The Rev

Update:

I will be taking refuge (the Buddhist equivalent of being baptized, more or less) on Feb 4th. This is the day of Master Sheng-Yen's passing, and I chose it as a way to show gratitude for his teachings and his work in spreading the Dharma. Sheng-Yen was the teacher of my teacher, and a rather influential modern Buddhist, much in the spirit of Pema Chodron or The Dalai Lama.

I will try to get some pix or even video if I can, to post here. I'm still not sure what all my teacher has planned in terms of ceremony, tests, or ninja-fighting as part of the event, so we'll just have to see.



The Rev

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The Rev

The Rev

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SageTree

Right Rev!!!

I hope your Lotus continues to grow and bloom over and over!!!!

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Wirikuta

wow Rev, quite a phrase, I´m putting in my signature right now.

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Pot doesnt create bad situations, but it breeds apathy towards them.


The only thing in the universe that really rquires faith is a bad salesman.


peace, Wirikuta

SageTree

If you like that finish reading this maybe?

Buddha's suggestions for inquiry

The underlined text is a like to the whole Sutta.

I've included Buddha's suggestions for inquiry and the intro/preface to the Sutta.

Enjoy, In Joy.

SageTree

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The Rev

I took the three refuges today, so I'm an official Buddhist. I should have some pix to post next week. You shall now know me by my Dharma name, "Clear Light"



The Rev

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Wirikuta

congrats! looking forward for the pics.

BTW, tried to put the phrase in my signature, but I guess it has too many characters.

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Pot doesnt create bad situations, but it breeds apathy towards them.


The only thing in the universe that really rquires faith is a bad salesman.


peace, Wirikuta

OldMan&TheWeed

I just ran across this thread today.

What an interesting coinsidence. I've been exploring Buddahism for the last few months as well. I've read a few books, Stephen Bachelor's Buddahism Without Belief has been quite influential, as Buddahism: It's Not What You Think.

I haven't made contact with any community or organization yet, but that day will come.

Good Luck

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

OldMan&TheWeed

Amen to that

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

The Rev

Amituofo! Here are the pix from my Refuge Taking ceremony.



The Rev

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toastyroach

rev... you fucking rock !!!

Can you recommend a good buddhist text for beginner?? so far... I only have the new testiment of the bible... which IMO is an awesome buddhist text ... few people understand that jesus (if he was real) was likely one of the few enlightened ones...

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

SageTree

Zen mind: Beginners mind, by Susuki is an awesome book Toasty.

Thich Nhat Hahn is another fantastic writer.

These aren't 'texts' in the Biblical sense, and while there are Sutras and so for that are, All writings about Zen have their own 'textish' quality since enlightenment is here and now, always accessible... and maybe some of these 'texts' haven't caught on yet, but that doesn't make them less valid

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toastyroach

thanks friend..

so 'buddhist texts' is an incorrect term??

I do understand that there is no 'official' buddhist text like the bible... so what are they called, and how are they / who makes them?

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

SageTree

Nah.... there are still 'texts' no doubt..... maybe 'tracts' you could call them, some sutras are longer than others, some a page... some thousands of pages...

However I think there are still 'texts' in the universal sense to, as in, a writing that perfectly captures a teaching or a sutra.

Expounding and expounding and expounding on the basic concepts is basically what a lot of 'texts' are, because in the end it comes down to a few basic ideas, think 4 truths, 8 fold-path, 5 precepts and I'd throw emptiness and dependent arising/origination in there as key ideas.

There are words attributed to Buddha, but folks are pretty open to the fact that they been copied and remembered etc.

Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism is VERY different than Buddha in Theravada Buddhism, in MB, the historical Buddha is one of a billion Boddhisattvas, while in TB Buddha is VERY much about the historical Buddha.


Sutta- Pali writings and TB (the older school)
Sutra- Sanskrit in MB (the newer schools)

(Wikipedia those)

Many countries have different ways to approach them,

Therevada is more standard in the set it uses, they are called the Tripitaka

Mahayana Buddhism has a lot of different schools and therefore there are many different and particular sutras that are used.

