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Namo Buddhaya
Peace and love to all the dear ones in Dhamma.
Concerning question 10; in my humble opinion, the question has value because Arahants are the end product of the process of Dhamma. We must have some understanding of them, otherwise we will not follow the process. The Buddha himself said no one of us in 2024 can become Him, thus we look at the Arahants as rolemodels. Please excuse my question for sounding disrespectful or unneeded. The question simply wanted to find out: If he makes a choice, he must be motivated to make the choice so what is motivating him? Or, in other words, question 12…
Question 12: Have you ever seen a video of Ramana Maharshi? He looks like an Arahant, doesn’t he? No will, no desire, no motivation… no clothes! Yet, the people who stood around him would feel their minds calming and being able to realize the nature of reality. My simple mind cannot imagine anything more “Arahant” than that.
@Lal Dear sir. If one may be allowed to offer some humble feedback to your excellent website. It appears that when you get emotional you make short replies; when you are not emotional you make long replies. But perhaps it would be better for your Dhamma practice if when you’re emotional you make long replies and when you are unemotional you make short replies. It would show you more of the mud in your glass of water. This is meant with great love and respect.
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Thank you all for taking much precious time to write detailed instructions which are highly commendable and follows the precious Dhamma. 🙏🙏🙏
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Namo Buddhaya
Pleasant and loving regards to the noble ones who have received the holy teaching.
Question 10: If you were walking on the street with an Arhat, and you asked him to wait outside while you went into a shop to buy something, but then climbed out a back window and went home, would the Arhat wait there on the street till he died of hunger?
Question 11: In the context of Dhamma, are plants animals? Plants can feel, they can react, they can communicate, they can change, and one plant can even walk (walking palm trees).
Appreciation and humility 🙏
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Thank you for sharing. 🙏
Is it not perhaps much better if you happen to be the son of the owner of the cathedral? Then you can go anywhere you want at any time for any amount of time. You have no responsibilities, no worries, no fears; because your father takes very good care of you and he’s the owner of the cathedral. You don’t have to understand anything about the cathedral because if you really have a question, you can just ask your father, but actually there is no reason to ask.
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
This is what one Sangha taught.
1.Always think about the Dhamma.
2.Spend as much time as you can with stream-enterers.
3.Serve other people whenever you have the chance even if it means you can’t do something you planned to do or is an inconvenience.
4.When you have an evil thought, STOP, and say ‘Rather than doing this evil thing I will glorify the Buddha,’ then say ‘Namo Buddhaya’ 10 times.
5.Do not use the words ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ or ‘mine’ unless you have to whether with voice or thought.
6.Notice when you experience love, joy, peace, patience, letting-go, faith, self-control, goodness, gentleness and be grateful for them.
7.Give things away. Food, clothes, furniture, books, medicine… Be very careful when giving away money.
8.Taste Nibbana. This is the most important step but it cannot be explained: it must be experienced.
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
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Namo Buddhaya
Dear ones in the Dhamma. Thank you so much for all your kind replies. 🙏 I have in my humble understanding taken a few days to try to consider carefully what you wrote.
Firstly, I wish to thank those who have limited time, health or opportunity for making efforts to write something here.
I would like to share how it appears to me… please feel free to disagree.
There are 2 ways: the path of devotion and the path of knowledge. Or perhaps it’s better to use the terms, path of self-surrender and path of no-self-concept (anatta).
The dear ones on this website are all on the latter path. But let’s look for just a few minutes at the former one.
If a person completely surrenders himself to ‘God’, whatever that word may mean, it is basically the same thing as the Dhamma. Morality, concentration, insight – the same thing. 4 Noble Truths – the same thing. Ending suffering through ending clinging through ending selfish desire – the same thing. BUT we can’t look at the average path-1 person to see this, you have to look at the Saints. Similarly, you can’t look at the average path-2 person to see the real Dhamma, you have to look at people like we have on this website 🙃.
If we say there is no Pure Land of Amitabha, we are saying it because we’ve only seen the average person trying it. Same thing with the Kingdom of God or the Paradise of Allah or the Vaikuntha of Vishnu. If we read the life of a character like Shinran Shonin (Pure Land), Saint Francis (Christian), Shirdi Sai Baba (Hindu) or Tajuddin Baba (Islam), it reads very similar to the life of the Buddha (Not the teaching, but the amazingness). Of course there are cultural and geographic differences. There is nothing the Buddha could do which another character could not do. There are things other characters did do which the Buddha did not do!
Those dear followers of the Buddha’s Dhamma are doing the greatest thing a being can do. Yes! But I think we have to realize there is an enormous difference between a common person talking about heaven, a follower of the Buddha talking about heaven and a Saint talking about heaven. It is not the same thing at all. The common person’s heaven is pleasure. The Buddhist’s heaven is as we understand it. The Saint’s heaven is Nibbana. Any criticism of strange things Christian people do, you can also make of Hindus and Muslims, AND Buddhists, of course.
That is my humble understanding which is certainly vulnerable to wrong views and wrong insight but it is the impression in this person’s mind.
Thank you 🙏
Namo Buddhaya
@taryal @y not
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Dear brothers and sisters in Dhamma.
I would like to quote from Handbook for Mankind by Bhuddhadasa, ”Every normal person wishes to gain knowledge but if the knowledge he gains is false, then the more he knows, the more deluded he becomes. Thus more kinds of knowledge can blind the eyes. We have to be careful with this word ‘enlightenment’. The ‘light’ may be the glare of ignorance which blinds and deludes the eye and gives rise to overconfidence. Blinded by the glare of ignorance, we are unable to think straight and so are in no position to defeat suffering.”
I am just a beginner but I would like to share a little bit in the glorification of the Lords Vishnu and Jesus. They may just be ‘devas’ but they have done more for us than any ‘man’ in the history of the world.
How many orphans, how many widows, how many suffering men, how many devout simple people, how many on their deathbeds, how many suffering sickness, have found peace in their hearts by the mercy of those ‘devas’?
It may not be ‘salvation’ according to your high standard; it might seem low and humble and uneducated to your high levels but there is no man in the history of the world who has done so much to help us as the Lord Jesus Christ, no heavenly being as the Lord Vishnu, no ‘fake’ Buddha as Lord Amitabha, no ‘Brahma’ as Lord Allah.
You may think so highly of passionlessness, defilementlessness and fearlessness but the truth is that the one who is the most passionless, defilementless and fearless is a CORPSE.
When a good man, woman or child is lying on their deathbeds full of uncertainty and worry, they are not going to care about Buddha, Dhamma or Sangha but rather they are going to plead for mercy from the Lords Allah, Jesus, Vishnu or Amitabha.
In love,
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Gratitude and appreciation to the dear brothers and sisters in Dhamma.
Question 8: Quote,
- Nothing in this world can be maintained to one’s satisfaction (anicca).
- When one strives to achieve that, it leads to suffering (dukkha).
- Thus, one’s efforts are not only unfruitful, but one becomes helpless in the rebirth process (anatta).
With these definitions, would you say that the average person already knows these things, though just subconsciously? If you ask a man on the street if things can be maintained according to his satisfaction, he will answer ”no”. If you ask him whether striving to achieve the impossible leads to suffering, he will say ”yes”. If you ask him whether we are helpless in the rebirth process, his answer will depend on his culture and religion. So everyone knows anicca and dukkha, and perhaps 25% of people know anatta.
Question 9: Are the Divine Beings like Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Bodhisatta Avalokitesvara and Buddha Amitabha examples of Brahmas?
Much appreciation for your patience with beginners. 🙏
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Buddhaya ☸️
Dear brothers and sisters in Dhamma. Peace and insight to all beings.
A question, please: The opening post must have taken an hour to write, and the reply by brother Lal more than an hour. What would the Buddha think about us spending so much time typing out long forum posts?
Thank you 🙏
Namo Buddhaya
Dear brother Waisaka in the precious Dhamma.
Much gratitude for your wonderful attempts to help another understand what is what. Also I would just like to share that your English is much better than most other second language speakers. 😊
I only recently became a follower of Buddhism. My understanding is limited. But I will of course share the little that I have to share.
If it perhaps has relevance, I started to follow the Dhamma after reading ‘Handbook for Mankind’ by Buddhadasa from Thailand which affected me greatly.
Quote, ”see the world in themselves.” I know nothing of this.
Quote, ”Where is the suffering and non-self in this water?” According to my limited understanding, if I am reborn as a puddle of water, I will identify with the puddle (anatta) because it gives me pleasure when someone steps in me (an example of feeling) and therefore due to evaporation (anicca), I will experience suffering (dukkha) because my death is close.
Quote, ”if we do not see them in internal form.” But is seeing an internal form not just grasping? Internal, external, tall, short, fat, thin… These are concepts based on desire which lead to suffering. If there is a real internal form, it must be permanent, satisfying and a self-identity.
These humble replies are mostly just repeating what I read in Handbook for Mankind.
Thank you for your time and love.
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Buddhaya
Dear brother in Dhamma. There is much appreciation for your quick, kind and detailed responses. From where I am sitting, it says that you wrote that last reply at one o’clock in the morning. You certainly did not have to lose sleep on this humble beginner’s behalf. Thank you. 🙏
Question 4: Due to my ignorance, I find the article on the wrong interpretations of anicca, dukkha and anatta difficult to follow. You share that anicca is not impermanence but ”Nothing in this world can be maintained to one’s satisfaction (anicca).” What is the difference between that quote and impermanence? All beings want satisfaction. No being can maintain the world to his satisfaction. Thus, in one word, ”impermanence”.
Question 5: From the same article, translating ”anatta” to ”no-self” is a poor translation, yes, and people who have only heard of the Buddhist concept are confused thereby, but dedicated practitioners, for the most part, understand perfectly well that it means the same as explained in the article. To use a comparison: peanuts are not nuts. All biologists know this. Some average people may perhaps not know it but that is not a problem. We do not have to rename ”peanuts”.
Question 6: Same article, ”Thus if a headache becomes impermanent (i.e., if it goes away,) that will lead to happiness. Thus, impermanence does not necessarily lead to suffering.” But happiness is suffering, is it not?
Question 7: Would you please share your opinion about following situation. I recently went to the hospital where they took blood. I was very scared of the needle, and as it entered my flesh, I prayed that the Buddha would have mercy on me. I sweated a lot and felt nauseous. What does this say about my mental state?
Once again, A thousand thanks to all who turn the wheel of the Dhamma with patience, understanding and kindness. May all reach the other shore. ☸️
Namo Buddhaya
