qns abt buddhism
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Hi, welcome back.
Originally posted by despondent:
Nope. In fact we discourage such practices of mediumship, or personally dealing with spirits. We also never encourage people to consult mediums.
hello...i am back again after a mth's absence...haha
anyway, juz finding out...does buddhism has anything to do wif the consulting of mediums, drinking of holy water etc???
It is not good to create a karmic link with the spirit realm, and there are bad long-term consequences for practising as a medium and dealing with spirits.also, is buddhism associated wif fortune telling as well??? thanx...
Nope.
Fortune telling is condemned as a 'lowly art' by the Buddha and the monks are instructed not to practise this for a living.
It is no good to be superstitious over these things as a Buddhist. -
hey one qn to ask: when were the divne scriptures of buddhism written by buddha? did he write them after he gained enlightenment or during his life process of gaining enlightenment? thanks
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What is the bad long-term consequences for practising as a medium and dealing with spirits ?Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Hi, welcome back.
Nope.
Fortune telling is condemned as a 'lowly art' by the Buddha and the monks are instructed not to practise this for a living.
It is no good to be superstitious over these things as a Buddhist. -
Your Karma won't be so good.Originally posted by knightlll:What is the bad long-term consequences for practising as a medium and dealing with spirits ? -
Help spirits to cross over = gain merits
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huh i thought medium helping ppl why the karma no good ??? hmm ?
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Look at Zacken's own post... he described it best.Originally posted by knightlll:What is the bad long-term consequences for practising as a medium and dealing with spirits ?
I have many friends who told me almost exact story about what happens to medium practising people...
Not very good to practise this way.
http://fengshui.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=275399&page=1Originally posted by zacken99:hahaha,
good Question..
i guess i hv set a very bad example..to many of u guys..
i truely understand hw u think nw..
but friend..let me tell u, i were to given another chance nw,
i will not walk this path..
yes true enough, u gain alot in this path but u will ost even more..
at the end of the day u will it dun worth...
i share with u 1 case i jus recently engage in...
2 months ago a guy came to me n ask me for help,
he hv been practising wiccan for the past 4 yrs.
he is 35 this yr
he do spells for ppl and his charges r really high..
quite well known in singapore.
he is hving a big problem nw...
recently his body is always feeling numb,and hv lots of illusion,he cant sleep or eat....he from 80 kg drop to nw abt 45kg.
he feels irritated with every1 around him
he cant get along with his family members at all at few weeks ago he actually took a chooper wana chop his mom for nothing...he jus cant control himself.
his teachers, all cant help him ,all gave him lame excuse and forsake him..
this is not an isolated case..
u can go check , be it thai archan, wiccan pratitioner, mao shan shi.etc etc,
abt 90% of them do not hv good endings....
well for me so far, im still ok..but i cant garuntee wat will happen to me in future.
thats y , i hv gave up doing any form of ritual or wat magic for ppl..even though its really good money....i jus do ba zhi reading and geomacy for my livlihood
i jus hope im not too late....
im really sincerely sharing with u...u hv your own choice in life,no body can stop u...but jus afraid that 1 day u cant even stop urself..that will b disaster..
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The first council began 2 weeks after Buddha's death where the scriptures were being recited among an assembly of 500 enlightened monks.Originally posted by despondent:hey one qn to ask: when were the divne scriptures of buddhism written by buddha? did he write them after he gained enlightenment or during his life process of gaining enlightenment? thanks
Buddha did not personally write them down -- his disciples wrote what they have heard. -
If you want to help people... there are many other ways...Originally posted by hanbyul88:huh i thought medium helping ppl why the karma no good ??? hmm ?
no need necessarily communicate with spirit realms to get help.
It's not that it is evil, but it is not very good to plant such conditions with the lower realms. -
There's a saying that it's easy to invite the spirits/ deities in but hard to send them away. So its' still better to solve a problem by going through the right path.
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hey AEN, "death?", i can take "physical demise" but this is Buddha we are referring to, there is no "death"...Originally posted by An Eternal Now:The first council began 2 weeks after Buddha's death where the scriptures were being recited among an assembly of 500 enlightened monks.