Mahayana still recognize the Tripitaka, but also their expoundings of, which are what the Sutras are.

Mahayana Sutras, which is to say the many sutras.


Ask if you'd like to know more.

Buddhanet.net is a fantastic site for beginners and beyond....


Also, click on the monk in my sig for a series of Dharma talks on various topics.

-SageTree-

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toastyroach

thanks man... im currently reading "the spritual science of kriya yoga"... really good fucking book.. I even found a legit yoga place thats like 35 mins away but they do the legit, eastern style sprituality based yoga... I am gonna join soon...

I'm looking forward to learning more about buddhism... I meditate multiple times a day now.. I'm starting to go through the 12 steps with my sponser (who is a Reiki master BTW) and learning a lot about myself...

god is good

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

SageTree

Pramahansa Yoganada FTW!!!

His biography is SUPER good too man, HIGHLY recommended.

Is your 12 step secular group?

Glad you're finding your centre and discovering your Self.

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toastyroach

12 step is sprituality based!!! not religious...there is some judae-christian type AA groups that recite our-father, etc.. but I don't do those.. however I'm not closed off to them at all either - I'm honest, open-minded & willing to examine and apply any type of spritual belief... applying an 'insert my god here' mentality when needed... my higher power is the universe.... if you want me to get really honest ...

BTW that is the beuaty of 12 step groups... they literally TELL YOU to 'insert your own god here' when people mention 'god'.... they beat it in your head its a higher power of your own understanding, not whatever 'god' you were brought up to believe in.... I've fallin in love with this fellowship.. (i've met 1000+ people in the rooms and I've literally only seen a single time someone said 'my higher power is jesus'... and that is actually heavily frowned upon... the announcing a specific god; not believing in jesus).. like they say.. you try selling 'god' to junkies & drunks (it would never happen)

lol I/m not surprised *you* knew about this guy!!! this book is fucking awesome and it helped set me on my spritual journey while I was in there I found it in the library and they let me leave with it....

I promised myself, if I ever decided to go back to working in IT for international banks again... I would give up eating meat to balance my karma haha... Sage, I told you we were more the same now then ever before

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

SageTree

Well, as I'm sure you know... some groups HEAVILY suggest which 'spirituality' is the best, right ?

Thanks for the clarification about how you fit into it, I was genuinely curious. When I worked at a drop in centre I had to meet people where they were at, which often meant a 'Christian' model, especially since it was a Christian Drop in Centre! (Speaking of 'insert your/my God here')

I've seen a lot of 'god selling' like I said... and this is why I asked about it
It's refreshing to know there also might be an 'open minded' element to it as well when dealing with people in the future.

Lord if only we could beat that into EVERYONE'S head!

Yogananda is a Universalist imo, which makes him very accessible to others as they can see their own Path in His explanations. His talks on Christianity and the Crucifixion/Resurrection changed how I saw it immensely, and gave me a lot of language on experiences with it that I was already having.

If you ever need any recipes man... I have good sites.

It's never to early to have a few 'meat free meals' a week, ya know?

There is a lot of 'vegetarian' food out there that people ALREADY eat on the regular.

Mindfulness/Thankfulness go a long way man no matter what goes in your mouth.

It's what comes out that is most important.

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toastyroach

I've never even heard of a 12 step program that suggested 'what sprituality' to follow... umm... are you sure these were normal AA/NA meetings? there are christian based rehabs, crisis centers, etc... so I wouldn't expect anything less then having christianity beaten into you at those places.. and you said yourself that you were at a christian drop in center... so I'm not too surprised there... but as far as 12 steps go... really, there should never be specific information about god handed out to anyone there... if this did happen I would say, bad luck... because there's something like 50 million people doing 12 step program work, and I'd bet only a very very small percentage are trying to shove god down peoples throats (it would never work or be sucessful if people were doing this)

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

toastyroach

as far as information... dude, I'll take in everything I can find... I'm being overwealmed with literature right now but please don't stop posting it.. this is the higher thoughts forum after all... and I dont think rev minds what we are doing in this thread

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry