As most of you will now know the Venerable Bhikkhu Samahita is no longer with us. I only found this out this week and he has been on my mind ever since. We will never know the circumstances of the Venerables death, but his passing seems such a missed opportunity to reach out and help a member of the...

Hello everyone, I apologise if this has been posted already. This morning I received an email from Venerable Bhikkhu Samahita or so I thought, it was from his son informing those who supported him that he had committed suicide about a month ago, and had been cremated and interred in a Buddhist cemet...

The implication of Pure Land Buddhism to me is this: Was Gotama negligent by not creating his own pure land for his disciples? I don't think so. In the Digha Nikaya which I'm reading currently, the Buddha make references to heavenly rebirths or rebirth in the realm of deva's. Now of course such reb...

In the translation I'm reading its referred to homosxuality in other translations it's sexual deviant. Hi GC. It appears this matter cannot even be regarded as a "mistranslation" because "homosexuality" is completely unrelated to the very broad Pali word found in this sutta. I h...

There is nothing held back to be revealed later. So my view is perhaps Pureland is more of an attributed teaching rather than direct from the historical Buddha. In many Mahayana sutras such as the Lotus sutra, the Buddha quotes the name of the sutra over and over, but of course this would have been...

Hi Forgive me if this is in the wrong place. I have been working my way through the Digha Nikaya and have come across something that has got me rather upset. As a gay man, I came to Buddhism for it's welcoming friendly, humanistic approach, imagine my dismay reading the cakkavatti sutta only to read...

Hi everyone, Okay, so I'm working my way through Theravada Sutta's now that I have returned to this tradition. I am now reading the Samannapala Sutta :reading: . In the section Silakkandha Vagga the Buddha (/\) tells the king the monks or samana's can achieve supernatural powers, walk on water, thro...

I did not find a thread on this important topic. So here is a little from Harvey's Introduction to Buddhist Ethics (313) to start us off. The definition of a human being is clear. Given the Buddhist view of embryonic life, it is not surprising that causing an abortion is seen as a serious act: When...

We might occasionally encounter these vile, ignorant brutes and their views. Now these "slow" people could never "win" fairly so they tend to cheat and use lowly tactics. As i see it if the weaker opponent cheats it is still possible to win unless the cheating is of such nature ...

Hi everyone, I'm currently reading the Majjhima Sila, in verse 25 the Buddha says he avoids mathmatical calculations, would this mean that we too should avoid this? Only my line of work is in accountancy. Also he would avoid performing surgery, prescribing and taking medicines. I take medicines as I...

Do followers of Pure Land meditate a lot or does practices consist of mostly chanting? Pureland practice consists of a short service in reverence to Amitabha Buddha, the recitation of the shorter pureland sutra followed by chanting Namo Amitabha Buddha. Along with meditation, observation of the pre...

LuisR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:41 am Do followers of Pure Land meditate a lot or does practices consist of mostly chanting?

Pureland practice consists of a short service in reverence to Amitabha Buddha, the recitation of the shorter pureland sutra followed by chanting Namo Amitabha Buddha.

Hi everyone, I'm possibly going to offend some people here and I apologise in advance. I have been practicing Pureland for years though I've started to return to the school where it all began Theravada. When I started with Theravada I felt it was just a little beyond my understanding and not knowing...

Hi everyone!:) This may be a long winded post so I apologise! I became a Buddhist in 2007/08 and I initially came across the practices of Theravada, For about two years i practiced Theravada Buddhism but being very isolated and english sutta transaltions few and far between, I moved over to Pureland...

Hello everyone, I came across this post while surfing looking for something pureland related (thanks google lol!) I just want to add my opinion here. I'm a pureland buddhist, but before I started learning the pureland teachings, I began with Theravada. My journey began in 2008, I practiced meditatio...