The common stanza describing qualities of dhamma goes as "Swakkatho bhagawatho dhammo sandittiko..." which describes six of them. I am looking for an accurate and concise translation of this from someone good in both Pali and English; and of course Buddhism

I want help tracking down two discourses. First discourse is where The Buddha is asked how long it takes to complete his training and he answers posing a counter question, then lists an amount of flawed qualities in a learner. It ends with him saying that if a disciple is of good quality the teaching can be reslized in 7 years... or in a day or so (this part similar to satipatthana sutta). I think this one is in the Anguttara Nikaya. The second discourse i've heard claimed to list factors which lead to success in one's pursuit and the two; - Thinking about the thing one is developing - surrounding oneself with people who are into it are included in that list iirc. Thanks

What are some "skillful means" of getting through holidays, birthdays, graduations and etc. when your in-laws are constantly making passive aggressive statements about you or the way you raise your kids. Are there Buddhist techniques one can use to aleviate the anxiety and the irritability associated with these situations?

According to the Theravada tradition, the Abhidhamma was taught by the Buddha. From "The Abhidhamma in Practice " by N.K.G. Mendis: > Theravaada tradition holds that the Buddha conceived the Abhidhamma in > the fourth week after his enlightenment, while still sitting in the > vicinity of the Bodhi tree. Tradition also has it that he first > preached the Abhidhamma to the assembly of deities in the Taavatimsa > heaven; his mother, reborn as a deity, was present in the assembly. > This can be taken to mean that the Buddha, by intense concentration, > transcended the earth-bound mentality and rose mentally to the world > of the deities, a feat made possible by his attainment of higher > powers (*abhiññaa*) through utmost perfection in mental concentration. > Having preached the Abhidhamma to the deities, he returned to earth, > that is, to normal human consciousness, and preached it to the > venerable Saariputta, the arahant disciple most advanced in wisdom. However, in this YouTube video , Ajahn Brahm stated that the Theravada Abhidhamma was not taught by the Buddha and that the complexity of the Abhidhamma is not needed. He said that the Buddha's original teachings in the Pali suttas is simpler and completely sufficient. One of the evidences he cited is as follows - only the Suttas (Dhamma) and the Vinaya were recited at the First Buddhist Council and there was no mention of the Abhidhamma. I quote from Harvey, P (2013), "An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices" (2nd Edition), Cambridge University Press, p. 88 : > Just after the Buddha’s passing away (c. 404 BCE), a 'communal > recitation' (council) of 500 Arahats was held at Rājagaha (Skt > Rājagraha, Vin.ii.284–7) to agree the contents of the *Dhamma* and > *Vinaya* which the Buddha had left as ‘teacher’ (D.ii.154). Ānanda, the > Buddha’s faithful attendant monk, recited the Suttas, such that each > begins: ‘Thus have I heard’. The monk Upāli recited the Vinaya. This wikipedia page on Theravada Abhidhamma states that according to scholars, the Theravada Abhidhamma was **probably** composed in 3rd century BCE, which is after the Buddha's lifetime. I also call it the Theravada Abhidhamma specifically, because there seems to be another Sarvastivada Abhidharma. So, my question is: Was the Theravada Abhidhamma really taught by the Buddha? Or is that an exaggeration?

Answering questions here in buddhism.stackexchange.com is often Dhamma teaching, or at least an effort of it. How can that be rightly done?

I am interested in what Buddhism has to say about the flow of energy in our lives. (For clarification, by "energy" i am referring to the concrete aspects of stamina/fatigue, feeling tired or having the strength to go about your day. I realize the topic of energy is broad, and dealt with in different yogic, para-psychological or pseudo-scientific contexts, but those aspects are out of the scope of my question). To the best of my knowledge, the extent of Buddhist commentaries regarding energy use concepts like indriyas/balanis and not least viriya. For instance, in AN 6.55 we can read that: >...when energy is too forceful it leads to restlessness. When energy is too slack it leads to laziness. So, Soṇa, you should apply yourself to energy and serenity, find a balance of the faculties, and learn the pattern of this situation. https://suttacentral.net/an6.55/en/sujato In SN 48.43 Buddha elaborates on the faculty of energy: > The faculty of energy is the power of energy, and the power of energy is the faculty of energy. https://suttacentral.net/sn48.43/en/sujato Possibly related, we can also read about piti, a feeling of energizing rapture (if you will) as a dhyana factor: >Here, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which consists of rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by thought and examination. https://suttacentral.net/an5.28/en/bodhi Seeing as tranquility in Buddhism is - arguably - given precedence over energizing i am assuming that the latter is somewhat subordinate, and dealt with to lesser degree than other Buddhist topics. Or am i wrong? What else can Buddhism teach us about energies? (This is a reference request.)

