Has anyone read this book and is it any good?

Helps me not get angry while I drive.

Hehe, okay so i already added a post about malas but one of my friends sent me this and i wanted to know others opinions.

Should I buy it? I really find it beautiful and i have researched about different types of malas, but I could seriously use someone elses opinion since i’m still learning about them.

I’ve never seen a mala in real life, so I don’t know what to expect other than pictures online. Does this look good, like a typical mala for this kind should? I’ve never seen one with a crystal for the larger bead, so i’m a little confused. Sorry if my question is silly but i’ve been looking to buy some for a while now, but this is just one of my friends suggestion. Found it from some online store ❤️

-Peyton

i don’t know if this belongs here, but i would still appreciate someone reading it. i feel very lost and alone.

i’ll be the first to admit that i’m an emotionally intense person. i have struggled with my mental health since i was a young teen and many traumatic events have occurred in my life over the past two years. i struggle most with grief and attachment and abandonment issues. i am to a point now where i am scared for my life. my depression has become so overwhelming that i’m barely eating or sleeping or even taking care of basic hygiene. i have suicidal ideations everyday. i’m in therapy and on medication, but i still feel no relief.

i’m taking a worlds religions class in school and we just finished a unit on Buddhism. before going into my studies, i had a general idea of what Buddhism is and i recognize many of the concepts regarding mindfulness. i’ve become even more drawn to the concepts and philosophies of this religion since studying it more in depth in school.

i want to learn acceptance and find inner peace with my emotions and demons more than anything in the world. i just want rest and peace and hope. i wish i could live in the present instead of yearning for better days of the past or living preoccupied within a daydream. i’m starting to think maybe learning more will help me. i’m so scared i’m too far gone.

McMindfulness is this term created by Ronald Purser in his book, McMindfulness: The New Capitalist Spirituality. He argues that buddhism has basically been coopted by new-age capitalists into a practice solely focusing on mindfulness. Take Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is a guy who preaches constantly that mindfulness meditation will change the world and make people better, whilst simultaneously teaching mindfulness to the U.S. military and the CEOs of openly exploitative companies. Purser's message is that much of what we in the west learn about mindfulness is often a version of Buddhism neutered of any ethical, moral value and has instead become a practice solely dedicated to helping you increase focus and ignoring injustice. So, for instance, your wages get lowered. Rather than try to do something, unionize, fight the power, etc., mindfulness advocates teach you to ignore those feelings of indignation as 'just' feelings.

Essentially, much of the content of buddhism that western audiences get exposed to is this watered-down, deradicalized version of buddhism. In particular, it possesses a heavy emphasis on mindfulness when that is only one of the eight paths to enlightenment. Purser suggests that Buddhism--actual Buddhism--has the potential to be so much more.

Given that, how can I learn about authentic buddhism? Are there books, resources, guides anyone can suggest? To be clear, I don't just want self-help. I want the kind of Buddhist practice which will enable me to help others, not just myself.

In case someone points this out I know this is a Guanyin statue not Buddha haha. I was actually hiding my practice to my partner for a while because I was affraid to scare him (he has a few family members lost to a new age meditation/spiritual cult) so having a shrine for the first time is emotional to me! He said he loved the look of it !

Like mindfulness, some concepts can not be undestood without actually experiencing it. I have been practicing and studying Buddhism for the last year. I just started to get what it means by Buddha Nature. But it is very small tiny flame. In your personal experience, what it feels like to be with your Buddha Nature.

My grandmother was a survivor who moved to the US. She was a Korean Buddhist. I was so young but i remember her alter, her offerings, her pictures, incense, meditations and ceremonies. She never pushed it on me. I’d watch many times as she set up, prayed, meditated and so on. She answered my questions but never forced me in that direction. My mother was a Christian. Convinced my grandmother was sinning and inevitably, always told me my grandma wasn’t “saved”.

I lost my grandma when I was 12 years old. I stopped speaking Korean. I stopped learning traditional ways. I was so lost without her. Only now, at 27, have I felt a burning sensation that I need to carry on her traditions.

I’ve looked into Buddhism for many years. It felt wrong practicing something that wasn’t 100% what my grandma believed. What I mean is, it’s been hard to find traditional Korean teachings on the subject.

Maybe I’m just being picky and I wish I could have her guide me. I don’t know where to look.

I have a small alter that’s deconstructed right now. It feels incomplete. I wish I could have every piece set up exactly like her alter was but apparently my grandma had expensive taste.

I’m scared I’ll buy the wrong intense. I’m scared I won’t make the right foods. I’m scared my Buddha won’t look like the one she had. I want to make her happy.

