Aetherous

Sorry but I'm not any more convinced of your perception of what's happening. I'm not seeing the situation in real life, and am just some random dude on the internet, so I can't be entirely sure...but you seem totally deluded about the whole thing. Regardless of what I think, best of luck to you guys in being at peace and living good lives.

At least personally it just sounds like you and perhaps others such as your mom, need to get off his case. He doesn't sound "mentally ill" to me. Angry, yes. Also, mental illness if that's what he does have (which I doubt after reading all of this), is worsened by feelings of stress and isolation, and improved by comfort and a relaxing and fun social life. Trying to point out that he has a mental problem will isolate him from you and stress him out. What your role here is, is to be a good brother and friend. Stop putting yourself above him, and putting him into this neat little conceptual box you've made. Of course, I could be misjudging things, since how this seems to me is only based off of what you wrote. But overall I do think it will help your situation if YOU chill out and let him be who he is.

True, that would be worse. lol!

What do you personally practice, as well as recommend to others, for cultivation?

That would be awesome! There are some members of this school that frequent the forum...opendao is one for instance.

Same here, lol.

On the other hand, I felt that praising vasectomy as a totally harmless and good thing, without presenting this other opinion to the forum, would be rather irresponsible seeing as how it is an actual teaching out there. I'm not in a position to support the view of this school, or say where it comes from. Just throwing it out there for the benefit of others...I didn't personally state it in a dogmatic way, as if it were the absolute truth. I said it's a school of thought, and offered the other school of thought as well.

Bump, since it seems a couple of others are interested since then.

No well-researched evidence, they simply said it. I question the claims that theirs is a biased and baseless fear. They are, in fact, the teachers of that school...whereas we here don't even know what school is being referred to, and are not teachers of any legitimate school, much less one along the same lines.

Could be.

I've heard one school of thought saying flat out that vasectomies are the absolute worst thing one can do on the spiritual path (the path that uses creative energy for spiritual progress). Not to freak you out, but it's good to have that perspective here as well, in case others are thinking of getting this procedure done. That school actually doesn't accept you as a student if you're vasectomied. This is just one idea. Another school of thought wasn't really sure...one practitioner said that the internal practices seemed to work just as well after the procedure. As for the health of vasectomied men, we don't hear warnings that their health diminishes from the procedure. So perhaps you won't notice a big difference.

Is it against forum policy to point out disturbing aspects of a religion and question whether that religion is good? I know that it's against the forum policy to insult another group, such as a religion...that hasn't been done here.

I tend to agree...but in the 20/20 rebuttal video above, he's actually quoting the Quran and Hadith, etc. We can confirm by looking up those passages for ourselves. That's the best way to discover the truth, which is never "poisonous". That approach is actually much more reliable than going to talk to an Imam or another Muslim, who are permitted by their religion to tell lies about it. What's in writing doesn't lie or tell convenient half truths. History also doesn't lie. If I'm going to explore Christianity (which I'm personally fond of) I will definitely go to people who are opposed to it, who quote passages that are of questionable morality, etc. I will listen to them and read for myself, before listening to some minister who just wants to convert me and feel okay about his own religion by ignoring the hard parts. Lets have some courage here to actually explore the truth. A way for someone to disagree with those videos is by presenting evidence, rather than just denying their accuracy solely because the presenters are opposed to Islam (which is the logical fallacy argumentum ad hominem).

I always thought that the three Abrahamic religions were kind of like brothers, having some sort of respect for one another due to their common roots in monotheism. This video tells absolutely otherwise, quoting directly from the Quran and other Islamic sources...very educational vid... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT0eZ12SJMk And compare that to the video I posted earlier regarding Islamic history (which unfortunately very few of us have the time to watch). Basically, "Peoples of the Book" are considered as open game to the Islamists, and have been treated as such. Understanding this clearly can help us understand why terror attacks are occurring in our countries...because we tolerate this ideology, and are fooled when they feign innocence. How not to be fooled any longer:

Your'e right...but Buddhist texts and commentators did come afterward, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism has actually had a long and troubled history with Islam, as far as I'm aware. According to this video on the history of Islam, the religion has murdered approximately 10 million Buddhists over the course of its existence... ***** On the subject of karma in Buddhism, I just went back and looked at my notes, and found the 10 unwholesome actions which are the causes for experiencing the effects of bad karma. I take back what I said...Steve was right. Satirizing Islam and their "prophet" would be minor forms of "sowing discord" and "harsh speech" (more severe forms are taught as being when those are done toward the dharma and sangha for instance...when performed against good people who benefit the world, and against the good they do).

I totally agree.

