snowymountains

It was reformed because those practices emerged much later than the Buddha. So they reformed in order to practice as the Buddha taught. Theravada is thus close to the original practice, in the whole area. It's ordained Theravada monks who define Theravada practice, not the fantasy of someone who posts in TDB.

It means understand why a behaviour is happening, forgive/don't cast it into a good/evil framework - for your peace of mind but also protect your self from the said behaviour.

Absolutely. Yes awareness is necessary. But a life script or view is little more complicated because it acts as an aggregate of all things and it's the filter through which we build our awareness. Eg to avoid overcomplicating or theorising and pick a clear example, let's say someone was raised by a "sh!t" family, then went to a "sh!t" school. He then forms the view that "people are sh!t", which also is an 100% accurate description of his reality, so far at least. Then he meets someone and he filters the whole experience through the filter that this entirely new person can only be "sh!t" as well, which is his lived experience so far. Meaning his awareness at that point is also affected by the view. Eg his bodily sensations will be the same as if a sh!t person said the same words, regardless of whether that new person is sh!t or not. Of course if someone was aware of all the cumulative experiences in their lifetime, including ones they cannot possibly have a memory of, they might had been able to connect everything. But that's not possible, it's just difficult to look at one's own back.

You can adopt relativism to the extent that you can believe there's no real Theravada, so why not call a tiny sect as Theravada, that's fine, up to you to hold that view. It's incorrect but up to you. It's just that it's entirely uncomplicated, practices developed long after the Buddha are not part of their Canon and they practice what has been their canon ever since they wrote it down.

Well, it was reformed away because those practices were created long after the Buddha and the reform was about practicing as the Buddha taught. I guess anyone can change the rules of tennis, play a different game, even call it a super-duper-secret one. That's fine, it's just not tennis and they won't be participating in tennis events.

There are pre-natal events that have affected us and we're not aware of them/have no memory of them. Also, we're not aware of/retain no memory of events in early developmental stages that have affected us. There are also events that we are aware of but cannot always causally connect as to how they have affected us. We may not even be aware of the effect in the here and now. Plus there are even intergenerational events, which took place before we were born, that happened to our ancestors, and have affected us.

Is eg a Catholic heresy Catholicism ? No it's not. The same applies for Theravada. That other Bhikkhu won't be doing Theravada

There's no tantra in Theravada, all religions have heresies and/or small sects

For other paths maybe, for Theravada anyone can ask a Bhikkhu if there exist hidden practices, due to precepts they won't lie. The answer will be a no, there aren't secret practices.

The Buddha didn't appoint a successor and made all his teachings available. There were no records kept when he taught. I'm not aware if he was against recording them FYI, it's the first time I hear he was again someone recording his teachings.

Yes the answer is that the reformations aimed to return to the original practice as much as possible. By shedding practices that were invented hundreds if not thousands of years after the Buddha and going back to their lineage's original practices and textual basis. Imo nothing wrong with practicing what you enjoy. You mention Shaolin, they've been crystal clear on what their lineage is, that Bodhidharma first taught them what they practice, and that they consider Bodhidharma to have a realisation equivalent to the Buddha. That's different from someone to inventing new definitions for what Theravada is, and serving it with plenty of super-duper-secret ketchup on top.

Wasn't grading Christianity with a good/bad label , it was more to point that the alternative comes with its own +s and -s. So not sure the Buddha made a mistake on that one, there's no way to go about it that's devoid of -s.

Well, it can happen to someone coming from Christianity or a tribal religion if you prefer, because it's largely independent from that.

Well, that's a deep question. E.g. Who is to say if someone's anger, due to generational abuse of their minority, is better seen through a different view that will lower the anger?, or the anger is exactly the fuel needed for necessary social change? What is better? I'd say whatever is genuine and feels more true for each individual. There's no one size fits all.

Well, in Christianity some not-too-positive stuff happened because of a central authority claiming direct lineage to St. Peter. Ultimately both options have their +s and -s as we've seen from the outcomes of different coin flips

True but it can also happen from Christianity or a tribal religion. Correctness does not matter for Grace but that's a separate question to whether Dhammakaya is close to the original practice.

Tantric practices came out much later than the Buddha's time. The original practice is an interesting question, Bhante Sujato, Bhikkhu Analayo have written some interesting texts on that. You can also contact a Bhikkhu via the means mentioned above and they can also share the history of the practice.

Clearly, but they're free to believe they've found the super secret hen that makes the super top secret golden eggs.

Dhammakaya is not close to the original practice, nor does the original practice have any tantric or alchemical practices. Practices are all wide open in the Suttas of the Pali Canon ( Bhikkhu Bodhi has some good translations on these ) and it's what is practiced in Burmese/Sri Lanka/Thai monasteries. There are good commentaries as well. You best bets are visiting the area or calling the embassies of these countries and ask them if they have someone who teaches the dhamma close to where you live. If however you are more interested in super-top-secret sects which claim otherwise and secret books from amazon.com, TDB is the right place 😁

I believe some dreams do come from "nature", nature as in the way the Stoics used the word. Beyond that, all we have is the imagery we see in dreams and how we experienced the imagery, records or dreams and visions of others. It's tempting to create structures and maps from that imagery, it's interesting to do so, but ultimately we can't know if these correspond to anything. All we can know is what parts of the dream resonate with us and those which we choose to significance to.

Interesting on two fronts. One is, mountain spirits potentially hint at having origins in animistic beliefs deep down in history. Second it what symbols did the Daoists use in their talismans ? is there any decent literature on the talismans aspect of Daoism ?

Perhaps a way to see it is that snake is biting us not because it is bad - concepts of ethics like good or bad are not a good framework to describe what is happening, it simply bites us because of its instincts. Now, we may understand that the snake is simply following its instincts and perhaps not be angry at the snake, as well as understand that good/evil is not a good framework to cast this but this doesn't mean we'll stay close to venomous snakes. This is a state of "snake-forgiveness".

In my view forgiveness is not about letting people fool you. It's more about understanding why someone tried to fool you, e.g. that this may had been a coping mechanism they developed to survive in a tough environment in the past. Btw I'm not saying this cancels personal responsibility, or all is good because he/she had a difficult childhood, but understanding that there are causal links of events that make some behaviours likely. Then perhaps forgiving is forgiving them for not doing the hard work of changing these patterns that may had helped them survive once but are no longer needed for their survival in their relationships. So in my view, forgiving is about accepting the human condition.

I think a spiritual journey is bound to affect someone's life script aka how they internally filter various experiences. Eg an embodied spiritual experience of interconnectedness is bound to do this, but even a daily mantra has effect, or attendance at a Christian church mystery when done mindfully. The same is true more generally if one experiences another culture as close as possible, similar to how modern anthropologists experience it. Or puts themselves into another person's shoes and have real contact with them. Imo it's a shift to a different way of being that's, a more interconnected way of being. ❤️ Eric Berne/TA

Initial Public Offering aka getting listed in the stock market. Well, you have AMZN for Amazon, JPM for JP Morgan, Tolle's business should rightfully use ENLT 😁