I started with a new goal: meditate for a month daily and it reminds me of my experiences during group meditations in the past. After relaxing the body, it gets very hard to breathe, my chest feels very heavy or like something is on top with a lot of pressure. I feel like I should breath deeply all the time, yet still feel like I don't have enough air. A bit scary too. Has anybody experienced the same?

A person told here, that wholesome (kusala) means absence of passion (desire, will..., raga, lobha, chanda...). Is that right? If, why. Is it wrong? If, why? No need to have passion to answer the question, of cause. *(note: this is not for entertaining, trade, exchange or stacks that binds, but to get attached to liberation and for a leave.)*

Do any Buddhists say that everyone's Buddha nature repeats an infinite number of times? To be specific, I mean that everyone's -- including Sakyamuni's -- life, or perhaps just karma, is repeated over and over again, timelessly and forever. I'm asking, because I think that's what I believe [that's all]. The Fan Wang Ching says that Sakyamuni manifests *billions* of times, but does anything claim he appears an infinite number of times, or eternally [I don't mean permanent].

How would one deal with a verbally or otherwise abusive partner who gets upset over nothing and let's anger loose? Assuming the abuser realizes they have a problem but are unable to solve the behavioral issue. How could one best advise everyone involved in such a relationship based on the Buddhist texts & practices? Would be great if answers are referenced but it's not a requirement. Thanks

This post is a revision of https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/39546/buddhism-or-christ which already closed. I posted that _Buddhism or Christ?_ question on a Christian forum too, and after quite a response from them, I felt I have some clues. I used to be a loyal person and have been studying Buddhism for 6 years. Indeed it helps me a lot to be a better person and almost 100% of my doubt and direction can be found from the legacy of Buddha. Now I have been in Church as an observer for 1 year. I have an influential and high-level family of Christ that is eager to invite me into Christianity. They even speak at country council level for all the Christian activities. But, I really miss so much of Buddha's teaching and I really want to do something for Buddhism before I turn to Christianity. But it will create a lot of complications; but I found the below is necessary to clear the misconception and Buddha's name. I believe all Buddhist has responsibility on the below. 1. There are too many misconception especially to Buddhism and Taoism -- [Top 10 MISCONCEPTIONS about BUDDHISM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlQ0UZ1C2I) . Many Buddhism or Taoism disbelief the belief because they don't even know who is Siddhartha Gautama but claimed is a Buddhist. Most of them go to temple, pray something in return, which I believe is inappropriate. What Buddha wants us to do is practice way of life and not actually praying Buddha as an idol.  2. How they view Buddhism and other religion -- [4 Ways Christians can respond to a Satanic statue](https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/4-ways-christians-can-respond-to-a-satanic-statue) . "Buddha is a Satan" wording is really "hurts". They will see Buddha is opponent and some really harsh wording from many Christian seniors is really hurting us as Buddhism Student. My sister went to Church for few months, back to house and screaming like a mad woman to request us to throw away all the Buddhism and Taoism statues.  3. Respect and be tactful to those Buddhist visitor to Church - I wish to have a lot of social media sharing, discussion and Church sharing on how to handle the 2 above. [This URL](https://answersingenesis.org/world-religions/buddhism/) for example speaks well on how to handle this.   > You must learn to distinguish original Buddhism from modern variants, in addition to determining which school of Buddhism your friend embraces. When in a discussion, do not be afraid to ask respectful probing questions. My #2 issue above was shared online today during their Church service and it really touched my heart. I didn't request them to do it during Church services too, but I did share many of the above to them. I am not sure Bodhisattva or Jesus (God) sent this high level Christ family as messenger to me. Question: Let me know your thought for my action for item #3. What i really wish is the those huge religion community to publish an apology online letter on the web site for against the Blasphemy Law and immediately remove the content (i.e. Buddha is Satan, Buddhist will go to hell , etc). That's the basic manner of human being. Cheers,