Yes. 3 of them are dead now, 1 is in custody, and the other is soon to be found. More will rise, only to fall. This is actually positive, despite the circumstances in which it happens being completely negative. I'm not happy about the scoreboard. I agree that karma is infinitely complex and subtle...both of which are the opposite of thinking that terrorism is the "consequence" of satirizing Islam. For instance, does it mean that the more people insult Islam, the more terror attacks there will be? Is there not a point where the attacks would level off, in order to appease public perception of Islam, or will they increase exponentially with the Islamic State's attempt at a power grab of the world? Since terrorists are always killed or imprisoned during these attacks, does that mean the number of terrorists will eventually equal out to 0 after a certain frequency of them happening? That'd be great. And all of these questions are only looking at it in simple terms, and not actually under the lens of Buddhist karma and its ripening. Not realizing that karma is infinitely complex and subtle, rather than straightforward and something we can understand. Yes, it is a manifestation of cause and effect, as all things are. You're just claiming to know that the cause of terrorist acts is satire of their religion, and that the effect of satire of Islam are the deaths of innocents. It's a hypothesis, but not everyone will agree on it. Coincidentally, it's exactly what they'd want us to believe.

Fair enough, things appear that way to you; they don't to me. As long as we're clear that it isn't a Buddhist teaching on karma...but the one about murdering innocents, is. (...and guys, my bad if I seem on edge about this subject. I truly am. Apologies for not being spiritual enough for some tastes...but I'm not going to change in this regard.)

Speaking of that, how about the murdering of (I think the count is) 16 innocent people? Now those are some karmic seeds being sown, according to Buddhism. What does Buddhism say about depicting the prophet of Islam, in terms of karma?

Despite them attacking you, you don't subscribe to the view that they want to kill you...

I will never accept Islamists as being the dispensers of our justice. They are not our authority figure or legal system - they are mere criminals under our law. Even international law. To be locked away, or sent to paradise. They aren't the ones who give us the "price tag" for our freedom...they're the ones who attempt to steal our freedom from us. At least personally, I will always fight against that. Some people having to fight is the real price tag of our freedom...terrorism and being murdered (which you oddly call "hostage situations" when 12+ people are killed) is not. We don't create their ideology, and we don't commit their acts...they do. And may they continue to pay the price tag for it.

On second thought, letting it go. I am the way that I am, and disagreeing with people doesn't change the way that they are. I'm fond of everyone here, and have said more than enough already which might have made that seem otherwise. Sorry for getting heated. (what I edited out here, for those who didn't see it, wasn't anything harsh. It was just more of the same arguments)

On that opinion piece...I am strongly opposed to calling terrorism and the murdering of innocent people, "consequences"...as if it were the law, a just punishment, or an inevitable reaction. It is not any of those...but a choice to commit murder in the name of a religion. There are other "consequences", though, which actually are inevitable. Ones that oppose terrorist and murderous activity, which are actually within the law, and which are there to preserve life and liberty rather than take it. Let Muslims know of those consequences.

You have a good point - cultivating anger or hatred, or the idea of killing someone, or actually doing it, is bad for spiritual cultivation as well as the world. Yet...what would you do in this situation: Lets say you're a police officer in Paris right now, and you alone have these two guys in your sights. You are 100% certain it's them. If you don't shoot within 30 seconds, they get away and kill more people. Do you agree that allowing them to continue murdering is wrong? Some would say, permitting it when you could put an end to it, is essentially doing it yourself. So what is worse: to take the lives of murderers of the innocent, or to let them continue murdering innocents? What if they murdered 30 more people the next day? What's worse: 2 terrorist lives lost, or 30 normal people's lives lost? At least personally, if I didn't take the shot, I would feel that the blood of those innocents is partially on my hands. Not to try and make you think about things you would rather not...I don't wish to negatively affect your cultivation. But these are choices people have to make in our world. One day, it could be one of us making these split second decisions. We don't know since terrorists attack literally anywhere. Even cartoonists get it from them. I like how liminal luke put it. There's nothing wrong with protecting oneself and others.

What an odd thing to say in this thread; no offense. The Muslims aren't doing anyone a favor by slaughtering them. Why such an apologetic attitude toward these extremists, that you would even say, "death may be the best thing for me"?! Strikes me as a form of Stockholm syndrome. Overall, I appreciate the call for more respect toward our Brothers. It's not going to happen, though. Especially when the "consequences" for disrespect is to be slaughtered by them. People aren't going to accept that...or at least they shouldn't. You will find very few people who agree with you, that "death is the best thing to happen to us". I am as well. I just view satire as being waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more kind than murder.