My person remembers a possible common know story about a Brahman collecting as much as possible cow's leading to sorrows for poor. The Sublime Buddha approached him one day, gave a talk and later he released the cows. It might be that's just a later tale not found in the scripts, my person just does not remember where having been come across aside in an illustrated "Children"-book. Good if one likes to share messages on livelihood. *[Note that this isn't given for stacks, exchange, other world-binding trades but for release from this wheel]*

Let’s say that my face was itchy but just before I scratch it, I just remember that there might be face mites living on my face and I might be killing them. And as I’m scratching my face, I keep thinking that I might be killing the face mites. My original intention was to scratch my face but if I think I might be killing the face mites but continue to scratch my face because it’s itchy then does that count as breaking the first precept?

I want to know how can I develop patience? What Buddha said on this? And also what is the reason of being impatient?

I purchased this beautiful figurine, but actually I have no idea what exactly it represents. Maybe somebody can tell me more about the symbolism in it (including the mudra)?

I wonder if 'Consciousness' is many "Facets Of One Entity" and that in itself all things from Good to Bad are part of this entity, and from this the Entity is itself playful, and that all actions (karma's) are created by itself? Otherwise, are we in purgatory held by another consciousness? Could liberation be the realisation of this?

I want to know more about Gautama Siddharta teachers,
I know only little about their philosophy and practice that are mentioned in suttas. (eg. [Ariyapariyesana Sutta](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html)) Is there any other texts which explains little more about them.

I would not be writing this if I had another way of knowing the answer. Unfortunately, I cannot talk to anyone due to quarantine. Even though I have thought a lot about it, I am still unsure. My question is this: **"Is art bad karma?"** To preface, I am a Theravadin woman. As you know, women cannot be ordained. So, I try my best to follow the monastic rules but stay outside of a monastery. I would like to follow the strictest Buddhist teachings. Now, I will write what I have thought about art. Firstly, the Buddha does not speak much about householders in comparison to monks. However, the popular consensus seems to be that he allows laypeople to have their cultures. Yet, different countries also seem to have different monastic cultures, too, despite being ordained. Secondly, part of this culture is Buddhist art like sculptures and narrative tapestries. Thirdly, since the Buddha allows written works, narrative art may be permitted as a form of visual communication like writing and the Buddha's own speech can be poetic. Recently, I have promised myself that I would finish an art project and then move onto a fully religious life. However, I have repeatedly been stopped from progressing by a great pain in my heart at the prospect of never doing art again. Music is meant to seduce people with melodies. Likewise, acting is lying to arouse extreme, perhaps negative, emotions in people. Dance is the most lustful artistic field. I took the same attitude to visual art, seeing it as being influenced by lust and anger. However, in my art (which I have felt guilt for doing due to my opinions of it), I have slowly realised that I do not have lustful or wrathful intentions. My art depicts my culture (Japanese): marriage, funerals, temples, mythological figures, daily life, mountains, etc. I wanted to preserve the cultural narrative for my own peace of mind, rememberance, meditation, and future generations. Considering all that I have said and seen about culture and art and Buddhism and karma, is art bad karma? If someone has a specific quotation on this, please let me know. Any comments, I appreciate.

I came across this section by chance, and read another question by a person with misanthropic feelings. I read all the answers because I feel the same as her. I've always been spiritual with an interest in Buddhism and Taoism, but it seems to slip away. I too suffered a lot because of others, but what really got me into this misanthropic state is the suffering of so many animals at the hands of humans. It saddens me so much and I begin hating people because of it. Not all people, just a lot. It also saddens me a lot to see children suffering but because they turn possibly into cruel people themselves. The plight of animals gets me more. I find them more special and innocent than people yet they have to suffer so much. A lot anyway. Now, the responses to that other persons question helped me realize some things, but I'm still struggling with the suffering of animals. Why can't they be spared if suffering is a tool to evolve? Studying psychology, biology, anthropology and neuroscience I can't help thinking that humans are acting based on chemical, biological or psychological reactions of the brain. There is no enlightenment, just another religious promise - like heaven, enlightenment or the 11 virgins - depending on the belief. I feel like I have no more answers, only confusion and questions, and i also feel like I've reached a point where I'm so fed up with the suffering of animals, children or good people. I'm so tired of it all. Not in a sense that i want to hurt those cruel people, but in a sense of wanting to leave it all behind. But if i did, then I wouldn't be around anymore to help loved ones or some of the animals. Emotionally I suffer because I can't make even a dent and physically because I work hard to help out as many as I can.