What is the Buddhist approach to dealing with the suffering caused by the uncertainty of whether your actions and efforts will cause more or less physical pain to a dying family member? My dad is dying from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Life expectancy will be less than 1 years (more likely a couple of months). He is in a lot of physical pain because the pain medications are losing their effects. It is not clear to us what options are left to manage his physical pains (if any even exist at this point?). No one in our family caring for dad are trained in the profession of health care. My mom, brother, sister-in-law and I are working around the clock to coordinate and consolidate the disjointed/broken communication between several medical teams responsible for my dad's care (family physician, palliative care, occupational therapist, emergency team etc...). My dad has a strong desire to live, but not at the expense of prolonged agonizing physical pain. Our whole family echoes this sentiment. During these times, the family members caring for dad is suffering from uncertainty of whether we are: 1) doing enough to ease dad's pain - how far do we go to address dad's situation? How do we know if we're doing enough? How do we know if we're wasting time? If we knew with certainty there's nothing more we can do, then we will relax and execute the final steps of closure. If we knew with certainty there are still possibilities to explore, then we will do as much as we can and use the feeling of "hope" to mitigate our feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, fatigue and other forms of suffering. As of today, we assume there are still possibilities to explore, but we really don't know for sure, which causes suffering. We have found solutions to alleviate dad's suffering when doctors have said there are none, which tells us that even the professionals may not know what they are doing (or they've lost interest in our health case), which also means sometimes we need to try things ourselves. But we are uncertain on whether we are able to keep up with the new problems that arise each day. How much runway do we have left to alleviate the agonizing physical pain my dad is in? **How do Buddhist's manage the suffering caused by uncertainty on whether you are doing enough to alleviate the pain of people you care about?** 2) doing the right thing to ease dad's suffering - eg. if palliative care team does not respond in time to an urgent request, we will exercise our own actions without sufficient medical guidance which sometimes makes things better, and other times makes things worse (we have not documented all actions and their results, and hence we are uncertain if we have produced a net positive or net negative outcome during this saga). **How do we manage the suffering caused by not knowing in advance if you are improving or hurting your family member?** **At the end of the day, if we were certain of our actions, we wouldn't be suffering. But our uncertainty causes not only our own suffering (eg. are we over-exerting ourselves researching futile efforts?), but tremendous physical pain to someone we care about. What is the Buddhist philosophy to addressing this scenario?** ---- ADDITIONAL NOTES Approaches I've considered: A1. Detach from my family and not care about them at all. Now I feel no emotional connection to their pain. My family will probably never speak to me again and call me an ingrate, but at least I don't have to take part in their suffering. A2. Do a half-ass job in caring for my dad. I just need convince /brainwash myself to think that I'm doing enough, and keep myself oblivious to the reality of whether I really am or not. I've now relieved myself of suffering from the uncertainty of actions caring for my dad. I will also coincidentally not feel any guilt of whether my other family members have taken on responsibilities that were formerly mine, because I'm blissfully ignorant.. Is A1 / A2 the Buddhist way?

Every now and then we (close friends) start some discussion on some topic, then we put our sides, but unfortunately, this conversation takes a path towards argument, where both the sides want to prove that they are correct. This is forcing me to not to start any type of conversation among us in future because I don't want to hamper my peace of mind. What should be the right suggestion over here? Shall we dig deeper into the conversations more and more, and until the conclusion does not comes up, just don't stop. Or, just tell your friend that you are right, and try to wrap the conversation over there itself. Or is there any other good way to reaching out to a pleasant end?

A question for the initial phase of starting meditation. To start meditation, it's important to know food first as per satipatthana. Materialistic food preserves cell-offspring reproduction inside body. In a way food helps in adultery. Whether we eat once a day or many times a day, no difference. Why to forcibly carry-on adultery within body at cellular level? Why not let the cells die naturally instead of allowing them to produce daughter cells by providing them required things. For this question, there is another subquery that can be considered, "what is natural?" "Is there anything as natural?" Various precepts might say adultery is natural, attraction of opp. identities(of any material) is natural but buddha gave a proper reason that can break this naturality. Is this merely a misguided term because natural is what it should be buddha's teachings but this teaching ends whole cycle and hence in the end, ends itself. Where is natural (infinite process of causes & effects) in here? So subquery can be ,Why word natural has contradictory meanings as per above 2 paragraphs? EDIT 1:: Understood subquery part, only 1st remains now. Impermanence is natural and nature. Natural is not infinite rather it is universally acceptable.