Buddha did not personally write them down -- his disciples wrote what they have heard. -
Passing away or parinirvanaOriginally posted by Xprobe:hey AEN, "death?", i can take "physical demise" but this is Buddha we are referring to, there is no "death"...
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hello everyone, i am back again...
anyway, is it true tat love is viewed as an evil thing in buddhism??? if reaching nirvana means to reach the stage of enlightenment n secularism affects the process in a negative way, then wouldnt a buddhist's journey towards nirvana be affected if he/she got married??? -
Welcome back.Originally posted by despondent:hello everyone, i am back again...
anyway, is it true tat love is viewed as an evil thing in buddhism??? if reaching nirvana means to reach the stage of enlightenment n secularism affects the process in a negative way, then wouldnt a buddhist's journey towards nirvana be affected if he/she got married???
What is real love? Pure love itself is not problematic, and in fact is to be cultivated, such as the practise of metta (loving kindness), as well as the unconditional compassion of a Bodhisattva. These are very important qualities that each Buddhist must cultivate in our lives.
Even love for your family and spouse is fine, and I have said before there are many lay practitioners, who have families whom they love and care, and yet these practitioners also have attained enlightenment (even today). Some of the highly enlightened forummers here have families too. There has been many lay persons who attained enlightenment and liberation since the days of the Buddha. My local dharma teacher too is a lay practitioner who has family too, same as my Taiwanese teacher though he has in recent years moved to live alone in his dharma center to spend more time in self-cultivation as well as responding to the visits of his students. Though, my Master (who has passed away) is a monk.
The difference is, is one able to transcend one's attachment to family, or spouse, or anything? You can love them and that is fine, but is there any attachment to them as 'one's posession'? You can't live without them... why? Because it is the grasping of the 'self'... your 'self' holding onto feelings, emotions, and attachment on someone. What if some day your loved ones has to depart from you? Is there a pain in your heart because you have developed such a deep conditioning, your memories, the things you all did together, that you find so precious and have become deeply identified with... and yet all that has to come to an end. What hurts is your ego, your attachment, the sense that my possession has to depart from me... When a thought of losing your loved ones arise, does it lead to fear surging through your entire bodymind? This is surely a sign of deep rooted conditioning and attachment due to the illusory 'self' and the posessiveness of self (attaching to 'mine').
So the problem is not with love but with attachment and possession, and if that is dissolved/liberated then there is no problem. Your love does not have to be tainted with strong grasping on feelings and possession, though of course that is not very easy but can be achieved through gradual practise.
If there is unconditional love... the attachment to feeling, persons, identification, the sense of certain people as your 'posession' can dissolve... and yet it is not unfeeling because you have pure unconditional love and compassion for each of them.
And this unconditional love, being unconditioned, expands to include every single person... in this way there is no exceptions.
As my taiwanese teacher said... one's obsession with someone can be 'expanded'... to become the unconditional love and compassion encompass everyone, like a bodhisattva.. and this love is not just fixated or focused on a single person. A bodhisattva treats every sentient being equally with compassion and sees the Buddha Nature within each sentient being. He is not obsessed with feelings, possessions, etc.. therefore if say, his wife were to pass away, he would not suffer because of his self-centered attachments to persons and feelings. Maybe he may be sad for a while, but he didn't fixate his love and attachment entirely on that single person (which would then be attachment to the form of a 'self' and 'other person') -- his compassion and love is also 'shared' among all other sentient beings... a form of 'greater love'.. so he does not feel so much of the suffering of losing one's attached possession.
Furthermore, a Buddhist who have developed wisdom, or gained enlightenment, will be able to have more wisdom when dealing with relationships, will know what kind of relationship to engage and what kind to avoid, and will know how to cope with relationship in life -- i.e not get entangled in relationship, or become obsessed with it causing detrimental effects on your life.