It’s not just Buddhism. I want to celebrate the traditional holidays and give her the care and acknowledgement she deserves. I know there’s other subs to write to but this ones feels the most comforting. I was also hoping someone could give better insight on traditional Korean Buddhism.

It sounds like a great philosophy, but wouldn't a desire-less life make one completely unmotivated and apathetic towards anything?

i don't know if this belongs to thiz sub, but i know someone reading it. I feel like so sad, pain from my heart or somewhere because of this society and religious point of view. I'm Muslim(please I'm telling this because of just this problem, otherwise I don't care about religion, please don't see me as Muslim just I'm also a humen like everyone ) I'm 18 now, I passed my ordinary level exam with high results and I went to a one of the biggest sinhala school in Sri Lanka, doing comz English med for my ALs. Personally I'm a guy like who's always questioning, asking y, why this is like this, why we all r humans like that( I think I am against racism and also my mind says I may be Ethist) also I hv some best friends too, they all are Sinhalese ( I don't see them in religious views they feel live, sad, pain, lust all the other stuff like me, then) bt recently one of my friend called me as තම්බියා (thismay be a joke bt hurts me lot and lot) all this stuff bcz of this fu#king religions and in scl No matter how many friends I have, they still see me as a Muslim(like I'm from another universe) I love nature so much I also go temples, churches, and everywhere. But the this I feel so pain for the way how people see me, I loved a girl in my high scl one day she seems to so sad with tear full eyes, (true love and she's a pretty girl I'll never forget her and also I know she'll forget me) when I go near by her, she cried on my shoulders after she said that her friends kidding her that she loving a Muslim guy and she's also gonna be Muslim(I hadn't sleep whole night bcz of pain) after that I said her just we need to break upwithout say anything......

Please I just want to share my pain or I don't know what's this. If u read this thanks just I don't wanna hate or anything.. sorry if there if some inappropriate or something btw I don't know what's most suitable title for this Thank u so much guys

(I don't typically use reddit, so im getting the hang of this app)

I've been looking into Buddhism for quite a while now (while still a bit new), and stumbled upon malas. Now, i've done my research on what type of mala I wish to buy, but the one thing I am receiving mixed signals on is how to wear the mala.

Most say to wear it around the wrist, and that shouldn't be too much of a problem. But when I ask about the neck, I get extremely mixed signals. I cannot wear it around my neck, and the next says I can with different reasoning. I hope I don't sound idiotic for these questions, I just am a bit afraid to do something wrong. I want to wear it around my neck, but majority resources I see say I can't. I don’t mind wearing it on wrist, but I am confused whether I can or actually cannot use my neck. Any response would help, thank you for your time!!!!

-Peyton

It’s from Japan, but does anyone know if it’s Nichiren or Jodo Shinshu? And how old it might be? Thank you 🙏

For example, many of the beliefs, deities and dharma protectors were originally from previous non-buddhist traditions. The concepts of rebirth in different realms, hell, and samsara existed in before Buddhism. Buddhist literature modified these preexisting ideas.

I've read the idea that the Buddha incarnated where he did because it was the ideal culture best suited to his teachings. And then there were 2 more turnings of the dharma wheel which continued to incorporate local beliefs of India, China, Japan, Tibet, etc. into Mayahana and Vajrayana traditions.

What is your well-reasoned explanation for why you believe these things literally rather than believing the ideas were a mental framework to yoke people's minds into different outlooks by using ideas they were already familiar with?

A sort of bonus question might be considering why Buddhism seems to have stopped incorporating local beliefs in any official way since spreading out to the rest of the world. Not only have I seen no evidence for it, but whenever there is any hint of it out there, it is generally condemned as New Age garbage that has nothing to do with real Buddhism. I am unaware of any "western" deities who have been converted to Buddhism and become bodhisattvas or dharma protectors. You'd think it would have happened by now.

When i was 15, i discovered about buddhism. I was pretty suicidal back then and i suppose i was looking for an alternative. wanted to put an end to my misery, so as i found buddhism.

I was really invested into it, i wanted to know more, i wanted to be closer to the 'self', i will be 18 next year, and i've decided to be a monk in the future. which isn't possible now, as i have reponsibilities and social role to play.

but in order to feel closer to my end goal, to buddhism and to 'self'

i decided to quit forming any romantic relation, and making an attempt to dettach my self from pre existing friendships, it was going great for a while.

but i feel deviated from my path now. distracted and guilty. a piece of your advice would be really appreciated. thank you

My mother (An Anglican) and I (former Protestant) have agreed to a deal where we share with each other books/podcasts/videos about our differing religious beliefs.

While she's pretty devout to her religion, I believe there are principals from Buddhism that could really help her work through the narratives that plague her mind, surrounding her self-esteem.

