneself for this via meditation. I've heard similar teachings across the Mahayana.

I think the emphasis on only positives is misleading, and often catches students off guard. Very few teachers IME recognize this and adequately prepare students for this.

Malcolm wrote:
There is simply is no basis for claiming that the true practice of Dharma can cause suffering.

To reply to the OP, the Letter to a Friend states:

One who in the past was heedless
but later becomes heedful
such as Nanda, Angulimala, Ajatasatru and Udayana,
is beautiful like the moon free of clouds.

Árya-caturdharmanirdeśa-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra states:

Maitreya, if a bodhisattva possesses four qualities, they will purify all accumulated nonvirtuous actions. If it is asked which four, the four are repentance, relying on bodhicitta, cultivating antidotes, and turning away from faults.

The Bodhicaryāvatara states:

Even if one commits an utterly unbearable nonvirtue,
one is instantly free by relying on [bodhicitta],
just as [one is free] from great fear by relying on a hero.
For what reason would the cautious not rely on [bodhicitta]?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 3:52 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
By and large Americans are completely hoodwinked. It’s funny because people talk so much here about freedom and liberties, but for most people I know the thing that limits their freedom more than anything is their employer.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed, the major debate now about over the $3.5 trillion budget that Biden wants to pass is handwringing over whether people will want to go back to work for EMPLOYERS. People like Manchin and Sinema don't want to encourage an "entitlement culture." They are such fools.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 3:43 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Sādhaka said:
The relative Siddhis are part of the teachings; and I doubt that  the mention of them is there only to lure people into following the path and nothing more.

Malcolm wrote:
Mostly, but having developed them, one can benefit beings. I see little evidence that people are developing them these days.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 3:39 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sādhaka said:
Okay, thank you.

Malcolm wrote:
According to Jetsun Rinpoche, once you have hit strong heat, the sign is that one's vajra and bell floats when practicing. At this point, one can no longer break samaya. It's more or less equivalent to highest mundane dharmas on the sutra path of application.

Just for reference, HH Dalai Lama has recently stated he is on the sutrayāna path of application's highest mundane dharmas. In order for him to realize the path of seeing, he says he needs to perfect śāmatha.

GrapeLover said:
When / where was it he said this, just for interest? In 2018 he was still only aspirational about reaching the path of preparation in this life ( https://www.dalailama.com/news/2018/teaching-the-heart-sutra-and-stages-of-meditation )

Malcolm wrote:
I must have misunderstood, or seen someone misrepresenting what HHDL said.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 3:14 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sādhaka said:
Okay, thank you.

Malcolm wrote:
According to Jetsun Rinpoche, once you have hit strong heat, the sign is that one's vajra and bell floats when practicing. At this point, one can no longer break samaya. It's more or less equivalent to highest mundane dharmas on the sutra path of application.

Just for reference, HH Dalai Lama has recently stated he is on the sutrayāna path of application's highest mundane dharmas. In order for him to realize the path of seeing, he says he needs to perfect śāmatha.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 2:49 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Knotty Veneer said:
And worst of all, they've been convinced that if they pay taxes so everyone in society has access to medical care, they are somehow being robbed. It's ludicrous!

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it is pretty stupid...but Americans...we are pretty freaking dumb. A large percentage of us want to put a criminal back in the white house.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 2:34 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sādhaka said:
And even in reaching Heat on the Path of Application, there’s probably still risk of falling when attempting to engage in said intentional behavior.


Malcolm wrote:
There are three stages: weak, medium, and strong. The first is practiced in secret, the second, in your back yard, only the third can be carried out in the marketplace.


Sādhaka said:
Is there any one Tantra or Commentary that goes into detail on this application of the Five Paths more-so than other Tantras?

Malcolm wrote:
There is a commentary by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen on Vajrayāna abhisamaya. Lamdre itself has very detailed though terse teachings on this as well,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 1:39 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:



treehuggingoctopus said:
I guess that sooner or later fans of these modern-day crazy wisdom "mahasiddhas" will start trying to persuade us that Trungpa could actually fly, that Osel Tendzin could really contain HIV in his body (and that those he allegedly passed it to got it elsewhere), etc. One cannot argue with faith. I just wish that Trungpa/Sogyal, etc. lovers kept loving these legendary past teachers while having eyes wide open regarding the present and future ones. Sadly, they do not, at least in my experience.

Malcolm wrote:
In any case such conduct is strictly condemned in texts such as the commentary on the Kalacakra Tantra, Vimalaprabha, and so on. It even declares in one passage that the great tulzhugs is brahmacarya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 1:17 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Knotty Veneer said:
Yeah my understanding was that Yidams were aspects of my own enlightened mind, not some self-existent other being. So to refer to them as gods is not even remotely correct. I think the similarity in iconography with Hindu deities may lead to confusion for some people.

Malcolm wrote:
There is also the fact that in kriya tantra people practice by addressing the deity as external, like Tāra, for example, for common siddhis; a kind of practice that is enjoyed by brahmins, which also depends heavily on ritual purity and so on. So, because Vajrayāna is a path of skillful means, it employs people's theistic tendencies. But this vanishes in carya tantra, where the deity is understood as a symbol of the nature of the mind and one visualizes oneself as the deity. By the time we get to HYT, this is all completely abandoned, since now we are to understand, at the time of the result, that all phenomena we experience—aggregates, sense bases, and sense elements—are the display of our own gnosis.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 1:05 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


treehuggingoctopus said:
PS. Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche's unpleasantness is pure Sunday school sweetness and charm compared to torturing animals or raping someone.

Malcolm wrote:
Next,  Sonam will bring up the fact that Do Khyentse hunted animals for a living.

https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Do-Khyentse-Yeshe-Dorje/TBRC_p698

Although he would receive students in his encampment he would also wander the region in the guise of a deer hunter, allegedly reviving the animals he struck down.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:57 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Sonam Wangchug said:
The same Do Khyentse Yeshe dorje who gave him pointing out instructions, drunk, after having dragged him by his hair and spat in his face, yes an action that would be labelled as abusive today.


Malcolm wrote:
And that compares to 40k annual cocaine budget how?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:48 AM
Title: Re: Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes?
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Recently I have been thinking about this and what would be an upasaka clothing in the Tibetan buddhist tradition? For example if one wanted to have a seperate set of clothing for retreats or for important days in the buddhist calendar.

Malcolm wrote:
White trousers and shirt, dresses for women.

windoverwater said:
This gives the impression that there is some problem with women wearing trousers to a more formal dharma event. What's the deal with that?

Malcolm wrote:
There is no problem with women wearing trousers in general. However, most lamas would prefer women wore knee length dresses or skirts at formal dharma events.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:43 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:



heart said:
Yes he wasn't my teacher but if I received a Vajrayogini empowerment from him I wouldn't throw that away for gossip, true or not.

/magnus

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you are not paying attention with all posts flying…no expects people to denounce trungpa if they actually have samaya with him. On the other hand, rituals are easy to perform. Explaining Madhyamaka is difficult.

Toenail said:
I feel like I could do it and I'm not very smart though.

Malcolm wrote:
What is the antecedent for "it" in this sentence? Madhyamaka?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:26 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Rick said:
Yes, the 'thing' is the transformation, the endless becoming.

Malcolm wrote:
There is no becoming. There is no transformation. Things do not arise out of nothing. One thing does not become another thing.

Rick said:
Good catch, what I wrote applies to process thinking, not Buddhism. When I see a similarity between two views, I sometimes fall into equating things that are not equal. I blame it all on my love of distillation! And, yes, I thought I 'got' dependent origination when I first read an introduction to it, now five years later I keep discovering how incomplete my understanding is. Same for emptiness, the two truths, karma, rebirth, and all the other Buddhist goodies.

Malcolm wrote:
Arising from cause and condition is subtle, not easy to understand.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:21 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
However, I do feel it's very important for contemporary students to know, in all this talk of reforming the Vajrayana...

Malcolm wrote:
There is no need to reform Vajrayāna. If teachers simply followed their mahāyāna vows, there would be no problems.  There are no Vajrayāna vows which force one to engage in unconventional behavior. Vratacaryā, brtul shugs spyod pa, literally "the practice of strict observance"  should only be engaged in when one has arrived at the secret mantra path of application, and it is fairly well specified in tantras. Yes, there are recommendations that when one's guru should behave a little strangely, one should give it a pass. Unfortunately, naive people in the West seem to feel that "strange behavior" extends to conduct which is clearly criminal.

Cue endless recitation of Tilopa and Naropa, which is the only story anyone can ever really come up with as a justification.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:09 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
Buddhism would argue that there are only dynamic processes. There are no unchanging phenomena. All that occurs in phenomenal ‘reality’ is continuous changing of conditions.

So, it’s not even matter of a thing changing into another thing. There’s not even the moment of a thing.

Rick said:
Yes, the 'thing' is the transformation, the endless becoming.

Malcolm wrote:
There is no becoming. There is no transformation. Things do not arise out of nothing. One thing does not become another thing.

Understanding dependent orgination is not easy, though people think it is easy, but the mind shys away from attempts to deprive it of objects.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12:06 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:




Sādhaka said:
Universal healthcare to get prescribed an bunch of drugs to make lobbyists & politicians rich, instead of them providing people with actual useful health advice and treatment?

Malcolm wrote:
No, universal health care so that when you have cancer, your medical bills don't involve bankruptcy and foreclosure.


Sādhaka said:
Regardless, I like the idea of all people being able to get treated and healthy no matter their financial situation.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, that's universal healthcare. You get sick. You show up for treatment. You go home. No bill.

Sādhaka said:
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche saying we can have all the peace summits we want, and it sounds nice, but where does change really come from?

Malcolm wrote:
That's because outcomes are more important than ideology.


Sādhaka said:
Along those lines, from what I remember him saying. I don’t see how voting for an republican    who receives monsanto lobby money or military-industrial-complex lobby money vs an democrat one who does too (or vice-versa) helps much.

Malcolm wrote:
Outcomes are more important than ideology.


Sādhaka said:
Working for these things is bodhisattva activity. For example, ChNN's ASIA is a political organization. ChNN was never afraid to work in the political world. We cannot do very much on our own about these things, but we can help where we can, and that is also a part of our practice.

If one is confident that he’s at least a on-the-Bhumis Bodhisattva, then for him it is proper; and for us, if we’re his students then it is only logical to support his endeavors (I personally have contributed to ASIA, although not as much as to other DC projects).

Malcolm wrote:
Copout.


Sādhaka said:
As far as this Republic goes, the Constitution isn’t even really respected anymore.

Malcolm wrote:
This is the kind of apathy that destroys democracies. It proves the right wing propaganda is succeeding, at least with you.


Sādhaka said:
In any case, my point is that Rongzompa and others have stated quite clearly with little room for interpretation, that one cannot really help sentient beings before Awakening.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. That's what you are doing here.

Sādhaka said:
All the Lineage Masters went into retreat, and even if we can’t; then at least we can spend our free time outside of our jobs studying and doing whatever practice we can.

Malcolm wrote:
That practice can involve anything beneficial to sentient beings. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 11:41 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Sonam Wangchug said:
So I think a mature attitude is very much needed.

Malcolm wrote:
If maturity requires lionizing animal torture, pedophilia, knowingly infecting students with HIV, dosing people with hallucinogens without their consent, sexual harassment of nuns, forced labor of juveniles, etc., etc., you can keep it.

Also, the idea that these kinds of behaviors would have been tolerated by the Buddhist community in ancient india and Tibet is ludicrous at best.

There is a very good reason why Lha Lama Yeshe Ö composed Differentiating Dharma from Nondharma where he criticized mistaken interpretations of the practices of union and liberation, as well as other erroneous practices. Then of course, we have the example of Sakya Pandita, who criticized many mistaken practices that spread amongst Tibetans. I am sure he would have been absolutely critical of Trungpa.

You invoke Virupa as an example of unconventional behavior, since indeed after practicing for decades, and meeting the nirmaṇakāya, Nairatmya, and receiving the Hevajra Tantra from her, eventually he was hounded out of his monastery, exiting by walking over the lotus pool on lotus leaves, causing the monastery to realize they had accidentally expelled a mahāsiddha from the bhikṣu sangha, someone who had actually been their chief upādhyāya. When we examine Virupa's life, however, we do not find that he harmed anyone, other than maybe giving a few people heat stroke and flooding a few homes. Quite the opposite, in fact—he put an end to Shaivaite animal sacrifices in many places in South India, and made the people promise to only present Shiva with offerings of vegetarian food and fruit. Virupa derided "unconventional behavior" in his dohas, as did Saraha.

The great translator, Rinchen Zangpo, was able to cause Sangye Kargyal to fall to the ground with a mere glance-- the latter having a habit of teaching while he was levitating.

Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, whom history records only demonstrated the secret mantra path of application, not even a mahāsiddha, technically speaking, was able levitate his vajra and bell during his sadhana according to the brief accounts of his life.

Now, I see no evidence at all that Trungpa was such a mahāsiddha. I observe a man, deeply flawed, who had the institutional backing of Karma Kagyu school, for whom he was an "earner," who also was charismatic, intelligent, likable, and very self-destructive, as many people with serious narcissistic personality disorders often are. He garnered the admiration of many when he was a unicorn, a Tibetan with a smattering of a western education, who spoke English fairly well, though not as well as one would be believe from his very heavily-edited books. He ran his students deeply into debt to pay for the 16th Karmapa's trip, debts that were only finally paid off after his death. Sexual harassment of women in his centers by meditation instructors was endemic from the beginning, as was alcoholism, etc. The problems in his centers were quite enormous. Turnover was very high, membership was iffy at best. Financial problems were very prominent in Vajradhātu by the early 1980's for reasons that are easy to understand. And now, people are beginning to talk, like the Steinbecks, who report that in Boulder, Trungpa's cocaine habit was $40,000 per annum, about to a gram to two grams a day in 1977 prices.

People keep on talking about how this is all "Western" moralizing. But that, of course, is nonsense. Tibetans would have never put up with this business for a second. Tibetans were not rubes. In general, Tibetans themselves were quite allergic to people who expressed unconventional behavior. Tibetans are quite prudish and conventional as a rule.

The reality is that since the time of Sakya Pandita and now, there has been a lot of malpractice in Tibetan Buddhism. There is a lot of malpractice in Tibetan lineages as they have spread to the West. It is not healthy to spend our time lionizing these modern "mahāsiddhas" whose main siddhi seems to have been fund raising from Westerners and Chinese people, who, when exposed to scrutiny, are revealed to be deeply flawed human beings. Justifying their behavior through legends of mahāsiddhas of the past is naive at best and nonvirtuous at worst.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 9:39 PM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:



Aemilius said:
They were Mahayana bhikshus or bodhisattva bhikshus, they had a different pratimoksha.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they didn’t. For example, to take the bodhisattva vows in Asanga tradition, one had to have already received prātimokṣa vows in a separate rite.

Aemilius said:
It is difficult to know, as we know only little about the daily life in the Mahayana communities that existed in India. I have heard it explained that you need to have the Refuge vow and atleast one of the Five lay precepts as a basis for taking the Bodhisattva vow, in either of the two bodhisattva vow lineages that exist in the TIbetan tradition.

Malcolm wrote:
It’s quite easy to know, actually. The Madhyamaka tradition does not require the possession of prātimokṣa vows before taking the bodhisattva vow, since they are bestowed during the rite itself. They are not bestowed during the Yogacara rite, and need to be bestowed beforehand. The Indian manuals for these are to be found in the Tenjur.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 9:34 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Self existent entities are immutable.

Rick said:
Well there you go!

If inherent existence means svabhava,
and svabhava means self-existent,
and self-existent means immutable ...
then, by definition, an inherently existing entity is unchanging.

Malcolm wrote:
And by definition cannot exist…since nothing at any time, any where, can arise from itself, from another, from both, or without a cause.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 8:33 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
heart said:
always keep up with morality of our western world

Malcolm wrote:
It’s not an east-west thing. More hand waving. Anyway, you never met trungpa. He isn’t your teacher, you just like his books.

heart said:
Yes he wasn't my teacher but if I received a Vajrayogini empowerment from him I wouldn't throw that away for gossip, true or not.

/magnus

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you are not paying attention with all posts flying…no expects people to denounce trungpa if they actually have samaya with him. On the other hand, rituals are easy to perform. Explaining Madhyamaka is difficult.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 8:20 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
heart said:
always keep up with morality of our western world

Malcolm wrote:
It’s not an east-west thing. More hand waving. Anyway, you never met trungpa. He isn’t your teacher, you just like his books.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 8:08 PM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Inherent existence is a translation of svabhava, which literally means “self-existent.”

Asserting that change is self-:existent is a contradiction in terms.

Rick said:
I don't know what 'self-existent' means in this context.

Malcolm wrote:
Self existent entities are immutable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 8:06 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
The real problem we face is the drive to reject pluralism and replace it with some fantasy of one view/one set of values.

Malcolm wrote:
Buddhism is a form of atheism. Simple as that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 11:02 AM
Title: Re: Question about inherent existence
Content:
conebeckham said:
The very definition of "change" is contradictory to what is meant by "inhering"

Rick said:
As I understand it, the common definition of inherent is essential, as in "humanity's inherent (essential) nature." But it could be that in the Buddhist context inherent means unchanging. (Would be good to know the original term that was translated to inherent existence.)

Malcolm wrote:
Inherent existence is a translation of svabhava, which literally means “self-existent.”

Asserting that change is self-:existent is a contradiction in terms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 9:52 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:



Nicholas2727 said:
Do you believe the stories of the Mahasiddha's then? I am no expert on them and just heard a few short stories from books or videos but some of them seem rather strange to me. Virupa killing a bird then bringing it back to life as well as changing the direction of a river, Milarepa flying around and many others. Again I know very little about the Mahasiddha's and the details of their stories but they honestly push me away a bit so I would be curious how you understand this.

Malcolm wrote:
They are stories, legends. That’s it. If Virupa had actually stopped the sun in the ninth century, it would have been recorded around the world. It’s a symbol,

Nicholas2727 said:
Exactly my thought as well. Thank you for the clarification

Malcolm wrote:
Same thing with reversing the Ganges. The Ganges is a symbol of the central channel, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 9:42 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
I really think that maybe you just haven't had experiences that would challenge this belief system of yours.

Malcolm wrote:
I prefer not to have beliefs, as much as possible.

Your statement here is no different than a Christian telling me I have not experienced miracles because I haven’t let Jesus into my heart.

There are no such thing as miracles. Just dependent origination, causes and conditions that are not understood.

Nicholas2727 said:
Do you believe the stories of the Mahasiddha's then? I am no expert on them and just heard a few short stories from books or videos but some of them seem rather strange to me. Virupa killing a bird then bringing it back to life as well as changing the direction of a river, Milarepa flying around and many others. Again I know very little about the Mahasiddha's and the details of their stories but they honestly push me away a bit so I would be curious how you understand this.

Malcolm wrote:
They are stories, legends. That’s it. If Virupa had actually stopped the sun in the ninth century, it would have been recorded around the world. It’s a symbol,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 9:37 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
Interestingly Epicuranism suffers from the same fate as the Charvakas: most of what we know about it comes from hostile and polemical critical sources.

I don't agree with your basic point though. The fact that Buddhism makes a distinction between mind and matter (something HHDL also asserts), draws it far far closer to the Samkhyas

Malcolm wrote:
Kapila’s Samkhya is also an atheist system.

tobes said:
So: atheistic (pre-Yoga) Samkhya. Sure. Charvakas or Epicureans: only if one wants to give away dependent origination, FNT's etc.

Malcolm wrote:
We are not really certain what Carvakas believed about these things, but we know Epicurean  thought pretty well, and they did not accept first causes, accepted conditional formation of entities, recognized the impermanence of all things, recognized that life was basically characterized by suffering, and so on, accepted the existence of mind, located in the chest, etc. The principle difference is that they rejected substance dualism, but this a position later rejected in Vajrayana also. They did assert the mind dissipated at death. But this difference I’ve already assented to.

tobes said:
Not liking right-wing Christians isn't a good reason for giving those things away.......

