JustARandomPanda

Snowmonki, It hits a nerve with me every time I see people talk about a problem but fail to discuss ways how they themselves can take action themselves to stop whatever crime they are complaining about. Taking responsibility starts with ourselves. That means taking responsibility that if we complain about it then that complaining person (especially when his/her complaint is about inaction!) needs to help come up with ways he/she and others can actually do concrete things to STOP the CRIMES from being committed. I'm not saying he/she has to have the final solution. Just that if he/she is part of the complaining that no action is being taken to stop these crimes then said group participants also need to find ways to do something besides mere agreeing amongst themselves that this is a bad crime and should be stopped (duh). Simply talking on TTB point-vs.-counterpoint - without that crucial component - isn't going to do anything other than add to yet another thread that will have one day of fame then get buried among the plethora that come after it. It doesn't address Twinner's point his whole post pivoted on - for us to DO something about it and which I strongly agree with him about. He specifically made the post complaining that nothing ever gets done to stop it. BTW - I liked Amnatava's ideas. Maybe one of the things we Taobums can do is start an online petition, post a link to it to every Buddhist webforum we possibly know of and then maybe - once a set number of signatures has been gathered - present it to a Buddhist monastery (maybe the one that had that Rinpoche for example?) to let them know people are on to their crimes and these crimes are as serious as those by Catholic priests.

Actually I DO think Twinner wants us all to do something besides just be keyboard jockeys at Taobums about this. Let's all put our heads together and come up with things we each can personally do beyond just posting here about it to do as Twinner himself requests - DO SOMETHING TO STOP IT. Because only posting on message boards like TTB sure ain't gonna do anything other than add yet another topic to the General Forum amongst the hundreds of others that exist.

Well that's a bummer. I don't think anyone denies these problems exist. All humans would have to be sages already if they didn't. If they're sages already there is no need for a monastery to exist. Monasteries only exist (presumably) to help people evolve to becoming sages. If you're already a sage you don't need one. The following is not directed to anyone in particular but to the participants in this thread. I wonder what good does only jaw-boning about all this stuff actually DO that's a step in the right direction? See when I look on message boards and see threads like this one I see OODLES of jaw-boning tit for tat. But then when people stop being keyboard jockeys what did they really step up and do in the right direction? Shining a light on problems doesn't do jack s*** UNLESS we actually DO something to STOP these things from happening that was spelled out and discussed in that thread. I don't even see any of the tiny handful of Taobums Buddhists saying they currently live in a Buddhist monastery. Just which Taobum Buddhist(s) is(are) a monk? In fact...I'd say threads like this - unless they mention how to follow up with action - add to the problem instead of helping in preventing it. People feel like they've 'done something' when they really haven't. This is no different from a bunch of old guys sitting around on a porch, drinking beer gossiping, arguing back and forth and all agreeing sex abuse is bad. So they all agreed it's BAD. No s*** Sherlock. Now what? That's what specific actionable proposals are designed to prevent. Twinner said this is a HOT TOPIC for him (maybe he was a victim of a Buddhist monk or friends with someone who was?). Meaning he wants it to STOP. As a reminder he himself said this (even stated it was the whole point of his post): So...I'd like to hear what we all need to do about it here at Taobums to do just that. It sounds like that's the kind of discussion Twinner wants us to focus on as well.

What does posting this on this particular board going to do at all to actually stop sexual abuse in monasteries? I haven't seen Twinner (or other Taobums like Chang) specific proposals for stopping such practices because merely posting on a message board isn't gonna do anything about it. And I presume doing something to actually stop it is what Twinner is wanting us to do. He should also be posting this subject and his actionable proposals at places like Dharma Wheel or Dharma Overground. You know...places with LOTS of actual Buddhists instead of just the tiny handful like at TB. Since Twinner didn't bring up any charges against Buddhist meditation retreat centers I assume these don't have nearly as much rampant sex abuse as is current in Buddhist monasteries - although presuming there are then my request is the same. Chang... Maybe you can make a list of specific actions we all can take to stop such abuse (besides solely yapping about it at a Taoist forum)? I would rather we all ACT than post and counter-post about the topic - which doesn't do squat for helping the victims or potential victims.

I just saw this shocking report and vid. Man...this is so depressing. Modern grocery store chicken is some of the fattiest animal foods around. Sigh....why the FDA (who's job is to promote agri-business) rather than something like NIH or CDC sets the standards for what's 'healthiest foods' to eat is so F**** up. Modern organic and broiler chickens sold for human consumption provide more energy from fat than protein Does eating obesity cause obesity? < Video link Dr. Michael Gregor goes on to answer someone's question:

Not only that but FATAL penis cancer. Yikes!

