Ben wrote: S.N. Goenka wrote: There is so much misery all around. If we can wipe the tears of even a few people who are suffering, we have paid back a little of our debt of gratitude to the Buddha and to the Sangha, the chain of teachers who have maintained the tradition from ancient times. May all...

There is so much of alcohol stashed away in our home , my Father having been an army man has accumulated much of these bottles in the cabinets , although he has the discipline of having the barest abstemious amounts once in a blue moon. Please see my earlier thread on Exorcising Evil Spirits Well t...

Gifts of alcohol are Unrighteous Giving adhamma-dāna, and unwholesome kamma. Obeying your father by running an errand for him is wholesome kamma. The volition to buy alchohol is his, the volition to help your father is yours. Compare the story of the Stream-winner who was married to a hunter. When ...

I was watching a movie a while ago and the love scene pretty much turned into pornography... I did not masturbate. Also, even more to the point, last night I clicked over to site with nude ladies, but after a few minutes I realized that I did not need to be doing that and left without masturbating....

But then Ben , why watch in the first place itself. I am not justifying indulging while watching , but to do away from unwholesome content ( whether or not there is subtle or gross mental proliferations occurring ) is very beneficial to the mind and well being . Hence , it is best to side step viole...

I had very many unpleasant experience too over the years - I attempted numerous ways to struggle to get rid of them. They never worked. They come and go on their schedule and have minimal concern on how the mind wishes. After long time struggle this way, the mind eventually gave up with hopeless &a...

It looks to me like you are trying to retrofit what you learned in the Goenka course into what you've been practising in the past. Goenka goes to great lengths to discourage this, the practice has nothing to do with energy it is about awareness and equanimity using changing bodily sensation as the ...

Thank you! Normally when I do metta for others it is for those I will see that day, because I feel it improves my behaviour to them - so sending it long distance is a bit of a change, hence my first question. Well , i get reminded of the sutta " Milind Panha " , wherein it is very correct...

Does buddhism believe the outside world is real, or is it just seeing? One approach to this question is this: "These three basic facts of all existence are: Impermanence or Change (anicca) Suffering or Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) Not-self or Insubstantiality (anattaa). To "see things as t...

Dear Feathers , Your Nan lived a good life , that by itself is very good metta. :smile: You can very well give her metta , which will definitely help. ( metta is not exactly a kind of prayer , where there is an unreasonable expectation of a turn around etc ., and is tinged with more of selfishness )...

Its a bit difficult when one encounters such situations . Good that you could save the the dog , and also the man from stretching his returns further . All this at your own peril . Got reminded of an incident a few years ago , when i was driving back home after picking up our two children from schoo...

Goenkaji Blessings .jpg The below link opens to a short video interview of about 16 minutes of the Vipassana Master SN Goenkaji at Berkley California , held in 2002 . Some of the questions asked were : 1) Are you enlightened ? 2) It seems that you disapprove of homosexuality/lesbians 3) Is being a ...

sometime recently , an awareness akin to daverupas avtaar impinged the body and mind . This changing process , further changed, from a very dynamic arising and passing of flare like changes , to a very very quiet , slow, but all engulfing and consuming flux of change , where the observer , the obser...

According to the prophecy of the monk Mogaliputta Tissa, a bodhisattva was going to set in motion the Dhamma wheel once again from Jambudīpa 2,500 years after the Mahāparinibbāna of Gotama the Buddha. A leading periodical in India , cites the Indian Government has found astronomical jump in figures ...

If there is a pot of water which is turbid, stirred up and muddy, and this pot is put into a dark place, then a man with a normal faculty of sight could not properly recognize and see the image of his own face. In the same way, when one's mind is possessed by doubt, overpowered by doubt, then one ca...