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, but my point of view is not simple reactionary mindlessness.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 7:17 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
Equating nirvana to the mere cessation of form expressed by Kesakambali is nihilism any way you look at it.

Malcolm wrote:
It isn’t nihilism, but it certainly is annihilationism.

The so,e point I am making here is that Buddhism has far more in common with epicurean hedonism than it does any of the theistic traditions. HH Dalai Lama also understands Buddhism to be a form of atheism,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 5:55 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Josef said:
Seems like Ginsberg liked the idea of dharma but preferred to keep his standing with NAMBLA.

Malcolm wrote:
In her 2002 book Heartbreak, Andrea Dworkin claimed Ginsberg had ulterior motives for allying with NAMBLA

Josef said:
In 1982, newspapers reported in huge headlines that the Supreme Court had ruled child pornography illegal. I was thrilled. I knew Allen would not be. I did think he was a civil libertarian. But, in fact, he was a pedophile. He did not belong to the North American Man/Boy Love Association out of some mad, abstract conviction that its voice had to be heard. He meant it. I take this from what Allen said directly to me, not from some inference I made. He was exceptionally aggressive about his right to frak children and his constant pursuit of underage boys.

Malcolm wrote:
DId you run into Ginsberg in Gelek Rinpoche's scene in Mich?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 5:38 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
The Precious Human Rebirth requires some stability.

Malcolm wrote:
So in a democracy, that requires citizen participation.

Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
I agree. Voting is important. Too many people have died horrible deaths to give me that opportunity. To waste it is disrespectful.But I do it knowing there’s no end to it.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course, there is no end to the suffering of activities, but we still have to vote.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 5:15 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
treehuggingoctopus said:
....it profoundly damages the (trust in the) Buddhadharma as well. As even this very thread testifies.

Malcolm wrote:
No, you don't get it. We're supposed to do the Catholic Church thing: deny, coverup, etc.



Anyway, the way things are going Shambhala International and Trungpa's estate will be sued into bankruptcy by survivors. Its only a matter of time.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 5:11 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
The Precious Human Rebirth requires some stability.

Malcolm wrote:
So in a democracy, that requires citizen participation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 5:11 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
A Buddhist approach to politics can and probably should transcend ‘regular’ dualistic politics.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, normally I would agree, but then Trump happened.

PadmaVonSamba said:
So, oh wise one, what would you do, if you were a Buddhist who leans very socialist, whose spouse has become a trump supporter? Not a wacky Qanon person, but would vote for him again?

Malcolm wrote:
Hope he doesn't run.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 4:34 AM
Title: Re: When is the right time to go for refuge?
Content:
Paul2020 said:
At what point in your path do people feel it is appropriate to take your vows and formally go for refuge in the buddha, dharma and sangha?

Malcolm wrote:
Whenever you feel you would like to.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 4:07 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
A Buddhist approach to politics can and probably should transcend ‘regular’ dualistic politics.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, normally I would agree, but then Trump happened.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 4:06 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


heart said:
Chokling Rinpoche had some really strange behaviour at times that I can't explain but that doesn't change the fact that I owe him a lot and always felt inspired by being close to him.

Malcolm wrote:
Chokling Rinpoche may have been eccentric (never met him), but he never tortured animals, AFAIK. But this is not about Chokling Rinpoche. He is irrelevant here.

heart said:
Sogyal

Malcolm wrote:
Sogyal is irrelevant here.

heart said:
I guess that if you go looking you will find people being horrified over the behaviour of all Tibetan masters teaching here or in the east.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess if the confirmed stories of the torture of dogs and cats doesn't turn one's stomach and can be excused merely as "strange behavior," one can excuse all kinds of behaviors on behalf of supposedly "enlightened masters."

heart said:
We all know there is absolutely no happiness in Samsara.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, but torturing defenseless animals and sexually assaulting women in public certainly doesn't make things better.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 2:20 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:
Unknown said:
Hameed Ali stated that the third word of Garab Dorje signifies that continuation in the state 24/7.

Malcolm wrote:
He is completely wrong about that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 1:27 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
treehuggingoctopus said:
I think two worlds,  different but bordering on each other, are conflated here.  One is the world of general weirdness,  bizarre tastes and actions,  quirks and eccentricities and incomprehensibility. All of which may be charming, disturbing or both. The other world is one in which there is abuse going on. Here there is no charm, just hurt. As far as I know, Tibetans not only can tell the two apart,  but do not hesitate to deal very harshly with teachers whose unconventionality goes beyond the recognised limits of its convention. Westerners are another matter.

Malcolm wrote:
Like all conversations about Trungpa, it's essentially useless. There are those who will always apologize for his most egregious excesses, using the excuse that he was a terton and so on.

Other people will be properly horrified when they discover what kinds of things he did to his students, animals, and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 1:21 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Who said anything about inaction?

I’m just saying that one can generate more merits via studying and Dharmic visualization methods (assuming that they are connected to methods from the Lineage Masters), than one could through political activism; let alone more ‘concrete’ methods, e.g. Yantra/Tummo, lower gate/door practices (done correctly and with proper preparation of course), Trekcho retreats, the Visions, etc. and the Five/Six Liberations for others.

Malcolm wrote:
More merits for whom? Yourself?

Sādhaka said:
Therefore what I’m implying above would be the epitome of action; whereas politics is not only less meritorious, but is likely more often than not an form of mental-laziness and distraction.

Malcolm wrote:
It is for mentally lazy and distracted people.


Sādhaka said:
And the words of the Buddha in the Jataka tales and general lower vehicles are—even though they are never wrong and are true in the right context—of course more outer-level/exoteric.

Malcolm wrote:
When it comes to helping sentient beings, they could care less whether you are an arhat or a bodhisattva, or a ordinary person.


Sādhaka said:
This being said, there’s no way to mince the quotes from the Lineage Masters that I posted; it’s pretty straightforward:

Without attaining the Bhumis, one cannot really help sentient beings at all.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, then you better get busy if you are going to be any use to anyone and stop wasting your precious human birth owning the libs on buddhist chat forums.

It is pretty useless to quote advice one is not following.


Sādhaka said:
Where's your bodhisattva courage?

Well this is an wrong question for an number of reasons, mainly in the context of the reasons I’ve posted above; however since I myself have not been nearly as diligent as I could be, and have very little qualities to speak of, you’re question here to me personally isn’t wrong. It just isn’t right for the reasons that you were motivated to ask it. I.e. along the lines of “you’re not summoning Bodhisattva courage, because you’re advocating for focusing on practice instead of getting involved with politics”).

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am questioning your distinction between "practice" and and the bodhisattva conduct of the six perfections. Bodhisattvas have the courage to remain in samsara for a long time, eons, aiding sentient beings, going through the paths and stages slowly, life after life. Even if one is a practitioner of secret mantra, one needs to have this courage.

Bodhisattvas can practice the six perfections through their engagement in benefitting sentient beings through their political advocacy for universal health care, etc., things Nāgārjuna recommended in the Garland of Gems.

You seem to have this idea that being involved with politics is all about theories. In reality, it is all about outcomes: clean air, clean water, clean environment, preventing habitat loss, equal rights, peace, etc. Working for these things is bodhisattva activity. For example, ChNN's ASIA is a political organization. ChNN was never afraid to work in the political world. We cannot do very much on our own about these things, but we can help where we can, and that is also a part of our practice.

The other thing you neglect about your Lineage Masters is that they all lived in monarchies, not democracies. In absolute monarchies, of the kind that most pre-modern people lived under, to be involved in political life was to be involved in either working with or working against factions in a court. Their concept of politics is completely different than ours. There was no democracy. But democracy demands educated participation from those who benefit from it. The Buddha himself advocated citizen engagement in their country. He expected people to support their rulers, follow the laws, and so on. Well, we don't have kings anymore. We have Constitutions, which are better than kings, in every possible way. What I am saying is that there is no contradiction between the conduct of a bodhisattva and political engagement in a democracy, like voting, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 12:34 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
They might have an intuition or hear a voice, or maybe not be aware of any of it, but will come out safe nevertheless.

Malcolm wrote:
As I understand things, all of our happiness and suffering is the blessing of the guru.

I personally wouldn’t find a mental whisper to be the extraordinary power of my guru. But that’s just me. YMMV.

SilenceMonkey said:
Hearing voices is really just one among many. But I'm happy to discontinue this debate and let you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Malcolm wrote:
We are not debating. You are being intentionally vague.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 12:26 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
They might have an intuition or hear a voice, or maybe not be aware of any of it, but will come out safe nevertheless.

Malcolm wrote:
As I understand things, all of our happiness and suffering is the blessing of the guru.

I personally wouldn’t find a mental whisper to be the extraordinary power of my guru. But that’s just me. YMMV.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 12:23 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:


Crazywisdom said:
You missed the point entirely. No in Kagyu are self torturing. They are masters of dharma.

Malcolm wrote:
I was not responding to your Kagyu boosterism. I was responding to the idea that this might be connected in someone’s mind to karma.

Crazywisdom said:
Objection. Conclusory. Badgering. You didn't respond. The point is obstacles are not self inflicted. They are a valid part of the path at least for some.

Malcolm wrote:
We are talking about different things. Of course there are obstacles on the path.


Crazywisdom said:
They are not overcome by reading Vasubandhu. They are overcome by understanding the highly refined teachings on karma by Buddha in sutras and tantras.

Malcolm wrote:
Good luck with that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 12:12 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
Why do you say that gurus are unable to intervene in non-physical ways when their students are in trouble?

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t know what you mean by “nonphysical ways.”

SilenceMonkey said:
From before:

Malcolm wrote:
Bodhisattvas are human beings (in our dimension). And all they can really do is give teachings. They do not supernaturally intervene. The idea that they can and do is, well, superstitious.
I still don’t know what you mean. Like standing on a train track in front of a speeding train and praying to Avalokiteshvara to avert the train? Pretty sure that won’t work.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, October 11th, 2021 at 12:07 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
Why do you say that gurus are unable to intervene in non-physical ways when their students are in trouble?

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t know what you mean by “nonphysical ways.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:53 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
I don't think there is a perfect resolution for all of this... except to find ways to purify and attain enlightenment in other ways.

PeterC said:
There’s nothing really requiring any resolution. There’s no great mystery here.  The facts are what they are.

SilenceMonkey said:
What requires resolution is our karma.

Malcolm wrote:
Mostly his.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:47 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
And they say before Buddha's awakening he was attacked by Mara.

Malcolm wrote:
The manner in which the Buddha successively overcame the four maras is well known. He also understood that physically torturing himself was not getting him anywhere, that’s why he accepted food.

Crazywisdom said:
Objection. Nonresponsive, irrrelevant, misleading, abuse of process

Malcolm wrote:
This isn’t court.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:43 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
And they say before Buddha's awakening he was attacked by Mara.

Malcolm wrote:
The manner in which the Buddha successively overcame the four maras is well known. He also understood that physically torturing himself was not getting him anywhere, that’s why he accepted food.

Crazywisdom said:
You missed the point entirely. No in Kagyu are self torturing. They are masters of dharma.

Malcolm wrote:
I was not responding to your Kagyu boosterism. I was responding to the idea that this might be connected in someone’s mind to karma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:38 PM
Title: Re: Thinking of abandoning Buddhism and its teachings
Content:


Queequeg said:
The last thing we want is a bunch of tech bros designing the world.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, we hope they leave for Mars, ASAP.


Sādhaka said:
Aren’t a lot of those guys ones who push many pc and/or left agendas though? I’m not saying that they are sincere in their doing so; but just that they seem to be doing it whatever reasons they may have.

I mean isn’t amazon, google, apple, etc. with their pc/leftism more or less tech-bro driven?

Of course there are the Elon Musk types who I guess could be considered more ‘conservative’-leaning tech-bro. At the same time it also looks like Musk (see microchip in brain) is all about the very transhumanist agenda that he claims to warn us about....

Malcolm wrote:
Tech bros are mostly libertarians, actually. People who work in marketing, etc., not so much.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:29 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Arnoud said:
So what someone calls a miracle, such as leaving a foot or hand print in rock, you call causes and conditions? Or are you saying that’s just superstition and made to look like a print?

Malcolm wrote:
Mostly, such claims are rubbish, but if someone could do so, it would be along the lines of gaining control over the four elements through samadhi, like the arhat who self-immolated by having gained control over fire by meditating on fire kacina.

Such miraculous abilities are widely reported in traditional literature of all cultures, but never reproduced in front of witnesses.

I can report however that the weather was always terrible around ChNN. He was also remarkably successful in casinos too. However he once quipped to me when shown a picture of one of these miracles of a modern lama who stakes his reputation on such miracles, “get me some concrete and I can do that too.” So you see, my skepticism has some basis.

The word “sham” comes from “shaman.”

As for Ngakpa Rinpoche, his weather making abilities were inherited, and involved controlling nagas. He was quite good at this, which is why he was hired.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:18 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
Anyway... it's getting abstract and difficult to evaluate because Buddhists often don't talk about spiritual experiences they've had. It's against the Bodhisattva way.

Malcolm wrote:
One, that’s not true. Bodhisattvas are even permitted to lie about their experience and realization if it helps sentient beings come to the path.

Buddhists, especially Tibetan Buddhists, blather on about their experiences ad nauseum.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:11 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
This is all getting a bit abstract.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, because you are not being specific.

SilenceMonkey said:
Neither are you.

You say there are no miracles because all of what happens is cause and effect. But miracles also come about through cause and effect. Some merely choose to call it a "miracle" while you don't.

Malcolm wrote:
A miracle is normally considered a supernatural phenomenon that defies rational explanation.

I say, as does the Buddha, there are no phenomena, other than space and cessations, that are uncompounded, which arise in absence of cause and condition. I am not asserting we can explain all causes and conditions, I am saying that everything that happens is compounded and impermanent, and that there is no way around this fact.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:04 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
This is all getting a bit abstract.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, because you are not being specific.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:56 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
I really think that maybe you just haven't had experiences that would challenge this belief system of yours.

Malcolm wrote:
I prefer not to have beliefs, as much as possible.

Your statement here is no different than a Christian telling me I have not experienced miracles because I haven’t let Jesus into my heart.

SilenceMonkey said:
It may be true... or may not.

But you do already have a belief. A belief of anti-"belief".

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am not anti-belief either.  I just don’t find having beliefs, ideas which are not reasonably inferred or a product of my own personal experience, terribly useful.

I generally consider beliefs to belong to the category of rampant proliferation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:52 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
I really think that maybe you just haven't had experiences that would challenge this belief system of yours.

Malcolm wrote:
I prefer not to have beliefs, as much as possible.

Your statement here is no different than a Christian telling me I have not experienced miracles because I haven’t let Jesus into my heart.

There are no such thing as miracles. Just dependent origination, causes and conditions that are not understood.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:41 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
I'm just saying, all kinds of things happen. You just have an anti-all of this ideology. Maybe you came to these conclusions with your own super knowledge. But I know what happened with me, and I'm sure many others had pretty hard to believe experiences.

You can't really talk about what you don't know. If something like this hasn't happened to you personally, that's your reference.

Malcolm wrote:
I just know that confirmation bias is very strong, and has cognitive rewards.

I have no incentive to give people’s miracle stories credence at all. If I won’t extend this credulity to Christians and Hindus, why would I extend it to Buddhists?

It is said the Buddha was able to levitate, and by the same token the Buddha also explained to us that such abilities were not indications of awakening.

The true miracle of Dharma is bodhicitta, because it is so rare.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:25 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


MiphamFan said:
On the other hand, there are stories from people I respect and find credible about events that don't seem to have a materialist explanation. ChNN's accounts of helping his uncle retrieve termas for example and his teaching on various action mantras.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, everyone is too afraid to point out the obvious explanation.

Arnoud said:
For a dull person such a myself, what is the obvious explanation?

Malcolm wrote:
I leave you to your own ruminations.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:06 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


MiphamFan said:
On the other hand, there are stories from people I respect and find credible about events that don't seem to have a materialist explanation. ChNN's accounts of helping his uncle retrieve termas for example and his teaching on various action mantras.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, everyone is too afraid to point out the obvious explanation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 10:04 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
And they say before Buddha's awakening he was attacked by Mara.

Malcolm wrote:
The manner in which the Buddha successively overcame the four maras is well known. He also understood that physically torturing himself was not getting him anywhere, that’s why he accepted food.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:41 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
For Lucretius, there are gods, but they don't intervene/are unreliable, therefore, no point in praying, making offerings etc.

For Mahayana Buddhism, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who endlessly intervene (efficaciously),.

Malcolm wrote:
Bodhisattvas are human beings (in our dimension). And all they can really do is give teachings. They do not supernaturally intervene. The idea that they can and do is, well, superstitious.

MiphamFan said:
Then what do you make of the various rituals for mundane purposes? Wealth, health, prosperity and so on?

Malcolm wrote:
Well, let me ask you. If you don't perform them or sponsor them, will they work?

Has anyone every practiced a long life ritual and attained true immortality? We hear stories, but no proof.

MiphamFan said:
Like ChNN's parents sponsoring a monk to do a Tara retreat for them to have a son?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, we hear these kinds of stories. Perhaps it helped. But why wouldn't Tara just intervene of her own accord?

In reality these methods function through dependent origination: developing merit.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:37 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
Wasn't one of your teachers the Dalai Lama's staff rainmaker?

Malcolm wrote:
Yup.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:36 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
But there are other dimensions. And in so many Mahayana texts, traditions and practices, one orients towards them. Pure Land might be the most robust example, but as a matter of degrees it is ubiquitous everywhere in the Mahayana except those places deeply touched by a modernist, secularist impulse, of the kind you seem to be defending here.

Malcolm wrote:
These things are quite relative and provisional. There is no buddhafield outside of one’s own mind. There is no nirvana that can be found somewhere else.

tobes said:
Yes but nonetheless when one starts talking about buddhafields and nirvana, one is a very long way from the Charvakas......

Malcolm wrote:
Modern carvakas certainly accept the existence of other worlds.

Nirvana? Nirvana is just the cessation of afflictions. Carvakas assert that death is nirvana. Buddha encountered one right after his awakening, Ajita Kesakambali. He is reported to have said:
There is no such thing as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds. A human being is built up of four elements. When he dies the earthly in him returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the wind to the air, and his faculties pass into space. The four bearers, on the bier as a fifth, take his dead body away; till they reach the burning ground, men utter forth eulogies, but there his bones are bleached, and his offerings end in ashes. It is a doctrine of fools, this talk of gifts. It is an empty lie, mere idle talk, when men say there is profit herein. Fools and wise alike, on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not.
It seems that they were reacting to same blind ritualism the Buddha scorned.


tobes said:
i.e. it's not just karma and rebirth that distinguishes the two. It is also something about how mind is understood.

Malcolm wrote:
We do not really know exactly what the Carvakas thought, because all that remains of them are parodies of them in Hindu and Buddhist works.

Factually speaking, the Carvaka school is perhaps the oldest philosophical school in India and was very popular until the 12th century.

If I didn't accept rebirth and karma, I would certainly be a materialist. Belief in rebirth and karma is not necessary for leading a moral life.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:27 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
For Lucretius, there are gods, but they don't intervene/are unreliable, therefore, no point in praying, making offerings etc.

For Mahayana Buddhism, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who endlessly intervene (efficaciously),.

Malcolm wrote:
Bodhisattvas are human beings (in our dimension). And all they can really do is give teachings. They do not supernaturally intervene. The idea that they can and do is, well, superstitious.

SilenceMonkey said:
I think many people (including myself) have a different experience. There were times when my gurus supernaturally intervened when I was in the shit. It was  eye opening.

Malcolm wrote:
And how is this testimony different than saying, "Jesus answered my prayers?" With what faculty of higher perception did you ascertain it was your guru who "supernaturally" intervened?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:24 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
heart said:
I never been to a Vajradhatu center, so I know nothing about that.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, that explains it then. Your contact with Vajradhatu people was cursory and brief. You never saw them in their own environment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:12 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
Kunchok Thrinley asked how can we hold him in our minds with reverence after all of this madness. This is a profound question... And necessary for a practitioner of Vajrayana.