Copied from another post: Here is the wonderful Heart Sutra

Wanted to mention Swami Saraswati says that when entities arise as part of practice that's a sign that there are still blockages. Once the blockages dissolve the entity/entities will disappear.

Here is a free PDF of the Upanishads for reference Upanishads - translated and commented by Swami Paramananda

I just recently was lucky enough to acquire this book. I won't have the chance to read it as I'm just getting started with Red Pine's translation of the Lankavantara Sutra. But after that I'll read through the anthology. And after THAT will be Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

Thank you. So I take it this version not only has the text itself but also has the Dalai Lama's commentary? Sweet! I discovered it's been republished with a new title. The latest version is called For the Benefit of All Beings: A Commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva

I remember your post! I copied it into my personal practice forum to preserve it. I thought your post was THAT awesome I knew I had to preserve it. I have Master Nan's convo with Peter Senge and it is likewise great. Master Nan gave some tips in it about how to do 6 Healing Sounds that I'd never seen discussed in any other sources I'd read or seen on DVDs or YouTube. Way cool. ****** I am considering saving up pennies to get a translation of Shantideva's Boddhisattva path. Thing is...there are several translations and I don't know which one is the best. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of each version? Or what they liked about the one they have (or don't and wish they'd gotten a different one)?

I am wondering what this "path of accumulation" is and what comes next. Also read somewhere this is different than generating bodhicitta. I'm trying to figure out if I even fit into any of these stages or if I'm so gosh darn low-level I'm "pre" any sort of stage in any tradition (albeit I'm most interested in Buddhism's stages despite the fact Buddhism is held in disrepute in the opinion of most Taobums here).

I'm waiting for the Omnibus edition of the Night Angel trilogy that collects all 3 books in one volume. It's supposed to be released late 2012. I checked out the first book and liked it so it's very likely I'll check out the second. The main character is very much a "Mary Sue" type but for some reason it still works well. But for people who are alergic to Mary Sue characters as the chief protagonist I wouldn't recommend it. I'm also really itching to read The Legend of Eli Monpress. It's the omnibus edition of all 3 novels. I read the back of the book and it sounded hilarious. blurb alert: .... I cracked up when I read that. So that book is definitely on my 'gotta read soon' list. Will definitely check out some of the others recommended here.

I am having a lot of trouble finding a Cundi (chinese: Zhunti) mantra on Youtube that is actually INTELLIGIBLE enough that I can understand how to pronounce each sound correctly. I'm told the Cundi mantra is one of those "safe", "all-purpose" mantras - good for all times, all places and all people. Also supposedly it's good for purging bad karma. Can anyone tell me phonetically how to pronounce this mantra? Also...how many years approximately does it take to recite it 800,000 times assuming one does 12 repetitions (108x per repetition) per day? I ask cause I totally suck at math. *sigh*

Hmm... Well I did some searches on YouTube and found these vids that seems interesting.

Heh. Moved this to the Book Club forum to Dependently Originate here. Fave Fantasy authors. Well I'm gonna sneak some SF authors in here too even though you didn't ask about them. 1. JRR Tolkien - classic - no one compares 2. Frank Herbert - classic - no one compares 3. Stephen Baxter - my fave hard SF author. 4. Brandon Sanderson - fave current epic fantasy author after GRRM 5. George RR Martin - love his SoI&F but refuse to read any more of it until it's finished 6. Alastair Reynolds - 2nd fave hard SF author 7. Kressley Cole - love her Immortals after Dark 8. Gena Showalter - love her Lords of the Underworld 9. Stephen King - love the Dark Tower series! 10. Madeleine Lengle - love A Wrinkle in Time and all it's sequels - especially A Swiftly Tilting Planet. 11. Norton Juster - even as an adult I still LOVE The Phantom Tollbooth! 12. Isaac Asimov - Love his Foundation series! 13. John Scalzi - loved his Old Man's War series. Looking forward to his Red Shirts (sounds funny as hell! ) 14. Tom Robbins - Jitterbut Perfume was fantastic. Looking forward to more of his stuff. 15. Pre-Christian Anne Rice. Ever since she converted to Christianity I have found her works utterly boring. Too bad. I really liked her Witching Hour series. Sigh...Oh well... Used to like Robert Jordan (books 1 - 4 but after that it went downhill Big Time. Ugh. ) There are some new authors I hope to try out within the next few months. Right now I'm reading Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and loving it. One author I tried out and was really disappointed with was Robert Heinlein. Checked out his Stranger in a Strange Land and found it a borefest. Flat characters, dull problems I had no interest in...lotsa preaching behind the facade of "characterization". Ugh. After all the hype I was really surprised and disappointed. Never read another Heinlein book ever again. Another author I discovered I do not like - Robin Hobbs. Borefest. Good writing skills but her world and characters were boring. Again...really surprised how much I didn't care for her stuff. Ditto Anne McCaffrey. And...um...alas... Terry Brooks, Stephen Donaldson and Steven Erickson. Can't stand Terry Goodkin. Read several of his Sword of Truth series hoping they'd get better and they never did. (Also he's Way too Preachy in his novels ) Tried all of the above and just couldn't get into those author's works. I've heard 100 Years of Solitude is good. Hope to check that out soon along with Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Also have What Dreams May Come and The Between up soon.