~ Fa Yin Xuan Liu (2), Ven Shen Kai
~ Fa Yin Xuan Liu (3), Ven Shen Kai -
hihi...tis thread is expiring soon...but i have qns to ask...
1) does buddha answer prayers?
2) if the answer to above is yes, then how does he answers?
3) from wad i noe, buddha has no power to change fate...doesnt tis suggest theres sth greater than him whom buddha himself cun control/change? -
On #3... Buddhism does not believe in an almighty creator. A corollary of this is that we do not believe in fate/ predetermination. The course of our lives is not pre-ordained at the whim of some nebulous higher beings. We are in control of our actions. We are in control of our lives. We can change our future.Originally posted by despondent:hihi...tis thread is expiring soon...but i have qns to ask...
1) does buddha answer prayers?
2) if the answer to above is yes, then how does he answers?
3) from wad i noe, buddha has no power to change fate...doesnt tis suggest theres sth greater than him whom buddha himself cun control/change?
There are no beings higher/ greater than the buddha. -
I'm not very good at this but its my 1 cent opinion of what I think.Originally posted by despondent:hihi...tis thread is expiring soon...but i have qns to ask...
1) does buddha answer prayers?
2) if the answer to above is yes, then how does he answers?
3) from wad i noe, buddha has no power to change fate...doesnt tis suggest theres sth greater than him whom buddha himself cun control/change?
Question 1 and 2: It will depend on what the person is "praying" for. In Buddhism, it is called veneration, paying homage and honor. Paying homage and honor to the Buddha will generate positive energies or merits and in turn this merit will be able to help one, in terms of reducing the effect of negative/bad karma. Beside that, one also can ask for blessing from the Buddha, to overcome obsticles and karmic obstructions.
But "praying" for worldly gains such as Toto and 4D will not work. This is because if it is your karma to have it, it will be yours, the conditions will need to be right for it to ripe.
Question 3: This is quite simple. If there is a someone that can change or control fate, you will not see poverty, diseases, death and even hatred in this world. By popular demand, everyone will believe in that someone or something.
Maybe AEN will provide better explanations. -
(double post)
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1) Possible but depends. I do not believe every prayer needs to be answered. But if you look at the Mahayana Lotus Sutra, you will see countless examples of how the compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (i.e. Guan Yin) is able to save sentient beings from disasters, dangers and calamities, and how the Guan Yin disguises/transforms himself/herself to countless forms in order to lead sentient beings to liberation.Originally posted by despondent:hihi...tis thread is expiring soon...but i have qns to ask...
1) does buddha answer prayers?
2) if the answer to above is yes, then how does he answers?
3) from wad i noe, buddha has no power to change fate...doesnt tis suggest theres sth greater than him whom buddha himself cun control/change?
2) It depends.
3) Buddha is the highest being. Any types of Arya (enlightened beings) are higher than samsaric beings, and Buddha is the highest kind of Arya. But we must be reminded that we all have fully perfected and complete Buddha Nature innate in every being, just yet discovered. All of us can and will eventually all attain Buddhahood, just a matter of time. Of course, this is not an excuse for Buddhists not to practice, because as the Buddhist saying goes -- human birth is rare, the conditions of coming in contact with dharma are rare, among many other kinds of conditions and they are all present... if we do not cherish this opportunity, we may well get stuck in Samsara for aeons before finally coming back on path.
Nobody has power over someone elses' karma, however one has control over one's karma. Karma is not fate, and it is not determinism, because the different kinds of karma are the result of our wholesome, unwholesome, or pure thoughts, speech and action.
Because Buddhism does not believe in a Creator that judges, but rather that Karma is a universal law and natural phenomenon, based on causes, (conditions) and effect, nobody can have power over the the law of karma. Even the highest samsaric being in our universe, the Maha Brahma, who claimed to be the supreme Creator, is under the law of karma (even though he may not know it in the beginning).