Malcolm wrote:
No, not for anyone who is not his student. I am not his student. He is not even a lineage master of mine. I am free. It is not a profound question at all. If he is your guru, then you have the obligation to keep a pure view of him. If not, no obligation at all.

I am not going to say anymore, because people's feelings are already hurt.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 8:51 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


PeterC said:
Does that mean he could not, or should not give empowerments and teachings?  No. He met the requirements for giving empowerments (approximation retreats etc) and was clearly a competent teacher of the Vajrayana.  However bad his conduct he would purify it with self-empowerment at the time of giving the wang. The vajra master does not have to be enlightened to confer empowerment.

Malcolm wrote:
He clearly had more ritual education than education in śastra.

PeterC said:
Does the claim that you’re a terton give you some sort of special dispensation from morality? No, not really.

Malcolm wrote:
Many people imagine it does, and this idea comes from the terma tradition itself.


PeterC said:
There’s a broader point here. The point of engaging in outrageous conduct is that you don’t care about worldly opprobrium. You take lower-caste consorts, live in graveyards, etc - this was conduct that was reviled, and would make you an outcast.

Malcolm wrote:
Generally, like Darikpa, they were high caste Buddhists, who were ordered by their teacher, in this case Luipa, to take low caste professions in cities where they were completely unknown.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 8:46 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


heart said:
I don't doubt that but what I said still stands. Like most centers the vajradhatu seem to have a lot of problems.

Malcolm wrote:
I think your experience is of the European Vajradhātu, with their cute little brownshirt uniforms.

I am talking about the Americans. And the American centers were a hot mess. I remember once that one of the regents handlers asked me to find him some weed. I didn't, but they asked.

I went to so many parties where these serious practitioners, and yes they were, would get completely shitfaced, regularly, and had been doing so since for a decade and more.

There is no use in trying to pretend that Vajradhatu wasn't a deeply f**cked up organization with rot that started at the head.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 8:11 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
heart said:
Maybe controversy is partly a motor in Tantra, the famous left hand path. Jigme Lingpa writes in his "entering the city of omniscience"; "At all times and in all circumstances, may the wish to conform to conventional expectations not arise for even an instant. If, due to the power of strong habits, such deluded intentions occur, may they not succeed." Like I said in an other tread, read Elisabet English book Vajrayogini. Being small-minded and prudish never been the path of tantra. Trungpa Rinpoche was a terton and tertons are rather weird, at least in my limited experience.

/magnus

Könchok Thrinley said:
I mean sure... but there is being a weird terton and you know ... creating a cult where everybody is drunk all of the time until you yourself pass away because of it. And in between drinks abusing your students such as making and letting a crowd strip down naked two people who preffered to stay in their room instead of partying.

heart said:
I can assure you that none of the Trungpa students I met been drunk. They all been serious dharma practitioners that spent long time in serious retreat. The occasion you hint at was a ganachakra.

/magnus

Malcolm wrote:
I can assure you that alcoholism was so pervasive a problem in Vajradhatu, they had serious discussions about it regularly,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 8:08 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
His translations may not be traditional, but they were an expression of genius. Everything he wrote, said and did was an outrageous expression of Shunyata. He defied everyone's notions of what was possible or sane, and showed people something so far outside of conventions of society that if one goes along with his program, expectations and the very foundations of ego collapse.

We can debate Trungpa for centuries, but he may just remain a profound source of creative inspiration for Buddhists who want to blast through the confines of worldly and spiritual conventions.

He was so many things... How could anyone possibly form a true conclusion about him?

If anything, he has mass appeal to western society far beyond the orthodoxy of Mahayana Buddhism. He's the reason why so many of us are here today, studying and practicing in the Tibetan tradition. He moved an entire continent.

I think the topic of insanity is especially prescient with someone like Trungpa, who was clearly playing with the insanity of western culture. He was swimming in insanity itself.

In the end, I think it's what we want him to represent. Everyone sees just their own image of him, merely light refracted through the prism of society. How we view someone like Trungpa speaks volumes more about us than it could ever say about him.

Do we dare deify him? Do we dare to tear him down? Do we even dare ignore him, and everything that he was?

Trungpa was a bold challenge to our vision of Buddhism in the modern world.

Malcolm wrote:
You’ve clearly drunk the koolaid, which is sad, because this means that people will continue with this strange imagination that it is necessary for a teacher to be a sociopath, and given the number of animals he actually tortured, to signal their realization.

Now, ChNN was an actual genius and polymath.

Most of Trungpa’s success was a function of his corporate support from the Karma Kagyus and ability to raise money (a lot if it from a cocaine dealer). But he was f*cked. He sexually assaulted a women in public in front of 300 students, with his vajra guards looking on, reaching up under her dress and fondling her vagina. True story, told to me by an eyewitness, the guard who was present.

Frankly I tire of hearing how outrageous and enlightened trungpa was. He was a sociopath with no empathy. The notion he was what the West, meaning America, needed at the time is utter bollocks. Western Buddhists lionize Trungpa to the detriment of Buddhism as a whole.

It’s all coming out now, all the terrible stories, and frankly, anyone who thinks the carnage and destruction trungpa left in his wake is a sign of awakened conduct just has not properly studied the Dharma. It’s really a sad episode in the history Buddhism. Nothing to lionize and uphold as an example.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 11:09 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
He isn’t happy with people’s expectations of him. He’s said so publicly. If that’s what you mean by “role”, I think you’re right.

Malcolm wrote:
He has been accused of rape. If it is found that indeed he is guilty of said offense, he needs to retire, because it would be a farce for him to continue as the nominal head of a lineage. It would be bad for the Dharma for him to continue in such a role. He would need to hand it over to the other guy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:30 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


tobes said:
But there are other dimensions. And in so many Mahayana texts, traditions and practices, one orients towards them. Pure Land might be the most robust example, but as a matter of degrees it is ubiquitous everywhere in the Mahayana except those places deeply touched by a modernist, secularist impulse, of the kind you seem to be defending here.

Malcolm wrote:
These things are quite relative and provisional. There is no buddhafield outside of one’s own mind. There is no nirvana that can be found somewhere else.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 9:13 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
Celibacy is easy when you’re in your 60s+. Asking a child to be celibate for life isn’t fair.

Malcolm wrote:
Some people, like HHDL seem to do ok.

Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
HHDL wasn’t exposed to the internet as a child.

Malcolm wrote:
Neither was OTD. Anyway, you are seriously going to blane the internet? Maybe the dude’s just not up to the role.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 8:33 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Guess I will give it a listen.

But as someone who kind of enjoys some of Trungpa's books which are on more traditional subjects (such as 4 Noble Truths) the question for me is. How long can we separate the author and the work? And should we even bother when someone is this well crazy?

Malcolm wrote:
There are better, more accurate, texts out there these days. Trungpa books are anachronistic, and because of his conduct, problematical.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 7:46 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
tobes said:
For Lucretius, there are gods, but they don't intervene/are unreliable, therefore, no point in praying, making offerings etc.

For Mahayana Buddhism, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who endlessly intervene (efficaciously),.

Malcolm wrote:
Bodhisattvas are human beings (in our dimension). And all they can really do is give teachings. They do not supernaturally intervene. The idea that they can and do is, well, superstitious.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 7:26 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
Celibacy is easy when you’re in your 60s+. Asking a child to be celibate for life isn’t fair.

Malcolm wrote:
Some people, like HHDL seem to do ok.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 4:10 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Norwegian said:
https://mcolaw.com/case-studies/karmapa/
First hit on Google on "Karmapa rape New York" without the quotation marks.

justsit said:
The video at that site has text in English and Chinese??

Malcolm wrote:
Yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 3:44 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
If he doesn't demand a paternity test(and is negative) then his side of the Karma Kagyu is basiclly screwed right?
If so, he will be financially responsible for whatever the court decides.

How that effects the wider Karma Kagyu remains to be seen.

Malcolm wrote:
I think rape charge will more consequential…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 3:43 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
If he doesn't demand a paternity test(and is negative) then his side of the Karma Kagyu is basiclly screwed right?
If so, he will be financially responsible for whatever the court decides.

How that effects the wider Karma Kagyu remains to be seen.

AlexanderS said:
I frankly can't see why he doesn't insist on one to settle the whole thing.

Malcolm wrote:
I can think of a reason…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 3:01 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
For those whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible.
For those whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

-- Nāgārjuna.

Damchö_Dorje said:
What does it mean "for those . . . everything is possible"? It seems poetic.

Malcolm wrote:
It means that everything is subject to a rational explanation because of emptiness. Not that you can jump off a building and expect to float.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 3:00 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:



Ayu said:
https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=582690#p582690

The topic is locked, because the evidence is not really clear now. But the Karmapa (OTD) seems to have admitted, he is possibly the father of that child.

Malcolm wrote:
There is also a rape lawsuit (civil)  being brought against him in New York.

AlexanderS said:
Is that another woman other than the one from the canadian case?

Malcolm wrote:
No, same woman.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 1:29 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
This analysis of the "city of gandharvas" simile is from the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa. That is a commentary on the Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra.

Why does the explanation from the simile of the city of gandharvas appear in a compendious commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā?

For one, because Venerable Nāgārjuna cites the Prajñāpāramitā in the MMK when he mentions the gandharva city.

ronnymarsh said:
Friend, referring to prajnaparamita does not mean quoting the Prajnaparamita Sutras.

Prajna Paramita is an element of general Buddhism that appears in the Agamas/Nikayas, and no additional text is needed for any Buddhist to use in their literature, as Buddhavamsa in Nikayas..
https://web.archive.org/web/20160228214656/http://static.sirimangalo.org/pdf/buddhavamsa.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20160214113936/http://dhammatalks.net/Books14/Mingun_Sayadaw-The_Great_Chronicle_of_Buddhas_Vol-1_Part-2.pdf

Believing that Nagarjuna had access to the Prajnaparamita texts is an anachronistic belief for today, as the vast scientific literature demonstrates that most of these texts did not even exist when Nagarjuna lived.

Caoimhghín said:
The problem here is that you are making this up. There is no such scientific literature demonstrating that.

Why did you link to those two books? Care to contextualize? They don't seem very relevant.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 1:28 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Paul2020 said:
I won't comment further on these particular accusations since I have no prior information and am completely ill-equipped to have a viewpoint.

Malcolm wrote:
Right, until the matter is adjudicated in court, there is no point in having an opinion.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 1:27 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
justsit said:
Have the child's DNA test results been publicly reported?

Malcolm wrote:
I am not sure how far in discovery the Canadian lawsuit has proceeded.

Nor, for that matter, the rape suit in NY.

Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
My understanding is that she claims to be his wife, and she is suing him for alimony. That’s technically different than child support.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 12:32 AM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Paul2020 said:
Malcolm, what are the storm clouds brewing?

Ayu said:
https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=582690#p582690

The topic is locked, because the evidence is not really clear now. But the Karmapa (OTD) seems to have admitted, he is possibly the father of that child.

Malcolm wrote:
There is also a rape lawsuit (civil)  being brought against him in New York.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 12:06 AM
Title: Re: Dzogchen Community of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Content:
ismael said:
If you think that direct introduction meant an empowerment in the eyes of CNN, that means you didn't listen very often to his webcasts

Malcolm wrote:
It means you listened with your ears closed.

Damchö_Dorje said:
So a direct introduction in the context of an anniversary practice would not be the rigpa'i tsal wang?

Would you say it is an authorization to practice guru yogas, such as those in the Guru Yoga book?

Would that imply samaya is not present from a direct introduction?

I am not doubting this commentary, but merely working to understand this because I have not understood.

Malcolm wrote:
What I am saying is that DI is an empowerment in the eyes of ChNN.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 11:39 PM
Title: Re: Thinking of abandoning Buddhism and its teachings
Content:


Queequeg said:
The last thing we want is a bunch of tech bros designing the world.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, we hope they leave for Mars, ASAP.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 11:19 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


PadmaVonSamba said:
It’s not very popular to invoke “Theravada” rules into the Vajrayana context. But the Buddha did lay down the law as far as interaction between ordained and laypersons. I have a friend who is a Thai monk. He’s meditated in a forest with tigers walking past him. But if a woman sits next to him, he jumps.

Malcolm wrote:
The rules in Mahayana are a bit different.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 11:17 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Matt J said:
It is probably popular in the West because it is often taught by Buddhist teachers from various countries and traditions, and broadly experienced by students. Buddhism is after all an oral tradition.

Malcolm wrote:
What happens, when we begin to practice dharma, is that we begin to notice suffering in ways we never did before. But the idea that virtuous practice can cause negative karma to ripen is a deeply mistaken idea. That negative karma is going to ripen when the causes and conditions for its ripening are present, and not before. Only a buddha has the omniscience to determine what causes and conditions lead to the ripening of karma for this and that person. For example, the point of Vajrasattva and other methods in Vajrayana is to eliminate traces of karma before they meet conditions for ripening.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 10:37 PM
Title: Re: Illuminating deep dive into CRT and its ideological underpinnings from a socialist perspective
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
IBRAM X. KENDI writes:
Republican operatives have buried the actual definition of critical race theory: “a way of looking at law’s role platforming, facilitating, producing, and even insulating racial inequality in our country,” as the law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who helped coin the term, recently defined it. Instead, the attacks on critical race theory are based on made-up definitions and descriptors. “Critical race theory says every white person is a racist,” Senator Ted Cruz has said. “It basically teaches that certain children are inherently bad people because of the color of their skin,” said the Alabama state legislator Chris Pringle.

…


If you want to understand why I’ve made these arguments, you first need to recognize that for decades, right-wing thinkers and judges have argued that policies that lead to racial inequities are “not racist” or are “race neutral.” That was the position of the conservative Supreme Court justices who recently upheld Arizona’s voting-restriction policies. Those who wish to conserve racial inequity want us to focus on intent—which is hard to prove—rather than the outcome of inequity, which is rather easy to prove.

…

How should thinkers respond to monstrous lies? Should we mostly ignore the critics as Matsuda has, as I have? Because restating facts over and over again gets old. Reciting your own work over and over again to critics who either haven’t read what they are criticizing or are purposefully distorting it gets old. And talking with people who have created a monologue with two points of view, theirs and what they impute to you, gets old.
https://apple.news/A-Wnaisu8R6qmp_dF4h5sfQ

Frankly your Marxist article is just a rehash of right wing talking points with a Trotskyist spin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 10:28 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Arnoud said:
Don’t know if this was mentioned but there is a new podcast called uncoverage about growing up in Shambhala Boulder.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, pretty appalling so far. Makes me doubly glad I never met CTR when I had the chance, back in 1978. I’d already encountered Edo, and he turned out to be damaged goods as well.

The kids who went up to tail of the tiger, on a field trip from my school, came back and reported that everyone, including Trungpa, were shitfaced the entire time they were there.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 10:22 PM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:


Aemilius said:
I wonder, if Vasubandhu recited and followed the Bodhisattva pratimoksha, and discussed with his brother Asanga and Asanga's  community of Mahayanists, how  could he have been living in a Sravakayana community?

Malcolm wrote:
They were bhikshus. Simple as that.

Aemilius said:
They were Mahayana bhikshus or bodhisattva bhikshus, they had a different pratimoksha.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they didn’t. For example, to take the bodhisattva vows in Asanga tradition, one had to have already received prātimokṣa vows in a separate rite.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:35 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:


Könchok Thrinley said:
I'd say that sparking a conversation about how to chose a master and how a student teacher relationship should and could look like would be more successful.

Malcolm wrote:
That’s what I’ve been saying all along. Caveat emptor. As Peter points out, having a board is no guarantee, since a board will all be students as well, with vested interests in coverups, etc.

Even FPMT, who generally do a good job of assigning Geshe’s to their centers failed terribly with Dagri, right? And it took them years to get to get rid of him.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:07 PM
Title: Re: Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes?
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Recently I have been thinking about this and what would be an upasaka clothing in the Tibetan buddhist tradition? For example if one wanted to have a seperate set of clothing for retreats or for important days in the buddhist calendar.

Malcolm wrote:
White trousers and shirt, dresses for women.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:06 PM
Title: Re: Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes?
Content:
MiphamFan said:
Well, because they are not actually monks robes sometimes.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche for example doesn’t actually wear monks robes per se, real monk’s robes have the yellow collar thing. Look at Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro to compare:



If they wear full monks robes and actually broke their vows then it’s a different story.

Malcolm wrote:
The yellow collar thing is not part of Vinaya. Most of the fully ordained monks I know do not wear the dongkha. And the yellow is a Geluk thing, actually.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:04 PM
Title: Re: Largest Buddha statues in the world (top 10)
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Between these two, in the centre, I would have a sculpture of a nondescript plain empty chair, perhaps even a fold-up chair like one that you might take out for a barbecue. That's my idea of some good pretentious Buddhist art, not that any of the actual Buddhist art presented in this thread is pretentious.

Malcolm wrote:
That will only work if you also have a statue of Clint Eastwood debating with it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:03 PM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Knotty Veneer said:
Well all I can say to that is if any teacher thought they could introduce me to the nature of mind by means of a blow, they'd better get it right first time!

Malcolm wrote:
That depends on your faith.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 8:46 PM
Title: Re: Illuminating deep dive into CRT and its ideological underpinnings from a socialist perspective
Content:


Archie2009 said:
What is unscientific and quite mad about the CRT movement and its offshoots like Intersectionality is however clearly articulated in the WSWS article. It is that which upsets me. It is a fair piece of writing if you disregard the Marxist framework.

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t agree. The article is mostly a bunch of typical far-left whining about pseudo leftism.

And as far as science goes, I don’t really understand why, in your view, CRT needs to be scientific. It’s not science, it’s an analytical tool used by lawyers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:52 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
I can’t give an exact source, but here here on DW I’ve seen ChNN quoted as saying, “We have plenty of gods. We just don’t have one main one.”

PeterC said:
Absolutely.  I offer incense to Brahma from time to time. But even Mahabrahma is still caught in samsara

Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
So then what, you draw the line at Chenrezig?

Malcolm wrote:
Avalokiteshvara is a high level bodhisattva, not a worldly deva like Brahma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:27 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:



Crazywisdom said:
Those are idiot laws about the rights of fictional persons, who's rights and privileges exceed natural person's. See deities everywhere rob them blind.

Malcolm wrote:
Nevertheless, since they are laws, we are bound to respect them.

SilenceMonkey said:
I don't think karma changes depending on the country you're in.

Malcolm wrote:
Definitions of property do, and affects the karma of taking what is not given.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:17 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
I can’t give an exact source, but here here on DW I’ve seen ChNN quoted as saying, “We have plenty of gods. We just don’t have one main one.”

PeterC said:
Absolutely.  I offer incense to Brahma from time to time. But even Mahabrahma is still caught in samsara

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, it’s kind of like giving a tip…or sometimes a bribe….


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 9:10 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
I can’t give an exact source, but here here on DW I’ve seen ChNN quoted as saying, “We have plenty of gods. We just don’t have one main one.”

Malcolm wrote:
We have plenty of world gods. They are just working stiffs like you and I,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 7:54 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
undefineable said:
Or is this just 'pop Buddhism' too - as far as anyone knows?

Malcolm wrote:
Again, one has to use reasoning, and not merely accept the words in the sūtras literally, at face value.

Suffering is a ripened result. If you experience some suffering, that is ripened action.

But in the real point here is not to try and ripen all our negative karma in this life. It's impossible. We have been taking birth since beginningless time. We have created infinite potentials for karma. The idea that a headache is going to wipe all that away is, well, aspirational.

Of course, since we are in the desire realm, as are the hell realms, animal realms, and so on. Any karma we as humans here can ripen in those lower states and vice versa. But Buddha never taught us that deliberating engaging in ascetic practice where we voluntarily undergo torment will result in liberation.