How odd! This is precisely what Master Nan Huai-Chin teaches also! He says since the time of the passing of Shakyamuni Buddha only 5 people in the whole world have achieved anything like this (ie - realizing all three kayas)! Not even the Zen Patriarchs (he said) reached close to the equivalent of Shakyamuni's perfect and supreme enlightenment.

Gosh. I don't have anything even close to that kind of a bliss feeling. You are orders of magnitude beyond me if that's what you experience. *blink blink* What I experience is nice but not like what you describe. Wow. Just - Wow. Well reading that just made my day! Will try to get from my library. Is there something equivalent to this? I don't think my library has it and the cheapest used copy on Amazon is $99.99! Thank you!

It just occurred to me tonight that there is nothing to prevent the possibility of there being no 'me' living my life but rather it being simply successive moments of the 'experience of me' living a life.

Can someone post a link to the transcript of the First or Second Tea Party conventions? I've tried searching on the web for them but keep turning up empty. All results I've obtained so far lead to articles about various aspects of the conventions but not the transcripts themselves.

Explain the word "exist" please.

Liar's for Jesus' Chris Rodda debunking David Barton's book The Jefferson Lies check this video out: http://vimeo.com/39637421 < this one is really good! And the following:

Thank you for the links and post Simple Jack! Definitely interested! I have the fortune of living in a city with a HUGE multi-branch library system (and interlibrary loan program too) and it has an awesome spiritual literature section (which surprised the heck out of me ). Will check this out! thank you. **** Well honestly I'm not really sure where I am although I'm suspicious I'm one of those "lesser" stages of accumulation. 1. It's taken almost 2.5 years to get here but when I sit in meditation and focus on my breath (right under my nose - I basically follow Daniel Ingram's instructions on Shamatha. I actually own the hard copy of his Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha) I have finally noticed very brief periods of quiet where no thoughts of any kind whatsoever pop up. For years prior to this sporadically I'd been trying to "suppress" my thoughts thinking that's how you get to a quieted mind so I learned the hard way that going that route doesn't work. At all. Ugh. It's taken 2.5 years to undo the damage from sporadic incorrect practice but I've been very excited to see this 'soft quietness' happen all on it's own without me trying to 'make' it happen whatsoever. 2. Also there are times when a sensation of 'I love the whole world' comes up and I can feel my heart center rotating and beams of light radiate out from my heart center. Sometimes this sense seems to expand outward to fill space. This happens spontaneously especially the occasions when I've sat down during meditation and 'pretended' or "imagined" I was a Buddha. The first time it happened surprised me. Now I know it almost always occurs spontaneously whenever I do this exercise. Actually scratch that...I think it does happen spontaneously every single time I do this exercise. The "I love the whole world" feeling can sometimes be pretty deep. Other than that however I have no claims to anything unusual. No fancy 'realizations'. No I AM or whatever like what I've read others have gone through or whatever. I do try to read sutras as much as possible. Currently I'm reading The Lotus Sutra. Next up is Red Pine's translation of Lankavantara Sutra. After that the In The Buddha's Words anthology and after than is Bikku Bhodi's translation of Abhidahmma (sp?). Anyway...for the moment I've basically been kinda following Daniel Ingram's instructions and I seem to be having some success with it. Never before have I had those tiny 1-2 seconds of quiet where NO monkey mind chatter occurs at all and I'm not actively trying to shove them away. That was very cool! Makes me excited and hopeful that I might get somewhere if I keep at it. But so far...no realizations. And the thoughts start up again after the 1 or 2 second gaps.