What books, videos, podcasts, etc would you recommend she starts with? Thanks :)

Edit: I'm pretty new to Buddhism myself, hence why I need suggestions. (:

The parts of the minds that love to measure the world out by the inch, sort it into little labelled boxes, and constantly chart our perceived progress through it so that it may compare itself to all others, those parts seem to absolutely love numbers. I have no issue with the wonderful and vast field known as mathematics, but the relationship the modern meditator has with numbers and quantity is a difficult one.

I'm sure we have all jostled with this urge to quantify. Meditation apps, habit apps, they are all about numbers and streaks. Well done, you have meditated for 432 days in a row, for an average of 8 minutes a day. Your sleep quality was 76%. You walked 2742 steps today. Your IQ is 98. You are 32 years old. Fine when one is counting beans, but difficult when one is measuring a vast experience like sleep, like intelligence, like meditation, it is like measuring the quality of a book by the number of words that are inside it. These things are helpful for the sake of comparison, but not for true description.

Yet when it comes to minds, I do not feel these fall under the comparable category. After all, the only mind we can claim to know is our own, and even then, it is bold to claim to know one's own mind in totality. So this is the paradox of modern meditation. We can't help but measure our sittings in time. Yet it demands us to enter states of mind more concerned with analysis and measurement than thoughtless attention. Social life is ordered in time routines so we must shape our sessions into available slots.

A meditation teacher once asked me: in an hour's sitting, how many times does your attention wander from your breath awareness? To answer I had to make up an approximate number, as of course I had not been counting, and it would feel wrong to count, to sit with your mind split in two, one half absorbed in the breath, the other half tracking great spreadsheets of information for some future report.

Comparing our modern age with 3000 years ago, the era of Guatama Buddha, it was a of course a different world. And one key great difference in that time would be their relationship to time, how they measured a sitting session. There are stories of using incense sticks: when the stick burnt out, the sitting was over. Stories of using sun angles to chart a passage of time, using animals. The relationship a meditator would have had with Time would have been more equal partners, rather than today's relationship in which we as a species have attempted to capture, enslave, and totally subjugate Time. These older practices feel like far gentler shackles to place upon a formless experience than setting a timer for 40 minutes, which can at times, feel in everyway a prison. We chain time to us and are chained by it in return.

When I have the (time), I love to use ancient methods like this. To sit until a candle burns out. Until the sun goes down. Until the birds begin to sing. I find my mind is less divided between the Witness and the Auditor.

I have no clear point, point of advice, or item to sell you on this, but it is a challenge I feel best is acknowledged and confronted as a key feature of this modern age. What are your thoughts?

I am wondering about Shakya Buddha's relationship with his dad, because I read the origin story of his awakening and he didn't seem to care about his dad as much as his wife and child before abandoning them to enter the forest. In The Life of Buddha it is written:

Chandaka,

Please do not forsake the king who so longs for his son!

p. 173

The Shakya Sage responds to his dad,

I will not go to the ascetic grove if:

My life is not subject to death,
Disease won't steal my health,
And old age will not overcome me

p. 138 - 139

The person most affected by this seems to have been his wife, Yosha-dhara

Responding,

Without him, there is no life for me,
as for a gravely ill man
without the right medicine

p. 239

The dad loses hope at the point of Buddha's departure, and interestingly enough I think he returns to Buddha and is proud, but I am not sure if that is true, may just be more lore that conflates with true history, please let me know your insight and scriptural evidence would be appreciated!

I know that bad karma could sometimes lead to somebody being reincarnated as an animal, although what happens when that animal dies as well? Were all animals born due as an animal due to bad karma in a past life?

I recently had a pet guinea pig that died - she ultimately couldn't really create either positive or negative karma due to her just being an animal that lived for 5 years, although i'm curious to know about where she would go now. How likely is it that she had bad karma in a previous life, which is why she was reborn as a guinea pig?

Like are people's gazes drawn to them? Are they charismatic?

A bit of an odd question but I have recently began to search for what tradition of Buddhism I really want to "identify" with. I am very drawn to Mahayana in general and have recently become really fascinated with Tiantai Buddhism. I like Tendai as well but want to focus on the Chinese traditions more prominently (I have a lifelong friend who could accompany me in China if I visit as they are a native to Beijing and would make traversing alot easier than visiting Japan).

I want to learn source materials and study beyond what is filtered back into English thru academia and general translations. Would it be worth actually learning Chinese for this or are translations sufficient? I ask because when it comes to Tendai, there is more available in English but for specifically Tiantai, more in still in Chinese than English.

Thank you for your time and if you have any resources for learning more on the Tiantai tradition generally, I'd love to hear it.