If someone has a headache, yes, that is a result of action, as all painful. pleasant, and neutral sensations are. Does it eliminate the negative action of taking birth in hell realms? Maybe. But banging your head against the wall is not going to have that effect.

The idea that practice results in suffering is mistaken. For example, some people believe that if you practice tonglen, you will take on the suffering of others. But Sapan ridicules this notion, pointing out that engaging in virtuous practice cannot possible result in suffering. Likewise, the idea that increased suffering is a necessary result of dharma practice is frankly a wrong view and and misunderstanding of the sutra passages Vasana pointed to.

Sakya Pandita would definitely frown on this statement by Karma Chagme:
Take on all vices, sins, and obscurations from previous lifetimes. Then everything that would result in immense suffering in miserable states of existence in other lifetimes is purified simply by suffering from illness in this life
Sapan would consider this a misunderstanding of the meaning of tonglen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 7:36 AM
Title: Re: The Heart Sutra…sufficient for Enlightenment?
Content:
Heimdall said:
I attended a Zen Center a while back that combined both Pureland Buddhism and Chan / Zen Buddhism, and the Abbot made the claim that the Heart Sutra is technically all that is needed for Enlightenment.

Is this true?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, provided you are willing to work for three incalculable eons towards Buddhahood. There is no path in the Heart Sutra, it even says so.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 6:47 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Do you think it could have been some misunderstanding of teachers saying that slight suffering if used skillfully can help us avoid bigger consequences in future lives (such as hunger and thirst in nyungne and purifies causes of being born as a hungry ghost eg.)?

Malcolm wrote:
We have to use logic. Small karmas result in huge ripening. Small sufferings are not going to remove huge karmas.

We accumulate merit because that is good karma. We do so to keep ourselves of the realms of rebirth where negative karmas will ripen fully.

If people really want to understand how this works, they need to study chapter 4 of the Koshabhasyam. For example, if one takes rebirth in the form realm, karma generated in the desire realm cannot ripen there. So it is delayed. Karma can only ripen in the realm in which it was created.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 6:43 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Knotty Veneer said:
I think that though some teachers did those things I think fewer are likely to get away with it now and nor should they be allowed to.

Malcolm wrote:
There are termas of Padmasambhava, I won't reveal which one, that detail methods for consecrating beautiful young women as "liberation through touch." There are a lot of things in Vajrayāna that will really upset you. I suggest you don't look to hard at it. Vajrayāna is not for people with lots of concepts.

Knotty Veneer said:
I know these stories of outrageous acts are titillating and exciting but they should not be used to continue a culture  where people are abused. In 25 years as a practitioner, I've yet to meet anyone who was enlightened or even helped by insults, blows, or sexual advances.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, our experience differs, as I pointed out.

Knotty Veneer said:
And unfortunately the consensus seems to be here that those who are abused by fake gurus have no one but themselves to blame since they did not do the required due diligence.

Malcolm wrote:
Depends on what you mean by "abuse." If you sleep with a teacher, did not insist on committed relationship first, and find out he or she has other partners they did not tell you about, it may be disheartening, but that is not abuse, unless they have an STD they knowingly passed onto you.

If you are studying with a teacher, but find that in the course of their studies they are verbally abusive, you can leave.

If you find out that a teacher is physically assaulting students, that's a matter for the police, for example, like the famous Merwin Party in Boulder. What CTR did there was actually illegal.

Knotty Veneer said:
These vulnerable people will always exist and they will always be taken advantage of because the power structures in religious organizations depend on those at the top being morally scrupulous. Unfortunately, the power given to those at the top makes that very difficult for any but the real deal not to be corrupted by it.

Malcolm wrote:
This is why there is so much teaching in Vajrayāna about the need to be very careful who one takes as a guru and who one takes as a student. Otherwise, It can end disastrously for everyone, as it did in the case of Sogyal. He did not perform due diligence, neither did they

Knotty Veneer said:
And even if there are teachers who really can introduce the nature of mind, say, through blows or sex or whatever, rules like I'm  suggesting will not inhibit them. If a teacher can bring about such an experience in such a manner no one is abused and no one is gonna complain.

Malcolm wrote:
Now, you are making sense.


Knotty Veneer said:
By not having such rules however, the psychos and the self-deluding get a free pass to continue taking advantage of the vulnerable and gullible.

Malcolm wrote:
There are rules, but people do not take the time to learn them. They just run after So and so RInpoche, thinking he is enlightened, and when they find out Rinpoche is a womanizer and a drunk, they really have no one to blame but themselves for not examining them more closely. In cases where there is criminal conduct, that is a matter for the authorities. That's been my position all along.

What's much worse, actually, is teachers who have no qualities or credentials to give empowerments, etc., who do so anyway, people who receive ocean promotions, etc.

Generally, if people are worried about such issues, they should make sure their teacher is fully ordained monk or nun who keeps their vows scrupulously. But people like lay teachers because they hang out, have a beer, eat a burger, chat, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 6:24 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Sādhaka said:
Take it up with the Lineage Masters:

Malcolm wrote:
It is not a copout for them, the copout is yours. You are using their words as an excuse to inaction. "Oh, I have not realized emptiness, so, I am just going have nice thoughts and prayers for the suffering in the world, but I am not going to actually do anything about it, because I am just a poor unawakened schmuck in samsara."

If anything the Jataka tales should inform you to have exactly the opposite approach. What lineage master is great than the Buddha? Where's your bodhisattva courage?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 5:25 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Matt J said:
I've found that they seem to work not by eliminating one's karma, but accelerating the fruition.

Könchok Thrinley said:
This is a point I have seen quite often. And I mean ... it probably kind of probably works like that but I am not sure entirely. Anyone has something to back this point?

Malcolm wrote:
This is a popular idea in the west. I have never ever seen any Indian or Tibetan text that makes this assertion. I think it can be consigned to the dustbin of pop Buddhism, personally.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 5:24 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Caoimhghín said:
Not skeptics in the same sense, they weren't.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much. Candra notes the only difference between us and lokayatis is that we accept karma and rebirth. Otherwise, not much difference.

Caoimhghín said:
Did the Lokāyatas accept their own form of Buddhas? I guess everyone is a Buddha one they're dead according to them?

Malcolm wrote:
Lokayatis are Hedonists on the lines of Epicurean Hedonists.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 4:30 AM
Title: Re: There's a reincarnation of Chogyam Trungpa and emanation of Padmasambhava?
Content:
Knotty Veneer said:
I think that though some teachers did those things I think fewer are likely to get away with it now and nor should they be allowed to.

Malcolm wrote:
There are termas of Padmasambhava, I won't reveal which one, that detail methods for consecrating beautiful young women as "liberation through touch." There are a lot of things in Vajrayāna that will really upset you. I suggest you don't look to hard at it. Vajrayāna is not for people with lots of concepts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 4:07 AM
Title: Re: Illuminating deep dive into CRT and its ideological underpinnings from a socialist perspective
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
BTW, got love the millenarian impulse of the closing paragraph.

Unknown said:
The coming revolutionary upheavals around the world will bring hundreds of millions of people into struggle. The forces exerted on the revolutionary movement will be tremendous. A movement that is cracked and fractured along racial or national or gender lines will not be able to withstand those forces and will quickly break apart the moment real pressure is brought to bear. A world movement that can weather the revolutionary maelstrom must be prepared to advance a unified world perspective, applicable to all workers, from a shared understanding of its own history to its basic philosophical foundations and method, class orientation, conception of the epoch and strategy for victory. This is the real strength of a political movement—the glue that will hold it together through any crisis.

Malcolm wrote:
Poor Marxists. They are just like Christians and Muslims, anticipating a world revolution (judgement day) that will never happen (thank goodness).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 4:01 AM
Title: Re: Illuminating deep dive into CRT and its ideological underpinnings from a socialist perspective
Content:


Archie2009 said:
Still, a very worthwile read in exposing the influence of postmodernism etc. on your beloved anti-scientific 'social justice' movement.

Malcolm wrote:
And Marxism is scientific? Oh please. Give me a break.

The so-called social justice movement aka the civil rights movement, never pretended to be "scientific." I have no idea where you got this idea, nor why it is of any particular value that social justice movements be "scientific."

And as far as postmodernism goes, what's wrong with postmodernism? I mean, postmodernism isn't very modern anymore. Postmodernism is just warmed over structuralism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 3:57 AM
Title: Re: Thinking of abandoning Buddhism and its teachings
Content:


Matt J said:
Such ideas fundamentally misunderstand what it means to be conscious. Logically, adopting such ideas leads one to the Dan Dennett situation of denying that there is any consciousness at all, which is patently absurd.

Malcolm wrote:
In Dennett's case, it must true. The man is a mere automaton spewing bad ideas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 3:55 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Matt J said:
Very few lamas would survive the august critiques of Dharmawheel.

Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
“The hook of compassion and the ring of faith.”

I guess somebody should tell the lamas to eliminate that teaching.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, they squabble amongst themselves on Tibetan language websites all the time, with equal fervor. You should have seen the years long debate over whether ChNN was a Bonpo or not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 3:53 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Schrödinger’s Yidam said:
“The hook of compassion and the ring of faith.”

I guess somebody should tell the lamas to eliminate that teaching.

Malcolm wrote:
So you think that atheists are incapable of compassion and faith. Interesting. False, but interesting.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 3:45 AM
Title: Re: Illuminating deep dive into CRT and its ideological underpinnings from a socialist perspective
Content:


Archie2009 said:
A very worthwile long read from a Marxist perspective.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much annihilates the contention of yourself and others that CRT is Marxist in inspiration:
The pseudo-left tendencies in the orbit of the Democratic Party, for their part, are arguing that, in one or another way, critical race theory and similar postmodern identity theories should be appreciated by socialists or even harmonized with Marxism.

....

While genuine Marxists certainly oppose the drive by the Republicans to purge the schools of “unpatriotic” literature, it must be made clear that critical race theory, for its part, has absolutely nothing in common with Marxism.
And is replete with the usual circular firing squad tendencies of the far left.

And the usual, laughable assertions that Marx is "scientific":
What Marx discovered was nothing less than the law-governed dynamic driving the development of human civilization, based on a scientific examination of the development of productive forces, tracing the way that social classes correspond to specific social relations of production which arise from and then come into contradiction with those forces. Looking back over the entire preceding history of mankind, Marx was able to confirm everywhere the operation of these laws of socioeconomic development, providing new insight into the past.
What a bunch of jingoistic drivel.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 2:29 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
commences at rigpa'i tsal wang.

Malcolm wrote:
This does not guarantee anything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 1:42 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
Toenail said:
Also it has no single owner.

Malcolm wrote:
Legally, like in the US, in Germany corporations are persons, so yes, it does have a single owner, just to clarify that for you.

Crazywisdom said:
Those are idiot laws about the rights of fictional persons, who's rights and privileges exceed natural person's. See deities everywhere rob them blind.

Malcolm wrote:
Nevertheless, since they are laws, we are bound to respect them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 1:37 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Atheism is so ubiquitously associated with "scientific skepticism" that the two are often synonymous for people.

Malcolm wrote:
Good, Buddhists are skeptics too. That's why in ancient India, they had the most robust epistemology and were the only school which argued that their tenets should be accepted on the basis of rationality and confirmation, rather than acceptance.

Caoimhghín said:
Not skeptics in the same sense, they weren't.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much. Candra notes the only difference between us and lokayatis is that we accept karma and rebirth. Otherwise, not much difference.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 1:35 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Sādhaka said:
would be time much better spent than debating politics.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok, well, since you disapprove of such things, don't do it.

But here we are not talking about politics, and one common misconception about Buddhism is that it is religion on par with other theistic religions.

Sādhaka said:
DALAI LAMA: If you reach some higher spiritual experience, spiritual state, then I think it is difficult. The Buddhist concept — everything comes and happen due to law of causality: cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. This indicates there’s no central, absolute cause or creator. So since Buddhism do not have a concept of creator, some scholars say Buddhism is not a religion, but science of mind. So Buddhism also kind of atheism.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/1999/06/04/june-4-1999-the-dalai-lama/13354/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 12:24 AM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It’s the four powers of confession that serve thus function, there is the object in front of whom one is confessing, remorse for misdeeds and downfalls, confidence that the deed has been purified, and resolve not to engage in such deeds again.

But, since we have been in samsara since beginningless time, it is unrealistic to imagine all ones karma and its traces can be purified.

Sādhaka said:
In the above manner at any rate.

Malcolm wrote:
This  system of four powers is also shared with Vajrasattva.

There is no way to remove all the karmic traces from beginningless time. What one can do is attain buddhahood, and prevent them from meeting conditions for ripening. Good Luck!


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 12:19 AM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Atheism is so ubiquitously associated with "scientific skepticism" that the two are often synonymous for people.

Malcolm wrote:
Good, Buddhists are skeptics too. That's why in ancient India, they had the most robust epistemology and were the only school which argued that their tenets should be accepted on the basis of rationality and confirmation, rather than acceptance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2021 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes?
Content:
bodhiye said:
I just learned that a Rinpoche (connected to a translating project) isn't a monk but is an upasaka. I read that one lineage head who was in the news recently for some alleged acts isn't a monk. Both persons dress like monks. I assumed they are fully ordained, vinaya observing Bhikshus based on their attire and appearance.

Malcolm wrote:
Business suit.


bodhiye said:
Why do some lay teachers of Tibetan traditions wear maroon monk robes? Are non-Bhikshus permitted to wear attires that resemble a monk's robes?

Malcolm wrote:
Because they were raised in monasteries, had received śrāmanera vows at some point, and are more comfortable in that attire than upāsaka attire. And these Lamas are usually Nyingmapas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 11:32 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Sādhaka said:
As I’ve pointed out here before (not just to you two^, but to anyone reading here), the texts and many Lineage Masters have said that before the Path of Seeing, it’s not possible to help sentient beings (of course in the meantime, obviously aim to not harm them); and stay in solitude doing practice at least until you attain the First Bhumi.

Malcolm wrote:
Huge copout.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 11:30 PM
Title: Re: Let's talk about common misconceptions of Buddhism
Content:


Sādhaka said:
In other words, call yourself an atheist if you want; yet there’s little reason to believe that doing so is this profound or great thing, or insist on an implication that others ought to do so.

Malcolm wrote:
What one labels oneself is irrelevant. Buddhism negates two fundamental tenets of theism: 1. uncaused creation of the universe and its inhabitants by a supreme being. 2. Salvation dependent on a relationship with said supreme being. In other words, no god created you, and Jesus/Allah, etc. are not going to save you.

If you ask any theist, they will tell you you are an atheist for denying creation and salvation. They won't give a fig about your acceptance of rebirth, worldly devas in the deva realms, and so on. To them, you are a godless atheist. And they are right.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 9:00 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddhism's Decline in India?
Content:



thomaslaw said:
You consider Tantric deity practices in Buddhism were/are nontheists and atheists. Could you give some explanations or concrete details for that? Thanks.

Aemilius said:
The dictionary definition of theism is that you believe in the existence of one or several supernatural beings. In this sense Buddha himself is a theist, because the beings in the six realms exist, and enlightened beings exist.

Buddhism is considered atheist or nastika in Indian traditional thought. You can look at the concepts astika and nastika.
An important point is that Buddhism denies that world is created by Ishvara or some other divinity; self and world are created by Pratitya samutpada, Dependent origination, according to the Dharma.
Buddha teaches that deities cannot do so much for one self as one's own well directed mind can do for one self (Dhammapada).

Some Suttas where Buddha discusses with Devas http://buddhadust.net/dhamma-vinaya/pts/sn/01_sagv/sn01.02.001-010.rhyc.pts.htm

thomaslaw said:
Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I agree with you; I do not have any issues regarding Buddhism is non-theistic but also not atheistic, according to the mentioned basic Buddhist teachings/dharmas (such as the six realms, Dependent origination) based on the suttas/sutras.

But my question is: Why do you consider Tantric deity practices were/are nontheists and atheists?

Malcolm wrote:
Because they are generally applied Abhidharma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 8:55 PM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:


Aemilius said:
I wonder, if Vasubandhu recited and followed the Bodhisattva pratimoksha, and discussed with his brother Asanga and Asanga's  community of Mahayanists, how  could he have been living in a Sravakayana community?

Malcolm wrote:
They were bhikshus. Simple as that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 7:49 PM
Title: Re: How does Karma purification work?
Content:
Heimdall said:
So in Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhism, prayers or mantras are said to purify Karma; that is, to nip it and face it's consequences now rather than later.

How exactly does this work? Is it your own internal recognition which does it? For the mantras said to particular Buddhas and Bodhisatvas (mainly in Vajrayana), do the beings thrmdrlbrd purify the Karma? Are the Buddhas synonymous with Karma itself, so that identifying the karma through them means you will experience less devastating effects?

Malcolm wrote:
It’s the four powers of confession that serve thus function, there is the object in front of whom one is confessing, remorse for misdeeds and downfalls, confidence that the deed has been purified, and resolve not to engage in such deeds again.

But, since we have been in samsara since beginningless time, it is unrealistic to imagine all ones karma and its traces can be purified.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 7:43 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Zhen Li said:
In my opinion just mixing is not the point. The primary motivation should be bodhicitta. Otherwise, people will take it as a license to do evil. In this way also we have to be careful of to whom one is giving what teaching.

Malcolm wrote:
As bodhisattvas, desire is workable. Anger is not. The perfect, they say, is the enemy of the good.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 10:37 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Koso Wasan 40 said:
Obstructions of karmic evil turn into virtues;
It is like the relation of ice and water:
The more the ice, the more the water;
The more the obstructions, the more the virtues.

Zhen Li said:
This doesn't mean "go out looking for trouble," so to say.

Malcolm wrote:
In the end, the point of the sutra passage I shared with you is that whatever one does, including politics, and everything mentioned in that sutra passage you quoted, is positive as long as it is combined with aspirational bodhicitta.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 10:22 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Zhen Li said:
In fact, the approach taken by Shinran is the same, although it comes at the topic from a different direction. But this does not transform the nature of śīla, it just reframes it:
Shinran wrote in a letter, "Do not take a liking to poison just because there is an antidote." This was in order to put an end to that wrong understanding. It by no means implies that evil can obstruct one's attainment of birth.

Malcolm wrote:
The reason why peacocks have brilliant plumage is that they live on poisonous plants in the jungle. The reason the fire of gnosis blazes is that it is fueled by affliction.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 10:10 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
The ideology behind it is.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean Caitlyn Jennings is a progressive ideologue? That’s news to me.

KristenM said:
I think you mean Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn Jennings is a trans country music star, and probably a great name for a cowpunk band.

Malcolm wrote:
Either will do.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 8:39 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
What are we talking about here, a stapler and some paper clips?

Malcolm wrote:
In the Sakya school, even so much as a rice husk.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 8:11 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
The ideology behind it is.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean Caitlyn Jennings is a progressive ideologue? That’s news to me.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 8:08 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
You guys can refute me as Liberal internet crusaders defeating cis-fascist scum or whatever

Caoimhghín said:
Where on earth, save for your own obsessed mind, do trans issues have any part in anything said in this thread?

Heimdall said:
By virtue of being part of contemporary progressive ideology

Malcolm wrote:
So, you have a problem with trans people too? Is it philosophical, or does it have to do with how or where they pee?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 8:06 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
I don't think you have a sound grasp of history——Capitalism and Liberalism have been hand in glove since Adam Smith (granted, however, that his Theory of Moral Sentiments is a more important book).

Heimdall said:
Socialism as a concept didn't exist at the time of Adam Smith. Try again.

Tlalok said:
Henri de Saint-Simon. Socialism (although not with that name) absolutely existed at the time of Adam Smith. What are you on about?

Republicans, before they went mask off (lol) and revealed themselves to be Nativists / Fascists / Christian Dominationists were classical liberals.

When cornered, internet alt-rightistas will resort to word-salad as an attempt to drown the discourse, it's a classic tactic when your arguments are facile.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it’s it’s called, “if you can’t bedazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 7:51 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Zhen Li said:
In the following line, the Buddha admits that desire ("afflictions that gather") is still a minor misdeed.