I vaguely recall reading this story before, possible from the Suttas. Can anyone tell me the scriptural source? (Not looking for modern re-telling such as those by Ven Thich Nhat Hanh.) > THE LOST SON > > "A young widower, who loved his five year old son very much, was away > on business when bandits came who burned down the whole village and > took his son away. When the man returned, he saw the ruins and > panicked. The took the burnt corpse of an infant to be his son and > cried uncontrollably. He organised a cremation ceremony, collected the > ashes and put them in a beautiful little bag which he always kept with > him. Soon afterwards, his real son escaped from the bandits and found > his way home. He arrived at his father's new cottage at midnight and > knocked at the door. The father, still grieving asked: "Who is it?" > The child answered, it is me papa, open the door!" But in his agitated > state of mind, convinced his son was dead, the father thought that > some young boy was making fun of him. He shouted: "Go away" and > continued to cry. After some time, the child left. Father and son > never saw each other again." After this story, the Buddha said: > "Sometime, somewhere, you take something to be the truth. If you cling > to it so much, even when the truth comes in person and knocks on your > door, you will not open it." > (http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/buddhist_stories.html)

What are the sets of one, two, three, five and twelve things mentioned in the sutta below? What does it mean? From SN 1.44 (translated by Bhikkhu Sujato): > “One is the root, two are the whirlpools, three are the stains, five > the spreads, twelve the ocean’s whirlpools: such is the abyss crossed > over by the hermit.” From SN 1.44 (translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi): > “The seer has crossed over > the abyss > With its one root, two whirlpools, >Three stains, five extensions, > An ocean with twelve eddies.”

I know that lord Buddha refrain from finding the all the laws of nature from science, everything in universe.(Understanding the whole truth of the universe). I like to know the reason for this. Is it because our knowledge about the universe is so weak that we don't see anything, nor that the universe is so big that it is endless, (please correct me if i am wrong about this)? I know that lord Buddha mentioned the endless expansion and collapse of the universe. This phrase follows with Gibbs free energy theory, where everything goes to disorder. To make things into order it causes energy. Like keeping the mind in one place is very hard. If I find nibbana in the coming up life, maybe I will realize that it is not meaningful. Currently I like learning new things in science, like I love reading books of prof. Hawkings teachings... Will all this knowledge be worthless if I find nibbana someday? Also I am confused of the fact that Lord Mugalan did try to find the whole truth of the universe by meditation. Is it true that he got caught in a infinite loop and Lord Buddha saved him?

Not sure what the _earliest_ copy is we have of the [Lankavatara Sutra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Buddhism#Lankavatara_Sutra) , but wondering if it can be found online for free in **copy/pastable text format** (i.e. not PDF or image). I am looking through [The Kangyur on Thlib](http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/canons/kt/catalog.php#cat=d/k-1-4-1) but not finding it anywhere. Does it exist in the Kangyur even, is it [this](http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/canons/kt/catalog.php#cat=d/0108) ?

I wish to be brief in the matter, a friend recommended this website after a certain meditation struggle. I just did a vipassana retreat, focusing on one's breath, which was done perfectly the first two days. Whenever the mind was distracted I got it back on track. However, I had an odd and pleasant experience during that period, as if a bundle of negativity exploded, and since then not only my meditation became shallow but it were as if my focus wasn't directly on the breath, but on the eyes, as when you see different colors when seeing through the lids. And getting simply back on the breath seems impossible because the mind is entirely focused on my vision, allowing me to perceive the breath but faintly and as if it were in the background of the focus. If anyone had such a hindrance or a way out of it, I'd be most grateful, spending 8days of vipassana not managing to focus properly is a bit of a nightmare. Thank you so much.

**QN:** I'm looking for Buddha's teachings on self compassion. (Especially for lay practitioners.) There are few verses which can be found in Dhammapada: > He, who by good deeds covers the evil he has done, illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds. (Dhp, verse 173) Angulimala Sutta also represents forgiveness and self compassion if some mistakes has happened due to lack of mindfulness or by ignorance. I personally think that self compassion is required otherwise we may fall in too much guilt instead of improving ourselves. And by understanding our own suffering, we can understand the suffering of others and help them better. It will make this world a better place. ---------- **Update:** At the beginning, I was asking for very specific suttas but I understood that there are less suttas directly connected to Self compassion. _**(So you can use any sutta which are relevant and makes sense.)**_ And I think there is a reason for it. I feel that Buddha wanted to say, develop compassion in all directions (including inward & outward). Because if we develop it only towards self or only others in either case, it will lead to Identification which will stop us from direct knowing and release. He always mentioned it as whole. I also found [[SN 56.11]](https://suttacentral.net/sn56.11/en/sujato) very relevant. >"Mendicants, these two extremes should not be cultivated by one who has gone forth. What two? Indulgence in sensual pleasures, which is low, crude, ordinary, ignoble, and pointless. And indulgence in self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and pointless. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One woke up by understanding the middle way..." _I hope everyone will participate. And you're free to edit and improve your answer if needed.^^_