One of the absorption is of Infinite Space. Did the dimension of Infinite Space had a beginning and therefore it is impermanent and non-self? If yes then how much time did it took for this 'plane of existence' of infinite space to begin from 0 to infinity? Was it instantaneous? (I will explain my second question in greater detail : suppose you leave planet Earth completely and all forms vanish then you enter dimension of infinite space ....my question is :this dimension of infinite space was always there and you just entered it or does it have a beginning and you entered it?)

In Tibetan Buddhist teaching it is stated that we will be in bardo state for 49 days before rebirth. So during this period we can still communicate with the dead? What is the Buddhist view on this? Can the dead communicate with the living, for example via chimes (making sound notes that only the family member will know)? Is it possible or just a joke? In Tibetan Buddhism it's still possible, because i read their system on how to find the dead Dalai lama via a dream. But based on my research, all experiment to communicate with the living one, which done by many famous people is failed. For example: - Ian Stevenson promised will tell a code of the safebox to all the worker colleagues. Failed! - Houdini promise to do everything possible to communicate with his wife Bess Houdini. Also failed! - The Beatles also doing this experiment: they promise whoever die first will contact the living one. Also failed. - And many others

I was reading these two suttas and at the the end of both the monks seem to leave although Citta has offered to care for them. Is this a rejection of his Dana? Did Ven. Mahaka do something wrong by his display of concentration?

I think Buddhists agree that the past cannot return, look at e.g. Dogen on firewood, or perhaps the Awakening of Faith > all that had been conceived in the past was as > hazy as a dream, that all that is being conceived in the present is > like a flash of lightning, and that all that will be conceived in the > future will be like clouds that rise up suddenly. There are no "wholes" in Buddhism. But are there, conventionally speaking? > Vasubandhu rejects both wholes and combined sets (whether cohesive or > merely contiguous). Wholes are rejected by appealing to the Buddhist > reductionist principle which says that only the component parts of an > entity are real (aggregated wholes, on this view, are not). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mind-indian-buddhism/ I was merely some things may be of the sort that could *potentially* be wholes, but never are: and so they are never complete. Is that the case, why, and if so, so what? ---------- Take the canonical example of a chariot. Does anyone say that the chariot is not ultimately real, but you can conventionally find the chariot in among its parts - that it has then itself as a part - meaning the chariot appears to be a whole: it is potentially but not actually as there is always more.

Is it way of Arhat, who does not cling to dhamma? By non-clinging even to dhamma, he set free? Dhammas are diad, 1) Samudaya Dhamma and 2) Nirodha Dhamma. I feel lost I think due to these: 1)view clinging: such as eternalism (e.g., "The world and self are eternal") 2)self-doctrine clinging: self-identification with self-less entities. Can only monks attain Nirvana? Have I to renounce for cessation of clinging? Please guide us. Thanks in advance!