Malcolm wrote:
Which he states is of no consequence, since bodhisattvas don’t mind remaining in samsara for a long while.

And you seem to forget, I follow uncommon Mahayana.

More tomorrow.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 4:06 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
ronnymarsh said:
This is the dating originated from Theravada literature, our tradition puts its existence around the 10th century BC.

Malcolm wrote:
No, for example, Śāskyaśrībhadra places the Buddha's parinirvana roughly at the same time as the conventional dating suggests.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 3:18 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
because Progressive ideology encompasses certain philosophical outlooks I disagree with

Malcolm wrote:
Such as, apart from CRT, which you clearly do not understand...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 3:16 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
One of my fears of contemporary Liberalism is how contaminated it is by that cultural narrative. It evidently is.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't think you have a sound grasp of history——Capitalism and Liberalism have been hand in glove since Adam Smith (granted, however, that his Theory of Moral Sentiments is a more important book).

Heimdall said:
Socialism as a concept didn't exist at the time of Adam Smith. Try again.

Malcolm wrote:
Trivial distinction. Adam Smith may not have used the term capitalism to describe his observations about political economy, but he was skeptical of trade barriers and correctly saw that tariffs were regressive instruments. He was one of the first people to argue for international trade liberalization. He was not an advocate of unregulated markets, but he was generally opposed to tariffs. And he was certainly a capitalist, as was the Buddha. Compare these two statements: "Capitol is that part of man's stock which he expects to afford him revenue."

By dividing wealth into four parts,
True friendships are bound;
One part should be enjoyed;
Two parts invested in business;
And the fourth set aside
Against future misfortunes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 2:16 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
One of my fears of contemporary Liberalism is how contaminated it is by that cultural narrative. It evidently is.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't think you have a sound grasp of history——Capitalism and Liberalism have been hand in glove since Adam Smith (granted, however, that his Theory of Moral Sentiments is a more important book).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
Contemporary Progressive Ideology.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, so you oppose universal health care, vastly reducing military expenditure, mitigating climate change, immigration reform, abortion rights, taxing the ultra wealthy, repairing our national infrastructure, etc.? Because that's what constitutes the core ideology of contemporary progressives.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:51 AM
Title: Re: Thinking of abandoning Buddhism and its teachings
Content:
Bikkhu87 said:
I have been thinking for a long time that Buddhism is perhaps not for me,

Malcolm wrote:
You don't have a teacher, that's your main problem.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:42 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
I think as significant as unregulated capitalism is the degree to which capitalism has negatively affected our culture, including "the only goal in life is to work for a giant company, be wealthy, and have sex with pretty people"

Malcolm wrote:
News for you friend, capitalism is the religion of America.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:40 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
Furthering my point, the whole association of the United States with Free Market economics was a product of the 19th century...

Malcolm wrote:
Clay's American System was economically disastrous for the the US in the long run. Trump's attempt to resurrect, under the bad advice of Bannon and Navarro, was ill-advised, just as it failed under Hoover, when he tried to resurrect it. It was inevitable that the US would adopt the British System.


Heimdall said:
No, I'm against unregulated capitalism to a degree as it currently exists, and I'm anti- L iberal.

Malcolm wrote:
Your second statement is meaningless. You have not defined who it is that you mean, unless of course, it is just Democrats in general, which is silly.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:30 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
Agree to disagree; while Trump's foreign policy was bad in many area; relatively speaking, I thought it was a step up in many areas compared to Obama and Bush.

Malcolm wrote:
Trump didn't do anything. Compared to Obama, he was an obvious putz when it came to international affairs. He did not even invite HH Dalai Lama to the the White House, a blunder of epic proportions. Instead he wasted his time trying to win over the North Koreans who have no reason to love us at all.


Heimdall said:
Fair point, but proper governing, in my opinion, includes some level of transparency regarding what you hope to the achieve.

Malcolm wrote:
HRC is a neoliberal globalist. Like me. The only reason that policy led to Trump was burning up the New Deal under Bill Clinton. That was the Democrats fatal error. And why did they do it? Vision instead of governance. But I am quite certain HRC would not have made the same errors as her hubby.

In my ideal world there would international free trade, open borders, and safety nets in all countries. But that requires a level of ability to govern that human beings have not yet acheived, and possibly never will.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:25 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:



Heimdall said:
I disagree, I think what's appealing with conservatism is this (genuine) feeling that our nation's metanarrative has been subverted by materialistic corporate Liberal elites into this weird conception of "Giant corporations know what's best for the country" that uses this Pseudo Social-Justice paradigm to censor opposition.

Malcolm wrote:
The paragraph you just wrote is mere jingoistic claptrap.


Heimdall said:
Example: the mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, is so insanely corrupt and connected to giant corporate entities it's ridiculous. Yet he will lecture you to your face about how he's helping black communities through diversity programs, and how you're bigoted if you oppose his policies.

Malcolm wrote:
So I guess you are saying that you are both anti-capitalist and anti-liberal.

Heimdall said:
This country is no longer about individual liberty, democracy, and equal opportunity for all. It's now a Neo-Feudalistic society where the people commanding the masses aren't people wearing gold crowns and celibate Italians in Red and White tunics - rather, it's a caste of wealthy narcissists wearing suits and ties.

Malcolm wrote:
This country was founded by men of their age, some of whom, like Franklin, opined that the only people who ought to be allowed into government service were the descendents of the original patriots. This country was founded by rich white men, for rich white men, on behalf of, you guessed it, rich white men. This country was not, originally founded on the ideals of equal opportunity for all. It was founded on the idea of equal opportunity for a white, landed gentry.

When Washington was elected, 1789, only 6% percent of the population of the US was eligible to vote. In 1790, the immigration act was passed, declaring that only free white immigrants could naturalize. It was only in 1856 that every state permitted all white men to vote. In 1870, the 15th amendment was passed, allowing black men to vote. Jim Crow was promptly instituted. Women were not permitted to vote until 1920. While Native people were granted citizenship in 1924, they were not permitted the vote in US Elections in every state until the year I was born, 1962.

Now, what was that about this country being about liberty, democracy, and equal opportunity for all? If one is black, non-white, or female, your liberaty, democracy, and equal opportunity was a hard-won battle fought against rich white men. And it still is.

Here is a useful guide for you to see the history of voting rights in the US:

https://a.s.kqed.net/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 1:00 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
My only moralizing criticism has been criticism of moralizing.

Malcolm wrote:
Pot, kettle, black.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 12:58 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You mean you expect people to just have the same outlook day in and day out, without changing their perspective?

Heimdall said:
Not when it's every 3 years and whenever it just so happens to be politically expedient. She changes her opinion on many things whenever it's politically expedient.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, that's politics.


Heimdall said:
I don't think there's been a single issue that she agreed with Trump on; despite being very nationalistic, he had some genuine Liberal beliefs like foreign policy and international trade.

Malcolm wrote:
Ummm...we really must disagree here. He hired a dumpster fire for a professor, Peter Navarro, who is a true kook, to handle his international trade policy. His foreign policy amounted to bending over for Putin at every turn and alienating every leader in the EU. His "foreign policy" was a series of photo ops for the rubes back home and nothing more. Pompeo was a walking nightmare, believe me, I have friends who work at State. Trump dismantled the State Dpt., and ruined 75 years of delicate diplomacy. Ted Cruz, whom I could refer to with some choice words, is interfering with its rehabilitation under Biden. Frankly, Trump is the most incompetent president that was ever elected.

Heimdall said:
That suggests she doesn't have a real valid vision for the country. Sanders had a vision. Clinton does not.

Malcolm wrote:
One does not need a vision to govern. One needs to understand how to govern. People place too much importance on things like "new ideas," "vision." Bernie does not have "vision." He wants to, and I agree, to restore the New Deal and the Great Society and improve it. That's called "governing." Not "vision."


Heimdall said:
While I disagree with Sanders's idealism, I would've voted for him had he won the primaries.

Malcolm wrote:
We can agree on that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 12:36 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
I also try to avoid sensationalist headlines because of how misleading they can be.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you don't read the articles below the headlines. SMH.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 12:35 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
She was certainly ambitious, sociopath, not so much, unless one thinks all ambitious people are sociopaths.

Heimdall said:
She changes her political positions every 4 years. In 2012 she thought the Republicans were stuck in the Cold War days and tried to "reset" relations with Russia; from 2016 onwards now she thinks that Russia is such a subversive political enemy that they hijacked the elections and are primary enemy numero uno.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean you expect people to just have the same outlook day in and day out, without changing their perspective?


Heimdall said:
She was one of the most outspoken opponents of gay marriage from the the early 2000s to 2008, where she suddenly shifted her opinion.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, she is a methodist.

Heimdall said:
From the 90s she was for international free trade via NAFTA, then during the 2016 election she was against it suggesting that NAFTA needed to be changed, and then when Trump started contesting China's trade practices she thought it was World War III with Trump affecting our economic relations with China.

Malcolm wrote:
She was right.


Heimdall said:
Also, American capitalistic growth has become so obscenely large thanks to technology and the internet that if you want to get to the top of the private sector business world, no amount of ambition will save you from the sharks who will devour you without a second of remourse, because competition is simply that intense.

Malcolm wrote:
What does that have to do with HRC?

Heimdall said:
Your father is a lawyer...

Malcolm wrote:
My late father was a college professor at Smith and a small town defense lawyer. He never worked in a firm. He was a conservative republican in a hyper-liberal community.


Heimdall said:
And really, Trump is just as ambitious as Clinton is - the only difference is that Trump manifests his sociopathy through honesty, Clinton hides it by checking the marks on "appropriate" social behavior - but studying her only reveals she's really no different than Trump

Malcolm wrote:
We can agree to disagree. I personally think she is a victim of a sustained, 25 year, sexist smear campaign. Don't get me wrong, I voted for her out of necessity. I don't care for her personally. But I am sufficiently mature that what I value in a candidate is competence, not perfection, and HRC was a very competent secretary of state, she was also a decent senator. Yes, the DNC screwed Bernie, but parties are private organizations, and are not part of the Constitution, and the judge ruled that Bernie had no case.

She is quite different from Trump. She stepped aside. She could have contested those 77,000 votes, demanded recounts and so on. But she did not. She accepted that she lost the Electoral College even though she won the popular election by 4 million plus votes. She played by the rules. He did not. She understands how to govern. He is a dangerous grifter whose only interest is lining his pockets at our expense. She would have made a fine president.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 12:11 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
The question if it being an insurrection is still hotly debated because the only evidence supporting insurrection is Trump's flaming rhetoric contesting the election, which galvanized supporters to breach the government's buildings - It's not an evident fact like Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch"

Malcolm wrote:
You really have not been paying attention. Let me guess, you refuse to read the Times, the Post, etc., like our buddy, nightbloom.

Trump's peeps had a systematic plan, which they executed, to try and overturn the election illegally. And yes, it is an evident fact.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 12:09 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
Clinton was a sociopath whose political principles change on a whim on whatever gets her more power.

Malcolm wrote:
She was certainly ambitious, sociopath, not so much, unless one thinks all ambitious people are sociopaths.

Heimdall said:
Gary Johnson may have been a pot head, but I thought he would've been the best candidate.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok. Voting for third parties wastes your vote.

Heimdall said:
I was too disillusioned in 2020 to vote.

Malcolm wrote:
You need to be more pragmatic, not so emotional. Now, before you go off and tell me I am emotional. I am not, really. I'm just mean.

Heimdall said:
Doesn't change the fact, that they are conservative talking points, and they aren't invalid.

Malcolm wrote:
Conservative talking points these days rarely stand on the merits. Mostly they are just warmed over Hayek/Nozick-style libertarianism: i.e., the function of the state is merely to provide security for markets, and that's about it; central planning of the economy, bad; free markets, good.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 11:33 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Queequeg said:
More conservative talking points. People in glass houses, buddy.

Malcolm wrote:
He is a libertarian. He voted for the guy who ran on legalizing weed. He threw his vote away on Gary Johnson in 2016 and wasted his vote in 2020, buy his own admission.

Libertarians are weird.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 11:30 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Heimdall said:
If the "Trumpistas" are in a fact free universe...debate should be permitted.

Malcolm wrote:
Not anymore. They lost that right with the insurrection.

Heimdall said:
Less well known [than other paradoxes] is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Malcolm wrote:
--Karl Popper, An Open Society and its Enemies.



Heimdall said:
If "being morally correct" means believing that a politician is a secret hidden fascist that you have to figure out through the dog-whistles, and if you vote for that politician because of the hidden fascism,

Malcolm wrote:
Trump's fascism is hardly hidden. Its been out in the open all along, along with his racism and xenophobia.

Heimdall said:
Calling right-wingers Nazis is just as callous as the right calling you guys "closet commies" by the way.

Malcolm wrote:
I agree. I would never call Max Boot, David Frum, George Will, William F. Buckley Jr., etc., fascists. I reserve that for the people who support Trump's false claims.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 11:24 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Zhen Li said:
There's no evidence that the Śākyas elected their Mahārāja...There is not a shred of evidence to support it.

Malcolm wrote:
So you claim. But there is evidence that the Buddha was familiar with the concept of electing chieftains as found in the Aggañña Sutta, etc. The reference to the Kṣatriyas in this sutta could very well be post Aṣoka interpolation, considering Bronkhorst's pretty convicing argument that the Śākas were outside the Vedic caste system entirely.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 11:08 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Zhen Li said:
Attain assurance of birth in the Pure Land; that's the only way in this age. The Buddha didn't advocate political action but liberation.

Malcolm wrote:
Buddha did not advocate liberation for everyone. Only for those who departed to the homeless life. For lay people, he certainly advocated they participate in their community life and so on.

As for assurance of birth in the pure land, there is no nirvana somewhere other than samsara. Seeking nirvana apart from samsara will never work. Instead, as Nāghārjuna quips, thorough knowledge of samsara is nirvana.

https://suttacentral.net/dn2/en/sujato said:
There are some ascetics and brahmins who, while enjoying food given in faith, still engage in unworthy talk. This includes such topics as talk about kings, bandits, and ministers; talk about armies, threats, and wars; talk about food, drink, clothes, and beds; talk about garlands and fragrances; talk about family, vehicles, villages, towns, cities, and countries; talk about women and heroes; street talk and well talk; talk about the departed; motley talk; tales of land and sea; and talk about being reborn in this or that state of existence. They refrain from such unworthy talk. This pertains to their ethics.

Malcolm wrote:
This is fine for śrāvakayānis. But we are Mahāyānīs, at least I am. The Buddha taught:

Upāli, bodhisattvas are not deceived by and do not fear afflictions that gather beings together; but bodhisattvas are deceived by and fear the afflictions that forsake beings.

https://read.84000.co/translation/toh68.html#UT22084-043-005-154

This sūtra should be required reading for Mahāyānīs.

The purpose of democracy is "to form a more perfect union," to bring people together through their common desires and goals. You may not believe that, but I personally am a strong advocate of secular democracy, as is HHDL.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 10:05 PM
Title: Re: Largest Buddha statues in the world (top 10)
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
My personal favorite:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 10:02 PM
Title: Re: Secret "Keyword Warrants" revealed through mistakenly leaked docs. Scary.
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
Although if they have some kind of secret agreement that puts you at risk, you don't have all the information at hand to evaluate whether or not you should use the service.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in this case, I support that. People who survive sexual assaults need to be protected, and abusers often track people down, sometimes years after the crimes.

The issue identified in this article is that the feds actually identified one of the victims accidentally-- this is mostly a problem of unregulated tech. Google, Facebook, etc. need to be broken up.

But, honestly, if a keyword search subpoena results in someone being convicted for 1/6/21...I am all for it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:56 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Queequeg said:
We've always known that we needed someone who would just commit to policies that actually help regular people.

Malcolm wrote:
We've had those policies. They keep being gutted.

Biden knows this, and sided with Sanders. But unfortunately, there are two people in the Senate who are more interested in serving themselves than serving the 44 million people majority they represent as a whole.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:52 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


PeterC said:
Every possible term has been occupied by one side or another.  We’re missing a neutral, commonly-agreed term to refer to people as people.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess we need to Occupy Merriam-Webster's.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:46 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Zhen Li said:
I listened to it quite a while ago. I think he makes excellent points. He addresses the objections that have been brought up in this thread. The foundation is essentially that the priority is that which can make lasting change for the most significant number of people.

Malcolm wrote:
That's a pretty funny thing to say for a man whose monarch is the titular head of the Church of England. In 2011, only 0.5 percent of the population of England was Buddhist. His principle teacher, and mine, has been the political head of a refugee community since 1959. The Sakya Throne holders are one of the oldest political families in the world, barring only the Japanese Emperor.

I have nothing against David Stott (Jampa Thaye) personally. I am sure he is a nice fellow. But I think his views on politics are at best, quaint. For example, he opposes women's choice, usually a position associated with religious conservatives—though it has been hotly denied here that Stott is a conservative at all.

Zhen Li said:
That means the primary focus is attaining Buddhahood.

Malcolm wrote:
99.99 percent of Buddhists won't even attain the path of seeing in this life. Are they to stick their heads in the sand while the world roles over them and their loved ones like a Juggernaut? Certainly the Buddha did not recommend this for upāsakas.

Zhen Li said:
On a secondary level, in this life, we should do good and recognise that the avenues by which people pursue doing good by political means are either disingenuous or useless.

Malcolm wrote:
So, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., HH Dalai Lama, Bishop Tutu are doing useless things? HH Dalai Lama is a liberal by any standard. He is a staunch supporter of democracy, and political engagement. Why? Because Tibet turned its back on the world, and as a result, was invaded by the PRC:
For thousands of years people have been led to believe that only an authoritarian organization employing rigid disciplinary methods could govern human society. However, because people have an innate desire for freedom, the forces of liberty and oppression have been in continuous conflict throughout history. Today, it is clear which is winning. The emergence of peoples' power movements, overthrowing dictatorships of left and right, has shown indisputably that the human race can neither tolerate nor function properly under tyranny.

Although none of our Buddhist societies developed anything like democracy in their systems of government, I personally have great admiration for secular democracy. When Tibet was still free, we cultivated our natural isolation, mistakenly thinking that we could prolong our peace and security that way. Consequently, we paid little attention to the changes taking place in the world outside. We hardly noticed when India, one of our closest neighbours, having peacefully won her independence, became the largest democracy in the world. Later, we learned the hard way that in the international arena, as well as at home, freedom is something to be shared and enjoyed in the company of others, not kept to yourself.
https://www.dalailama.com/messages/buddhism/buddhism-and-democracy

[HHDL was not invited to the White House of Herr Trump. People should note that.]

If I had to choose between Mr. Stott's vision of the world, and HH Dalai Lama's vision, well, you know I will choose the latter. His Holiness is the foremost human being alive today. May he continue to enjoy long life and health for the benefit of us all on this small globe in space.

Zhen Li said:
By the way, offering advice to politicians is not the same as getting involved in contemporary democratic politics. Current political systems attempt to be all-encompassing and give all citizens the illusion that they are a part of it. This is an aberration in world history.

Malcolm wrote:
So you are skeptical of representative democracy. Ok. Noted.

Zhen Li said:
Politics in the past was the matter of private family property on the part of ruling dynasties.

Malcolm wrote:
Not everywhere in history. For example, the Śākya tribe elected their chief. It was not, as has been misunderstood, a hereditary position, like the Kṣatriya varna.

Zhen Li said:
It is safe to say that the Buddha did not address the issue of involvement in politics at all, except that discussing politics constitutes wrong speech.

Malcolm wrote:
Citation please.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:22 PM
Title: Re: Meditation posture...straight arms, 'vulture shoulders'...how common is it ?
Content:


lhaksam.dorje said:
It seems rare to see images of people (yogis, deities, anyone) in this posture. Is this a fringe Kagyu thing ?

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is not a fringe Kagyu thing. This is common in all schools when doing certain prāṇāyāma practices.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:19 PM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:


Queequeg said:
I suspect you guys are comparing different descriptive formulations that use common vocabulary with different meanings.