However, it is possible that we stop creating karma, and after one attains enlightenment one naturally stops accumulating karma due to the ending of dualistic volition... and hence stops creating the causes for future samsaric births. (He may however continue to come back by his choice due to his compassionate Bodhisattva vows)
To one who is liberated, good and bad things occur but the practitioner remains unmoved and liberated, emersed in the highest bliss of Nirvana. He transcends the world amidst the world, and is freed from all sufferings. Through the practice of dharma we can live a life liberated and blissful at all times. -
hello...i am back wif qns... 1) if my family juz experienced a death, is it buddhist teachings tat we have to abstain from visitations during CNY or wedding dinners since we r supposed to bring forth bad luck? 2) since buddhism says tat we r the master of our own destiny, does tis mean tat right n wrong r determined by our own conscience? is it suggersting tat the human conscience is perfect?
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
I believe watching porn is not sexual misconduct but it plants the seeds of sexual misconduct.. if not in this life, future lifetimes because the imprints in our 8th consciousness will be brought forward to the next life. A person who is constantly obsessed with lust might also fall into the Animal or hungry ghost realm next life... or worse if he commits many sexual misconducts (any extra-marital sexual activities wld be considered sexual misconduct) or even rape he might even fall into hell. The very important part of Buddhism is the purification of the mind (The 7 Buddhas gatha which says Avoid all evil, Do all good and Purify the Mind) which only Buddhism teaches the third part which leads to liberation...
Actually purification of the mind is not just a matter of getting rid of unvirtuous thoughts but rather being liberated from attachment to all thoughts whether good and bad, but if we are still attached to strong craving and unvirtuous thoughts we are far from being purified from these defilements. As a Buddhist we must also be constantly mindful/aware and to get rid of any bad habits we are still attached to in life... My master says this must be the very least a Buddhist must accomplish.Sexual misconduct in Buddhism refers to both pre-marital and extra-marital right?
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This post by despondent shows karma in action.
I learnt a lot about Buddhism and other beliefs through this post; how to tell them apart..etc. This has always been my purpose here: To answer the question: Why am I learning about Buddhism? What is Buddhism? Is it historical, is it true?..etc
I try to ask a lot of questions here, but somehow I wasn't able to ask like despondent. I have also yet to receive so many detailed responses about basic or advanced Buddhist concepts.
I believe despondent has deep karmic affinity with Buddhism and with the forummers here, which would explain why so many here, Buddhists or not, are coming in to respond to his many questions with patience and respect.
Even though you are a Christian, despondent, I personally believe as a Buddhist, you will be a great help to all mankind should you choose to promote, or bring about inter-religious harmony and respect when you understand more and more about Buddhism and its core values.
I wish you all the best in your faith as a Christian, and may your God and his angels watch over you and your family.
Take care. ^_^
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Now Bohiruci mentioned earlier that enlightened people are selfless and so on but I would say this is not exactly a very good description and guage of enlightenment. Why? Because there are many unenlightened people who are selfless, who have faith and wisdom (though not Prajna wisdom). There are many selfless people who dedicated their lives to humanity, and everyone Buddhists or Non-buddhists ought to aspire to learn from them or be like them... however they may not necessarily have awakened to the nature of reality. Of course, with the realisation of no-self one naturally becomes not attached to 'self' but then again 'selfless' does not necessarily equate to no-self as dharma seal, as the nature of characteristic of reality that comes from insights.. (Buddhist practices such as insight meditation and many other different buddhist practices are aimed at developing these insights)
I agree totally that there are many unenlightened people who are selfless. However for easy secular (and/or for beginner Buddhists) understanding, using the word 'selfless' to explain enlightment of the most basic level by any man is better than explaining concepts like prajna wisdom, anatta or emptiness. It is more straightforward, more direct than having to spend two or more pages on the subject or more than a few days to properly explain them.
Any person who truly understands emptiness and is able to practice non-attachment in every aspect of his/her life will essentially be a Arahant or a Buddha. Ask him/her any question, he will be able to answer you in a way that never leaves any doubts and has the utmost consideration for your level of understanding and acceptance. He/she will not be agitated by your stubborness, impatience or insults.
