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Maddie
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Everything posted by Maddie
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What are your tradition's safeguards against self-delusion or being deluded by others?
Maddie replied to Wilhelm's topic in General Discussion
The Buddha said don't take my word for it or somebody else's word for it based on reputation or just faith but listen to their teachings and see if they make sense. It's less about the person and more about what they teach. -
My Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment
Maddie replied to Shanmugam's topic in General Discussion
Actually there are several tests. one of the most common ones traditionally is if someone claims to be enlightened the idea is to try to upset them and see if they react either overtly or subtly. That's just one test of several. -
My Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment
Maddie replied to Shanmugam's topic in General Discussion
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What are your tradition's safeguards against self-delusion or being deluded by others?
Maddie replied to Wilhelm's topic in General Discussion
Good question but from what I understand of Buddhism, if I still feel desire or aversion or have a self identity then I can know I'm not there yet. BTW I'm not there yet lol. -
My Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment
Maddie replied to Shanmugam's topic in General Discussion
How are we to know that you are enlightened?- 29 replies
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No the council of Nicaea was to figure out the issue of the nature of the divinity of Christ in 325 ce. It's as common misconception. The books of the bible were determined at the council of Rome in 382 ce.
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I had a feeling you enjoyed conflict a bit.
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“Christianity institulionalised guilt as a virtue.” - Alan Watts
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Growing up with a rather religious mom and going to church I always just thought "fear of god" meant obey the rules or else.
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To be honest I think it would be interesting if you shared more. I'd like to learn more about Orthodoxy.
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Noticed something weird today regarding Amitofu chanting. Last night I found this very long Amitofu chant on YouTube and played it in low volume all night while I slept. This morning I felt for lack of a better term this bubble going up through my solar plexus area into my chest. Just a little while ago I was doing Amitofu in my head and started feeling chest pain that was radiating into my head, I got clammy and light headed. I stopped Amitofu and began chanting medicine Buddha in my head and it went away quickly. This was very weird and of all the weird things I've experienced this was me. Any idea what that might have been?
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I'm confused, does Christianity work or not work for you?
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I'm glad it works for you, but have no not considered that Christianity has a "Buddha" (one who has transcended) a "dhamma" (teachings) and a "sangha" (church/community)?
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Oh I see. I find it impressive as an elementary school age child you were reading the Bhagavad Gita. 😌
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Not that I'm very knowledgeable about Hinduism but I think this is one of the main points of the Gita. If interested I would suggest reading it.
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That is a good point. I've always found it curious that when the Buddha is defining the things that count as "wrong livelihood" he does not mention being a soldier.
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You are correct, technically I should have specified "bodily actions"
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Since karma is created by volitional acts, killing that involves no volition would have no karma. For example, if you are walking down the sidewalk and you accidentally step on a bug and kill it but you have no idea that you even did it or were about to do it, then there would be no karma created in such a situation.
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The middle way that the Buddha taught was against practices of self-harm.
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The Buddha taught that there are basically three kinds of karma and they are all the results of intentional action. There is the karma of actions, the karma of speech, and the karma of thoughts. Each one is progressively more subtle. The grossest karma is the karma of actions. So if you kill someone or steal something for example this would be the karma of actions and is the most weighty. Then there is the karma of speech. This is more subtle than the karma of actions. For example, the Buddha said the karma of killing someone is to have a shorter life span, or the karma of harming others is to have bad health. The karma of saying disrespectful things on the other hand is to not have much respect or influence. Still a serious matter but not as gross as life span or health. The most subtle form of karma of all is the karma of thoughts. Thoughts such as greed or envy poison the mind and increase delusion thus making liberation more difficult, but don't have the effect of shortening the life span or reducing one's influence unless of course one acts on such thoughts in a more obvious way.
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Yes, I would agree that the Buddha's approach was very scientific, but I don't understand how that translates into it being a guide to understand shamanism. The closest thing that I can think of that would kind of sort of be related is that from time to time the Brahmins would approach the Buddha to ask advice about certain aspects of their own religion which to me is highly suspect. I assume that these so-called examples of the Brahmins asking what they would consider a lower caste non-Brahmin Samana are later additions by monks after the time of the Buddha to give the Buddha dharma more prestige because in the context of the time it just does not make sense.
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I think as I continue to practice I fear the outside world very little, but my own mind becomes more scary.
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Long ago I was in the military, there seems to be lots of that sort of humor there. I guess it helps one to cope with people trying to kill you.
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I knew what you meant, I couldn't help making a joke
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Yeah I suppose after someone gets shot with a shotgun they are not going to flinch very much after that.... jk lol