I read somewhere (perhaps in an unreliable introduction to Tibetan beliefs) that rebirth is conditioned by the last thought before death (or perhaps affected by a thought or desire that you have *after* death). Another belief that's similar, if not the same, is that a person may have had some (good or bad) life but that having some (bad or good) final dying thought determines their rebirth (e.g. into hell or heaven). 1. When (historically) was this view introduced into scriptures? 2. What is the evidence and/or reasoning for this view? 3. Is this view espoused by all schools of Buddhism, or do different traditions have different views? It seems to me that my mind has or generates lots of semi-random thoughts: they're like memories, or dream fragments, etc., they come and go. That kind of ideation (often visual images, fragmentary visions of people I've known or of places I've seen) is especially apparent when I'm asleep-and-dreaming. They're also apparent if I'm feverish and/or [delirious](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delirious) . I expect that people often aren't at their most mentally acute when they're dying. 4. Are we supposed/expected to have some kind of control over such thoughts/ideas/images? Or are these too *anatta*, and neither 'self' nor 'controlled by self'? If it's true that they are not self, and not subject to control-by-self, then how are they associated with the *kamma* which affects rebirth? Or is it some other, different kind of "last thought" which affects rebirth? Googling to try to begin to research this topic I found [this brief article which describes 'the Last Thought Moment'](http://www.buddhisma2z.com/content.php?id=223) and which says for example, > Later still, the theory developed that the last thought moment (*cuticitta*) a person has before they die will determine their next life. This idea, now current in **Theravāda**, seems to be an unjustified development of the Buddha’s teachings and at odds with his idea of **kamma** and the efficacy of morality. 5. Is this article reliable, i.e. is true as far as you know, or does it say some things that would contradict or add to? 6. The [account of the Buddha's own death](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.16.1-6.vaji.html) is of his having mastered *jhanas*, and making use of that ability at the time of his death: > And the Blessed One entered the first jhana. Rising from the first jhana etc. Is this what everyone is supposed to do when they die? Must we (and can we) hope that we will be so lucid at the time of death? Aren't people often unconscious or asleep or perhaps in a coma or something when they die? 7. Can you summarize what conclusion you draw, about - How to practice Buddhism now? - What if anything to expect or hope at time of death? - Whether death and rebirth are even especially worth thinking about (or whether we're even capable of thinking about them), or whether it's more important/useful to think about this life?

How is death perceived in various schools of Buddhism? Are they all same ? What is death according to Buddhist monk and lay Buddhist? Are there references / materials by monks on death bed about death?

When a human being dies, their body dissolves into other bodies, i.e., other humans, plants, air, water, rocks, sand, etc. But what really happens to our 1. Consciousness 2. memory 3. thoughts 4. intelligence & 5. Karma

China, Japan, Korea, etc. have so many companies and Buddhism is widespread in those areas. My question is: can a Buddhist make the aim of his life to run a billion dollar business?

I had a weird experience couple of days ago while doing meditation, I hope someone more expert than me could help me understand.Two months ago I started practicing 30 min of yoga and 30 min of mindfulness meditation daily, everything was going good and I felt some changes in me, little by little, I felt I was becoming kind of more aware of myself and my thoughts were slowly become less strong in my mind as I was slowly able to focus deeply inside myself. The other day while I was in a deep state , without thoughts I felt something at the bottom of my spine become hotter and hotter and all of a sudden a warm powerful energy moved upward my back. I immediately felt an intense feeling of ecstasy (as I would take drugs), my head started to spin and I lost balance. Also I had a strong sense of nausea and I had diarrea. I also felt that something was released at the level of my hips. At that point I got really scared and I opened my eyes but the feeling was still there, I felt really peaceful , complete absence of thoughts and like if I was completely extraneous of my body and nothing in life was really important anymore. Also I noticed my senses were a lot more accurate. That feeling decreased a bit over the night and the day after I wakes up completely in hang over, and I remember I could see the colours a lot more bright, and I was really sensible to light. I got really scared From this experience and I’m not able to do meditation anymore , I feel like that if I dig a little bit inside me I can “touch” that energy again but I don’t want to!can someone explains what happened to me ? Sorry for my bad English , I’m not native English speaker. Cheers

How can I clearly see the lessons my soul needs to learn this lifetime? I am a householder who has a wonderful life in New Zealand. There have been difficult times too, but even though, as a child I suffered, I was able to self soothe with meditation which I have no idea how I discovered. I have carried this practise with me through my life. Happy as I am, I have this feeling that I am not seeing clearly , the things my soul needs to work on this reincarnation. How can I make sure I don’t waste this rebirth?

Thomas Cleary uses the term "enlightening being" extensively in his translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra . This term isn't defined in the glossary of that book, or in my copy of The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism . Is there a canonical definition of "enlightening being"? Edit: Thanks useful comments by @ChrisW and @KayCee, I see in Appendix 1 "bodhisattva or enlightening being". I'm finding it helpful to read this Appendix before returning to the Introduction.