If you meet someone like that who can behave like that to everyone throughout his/her lifetime, that person can be considered to be enlightened, but whether he is an Arahant, Bodhisattva or Buddha, no one can tell except for those who are fellow Arahants and above.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
(continued from previous post)
Enlightenment is not as rare as some people might believe, for example, in Buddha's lifetime alone it was recorded that thousands of his disciples attained Arhatship, with many more attaining the lower paths like non-returner, once-returner, stream enterer. There are also many Bodhisattvas of various bhumis even those at very high bhumis. Even today there are many of these enlightened people around. Therefore attaining enlightenment is not something limited to very special people.. ordinary practitioners can all get enlightened if they practise the dharma.I wish to point out that although many gained enlightment of some level, be it 1st stage of sainthood or Arahanthood during Buddha's time, it will not be so in our Dharma-Ending age.
"末法亿亿人修行罕一得é�“，惟ä¾�念佛，得度生æ»"
(The above is translated as: During the Dharma-Ending age (this refers to the age we are all in now), there may be countless people cultivating the Way, but hardly more than one would achieve true liberation. Only by reciting/contemplating the Buddha's way or name, can one gain deliverance from endless cycles of birth and death)
This well-known Buddhist quote is supported by the Larger Amitabha sutra (æ— é‡�寿ç»�). The verse is as follows:
The Buddha further said, "I have expounded this teaching for the sake of sentient beings and enabled you to see Amitayus and all in his land. Strive to do what you should.
After I have passed into Nirvana, do not allow doubt to arise. In the future, the Buddhist scriptures and teachings will perish.
But, out of pity and compassion, I will especially preserve this sutra and maintain it in the world for a hundred years more. Those beings who encounter it will attain deliverance in accord with their aspirations.
http://www12.canvas.ne.jp/horai/dai-41-48.htmAll teachings will disappear except for those that preaches the Amitabha Buddha's Pureland and the methods to achieve rebirth in that Buddhaland.
This is how severe the situation is in our Dharma-ending age. It is not to scare anyone or to discourage anyone, but to see the real alternatives before us.
Although many have gained enlightenment as pointed out by AEN, this is still considerably very insignificant when compared to the Buddha's time or considering the total population of the world or true Buddhist practitioners in our era.
Those enlightened beings that we may or may not know or heard from others, we do not know if all of them has indeed attained complete liberation from countless cycles of birth and death, for which in my opinion and from Buddhist sutras would be considered least basic and true achievement of one's enlightment.
If any dharma door that you learn at this lifetime cannot guarantee that you gain liberation from life and death for future lifetimes, then it can be considered to be irrelevant or useless for you.
All dharma doors preached by the Buddha are right in that they all lead to liberation; but it is dependent on the individual's karmic affinity and good karma. Choosing the wrong dharma door will mean you may take an unnecessarily long time to be finally free from rebirth, enlightment in the form of Arahant or Bodhisattva is just a convenient reference point.
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Originally posted by despondent:
hello…i am back wif qns…
1) if my family juz experienced a death, is it buddhist teachings tat we have to abstain from visitations during CNY or wedding dinners since we r supposed to bring forth bad luck?
For 1), nope. First of all, Buddhism comes from India, and there is no Chinese New Year in India. Buddha also refrained from talking about weddings, because weddings and celebrations and customs are all worldly behaviors, and differs from cultures to culture. Buddhism is essentially trans-cultural, and trans-traditional. The truths are universal and apply to all suffering beings.
I have no problems at all with visiting during any event, CNY, wedding, even if a family member has passed away. But to respect long held traditions, it may be inappropriate for me to do so. But this is definitely not a Buddhist tradition.
2) since buddhism says tat we r the master of our own destiny, does tis mean tat right n wrong r determined by our own conscience? is it suggersting tat the human conscience is perfect?
Buddhism believes in karma, and if your conscience is a screw up and you think killing people is right, you will still suffer in hell. Those who are ignorant of law of karma (and other things) are usually those who create grave unwholesome karma.
The common afflictions among all suffering beings are Greed, Hatred, Ignorance, that makes us trapped in the sufferings of samsara.