Maddie

I've wondered before if Taoism is China's Hinduism?

Sounds like good stuff, but how does that differ from Buddhism? or basically any other religion?

I thought I would ad that this also raises the question between western vs eastern Buddhism I might say.

I thought I'd come back to this topic after going back and forth on how much of an issue I think this is (a lot currently) and also after experimenting with various methods of protection. I'd say at this point I think I find the chanting of religious texts to be the most effective form of protection in my experience. I have experienced pretty good results from chanting Pali Paritta verses, but I even have experimented with the Catholic rosary and had some pretty good results from that as well. I have found that mantras seem to be effective for accomplishing other goals but a little less so for protection. If anyone else has any experiences or insights to share I'd be happy to hear about it.

Well in the Mahaparanibbana sutta that talks about the Buddha's passing the devas did rain flowers down upon his body so that might be a loose reference to the flower part. As far as the statues and incense I think those were later developments.

I admittedly do not know much about Hinduism but I was recently reading that in this Kaliyuga that chanting (specifically the Krishna mantra) was said to be the best practice one can do. Is anyone who is familiar with this willing and able to elaborate on this? Thorough explanations will be appreciated.

This was my gut feeling as well that meditation was digging up too much, too quickly. A couple weeks ago I did the Zhunti mantra extensively and had a similar experience. Considering the purpose of the Zhunti mantra is to purge karma as well it seemed to confirm to me this was the problem again.

It depends on the current state of your lower Chakras, but you gave me the impression in your OP of wanting a direct answer, so I gave you one. I have no thoughts on this, as I'm only sharing what I know.

Let these feelings become the object of your mindfulness and not seen as a distraction from it.

For the Jhanas I recommend Ajahn Barham's book "Mindfulness, meditation and beyond" but to get started do as much breath meditation as you possibly can each day, as in several hours. Keep at least the five precepts, eight is better. For the third eye keep your point of concentration at your third eye while doing breath meditation. *edit- you mentioned that you have a lot of willpower. This will just be an obstruction to jhanna, as jhanna is achieved through letting go which is the opposite of the will.

All the information and much more to answer your question. In regards to the Buddhas bodhisattva vows, as well as the bodhisattva in Theravada. http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/b/bodhisatta.htm

Actually the Buddha did take a bodhisattva vow eons ago, this is how he eventually became the Buddha. This also illustrates the bodhisattva concept in Theravada, that a bodhisattva's end goal is to become a fully enlightened Buddha.

You're correct I did mix then up

I've done over 100,000 for sure, probably not 200,000 though. Interesting take on the vomiting out black substance thing though. My assumption is that the reason it gets uncomfortable is due to the working out of bad karma.

So before I get into my main point/ question I want to state that I do realize that the Samatha vs Vipassina debate in Buddhism and meditation circles in general is one of many and varied opinions. What I am interested in is hearing individual experiences with one or the other or both. I realize there are many teachers that advocate various approaches for various reasons and I also realize that there is no one size fits all approach. I'd personally say that the two main "teachers" I claim are Ajahan Braham and Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu of youtube fame. Ajahan Braham seems to advocate for more of a Samatha approach in order to reach the jhanna states after which insight is supposed to come as a result. Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu on the other hand does not teach this approach but rather Vipassina insight meditation by the means of noting or labeling what ever arises in the mind as a way of gaining insight. Lately I have been thinking that the Samatha approach is better for me as I feel pretty good from doing it, whereas after doing the Vipassina method I often tend to feel agitated. I'm sure other people may have had other experiences but I am speculating that having endured a lot of childhood trauma in my early years perhaps Vipassina isn't the best for me. Can anyone relate? Aside from that I would be interested in hearing other peoples experiences and thoughts on this topic.

This raises a question I have as coming from a mostly Theravada background. Is there much study of the Pali Canon in Mahayana? Theravadan's from what I've seen tend to reject Mahayana sutras outright. Most of my personal study has been of and from the Pali texts and though I enjoy reading them I'm not entirely convinced that all the Pali Canon is the original and accurate words of the Buddha.

That made me think of this lol

Have you ever listened to Brian Ruhe's talk about early Buddhism? It's very slanted towards Theravada and against Mahayana. It used to have more sway with me until Brian became a Nazi/Buddhist. I have to admit that may have affected his credibility in my view somewhat.

Good call, the times I did feel like he showed up it did have more to do with my mind.

Well for a couple reasons. First of all it just felt that way. Another is there were a couple situations where I feel like he did show up and it felt different. I realize this is not a good explanation but it's all I've got.

Care to elaborate?

Interesting point. This is something I don't talk about much but at one point I was a seminary student (it was at this time these events I wrote about above happened). Anyways there is a whole theological school of Christianity called "Reformed Christianity". It is based largely on the writings of John Calvin the 16th century French/Swiss theologian of the reformation period. Anyways one of the main points of Reformed theology is that of "election" which means that it is impossible for a human being to choose God, but rather the only way in which a person has any hope of divine grace is for God to elect them. They felt the notion of a human being able to choose to connect with the divine was impossible.

The only thing I can tell you is what I did at the time as this sort of thing is no longer something I do, but basically at the time I would pray a lot, but not just pray a wish list but pray contemplatively and try to listen. Looking back it had a lot of vipassana elements to it even though I didn't know what vipassina was (at least in this life) ;-)

Oh yea no worries I've not be a Christian for quite a while now. Even at the time I assumed it was the direct work of angles following orders and not necessarily Jesus himself lol.

Good question. This has not been much of an issue with me the last several years as my primary world view has been Buddhist in which deities are not much of a factor. Though many years ago I was actually a very dedicated evangelical Christian and that being the case the deity Jesus was a very big factor. There were times that I would spend hours in contemplative prayer, i.e. listening as opposed to just speaking. There were times that I would definitely feel a type of guidance and inspiration. Not only that but it was at this time that I averted several accidents that I can give no other explanation for other than miraculous, such as having an industrial rack of tonnes of lumber fall on top of me only for the only spot that had no lumber fall on it to be the exact spot I was standing on. Another time I was about to change lanes in my mini hatch back only for the steering wheel to not move at all no matter how hard I tried. A second later a massive big rig truck blasted past me at high speed. I would have been pulverized had I been hit. Another time I was working on a ladder three stories up and the ladder fell out from under me and I feel three stories. The funny thing is, that it felt like slow motion and as though I was being gently set down. Once I hit the ground I was totally fine, and everyone that came running over to me could not believe I was unhurt. These things all happened during my zealous evangelical Christian phase when communing with deities was my primary focus.