Malcolm wrote:
We are talking about aggregates here. The Manovijnana includes all minds, citta, etc.

But at base I am right, as a quick perusal of the dhatu chapter of the Kosha will show.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:15 PM
Title: Re: Effort to supplant Tibetan language
Content:
Queequeg said:
I don't know if they will succeed in snuffing out the minority languages, but its kind of comical that they're trying to convert everyone to one of the most complicated and inefficient written lanaguages.

These Han. smh.

Malcolm wrote:
The reality is that Chinese is already the default language of educated Tibetans in the PRC and has been for years, partly because the regional dialects of Tibetans are largely unintelligible to one another.

The ones who suffer are rural Tibetans who refuse to learn Chinese.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:07 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Queequeg said:
Something to be said about the leadership of a simple and flawed but idealistic Irishman who knows he's meeting God sooner than later.

Malcolm wrote:
He understands that the true reason Trump squeaked by 2016 was electoral apathy in the face of sustained GOP slash and burn of the social safety net. That, and rampant, engineered sexism towards HRC.

The GOP can’t win on the merits anymore, they know that, so they resort to electoral necromancy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 8:32 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


PeterC said:
One of the major problems with politics in the US is the absence of a political group that supports the idea that the state should provide everyone with a basic, decent quality of life. That people should be able to be free from fear of not having food, medical care, education, housing - in short, that they can survive. This is not an ideal that is embraced by the Democratic party, except for a few within them, and those few are marginalized.

Malcolm wrote:
The progressive wing is getting stronger. The sign of that is that Biden largely supports our agenda.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 8:30 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Dan74 said:
Political threads on DW are basically a club with a homogenous agenda and very little robust debate. Out of the regulars, only JD sometimes tries for balance and if anyone else steps in to questions some of the prevailing views, they are promptly set upon and it's not pretty. I've given up and suggest you do too and leave people to their fun.

Malcolm wrote:
Debate is only possible when there are agreed upon facts. Trumpistas live in a fact-free universe of slogans and prejudices, much like fascists of every stripe, and some left-wing populists as well. These people openly supported an overthrow of the US gvt. Trump, etc., have certainly lost the right to hold office again under the fourteenth amendment. It remains to be seen if the GOP grows some balls, but I doubt it. They have been totally cowed by the Cheetoh Furher.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 8:19 PM
Title: Re: Different Sets of the Bodhisattva Vows
Content:
Leo Rivers said:
Thanks Malcolm... this never occured to me. But I think going through looking at the sanghas in my environment is worth trying first. I have no idea, beyond two Zen groups and five Tibetan tantric groups what's out there in the Eugene Oregon area. I know Hosso still somewhat exists in Japan, but here in Northwest? I would be floored.

Malcolm wrote:
The yogacara bodhisattva vows are given in Geluk. There is a Geluk center in Portland.

Otherwise, upasaka vows can be received from any upasaka, as long as they know how to impart them correctly.

And if you’ve ever attended any kind of empowerment at all, you have them already. And they are restored by the simple act of reciting the seven limb prayer.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 8:13 PM
Title: Re: Secret "Keyword Warrants" revealed through mistakenly leaked docs. Scary.
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
Have any of you fine people heard about "Keyword Warrants"? Apparently the US government has been secretly ordering Google to turn over data on anyone who googles certain words.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, it’s a public platform, not private. Use at your own risk.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 10:03 AM
Title: Re: Best way to accept things out of my control?
Content:


Heimdall said:
What's the best way to accept things like that out of my control?

Malcolm wrote:
Enjoy the ride, hold on tight.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:29 AM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:


Gregory Wonderwheel said:
As I see it, afflictions do not cause our karma,

Malcolm wrote:
Both Vasubandhu and Nagarajuna disagree with you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:28 AM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:
Gregory Wonderwheel said:
Mind (citta) is unconditioned, does not increase or decrease, is not born or annhilated, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
No, citta just a synonym for vijñāna and manas. They are given different names depending the frame of reference: conceptual thinking (citta), nonconceptual direct perception (vijñāna) and memory (manas).

Everything in the five aggregates is afflicted and compounded. Of course, everything in the five aggregates ultimately does not arise, cease, etc.

Gregory Wonderwheel said:
No, citta, vijnana, and manas are all different designations for different phenomena of mind (citta) and are not merely synonyms.

Malcolm wrote:
Take it up with Vasubandhu abd Asanga. This is not debatable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:26 AM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
More precisely, the way affliction causes karma, which results in suffering. Each of the 12 limbs are either affliction, karma, or suffering.

Dharmasherab said:
As in Karma being an offshoot of Samskara?

Malcolm wrote:
The exact scheme is laid out in the Abhidharmakosha, chapter 4.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:12 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Unknown said:
“In the 1980s, when I became a Republican, the GOP took pride in describing itself as the ‘party of ideas,’” Boot wrote. “But under (former President Donald) Trump’s leadership, Republicans have reclaimed their old reputation, dating back to the 1950s, as the ‘stupid party.’”

Malcolm wrote:
—Max Boot


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:06 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Unknown said:
where John Quincy Adams's campaign painted Andrew Jackson as a murderer

Malcolm wrote:
JQA was correct, actually. Jackson murdered plenty of Creeks.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 9:02 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
narhwal90 said:
Would you all talk this way in front of Sakyamuni?

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much.

Just to add, I doubt he would be disturbed our conversation, nor would he be very interested.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 5:38 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Okay, I'd like to ask you to be civil and on topic. While mocking pumpkin spice ex-president is fun it only derails the topic.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 5:37 AM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:
Dharmasherab said:
Dependent Origination is the process by which Ignorance (the cause) leads to suffering (the effect).

Malcolm wrote:
More precisely, the way affliction causes karma, which results in suffering. Each of the 12 limbs are either affliction, karma, or suffering.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 5:32 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Dharmasherab said:
He did give advice to rulers but that doesnt mean that he occupied political positions.

Malcolm wrote:
One does not have a political position to be involved in politics. If one is giving advice to rulers, that is unavoidably political.

Dharmasherab said:
Spiritual bypassing is a typical catchphrase that is part of the SJW labelling culture to silence any statement which does not fit with their narrative.

Malcolm wrote:
No, "Spiritual bypassing", a term from psychology, refers very specifically using one's religious practice as an excuse not to deal with the world, warts and all. The term was coined in 1984 by a Buddhist practitioner, the late John Welwood, the director of the East/West Psychology program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.


Here is a good definition for you:

Spirituality is a fundamental dimension of wellness. However, scholars have noted that not all spiritual processes are healthy. One of those processes is spiritual bypass, defined as a defensive psychological posture cultivated by a tendency to privilege spiritual beliefs or experiences over and against psychological needs creating a means of avoiding or bypassing difficult emotions or experiences.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322111006_A_phenomenology_of_spiritual_bypass_Causes_consequences_and_implications

Politics is difficult. A lot of people use their spiritual beliefs as an excuse for not dealing that difficulty, fleeing the world, rather than dealing with it. For example, the way Buddha dealt the enslavement of the Śākyas. He watched. He did not flee. He observed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 5:13 AM
Title: Re: Dependent Origination in One Sentence
Content:
Gregory Wonderwheel said:
Mind (citta) is unconditioned, does not increase or decrease, is not born or annhilated, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
No, citta just a synonym for vijñāna and manas. They are given different names depending the frame of reference: conceptual thinking (citta), nonconceptual direct perception (vijñāna) and memory (manas).

Everything in the five aggregates is afflicted and compounded. Of course, everything in the five aggregates ultimately does not arise, cease, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 5:10 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Svalaksana said:
Cheeto Führer is bloody hysterical. I'll keep that one!

Malcolm wrote:
He is the only leader (if you can call him that, more like a walking plague) HH Dalai Lama ever parodied in public. That speaks volumes.

Norwegian said:
In one interview he even motioned his index finger towards his own head, in a "guy's mentally unhinged" gesture...

Malcolm wrote:
It was even better, HHDL used one hand to imitate Trump's ridiculous and desperate combover, and with the other, his tiny little mouth.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 4:39 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Svalaksana said:
Cheeto Führer is bloody hysterical. I'll keep that one!

Malcolm wrote:
He is the only leader (if you can call him that, more like a walking plague) HH Dalai Lama ever parodied in public. That speaks volumes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 4:08 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
nightbloom said:
My last contribution to this ugly mess (I promise):

I'm not a fascist and I didn't endorse any of what was done on 1/6...

Malcolm wrote:
It started November 4th, and it still continues. But I don't see you turning your back on Trump and fascism. Supporting Trump is supporting fascism. He is a fascist. People who vote for fascists are either dupes or collaborators. Which are you?

nightbloom said:
(which, incidentally, I recognized as an imminent trap for the right before it occurred, since it has provided people like you with the rhetorical justification you need in order to push for increased force/surveillance/exclusion of your enemies).

Malcolm wrote:
You should really get help for that paranoia. I repeat, there are NO microchips in the vaccines.

nightbloom said:
I shouldn't even have to say this, actually, since it has nothing to do with the point I made earlier, and you only said any of this in order to sidestep my remarks about how your total scorn for your political opponents reflects the detachment and narcissism common to your social caste.

Malcolm wrote:
So now you essentialize people on the basis of your perception of their "caste." That really is an alt-right way of looking at the world. It is also petulant, immature, and whiny. Khakis and Tiki torches.

Fascists and their fellow travelers on the right deserve nothing but scorn for their beliefs, and compassion for their intractable, political delusions.

nightbloom said:
Bottom line, to all involved: the abusive nature of the political discourse on this forum is going to harm your practice and the value of this forum (one of the few really decent Buddhist internet resources for English speakers).

Malcolm wrote:
Most of us here don't like fascists and fascist sympathizers. Those who do are wise enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

And remember, you introduced yourself here with a ridiculous spiel about how "bodhicitta" was preventing you from being vaccinated.

Now buzz off.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:33 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Queequeg said:
God died and unmoored a big chunk of humanity.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, the first thing that got old nightbloom riled up was atheism ——> white rage ——> Trump confession ——> now wants to shut down our free discussion of things we care about. Kind of reminds me of old Cheetoh Furher demanding that we stop teaching about racism in school, because little white children might get their feelings hurt. And his ridiculous 1776 commission because he did not like the 1619 project...and we haven't even gotten started on the 1492 project.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:31 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Queequeg said:
The intersection of Evangelical Christians and 1/6 Insurrectionists is remarkable. (Like how I slipped that intersection thing in there? LOL)

Malcolm wrote:
Clearly you are a SJW wanker out to destroy my Amerika!


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:29 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Constructelf said:
Yeesh, and the site's called "Dharma Wheel Engaged" too, how did that site of all places become an alt-right hotbed? You'd think that place would be about stuff like Plum Village, Fo Guang Shan, and Buddhist Peace Fellowship, not 4chan lite.

Malcolm wrote:
An old mod from E-Sangha, Retro, aka SethRich, morphed into a right wing nutjob on Dhammawheel. He and Nicholas Weeks tend to dominate that board.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: Different Sets of the Bodhisattva Vows
Content:
Leo Rivers said:
The Brahma Net Sutra is in 2 parts. The first is an Avatamsaka type exposion and is indeed supposed to be confused. The second is often translated separately and is supposed to be quite alright.

PDF https://bdkamerica.org/download/1959

I have been studying this

PDF https://bdkamerica.org/download/1859 Taishō 1488

Volume 24

The Sutra on Upāsaka Precepts sets forth the moral code to be observed by lay Buddhists. The word upāsaka in the title is Sanskrit for layman. In the sūtra, Sujāta is taught the moral code to be observed by lay followers of Buddhism. Therefore the text is also known as the Sujāta-sūtra after the central  figure. Prescribing the moral code as so-called Mahāyāna Precepts or Bodhisattva Precepts, the work was especially valued in Mahāyānist China.

This work is considered to be an augmentation and adaptation on Mahāyānist principles of the Sujāta-sūtra found in the Dīrghāgama (Taishō 1), Madhyamāgama (Taishō 2), and other works. Because of this relationship to previous texts, and because the quotations it shares from various Mahāyāna sūtras, The Sutra on Upāsaka Precepts provides valuable source material for tracing the history of the development of the Buddhist canon.

Source
Skt. Upāsakaśīla-sūtra. Translated into the Chinese by Dharmakṣema as Youposaijie jing (優婆塞戒經). 7 fascicles.
I want to take the Upāsakaśīla lay person's vows.... but have long gotten out of touch with any sangha her in Eugene. [grim experience]
... we do have two reputable Zen centres, but I don't know what's possible that way and I'm an incremental kind of guy.

Malcolm wrote:
In Mahāyāna you can take the bodhisattva vows without a preceptor, and they include the lay vows.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:10 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
nightbloom said:
nobody is convincing anyone of anything...

Malcolm wrote:
You are never going to convince anyone here that Trump and his followers are anything but fascists, fascists who tried to take over the US Government illegally.

Now buzz off.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 3:07 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
nightbloom said:
Mods & admin: please consider closing this sub-forum. There are already dozens of other places to discuss politics, and what's going on here is totally poisonous: nobody is convincing anyone of anything, and the acrimony just reaches out to contaminate the rest of the forum.

Norwegian said:
If you don't like it, don't participate in it. Engaged Buddhism is an integral part of Mahayana, and that includes politics. So, deal with it.

Malcolm wrote:
Even better, he can go hang out in the alt-right Dharmawheel.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:52 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
nightbloom said:
Frankly, I couldn't stand the casual cruelty of my peers pretending to care about collective welfare while representing half the population as a mass of evil barbarians who should be seen and not heard.

Malcolm wrote:
No, not half. Not after 1/6/2021. Only the real deplorables stand behind Cheeto Furher now.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:50 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


nightbloom said:
None of the demonizing, moralizing and threatening ("they had better steer clear of me" - or what?) convinces anyone of anything, except that your politics reflect your position in our society.

Malcolm wrote:
Hey, your guy tried to overthrow the government. You all demonized yourselves for supporting him. HRC had it right: what bunch of deplorables.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:34 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
There are modern, western leftists who actively praise the DPRK, think that Stalin was good, actually, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, takes all kinds...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:32 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
I’m not getting into it again, a lot of you guys arguing with me about this stuff weren’t even up on the science,

Malcolm wrote:
That's false. We just have a difference of opinion.

Johnny Dangerous said:
and I can tell you don’t do jobs where you deal with the consequences of Public Health policies, so you don’t even understand the context of the critiques I made. There’s a gulf there we’re not crossing anytime soon.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, I understood them at the time. Understanding does not mean agreement.

Johnny Dangerous said:
At least I know y’all hearts are in the right place, but the act of associating me with antivaxx sentiments (wasn’t you) was IMO the sort of intellectual dishonesty that often characterizes ‘left authoritarianism’…if we can even call it that. It’s not a huge deal, but is indicative of a trend I’ve observed.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, whoever did that was just dumb.

Johnny Dangerous said:
I agree fully about violence on the left though, I have been part of militant left groups in the past and even the most militant of them paled in comparison to the milder Rightwing militants.

Malcolm wrote:
Leftwing groups tend to frown on nationalism, but that is the core of far-right ideology.

Of course, now we have to distinguish between the political left and the environmental left, because the some of the radical environmental left often make a common cause with the far-right, Edward Abbey comes to mind...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:23 AM
Title: Re: Different Sets of the Bodhisattva Vows
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but there seems to be a difference between "Bodhisattva Precepts" and the "Bodhisattva Vow(s)."

Malcolm wrote:
The term in Sanskirt is saṃvara, which means restraint, hence we have the bodhisattva saṃvara, "the restraints of a bodhisattva." "Precepts" and "vows" are just English renderings of the same Sanskrit term.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:18 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
amusing images...

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe you can reach "ascendent" in Sukhavati, but it ain't happening here in this Sahaloka. Even the Buddha had to deal with murderous kooks.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2:16 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
I personally think the mainstream left in the US has an authoritarian streak, it just tends to center around a blunt notion of ‘common good’ (you can see it with attitudes around COVID response, for example) and is IMO way less damaging than right wing authoritarianism, by far. It still has some ugly possibilities I think, but at this point they don’t compare.

Malcolm wrote:
Public health trumps personal freedom: example, swimming in the public water supply; prescriptions for addictive pharmaceuticals; vaccine requirements to attend schools, and so on.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Right  wingers have made such threats though, even on this forum!

Malcolm wrote:
Leftist violence in the US, since WWII, has almost always been against symbols and property. Even the Weatherman were not out to kill anyone. Of course, the right always gets its knickers in a twist when some shit gets burned down somewhere, and half the time they are lighting the fires and breaking the windows themselves to make peaceful protestors look bad.

Who has the guns in the USA? It certainly isn't the Left, for the most part.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 12:40 AM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Genjo Conan said:
I think this is a slightly-more-sophisticated-than-usual version of bothsidesism: sure, something like half the Republicans in the country think that we should have done a coup to install Trump on the throne, but some kids in balaclavas set fire to a garbage can, so really who's to say where the authoritarianism lies?

Malcolm wrote:
USA:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 12:22 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
Fundamentally I am uncomfortable saying "the Dharma pervades our entire life--but not this part."  Politics are an aspect of the world in which we live.  Engaging in politics is not necessarily conducive to liberation, any more than putting on robes, or taking a bath, or using the toilet are conducive to liberation.  But just as those things can be conducive to liberation, so too, I think, can be engaging in politics.

Malcolm wrote:
Buddhists have been engaged in politics since the time of the Buddha. The Buddha himself was consulted concerning politics and rulership. But spiritual bypassing is a trend...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 12:20 AM
Title: Re: La Palma vulcano eruption
Content:
Aemilius said:
Ufo-contactee Billy Meier, or his extra terrestrial sources, made a prediction concerning the volcano on La Palma some three decades ago. What is happening now is mild compared to the predictions of Billy Meier. No lives have been lost, only some buildings. It could have been much worse.

Malcolm wrote:
That guy is a total fraud, an antisemite, and a homophobe.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 12:02 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Zhen Li said:
I agree with Dharmasherab.

If you get involved in politics, you get involved in illusions of the world and lose the bigger picture. The lifeline of the Dharma does not depend upon political regimes...

Malcolm wrote:
This is a position that does not stand up to an examination of the historical fortunes of Buddhadharma in various countries, both in India and without.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 11:48 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Dharmasherab said:
It explains why politics will always let us down and wont give us ultimate happiness.

Malcolm wrote:
They are not supposed to bring us ultimate happiness. There are two kinds of happiness: temporary and ultimate.

Since most people will not benefit from practicing Buddhadharma, well, what else do you suggest for them? Christianity?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 11:47 PM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:



Dharmasherab said:
You contradict yourself. First you say that Lama Jampa not encouraging conversations about politics as being 'conservative'.

Malcolm wrote:
We can assume he is conservative because he excludes conservatives in this passage:

"The notion of inevitable progress has been so tenacious that today’s dominant liberal and Marxist ideologies..."

Only a conservative would have a problem with liberals being a dominant voice in political discourse. Clearly he is anti-marxist as well. But it is false that liberalism is dominant in Britain since it has a Tory Government.


Dharmasherab said:
As for me, I have been to his centres and I do not hold any political views (I am politically neutral).

Malcolm wrote:
No you aren't. You complain about liberals on the alt-right Dharmwheel:
Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) are basically modern progressive liberals.
Here are two good videos which explains about it from a rational point of view.

Before you watch just keep aware that not all criticisms against SJWs come from the conservative/right. As for me I was left wing and since the left wing got hijacked by SJWs I left the left to become politically neutral (as in I dont use my vote in government elections).
https://www.dharmawheel.org/viewtopic.php?p=16888#p16888

Dharmasherab said:
There were also liberals who came to his groups except that regardless of political beliefs people had they all had to abide by the rule of not engaging in political discussion in his groups. The Buddha refers to discussion on politics as 'animal talk' and this type of talk is discouraged for those who are ordained as monastics. So it is also a good training rule for those who come to Lama Jampa's Buddhist groups to learn Buddhism.

