adept

Just ordered a hard copy of the book. Look forward to reading it.

To many Buddhists, he does live forever in a Pureland or Satyaloka.

Well that's another of your theories debunked. No everlasting self.

You seem to be doing a good job of contradicting yourself and don't even need the help of anyone here to do that. :lol:

This looks very good. A lot of hard work and study has obviously gone into publishing your book

My ancestry is of the Norse people, but I have never really looked at the ancient shamanic practices of that culture.

Maybe it's time to do just that.

Thanks for this.

Buddhism is a vehicle with a specific destination. It's not the best vehicle if you don't want Buddhahood. Other vehicles have their destinations, and Buddhism has it's destination, they are not the same destinations. The Best vehicle is the one that takes you to the destination that you want.

What is this destination that you speak of. There is no fixed point in Buddhism as you have stated 1000's of times in numerous threads.

Seems like a contradiction.

The Buddha isn't dead, he's alive in living examples of Buddhahood today.

He died 2500 years ago. He was a mortal man like everyone else. He is not some deified god-being who lives forever.

"Any sort of vessel, unless it founders or pitches you overboard, is good enough to take you to the one and only sea."

This line says it all for me.

Thanks for posting the article.

The whole article should be required reading for those that argue about Taoism and Buddhism. He seems very clear on internal alchemy and life prolonging methods also.

As I get older, I find myself wanting silence more and noise and sound less. I have a really wonderful audiophile stereo system, and I find myself listening to it less. Sometimes 2 or 3 months will go by and I don't turn it on. I also find myself switching off music or npr in the car and just driving in silence, focusing on my breathing.....

I can definitely relate to this. It sounds exactly like my current audioless life.

I enjoy daily walking alone in nature in silence. Taking in all the sights, sounds, smells and ambience of every location I happen to find myself in.

When you work in a noisy factory with machinery and music from the radio belting out non-stop like I do, the silence is beautiful, and needed.

Good topic.

"Chan and Zen Teaching " - Lu Kuan Yu (Charles Luk)

Thanks but I've read that book and most books on Chan and probably all there is on Pure Land.

I was basically wondering if anyone has had any interesting experiences from recitation of the Buddha's name.

It was a practice that I once tried years ago but it wasn't for me.

I have every respect for cultivators of each of these traditions and it is a valid path for lots of people.

I have my own Dao cultivation which I feel is right for me and my life situation. I'll leave Buddhism for those that have affinities with it.

Best wishes

How to Achieve the State of One Mind:

I've just watched the second video and it is something that has aroused my interest lately.

Does anyone have any experience with the Pure Land/Chan recitation method?

Meditation Method:

 

How to Achieve the State of One Mind:

Excellent !

I love Master Sheng Yen.

Thanks for these videos.

Not everyone is interested in stepping into any rings to prove how big their egos are, or to deal with karmic issues resulting from childhood abuse.

 

Good health and spiritual development are more important than martial arts.

+1

We can see here why Buddhism has won inter-religious debates before.

 

Taoists say what needs to be said and then they go find a local bar for a drink, while Buddhists just keep talking, and talking, and talking, and think they have won because they are the only ones left on the floor.

 

Yes, and Buddhists won't drink anyway so they're missing out on all that lovely Guinness.

The whole Wudang thing is the face of Daoism that the PRC want the world to see. It is nothing but consumerist, pop culture tourist daoism for middle class westerners.

This comment 'In 1994, Master Yuan was selected by the Wudang Taoist Association for Taoist Wushu Performance Team' sums it up for me I'm afraid.

Taoist wushu ???? For god's sake. Is this what it's been reduced to ?

I wonder if the Chinese government bus acrobats and actors in to Wudang like they do at Shaolin.

Shaolin temple & Wudang = Tourist traps with souvenir shops and hotels.

What a shame.

Excellent !!!!!!!!!

Humanity is dependently originated from the Earth.

The Earth is dependently originated from the Universe.

The Universe is dependently originated from _______________________.

 

I'm not a Buddhist but I would say 'previous universe'

Only then would I consider changing my opinion on British pomposity.

Hey, I'm English and not at all pompous.

Why do you have this outdated notion of us as:

1. Drinking tea out of fine china with our little finger raised.

2. Commuting to work wearing a bowler hat, swinging an umbrella and reading the Financial Times.

3. All living in a place called London where we ride around on red buses past Big Ben all day. :lol:

Isn't it obvious?

Ditto.

Xingyiquan for me at the moment. Went from external arts in my teens and twenties, to weapons based arts in my thirties, and now to IMA in my forties. I don't think you ever lose the desire for training in the martial arts, but your focus changes as you get older.

You give the Thanks to the creator and look for guidance through that...... we have a God he is the same God no matter what we name him. As long as we give the thanks and credit for all we are and have to him. This is what is important in my mind. To many people saying I did it. (We do nothing alone)...

Who created the creator ?

Not for me it wouldn't because I have no idea what you are talking about.

Avatamsaka.

Well that compressed singularity is considered by Buddhists, the compressed effects left over from the previous universe just waiting for conditions to arise for it to blossom. Though in this case, like a seed, but it's still not considered an inherent singularity, as it is filled with infinite potential left over from endless universal cycles connected to other dimensions or other universes active in other dimensions right now. This is too complex to conceptualize perfectly by me. But, this seed state is like the effects left in your unconscious mind from things experienced previously that arise as subtle impressions in your subconscious ongoing dream state, governing your conscious mind and these impressions come to light through your conscious mind and physical actions only when conditions arise that allow for that to happen.

 

It's kind of how we are all individual universes existing in our own dimension arising co-dependently with other individual universes that are individual people, animals, sentient beings. Because one individual dies or collapses, doesn't mean that another doesn't continue to exist on this paradigm, or that the one that collapsed on this paradigm doesn't continue in another. As in the concept of the individual mind stream moving on into another incarnation or dimension of experience beyond this seeming realm of experience?

 

So, supposedly, there are endlessly connected universes and this universe is not the only one active right now, so when one universe goes into collapse, there are still others in other dimensions, yet connected too that still radiate energies that cross-effect other universes. So on and so forth endlessly. All these endless amount of universes or cosmic cycles are constantly effecting each other like various levels of consciousness.

 

Eh, my explanation is so imperfect. I tried.

The Avatamsaka would be a good explanation.

I strongly disagree with this view. The Tao is not really the source, but it is the way of things, so to speak. The Tao is the experiential ground of things, but it's not some kind of substance and Chuang Tzu makes it pretty clear because the Tao is neither being nor non-being. The idea of the Tao is more of a teaching device, to get the person to think about the common pattern or the common reality behind the 10,000 things.

 

Some Buddhists ignorantly ascribe monism to Taoists, but this way you only trick yourself.

 

The biggest difference between Taoism and Buddhism are not their ultimate views on reality, which I think are comparable, but different emphasis on different virtues. For example, compassion and skillful means (or skill in means) is a Buddhist distinction.

 

I think we should make a distinction between what the Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu said and what others who call themselves "Taoist" say, which is very different sometimes. Taoism in some ways is a wide umbrella like Hinduism, under which all kinds of views and practices get lumped, sometimes mutually incompatible views and practices. I think all in all, religious Taoists have done a piss-poor job of studying what their founders said. But whose fault is that? Chuang Tzu is awesome and is beyond reproach in my view. No Buddhist thinker could hold a candle to the man if he was alive today to answer questions.

Very good post. A lot of Chan masters also studied Chuang Tzu.

link

There is no primordial source in Buddhism, there is only beginningless flow of interdependence.

Agreed, maybe the word source was a wrong way to put it. Sourceless source would be a better way of describing it.

I tend to agree with GIH in that the Tao is just the flow of life, the constant change and not a fixed point where everything comes from and returns to. Dependent co-arising under a different name.

There can be harmony between the two traditions I think. Lets look to the similarities and not the differences.

Do No Harm

We, as a species should all try to do this. Do No Harm

Do No Harm

Agreed. Maybe we should start a thread on how the traditions compliment each other, rather than the differences.

Just found one.