Thank you! I understand.

From Wikipedia: "Within the Abhidhamma, the mental factors are categorized as formations (Sanskrit: samskara) concurrent with mind (Sanskrit: citta)."

Are cetasikas and sankharas the same thing then or is there a difference?

During his time people simply called him Goṭama. "Buddha" is just his attainment. Buddhism at the time was called "Goṭama's Dhamma-Vinaya".

I don't think that the Buddha taught about Mount Meru. These must have been insertions in the texts.

The texts have been dabbled with, I'm telling you. Reason with the texts and don't believe everything there. I don't believe in most legends, either.

I just don't think heaven and hell last that long -- it doesn't make any sense to me. We should reason with the texts. I think there are many insertions even in Theravāda texts.

In his commentary, Buddhaghosa eventually increases the life of the sāsana to 5,000 years. During the first 1,000 years, he says, there will be arahants with the four analytical knowledges. The next 1,000 years there will be "bare insight" arahants. The next 1,000 years there will be anāgāmin (non-...

He didn't burn ALL of them. He burned them because they were wrong and would confuse and delude people.

I just don't think this is a good translation or what actually happened.

Tom wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2017 5:00 am Does attaining stream entry decrease sexual desire?

Not necessarily.

Hi Oli, glad to hear that.

Have we perhaps met at Wat Sriratanaram? Or is that a different Oli or Olly?

Hi! I live in Manchester, UK. I have visited a few temples and centres already. Just search for "Buddhist temples" or "Buddhist centres" on Google Maps and you'll find all of them. In the past, I have been associated with a Sri Lankan temple in Wythenshawe called Ketumati Buddhist Vihara. Just searc...

I know it's in the Dhammapada, but are there also other suttas where it's mentioned how "one sees one's past good or bad deeds"?

The Four Noble Truths are the main teaching in Buddhism.

In my opinion, ignorance is not understanding, knowing and seeing things in their true nature (as they really are), especially not knowing and seeing suffering, etc., while delusion means seeing things in a perverted, wrong way (the four vipallāsas): seeing the impermanent as permanent, taking what ...

Thank you, Bhante, for this exhaustive reply!