Malcolm wrote:
I have no problem with him or his rule in his centers, but pretending he isn't a conservative is naive. Pretending that you are neutral is also ingenuous, since you clearly aren't neutral. I expect monastics to be more honest.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 11:00 PM
Title: Re: Facebook is bad
Content:
Tlalok said:
It has to be broken up.

Malcolm wrote:
Strongly agree.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 10:37 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:


Norwegian said:
But that requires the absence of the American right, and the presence of a much more progressive American left, and I don't see that happening any time soon.

Malcolm wrote:
The boomers are dying, and young people America trend left. About 70% of millennials favor democratic socialism over capitalism as it exists presently. The problem is getting them to the polls.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 10:11 PM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:


SilenceMonkey said:
Don’t you think the vows are more lenient for lay people, though?

Malcolm wrote:
No, not really. However, going for refuge everyday restores any broken vows.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:59 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
I just started reading the new Bob Woodward book about the January 6th congress insurrection. Like all his books, it's fascinating and eye opening. I just finished a passage where the Heads of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was reassuring both Pelosi and the Chinese government vthat he would personally make sure Trump would not be able to launch a nuclear war as a justification for a power grab. This was a serious concern at the time.

Trump or course comes across as totally unhinged.

In some ways I think January 6th was more significant than 9/11.

Malcolm wrote:
he recently remarked that his run in 2024 was going to be all about revenge.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:48 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Queequeg said:
He has a unique personality and persona.

Malcolm wrote:
Malignant narcissism.

Queequeg said:
My diagnosis is, "dangerous ass hole."

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, in layman's terms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:41 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Queequeg said:
To keep this balanced and in line with my first post - the Left has authoritarian impulses, but they are tempered by commitments to democratic ideals as well as a center that is right leaning and highly suspicious of far left ideas. Bernie has a cult following but he also stands for democratic ideals and so would never even think of positioning himself as an authoritarian figure.

Norwegian said:
Are you referring to the Democratic Party as the left?

Malcolm wrote:
I don't think so. There are the Democrats, who are mostly centrist, about where the Republicans were in the 1950's, and then there are Progressives, largely encouraged by Bernie Sanders, who are about where Democrats were in the 1930's, 1940's and 1960's—New Deal and the Great Society. The GOP has been systematically trying to dismantle this since FDR passed SSI.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:39 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Queequeg said:
He has a unique personality and persona.

Malcolm wrote:
Malignant narcissism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:32 PM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
Then how do you explain the quotes above from Wisdomlib?

Malcolm wrote:
The actual amount that causes a bhikṣu defeat, according to Kongtrul, is the value of a bushel of barley, about $4.75 in today's market. So, if a bhikṣu scams a White Chocolate Mocha	Venti at $4.75 they are defeated. And, if they downloaded a movie illegally, valued at a 5.99 rental, they would be defeated as well.

But this does not apply to lay people, for obvious reason, which when spelled out, there is no such thing as a defeat for an upāsaka and two, upāsakas are permitted to carry money and so on, hence such a cap for a defeat is irrelevant and taking anything that is not given is breach of one's upāsaka vow. That's my point.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:19 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
I think it is simplistic to blame it all on Trump. He is as much a manifestation of the phenomenon as he is a driver of it.

Malcolm wrote:
He is its embodiment, for the moment, that center around which it churns. And, he tried to overthrow the government...so...I am not going to be forgiving him or anyone who voted for him for some time. They'd best steer clear of me.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 8:55 PM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
Toenail said:
Also it has no single owner.

Malcolm wrote:
Legally, like in the US, in Germany corporations are persons, so yes, it does have a single owner, just to clarify that for you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 8:53 PM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
DJKR has said (with reference to illegal downloading) that if what you take is more than the cost of lunch ($5 US), it is an offense.

Malcolm wrote:
Dzongsar is hardly someone we can consider a vinayadhara.

SilenceMonkey said:
You should probably disprove it with scripture instead of an ad hominem attack.

Malcolm wrote:
He is not a bhikṣu, he is not even a śrāmanera. He is an upāsaka. My point was not an ad hominem attack, it was a factual observation.

There no cap on what someone is allowed to take without being given.

Now, there are laws in various countries that govern downloads, for example, in Canada, it is not illegal to download things placed in the internet illegally. In the US, it is.

The actual language is "do not take what has not been given," not "Take what has not been given as long as it does not exceed US $5."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 8:42 PM
Title: Re: Authoritarianism and the Meaning of Life
Content:
Heimdall said:
Things are becoming authoritarian because the social issues are becoming so numerous that both sides are externalizing the issues to political figures and ideology.

Malcolm wrote:
Some people in America, for example, are waxing authoritarian because a deeply racist man, an American fascist named Donald J. Trump, encourages them to externalize their social anxieties onto "crime and drugs," (aka Black people) and "illegal aliens" (aka people from Mexico and Central America), and "China" (aka, the country whose labor costs were sufficiently low that Americans could by a lot of cheap shit at Walmart, Amazon, etc.).

Henry Wallace wrote in 1944:

The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

....

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain (in 2021, the EU) and Russia (In 2021, China). They claim to be super- patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

https://www.cbsd.org/cms/lib/PA01916442/Centricity/Domain/1864/Henry%20Wallace_The%20Danger%20of%20American%20Fascism.pdf


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 8:30 PM
Title: Re: Pung Gyen diety or dieties?
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
When I google Pung Gyen, I get one female deity – but the text I have says deities. Is it one or several?

Any great source with more in-depth info on Pung Gyen?

Thank you.

Malcolm wrote:
Not enough info. What text?
There is a dhāraṇi called the ārya-dhvaja-agrakeyūra-nāma-dhāraṇī, aka dpung rgyan. But it is not a deity practice.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 7:19 PM
Title: Re: Pung Gyen diety or dieties?
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
When I google Pung Gyen, I get one female deity – but the text I have says deities. Is it one or several?

Any great source with more in-depth info on Pung Gyen?

Thank you.

Malcolm wrote:
Not enough info. What text?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 7:12 PM
Title: Re: 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje
Content:
Paul2020 said:
Many thanks for the link justsit . I just read the article. It seems to me to be good news. I'm not sure what Kagyu sub-school my template is affiliated with, but I will ask the next time I'm there. But with the rapprochement between the two Karmapas, as people have noted, it may no longer be a particularly contentious issue.

Thanks - as usual - for everyone's responses.

Malcolm wrote:
Nope, but now there are other storm clouds on the horizon for OTD.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 10:07 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Zhen Li said:
And for an ācārya, one of the most easily angered people I've ever encountered.

Malcolm wrote:
If you think I am angry, you really aren’t paying attention.

Zhen Li said:
A lot of people need to work on their presentation of agreeableness online. You cannot read gestures or vocal tones in text, so it is necessary to be extra careful in this regard.

Malcolm wrote:
No, all that is necessary is to be consistent. Ive been doing this for 25 years. This a meta conversation at this point.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:23 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Zhen Li said:
And for an ācārya, one of the most easily angered people I've ever encountered.

Malcolm wrote:
If you think I am angry, you really aren’t paying attention.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 9:22 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
nightbloom said:
Trump-voting "right wing" white person

Malcolm wrote:
Voting for a racist makes you a racist. F**k off.

nightbloom said:
No, it really doesn't. But anyway, it's worth pointing out that you, too, voted for a racist in 2020, and a more insidious one insofar as it's more successfully camouflaged in the case of Biden and the paradigm he represents. There really isn't a way not to, except to not vote at all.



Malcolm wrote:
You people will say anything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 7:23 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
nightbloom said:
Trump-voting "right wing" white person

Malcolm wrote:
Voting for a racist makes you a racist. F**k off.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 7:19 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


nightbloom said:
Re: Waddell & racializing cartoons regarding Irish, Italians, etc, yes, I'm aware. It seems significant to me though that all of these examples are almost 80 years old, and today the generic category of "whiteness" now excludes many of these people who used to be (ambiguously) excluded from it.

Malcolm wrote:
It goes to character, and the fact that there are some people will never be able to graduate to "whiteness" in our society.

nightbloom said:
despite being a Trump-voting "right wing" white person...

Malcolm wrote:
Sheeeeeeeeeiiiit, so now you admit it. SMH.

nightbloom said:
Edit: incidentally, Malcolm - I think some of the trouble with this "whiteness" shit is that it enables things like the following: your argument for the essentially atheist character of Buddhism the other day could easily have been framed as a manifestation of "whiteness," (because secularism is whiteness blah blah)

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, such thinking is a product of a white person of privilege (me).  I am a strong advocate of secularism, though not like the French, who want to outlaw hijab, turbans, malas, and any other external religious garb in public office and schools.

nightbloom said:
and anything you said in defense of it could be represented as more of the same. By locating the "problem" not in the object of discussion, but in a miasma emanating from one's opponent, you discredit and neutralize them.

Malcolm wrote:
"White Identitarianism" is the main problem in America, and it has been well, since Europeans started coming to these shores.

nightbloom said:
It's one of the reasons why communities full of leftists who are receptive to "whiteness" discourse tend to devolve into internecine personality conflicts where people use the accusation of whiteness to secure power for themselves and sabotage their opponents.

Malcolm wrote:
More fact free opinions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 4:57 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
boda said:
I read about a dozen of the personal stories in the Making the Invisable Visable ( https://www.spiritrock.org/document.doc?id=9 ) paper and didn’t find what I expected. The closest that met my expectations was like, “I’m an African American woman who feels most comfortable around people like myself … and a white lady looked at me funny during a retreat.” Frankly, I’m relieved that the reports are not far worse. Maybe they save the worst for last?

Malcolm wrote:
Here is an interesting fact. Chogyal Namkhai Norbu refused to return to South Africa, because no Africans ever came to his teachings...and he decided it was because of white exclusion...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 3:58 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Right, because some people did not actually read the article, they just reacted to the term "white."

Brunelleschi said:
Yeah, sure I agree. I don't really feel this topic ought to bring forth such intense emotion. I feel it is unwarranted and quite unfortunate.

Malcolm wrote:
Me either, but whatever, their emotional turmoil doesnot belong to me.

Brunelleschi said:
Also, many modern scholars seem to very aware of colonial view and Orientalism of the past.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, it was fashionable to be aware of that for a while ala Edward Said...

Brunelleschi said:
...many doctorates seem to be well off, some literally nobility. Because they're the ones that can take risks in terms of education.

Malcolm wrote:
Studying the religion and culture of Buddhism in academia is an occupation for the privileged, including Ann Gleig, which she recognizes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:46 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It's time Western Buddhists started waking up to the "darker" (perhaps "whiter" is more apropo here) side of our own history, including the reception of Buddhism by Protestant philologists who imputed onto Buddhism a Calvinist apophaticism more in keeping with their own prejudices. Its worth looking at how whiteness in the Academy has skewed Buddhist Studies, and that is the point of this thread. It's not really about Buddhism per se.

nightbloom said:
The Protestant flavor of Buddhist studies historically is quite obvious, but it's not clear to me that this is "whiteness" or racism. Is disdain for ritual and devotional practices racist?

Malcolm wrote:
It can be, of course.

nightbloom said:
The people we're talking about have the same allergy to European Christian (Catholic/Orthodox) ritual and so on.

Malcolm wrote:
You've seen some racist cartoons of Irish, Italian people in 19th century American newspapers I presume? Not to mention Mexicans, Chinese, etc. and so on. For exampe, we have the very obvious racism of Laurence Wadell in The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, who was obsessed with Āryan civilization:
From 1917 until his death, aged eighty-five, in 1938 Laurence Austine Waddell wove an elaborate and painstakingly detailed narrative of old world prehistory that identified the Aryan race as the root of all progress, innovation and civilisation in the past five thousand and five hundred years. Waddell's hyperdiffusionist and virulently racist writings on archaeology and ancient history were widely read in Britain, influencing the works of Fascist intellectuals, such as the medievalist J. H. Harvey, and the modernist poet Ezra Pound (Casillo 1985; Macklin 2008). Today his works, particularly his book The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons (1924), circulate among far-right groups, and can be found on the internet.
https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha.20106/

Here is an interesting thesis that delves this into very subject, taking Rhys Davids theories on race and so on into account.

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3083&context=etd


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:19 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
The big difference is that according to the socialist *it is only organizing around class* that can actually bring lasting reform or sweeping change.

Malcolm wrote:
The article I mentioned as about one such black professor who agrees with this sentiment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:10 AM
Title: Re: Singhamukha
Content:
Paulo said:
If a person has received the Empowerment of Vajrayogini, can he engage in Singhamukha's sadhana without receiving her empowerment?

PeterC said:
No

Malcolm wrote:
Seconded.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:10 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Framing the diagnosis of America as either racist or premised upon racism as an admittance of personal racism is not a competent framing of anti-racism as racism, IMO.

Malcolm wrote:
But it is pretty much Tucker Carlson's m.o..


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:08 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
Wasn't the initial criticism towards the two researchers whose writing came off as a stereotype as a certain kind of leftist (or "leftist"). This paragraph reads like parody:
Where do we go from here? Honestly, I don’t know. As a white person with a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies, this is a difficult issue to acknowledge, and I’m genuinely uncomfortable writing about this. My entire career is a direct result of the Orientalist assumptions and colonialist attitudes that I mention here, and acknowledging these issues calls my own status and privilege into question.
Now the thread has of course strayed from that.

Malcolm wrote:
Right, because some people did not actually read the article, they just reacted to the term "white."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 2:07 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
but is a result of our culture.

Malcolm wrote:
Which is white and favors white people, and white men in particular.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 1:38 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
You seem to be actually agreeing with the intersectionalists and crt people that racism is built into our culture. Further, it is difficult if not impossible to untangle political structures from culture.

Malcolm wrote:
Given 'em enough rope, and they all hang themselves.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 1:20 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
"Structural racism" is such an amorphous and esoteric term to begin with that it's hard to even discuss it without it being used to proscribe a certain ideological solution.

Malcolm wrote:
So now you are backtracking....

Structural racism is Jim Crow. Structural racism is voted suppression. Structural racism is racial covenants. In short, there is nothing amorphous or esoteric about the term at all.

You remind me of this recent movie:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 1:15 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
I agree there is structural racism and it is a problem,

Malcolm wrote:
Finally...


Heimdall said:
but I think the solutions provided by progressives today in terms of methodology and goals are counterproductive to actually healing the wounds and only make things worse.

Malcolm wrote:
And your solution is?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 1:12 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
What an incompetent attempt to spin anti-racism as racism present in this thread.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it's pretty Tucker Carlsonesque.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 1:11 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
Notwithstanding that you've contradicted yourself and admitted yourself as racist (after all, your ideology merely comes from the 13th and 14th amendments, from a totally racist and unsalvageable system)

Malcolm wrote:
Silly and sillier.

These two amendments were meant to fix the constitution. But the 14th were the place where birth citizenship was recognized (excluding native americans),  etc. The 14th reads in part:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The Social Justice movement is based in this principle, and reinforced by the 15th, 20th, 24th, and the 26th (though that mostly applies to teenagers).

These amendments are necessary because America is a country still steeped in racism and white, male privilege. That also plays out our universities and in Buddhist Studies, sadly.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:47 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
One doesn't have to look at this micro issue and necessarily blame the entire social fabric at large for it. .

Malcolm wrote:
The social fabric of America is racist to the core, was founded on racism, and is still racist.

Heimdall said:
Well, there's so much to unpack in that one statement that we aren't going to agree anyways.

Malcolm wrote:
Not much to unpack. It's in the constitution, though amended; it's in the original poem from which our national anthem was taken, etc., etc.

If you don't understand this, you don't understand America.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:45 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Firstly,  can we tone down the rhetoric here?

Heimdall said:
Sure, but this whole thread started with the accusation that White Buddhists are "filled with rage" (implying hatred) because they don't share the same ideological beliefs as OP

Malcolm wrote:
You don't read very carefully. But you certainly have demonstrated Ann Gleig's thesis admirably.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:24 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
And you might want to look at why you are so fixated on melanin amounts as determinative of personal motivations and political ideologies.

Malcolm wrote:
Umm, I am not, it is racists who are, that's why Native Americans were not even allowed to vote in the US until the 1950's, black people were denied mortgages and still are, based on red lining, etc.

I guess you are not an American, so you really don't have any clue what we are actually talking about. And if you are, you live in some fantasy land I don't inhabit. I live in a country where Trump was elected president, because he is a racist, because of white rage.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:22 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
Also, you are wrong. See the Frankfurt School.

Malcolm wrote:
As I said, this is all irrelevant. The social justice movement begins in Analytical Philosophy, with John Rawls:
John Rawls, who died on November 24, raised modern political philosophy from the pit of Marxist and linguistic analysis and revived it as a serious subject for citizens of the real world. He believed that answering age-old practical questions about liberty and justice was the proper work of political philosophers. His own answers were ingenious, deeply thought through, and provocative. They aroused the passionate interest of other philosophers and drew scholars from other disciplines, including economics, into the discussion.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/12/john-rawls-and-the-politics-of-social-justice/377209/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:16 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:



Heimdall said:
You LITERALLY started this thread on WHITENESS IN WESTERN BUDDHISM.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Mostly because people on the right are losing it over thus stuff. And it was confined to Buddhist Studies, not Western Buddhism. But you apparently have some other trip going. This subject really gets your goat.

Heimdall said:
It does...

Malcolm wrote:
You might want to look at that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:15 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
That's like claiming that the Libertarian movement is nothing more than Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, Libertarianism's roots can be traced back to the pro-slavery southern Senator, John Calhoun. The main arguments he outlined are still used today by douches like Rand Paul and his ilk.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 at 12:05 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Zhen Li said:
I think you make a good point here. The implication of social justice ideology and other progressive ideologies contain the presupposition that there's a city on the hill at the end of the road. It is inherently Christian and Jewish in its underpinnings. Buddhism fundamentally is realistic in accepting that the world doesn't necessarily progress.

Heimdall said:
Exactly.

Social justice ideology and other progressive ideologies (including Marxism) borrow varying Judeo-Christian conceptions of this linear progress of human history...

Malcolm wrote:
Fact free opinion.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 11:46 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
One doesn't have to look at this micro issue and necessarily blame the entire social fabric at large for it. .

Malcolm wrote:
The social fabric of America is racist to the core, was founded on racism, and is still racist.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 11:39 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Queequeg said:
The vinaya does actually set up the sangha as a governing body with rules and procedures for its regulation,

Malcolm wrote:
For bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, śramaṇeras, and śramaṇerikās only.

Queequeg said:
and as I pointed out, its rules addressed the inequality of the wider society. This is clear from the explanation of seniority as the determining factor in rank within the community, overriding all secular bases of rank.

Malcolm wrote:
In the sense that no one was barred from entering the homeless life in the Buddhist sangha.

We have the same type of seniority ranking in Congress, unions, companies, and so on.

Queequeg said:
Its true the sangha was generally supposed to be apolitical, but dharma has always been applied to secular life and held out ideals about how political life should be conducted - the Jataka tales include many stories of the Buddha's past lives as righteous kings and leaders. The Buddha often counseled kings and numerous masters wrote guidance for rulers.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in those past lives, the Buddha was not a bhikṣu, etc. When the Buddha counseled kings, it was usually to not invade someone else.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 11:28 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Zhen Li said:
Buddhism fundamentally is realistic in accepting that the world doesn't necessarily progress.

Malcolm wrote:
The difference between Buddhism and conservatism, at base, is that Buddhism maintains a positive outlook on human nature, on sentient being nature.

Buddhism understands that things, conventionally speaking, are born, grow, decline, and perish, and that the process of growth and expansion is inhibited or enhanced by positive and negative actions among sentient beings.

We can find many examples in the Buddha's teachings where he insisted on fairness—one of the most crucial was his insistence that Dharma be taught in the local vernacular. Another was his criticism of varna. "Suvarna" means good color, i.e. gold. The varna system in ancient India was a social color-coding, much like we have today in West, the other end of the Indo-European culture sphere. So is is not surprising that white supremacy exists among Buddhists and the Buddhist Studies academy. It is not surprising that the de facto position of Indo-Europeans has always been supremacist feelings of superiority towards people of darker skin tones (Rome vs. Carthage, for example). We find this all over Indo-European myth and literature. The Indians, Buddhist (in contrast to the Buddha's own sensibilities on the subject) and Hindu alike, kept a careful record of their decimation and subjugation of people with darker skin tones.

It's time Western Buddhists started waking up to the "darker" (perhaps "whiter" is more apropo here) side of our own history, including the reception of Buddhism by Protestant philologists who imputed onto Buddhism a Calvinist apophaticism more in keeping with their own prejudices. Its worth looking at how whiteness in the Academy has skewed Buddhist Studies, and that is the point of this thread. It's not really about Buddhism per se.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 10:48 PM
Title: Re: On two questions; the omnipotence of Buddha and the omnipotence of merit
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
The mind of a Buddha is unfathomable.

Malcolm wrote:
That's the answer.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 10:23 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Zhen Li said:
In the age of Dharma decline, it is not possible for vinaya to be upheld.

Malcolm wrote:
Hence another reason for following Vajrayāna.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 10:22 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Queequeg said:
If we take the view that the vinaya developed after the parinirvana, then we can take a more realist approach and say, we've always navigated the secular world and our rules have always reflected that.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, and in Vinaya, the Buddha explicitly leaves all of these issues to secular authorities, since Dharma is not political system nor a governing body, nor should it ever be. This does not mean that we should abandon all political awareness, as the Niti śastras demonstrate. This is the reason several of them were translated into Tibetan, such as Canakya's treatise on kingship, and has been a subject of interest to Tibetan masters right down to Mipham, who wrote a treatise on politics.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 10:16 PM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
"Nāgārjuna in Context," p. 213, Walser mentions the Dīpavaṃsa, a sectarian historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, which contains this claim in it.

Zhen Li said:
Interesting.

Malcolm wrote:
They certainly would have rejected Abhidhamma, with its claim to be taught by the Buddha directly. But they certainly did not reject Abhidharma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 9:48 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Queequeg said:
As for our sanghas, have you read the Vinaya recently? Its full of egalitarianism, notions of fairness, and a host of secular ideals and procedural processes, and its by definition, Dharma. It has worked pretty well to keep the communities going for 2500 years.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, if it has a downfall, that lies in its treatment of women.

Queequeg said:
Shock, horror exclaims the peanut gallery, how can you criticize the Buddha's teaching?

Malcolm wrote:
Well, as everyone who has studied the issue knows, the Vinaya was assembled following the parnirvana of the Buddha, as well as the assemblage of its rules and procedures, which is why bhikṣus from one lineage cannot participate in the poṣadha rites of another lineage, and the reason why the ordination process and rules of the sangha vary widely.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:12 PM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
More important than any of this stuff about Mahāsāṃghikas is, "Does the list that includes 'a city of gandharvas' feature in any non-Mahāyāna sūtra that you know of?" Earlier, you made a very extreme claim that Venerable Nāgārjuna only cites non-Mahāyāna sūtras. This appears to be very wrong. This wrong claim IMO is more serious than "Buddhist sectarian history can be simplified to sects that are permissive and sects that are impermissive."

Malcolm wrote:
It’s a waste of time. Ronny has so many misconception it is not worth addressing them because he is not open to being corrected.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:09 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Queequeg said:
Sadly, we find some of our Buddhist brothers and sisters seizing on the Buddha's Golden Words to deny and gas light efforts to fix these ruptures in our communities.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in Buddhist Academia, they prefer to be left alone with their forensic examinations.

As for these other issue you bring up, imagining that there is some religious solution in and of itself is completely naive.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:04 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
tingdzin said:
the idea that there is a way beyond human ignorance through political means, rather than Dharma, and that there is a final state to be achieved where the world looks like Queens, is irrational.

Well put, by the way.

Malcolm wrote:
As I said, most people are not interested in Dharma, and never will be. The point is not ending human ignorance, that will never happen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 7:59 PM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Conflating those things is just incorrect.

Malcolm wrote:
The people most fixate on race these days are the right. They are the ones who are losing it over CRT and so on.


Heimdall said:
You LITERALLY started this thread on WHITENESS IN WESTERN BUDDHISM.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Mostly because people on the right are losing it over thus stuff. And it was confined to Buddhist Studies, not Western Buddhism. But you apparently have some other trip going. This subject really gets your goat.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 9:49 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
ronnymarsh said:
This is very much practiced in Tibetan Buddhism, when practitioners in conjunction with Vajrayana initiations are encouraged to experience monastic life momentarily with a momentary ordination, as well as

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, but you are suffering from some severe misconceptions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 9:46 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


nightbloom said:
Edit: to clarify, I'm saying that much of the discourse around "whiteness," "white rage," "toxic whiteness," and other such maladies is totally governed by the dynamic in the above paragraph.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you have not applied your thought experiment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 9:44 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Zhen Li said:
. Attaining the happiest state of being for every citizen is a reasonable goal, but the idea that there is a way beyond human ignorance through political means, rather than Dharma, and that there is a final state to be achieved where the world looks like Queens, is irrational.

Malcolm wrote:
Most people are not Buddhists. We, as Buddhists, are obligated to help them achieve those aims, in so far as they are ethical and just.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 9:07 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:37 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Zhen Li said:
He's not saying it is Marxism or from Marxism, he's saying it shares the same presuppositions.

Malcolm wrote:
But it doesn’t.

Zhen Li said:
It shares some.

Malcolm wrote:
The basis of these arguments comes from amendments passed after the Civil War. It’s not ideological at all. That’s what people fail to understand.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:32 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
Yeah,  no. Apparently you are unfamiliar with the dialogue between John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Continental Marxists don’t really have a role here.
You keep ignoring the fact the justice arguments emerged among American lawyers and philosophers of law, like my dad. Marxism isn’t taken seriously by such people, at least not philosophically.

Zhen Li said:
He's not saying it is Marxism or from Marxism, he's saying it shares the same presuppositions.

Malcolm wrote:
But it doesn’t.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 8:29 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
Again, it shares similar presuppositional roots as Marxism, such as the inherent evil of dominance and the total constructionism of society at large.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah,  no. Apparently you are unfamiliar with the dialogue between John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Continental Marxists don’t really have a role here.
You keep ignoring the fact the justice arguments emerged among American lawyers and philosophers of law, like my dad. Marxism isn’t taken seriously by such people, at least not philosophically. Full disclosure, he was on the Nozick side of the argument.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 7:58 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:


Heimdall said:
Again, it shares similar presuppositional roots as Marxism, such as the inherent evil of dominance and the total constructionism of society at large.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah,  no. Apparently you are unfamiliar with the dialogue between John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Continental Marxists don’t really have a role here.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 7:55 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
An analogy - saying that Social Justice ideology has no crossover with Marxism...

Malcolm wrote:
You've said some pretty silly things in this thread, but this tops it. You do realize that "social justice" was something that emerged from Anglo-American analytical philosophy in the late 1960's? No Marxism there.

Zhen Li said:
It might be worthwhile identifying what Marx's view of justice was.

For Marx, there is a normative justice that is conditioned by the existing mode of production. So Liberal justice as it exists today would certainly be seen as a manifestation of the bourgeois mode of production. By making people focus on social justice as defined by popular contemporary opinion, whatever it is, true justice or injustice is being obfuscated. So, a true justice, grounded in a distinction of actual evil actions encompasses avoidably depriving humans of value through the exploitation of their labour, alienating them from their labour (which is the source of their human flourishing), as well as actual physical (not culturally specific or normative, e.g. liberally defined) harm committed on people (which may include dehumanising exclusion of certain races and sexes). But he also seems to suggest that the normative justice and injustice corresponds to the character (no doubt conditioned by the mode of production) of the people within a society, e.g.
Ludwig Feuerbach & the End of Classical German Philosophy, I said:
“A particular governmental measure – Hegel himself cites the example of ‘a certain tax regulation’ – is therefore for him by no means real without qualification. That which is necessary, however, proves itself in the last resort to be also rational; and, applied to the Prussian state of that time, the Hegelian proposition, therefore, merely means: this state is rational, corresponds to reason, in so fas as it is necessary: and if it nevertheless appear to us to be evil, but still, in spite of its evil character, continues to exist, then the evil character of the government is justified and explained by the corresponding evil character of its subjects. The Prussians of that day had the government they deserved.

“Now, according to Hegel, reality is, however, in no way an attribute predicable of any given state of affairs, social or political, in all circumstances and at all times. On the contrary.”

Malcolm wrote:
Thanks, but that’s not really from where the modern idea of social justice is derived. Think Rawls instead.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 7:05 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
SilenceMonkey said:
DJKR has said (with reference to illegal downloading) that if what you take is more than the cost of lunch ($5 US), it is an offense.

Malcolm wrote:
Dzongsar is hardly someone we can consider a vinayadhara.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 7:01 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
More fact free opinions.

nightbloom said:
^ You're doing a white rage right now.

Malcolm wrote:
More like white boredom.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 6:54 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:



nightbloom said:
Why does thinking/saying "oh noes SJWs in Buddhism" necessarily reflect "white rage" and not, for instance, simply an observation that the ideological framework of her argument is faulty and harmful? I don't understand why scorn for her argument is different from scorn for any other argument that the scorner thinks is bad.

Genjo Conan said:
White hostility toward racial progress--or indeed, to discussions about race--is a pretty well-recognized phenomenon, and it tends to take well-recognized forms.  As I read Gleig's piece, the problem is not that some take issue with her argument.  As I read Gleig's piece, the criticism she's complaining about doesn't concern the substance of her work (unless you feel that "keep playing the victim," or calling Gleig a "dharma pervert" is substantive criticism), but is rather a substance-free attack that is consistent with those patterns of white hostility.  It is different from free-floating snark or scorn because it follows those patterns.

Put it this way: if I beat up a black man because we got in a bar fight, it's simple battery.  If I beat up a black man while calling him the n-word, it might be a hate crime.   There's the action, and then there are the circumstances attendant to the action.  Those attendant circumstances don't change the nature of the action, but they change how we interpret it.

nightbloom said:
The truth is that even careful, reasoned argument with people who are principally concerned with "antiracism," "racial justice" or "abolishing whiteness" will frequently be taken as denial. I know from experience how quickly the viewpoints involved become unfalsifiable. It is really not so different from the kind of Christian who claims that everyone knows, in their heart of hearts, that the Christian revelation is true, but that we're all in denial about it out of pride, insecurity or resentment. Any argument against this position will be taken as just more refusal to see "the truth," and eventually this behavior provokes a backlash. Are some people insecure and unwilling to view themselves as participants in a harmful culture? Obviously (and frankly, I think this applies often to leftists, who refuse to acknowledge how self-serving and counterproductive their efforts are) - but all the rhetoric about "white fragility" and "white rage" is much more sweeping than that.

Take a step back. We're in history here together, not outside of it. The dominant ideological and moral paradigms are not categorically different from the ones that went before, and all the same behavioral patterns are still in play. Fundamentally, some of you guys aren't so different from a bunch of church ladies sitting around and clucking about the unbelievers who "hate Christ and love themselves" or whatever, and socially speaking, it does for you what it used to do for them.

Malcolm wrote:
More fact free opinions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 6:18 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Heimdall said:
An analogy - saying that Social Justice ideology has no crossover with Marxism...

Malcolm wrote:
You've said some pretty silly things in this thread, but this tops it. You do realize that "social justice" was something that emerged from Anglo-American analytical philosophy in the late 1960's? No Marxism there.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 5:37 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
ronnymarsh said:
The entire doctrine of Nagarjuna is based on what is expounded in this Sutra, and it is even the only text quoted in Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika

Caoimhghín said:
Why do you think Ven Nāgārjuna would have been using these Sarvāstivādin āgamasūtras necessarily?

ronnymarsh said:
Because he is a bhikkhu ordained by the Sarvastivada tradition. The Mahayana Buddhist schools are all heirs of the Sarvastivada school.

Malcolm wrote:
And your proof is? Atisha, for example, was a Mahāsaṃghika, this is well known.

ronnymarsh said:
If you take any bhikkhu ordained in the Tibetan tradition, you can see that he was ordained by the vinaya Mulasarvastivada, the one who at the root (mule) is the sarvastivada school.

Malcolm wrote:
Mūlasarvāstivādin is considered by historians to be a later tradition that the Sarvāstivādin tradition.

ronnymarsh said:
Likewise, if you take a fully ordained bhikkhu in the Chinese and Korean lineage (and in the traditional schools of Nara in Japan), they will be ordained by the Dharmaguptaka school, which is also a derivation of the Sarvastivadins.

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe.

ronnymarsh said:
Not all adherents have this notion, but basically we Mahayanists are the continuation of this Northern branch of Sthaviravada.
You see, take the lineage of all the patriarchs of Zen Buddhism, for example, as well as Shakyamuni Buddha's lineage in Tiantai, Huayan and Pure Land Buddhism.
In all these lineages we will start with Mahakashyapa, then Ananda, then Sanavasa, then Upagupta. So far, both the Theravada lineage and the Mahayana lineage have the same patriarch.

Malcolm wrote:
Ronny, the Mūlasarvāstivādins trace their line to Rahula, Buddha's son. Not to Upagupta.

ronnymarsh said:
From that point on, Theravada won't have any more patriarchs, but we will. After Upagupta we have Dhrtaka, then Miccaka, then Vasumithra, and others. These are all renowned monks related to the Sarvastivada school, up to the 14th patriarch, Nagarjuna.
The 21st is Vasubhandu, from the Yogacara school, and the list continues (in mutual agreement) to the 24th, Simhabodhi.
Afterwards Ch'an/Zen puts three names linking Simhabodhi to Bodhidharma, but that is not accepted among the other Buddhist Mahayana traditions, however, until the 24th all are in agreement on the succession.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, this is all unsupportable speculation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 5:12 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
and have still found many of the younger people...

Malcolm wrote:
are generally impossible to work with anyway...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 5:01 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
deemphasized or treated with outright hostility in places on the left today.

Caoimhghín said:
This is very true. No one is less welcome than "allies" on a "radical queer" outing, I can say from experience. I was briefly a member of a YorkU club called TBLGAY, "Trans, Bisexuals, Lesbians, Gays, and Allies at York University."

There was a huge hullabaloo over the supposed overemphasis on "allies" by having them in the acronym. It was changed to "and Asexuals," who are not an oppressed minority and never have been unless they were women, in order to disinclude "allies." They also banned non-POCs from the club collective. Stupid things happen at universities that people blow out of proportion. I was quite offended at the time, but got over it. And the idiot ideologues who ran the club into the ground after I and many others left were replaced by normal people. Life goes on. I don't even think of YorkU anymore hardly.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, indeed, no one cares what freshman think, including most former freshman.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:54 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
GrapeLover said:
The Theravada vinaya and associated commentary say there is no offence if a bhikkhu takes an object with the intention of returning it later.

Malcolm wrote:
This is a little different than borrowing someone's rake.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:53 AM
Title: Re: When does one "steal"?
Content:
Toenail said:
I took home some office appliances today from work because I need it at home. If I use it for a while and return it at some point, have I stolen it? Also that stuff is company property, it has no single owner. The whole thing seems complicated. It is a serious question I have, not a joke.

Malcolm wrote:
It is stealing. It was not given to you to take home.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:51 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
If I had a personal critique of the intersectionalists, thatd be it. It’s not a moral critique at all, but a tactical one.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, just keep in mind that it all grew out of black radical feminist lesbians in the mid-70's explaining to their white colleagues that no, they were not going to abandon black men because of the racism that black people continued to experience, which their white counterparts did not and never would.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:43 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:
Zhen Li said:
Ideas do create, or at least condition, our perception of reality.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, and one of things that stands out as a collateral damage of "ideas" is the harm they cause people when dangerous ideas are allowed to flourish unopposed, like the idea one can attain liberation by throwing oneself onto a trident, or that in a few years, since Armageddon is going down, so we have to spend absurd amounts of money subsidizing Israeli defense, or that we have to have a $700 billion+ defense budget, etc. Hence, Buddhists had better be involved in the political life of their nations, or just be navel gazers who get rolled over by whoever the local warlords are, Muslims, Communists, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:30 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
I do think that sometimes dynamics of pockets of the left create what I’d call ‘angry young white boy’ syndrome, but that’s another story.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, excesses of youth and all that. My excesses of youth happened in bars, not in rallies, right or left. And I hate political rallies, they remind me of high school sporting events. The only time in my life I ever went to one was a Bernie Rally in 2015. It was awkward and weird.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:13 AM
Title: Re: How do you feel about Buddhists getting involved in politics?
Content:


Dharmasherab said:
Buddhism should not get involved in politics. Whatever the political solutions that we have are there because of the political issues that they promise to address. One of the truths of all conditioned things is that all things that are conditioned are impermanent. The issues we have now will eventually undergo different changes and at some point they will become irrelevent. Therefore the political solutions which were meant to address those issues will also become irrelevant. The gaze of the public as well as the commitment of activists are shifting from one issue to another from time to time. When issues are no longer relevant they will move on to the next big issues. They will occupy one bandwagon and when that is of no use then they will move onto the next big bandwagon.

Malcolm wrote:
The technical term for this is "Spiritual bypassing."

Dharmasherab said:
We have already seen this with the hippy movement where hippies were seen in the public eye and the media as being active against the Vietnam War.

Malcolm wrote:
This political act did more to end the Vietnam war than any other:
Thích_Quảng_Đức_self-immolation.jpg (22.22 KiB) Viewed 337 times

Dharmasherab said:
I do question whether Buddhism is just used as a platform or launchpad to propagate people's political agendas. I dont want to mention names but there are so called 'teachers' who instill politically progressive views in their teachers where those who receive the teachings wont be able to clearly distinguish between what is Buddhist and what is political.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't worry. I clearly distinguish between Dharma and my political views. But just as a politically conservative teacher is likely to influence their students to have a conservative point of view, the same is true of politically liberal teachers. Luckily, reality is on the side of the liberals.

Dharmasherab said:
In the centres of Lama Jampa Thaye, discussion on politics is discouraged.

Malcolm wrote:
But he is clearly a conservative and feels no compunction at all in expressing his conservative viewpoint. There is a word for that, help me out.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 4:05 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Why do you think Ven Nāgārjuna would have been using Sarvāstivādin āgamasūtras necessarily?

Malcolm wrote:
Good question, since he was quite likely a Sammitiya.

Caoimhghín said:
The interlocutor in the Madhyamakaśāstra is apparently Sammitiya. It would make sense if Ven Nāgārjuna was a dissident from the same, critiquing it from an insider's perspective and putting authentic words into his interlocutor's mouth in the MMK.

Malcolm wrote:
yes, we infer this from Nāgārjuna's sole state preference, that is, for the avipranaśa theory of karmic residuum, that and the fact that the Sammitiya school was dominant in Andra Pradesh, where he apparently resided.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 3:53 AM
Title: Re: Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Conflating those things is just incorrect.

Malcolm wrote:
The people most fixate on race these days are the right. They are the ones who are losing it over CRT and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Why do you think Ven Nāgārjuna would have been using Sarvāstivādin āgamasūtras necessarily?

Malcolm wrote:
Good question, since he was quite likely a Sammitiya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 at 3:48 AM
Title: Re: What are texts in the Agamas that are not in the Nikayas?
Content:
ronnymarsh said:
...it is even the only text quoted in Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika

Malcolm wrote:
One, this is quite well known. But a little misleading. Many people have overlooked the fact that the maṅgalam of the MMK is a formula found in the PP sūtras.

Thus, this factoid does not have the implication you seek, i.e. that Nāgārjuna only based himself on the Agamas, since it is directly contradicted by other Mahāyāna works he composed.

The reason he only cites that verse is because the śravaka scholars who were his contemporaries did not understand the meaning of dependent origination.


