I know this is a big letter but it is important. Would really appreciate your help. My spiritual path very much goes along with my career. I knew since my school days that I never wanted to be part of the herd. I never took an interest in studies. I recall one day – it was an exam day. I did not complete my answer sheet only because I was busy watching a bird through the window. It felt more important to me. I spent most of my time wandering in Babul Jungle near our house along with my dog. I used to get beatings from my teachers everyday, sometimes so vigorous that the bruises lasted for weeks with pain. Now I look back and feel the suffering my teachers were going through. After such violence, they were to stand up and teach Gandhi’s nonviolence and the laws of physics. My parents told me to at least complete my tenth year. I also had keen interest in drawing and painting. I wished I could do nothing but just paint in nature, but to survive in this society we need to have a source of income so decided to make my hobbies my career. Hence, after my school, I left the house and went to learn drawing for animation with a teacher in Pune. It was fun – we were only 9 students who were taught drawing for three years. While I was studying I also started to work: there were only 600 animators in India as the field was new to the country. Anyways, after finishing the studies in Pune and after that in Mumbai, I went back to Baramati where I established a studio. I had only one employee at that time, but on our first day of work I found a book by Osho in Hindi on his desk. My only employee was a seeker. I was impressed by the thoughts of Osho about society and spirituality etc. After reading many books after that in the years that followed he became my go-to place to find answers. Once I read that “Questions will lead to answers and answers to new questions”. I was left with a question mark: then what is suppose to be done? I figured out that Osho is pointing towards meditation. I had never done meditation before in my life.   One of my friends suggested I should do Vipassana, so I went to do 10 days' meditation in Goenka’s Vipassana centre in Gorai, Mumbai. The noble silence for 10 days and peeping inside myself revealed many things. The most important as Osho said was “Knowledge is the most deceiving thing”. I came to know why he said so. It was a hurdle between me and silence. The overwhelming Himalaya of thoughts did not seem to melt, no matter how long I watch. I also went to the Osho Ashram to see if I could try some other forms of meditations, but i was denied admission there. (I don’t know why.) Then I tried some meditations like Naadbrahma and Sufi whirling, from the internet. Work became more stressful. I needed to work without sleeping for two or three days to deliver on deadline, and so it also affected my meditation. I used to take out time however – an hour whenever possible. But it was done like work too, doing something. I literally went mad. Needed psychiatric help (lol). But this was the time when I had to take break from everything. I realised why I started this journey and why I had made my hobby a career: Only because I could drop this someday and do what I like. I decided to drop everything, to end this quest of becoming something I never signed for. Even in meditation I was doing something. Watching this, watching that. Fortunately, I did some financial investment which allowed me to finally stop working.   I went to back to nature: Started spending time in Sahyadri to drop all this gathering of knowledge, this quest to become someone and somebody, proving and trying to please others against my own nature, stopped planning things for the future, forgetting the past to be present in the present. **Meditation**: I just started to sit, sleep, and relax. Not to meditate on something, for something. Thoughts about career were gone long back. And after 1 year passed, something beautiful happened: “Nothing happened”. I was thoughtless for a moment. I just followed to be alert, just alert and witness. It came into my day to day activities, like walking and washing and so on. I now started to sit in meditation and it is enjoyment, effortless, no more a work to be done. Thoughtlessness came more often. Even though I had active or passive thoughts, I don’t get cling to them, as I don’t cling to silence either. Just witness. Meanwhile I also experienced some intense moments. My head would be pushed back, and it felt like I was plugged to something. It usually happened mostly while listening to music. The body would curve in shape of a half-moon pose. I could feel intense strain in neck and head, but after that I used to be fine. This happened 6-7 times in two months. **Currently**: Then I came back to the town where I roamed in the jungles of Babul. Here I am more relaxed. I had the same episode last month, so I read more books, watched videos, and listened to audio books by spiritual teachers. In one of them, Moojiji explains that after these awakenings you should not try to cling to anything, even the experience itself, and sail with complete trust without leaving any chance to hold back. That that night on the 2nd of July when I slept the same intense feeling happened. I did let it go. Everything relaxed: I would say I slept awake. I was sleeping but I could see that it was sleep. The next morning I was wide awake. There was a kind of confusion. I was feeling so fresh and still not wanting to do anything, not even get out of bed. Why act? I felt like richest and poorest man at the same time. A billionaire who can’t spend, if you like. In the days that followed I had these intense experiences for like 5-6 days. Time just flies, but I am so still with now. I sit on the balcony starting at trees and hours pass by. Sometimes I don’t remember what happened this morning, but when the time is right the past experience or incidence pop up, just for a reference. Situations in which I would generally be very angry now don’t have a affect on me. When I am challenged by the situation, the alertness grows with it. I won’t say anger or irritation don’t come, but I can see it coming and not react. In fact their very doer seems to have gone somewhere. Yesterday night, a dog was dying in front of my door and I witnessed it, just like the movement of the trees. There was sensitivity, but acceptance at the same time. Everything I see seems like it's for the first time. I couldn’t recognise my body at night. **Now**: Today I feel a certain energy in my head moving towards the chest and from my guts to the chest, a constant undercurrent. I can feel lag while I walk, like the body is following me or visa versa. It seems like my mind is far away, like you can see a monsoon cloud pouring far away on a plains. I also spoke to my childhood friend who is also a seeker and a better reader than me. He told me to write to you to find pointers of what's next. This is the best what I can put the experience in words right now. **The question**: What do I do? Do I stay witness? or do something? Thank you very much.

Could someone give me a breakdown of the form of Buddhism likely to be represented by Vietnamese and Cambodian? We have six Buddhist churches/Organizations near us and I've contacted them but because of a communications barrier I am unable to determine what form three of them are. There are two Vietnamese called Phuoc Vien & Tu Vien Hong Duc - and another one representing Cambodia just called a Buddhist Society. Thanks. :D

What happens to the five skandhas of a particular person after death? 1. Do they stay together, and cause birth of a one specific person (which can be called rebirth), or do they separate? 2. If they separate, do they separate just into 5, or does each aggregate split into smaller parts? 3. If they separate, do they cause births of many different persons? I'm interested in answers from many traditions, with references to relevant sources (scriptures, books, articles). EDIT: I didn't get unambiguous answers to my questions, but what Suminda and Prahlad write seems to suggest that all the aggregates arise and pass all the time, but when we look at them at a higher level, we can conclude that four of the aggregates (sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness) stay together and cause a new birth of one specific person, while the remaining aggregate (rūpa, matter) separates and splits into parts. **Can anyone confirm/disconfirm this?** EDIT 2: I was asked to specify what is exactly meant by "overall structure of the aggregates remain intact", when we know that the aggregates arise and pass all the time. What I mean is the continuity of the illusion called "self". I have the illusion that I'm the same person as a moment ago, even though my body, my feelings, etc. have changed. Does this illusion continue after death? **According to Buddhist doctrines, is there an illusion of the continuity of consciousness? Of the continuity of feelings? Of the continuity of the body?** I watched [Yuttadhammo's video about rebirth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxCEi4cQBA0) and understood that Buddhists believe in perceived continuity of the consciousness after death. Is this a canonical opinion that can be concluded from Buddhist scriptures? How about the continuity of other aggregates?

Often I hear above mentioned phrase in regards to sex, music, entertainment and basically everything else that is or seems important. Now the question is: Do we really have control whether we get attached to something or not? Isn't a little attachment good, i.e., attachment to the Dhamma or the five precepts in order to elicit faith and confidence? Regards

I'm often interested in the history of Buddhist texts and, being a Theravadan, I'm not very familiar with the Mahayana texts. Please help to educate me in this manner.

Could you try to formulate an answer to the above question, in line with the Pali Canon, using simple colloquial language, for someone who doesn't yet know Buddhist terminology? I'm asking because I want to try to explain this to a loved one For a run-of-the-mill sort of person, life would take the path of least resistance and indulgence in sense pleasures is what is long sought. It is the path of least resistance, the downward path or ‘Anusothagami’ while the traveler of this road less traveled is climbing in the opposite direction to the flow or ‘Patisothagami’. How can one get such a person to see this otherness?

Did the Buddha say anything of the value of mundane acts of generosity which may temporarily alleviate the suffering of others in a temporary, worldly way, but do not *free* others from from suffering? For example, helping someone get what they desperately "need" will not free them from craving, nor will curing a disease free someone from old age, sickness, and death. The following quotes support this point, i.e. how mundane work or acts of generosity - which give material comfort but are not the gift of the dhamma - do not free anyone from the *causes* of suffering. Dalai Lama : > Science and technology have contributed immensely to the overall development of humankind, to our material comfort and well- being as well as to our understanding of the world we live in. But if we put too much emphasis on these endeavors, we are in danger of losing those aspects of human knowledge that contribute to the development of an honest and altruistic personality. > > ... > > No one can deny the material benefits of modern life, but we are still faced with suffering, fear, and tension— perhaps more now than ever before. Bhikku Bodhi : > The pāramitās begin with dāna-pāramitā, the perfection of giving. Social engagement can certainly be included under this category, as it involves giving others material gifts and the gift of security. But these gifts, as worthy as they are, do not equal in value the gift of the Dharma, for the gift of the Dharma leads to the permanent extinction of suffering. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche : > How many scientists do you know who have become enlightened? Have you heard of any? Well, if a scientist trains in this, he becomes enlightened. That’s pretty neat, isn’t it? These days scientists are praised as being the most eminent people in this world, because they make devices through which you can instantly talk to someone on the other end of the world, or you can fly through the skies. Well, with this practice you can go beyond being a scientist. Actually, what science can create is pretty amazing, but still, all science is on this side of the shore of knowledge. The profound samadhi means the other shore of knowledge, having transcended dualistic mind. Right now, if we compare ourselves with a scientist, a scientist seems to be better, right? But once the scientist arrives on the other shore, any mental doings is of no use at all! At that point, as far as we are concerned, it is much better to arrive on the other side at transcendent knowledge. Here’s a question for all of you: exactly how much benefit is there from scientific knowledge the moment you are in the bardo? Think about it well. When a scientist is in the bardo he no longer has any gadgets to help him, no spy satellites or jet planes to move around in. In the bardo isn’t whatever one created of absolutely no use? Scientific knowledge is not transcendent. The knowledge that we are supposed to train in is transcendent knowledge, prajnaparamita. > > Honestly, whatever mundane, unspiritual actions we do show themselves to be a total waste at the end of this life. They are good for absolutely nothing. Any work that one bothers to complete is pointless unless it is connected with a virtuous outcome. > Upasika Kee : > Don’t think that you were born to gain this or that level of comfort. You were born to study pain and the causes of pain, and to follow the practice that frees you from pain. This is the most important thing there is. Everything else is trivial and unimportant. What acts of compassion and generosity were considered worthwhile to the Buddha?

I had previously asked a question about lying in fiction, but I feel I had omitted some important elements which I recently realized. I often write theoretical statements I am unsure of. 1. Does writing (not fiction) something untrue in itself, even if not shown or deleted, cause one to have uttered a lie? 2. Does speculation about something, where ideas are asserted without certainty, consist in lying as well? I am mainly asking because I had recent intuitions that the way I wrote could be a form of lying, and that symptoms in myself -- such as inconsistency and great uncertainty -- could perhaps be linked to this form of false-like expression. Since the Buddha advised against lying even in jest, I wonder if my expression's closeness to lying is detrimental. Thank you.

Remorse or regret (kukucca) is supposed to be unwholesome, while shame of evil (hiri) is wholesome. What is the difference between the two? Why is one wholesome, while the other isn't?

Does anyone know any research or publications on the intersection of Buddhism and semiotics/biosemiotics? I don't mean the study of Buddhist schools with the help of semiotics, but rather an interpretation of Buddhist doctrine itself as a kind of ancient proto-semiotics. Any references are appreciated.

Is there an interpretation of the 12 nidanas (shown on the outside of the wheel below) that is compatible with a lack of belief in rebirth. For instance in the 12 nidanas there are the links > Becoming -> Birth -> Aging and Death So even though this explicitly names rebirth is there an interpretation of the cycle that occurs just over one lifetime (or reoccurs many times over one life). Or are the concepts of the nidanas so bound up with rebirth that they have no value or sense to practioners who are more agnostic about this.

How can the term "spirit" be translated into Buddhist doctrine? If I may just copy paste the definition: Moreover, could be mean anything unconditioned, permanent, or in some way separate from the rest of 'us'? The tags are clues, but I'm not being facetious.

Sometimes, a lay person would approach the Buddha and ask a question, such as, "If I earn all of the money in the world, will she like me?" to which the Buddha would reply, "It does not further". As the answer would not further his ultimate purpose, which is to give. (The question frames the asker as a 'taker', or 'possessor', or 'manipulator', etc.). Does the answer to the question, "What are the pitfalls to improvement?", further my purpose to improve?

Every internal sense organ comes along with corresponding external organ. For example eye comes along with form, ear comes along with sound, nose comes along with smell , mind comes along with mental phenomenon. I am aware of the meaning of form or sight , sound , smell etc .. but I am not sure what is meant by mental phenomenon? When eye and form/sight come together eye consciousness arises. When nose and smell come to together nose consciousness arises. In both the statement above it is clear from my experience what is sight and smell. But when we say mind and mental phenomenon come together mind consciousness arises, it is not clear from my experience ,what is the mental phenomenon? Is mental pehnomenon the memory of past or the simulation of future or is it the dream or is it the speech ? There are different types of tastes ,colors ,odours, touch etc... Are there different types of mental phenomenon also?

I recently went to a dhamma talk that I am skeptical of for a few reasons. One of the things we were told in this talk is that the mind always lies and the body never lies, which (in a mundane sense) doesn't line up with what I know. He specifically told us to go by how our body feels when asked for money by a panhandler. He said that if we feel bad physically when asked, we should not give money, but if we feel good physically, we should. (Part of the reason I am skeptical of this dhamma talk is that he said a bunch of really negative things about panhandlers here and about the idea of giving them money, which seems not based in Buddhist thought at all) Personally, I have had many times where I have been convinced I was suffocating during a panic attack. I have also read many studies where "gut feelings" - that is, physical feelings people interpret as guidance - are shown to perpetrate racist or other -ist biases in society. In a mundane sense, I am skeptical of the idea that bodily sensations are significantly more trustworthy than thoughts. My question here is if there is anything in the suttas (preferably the Pali canon, but I'm also interested in other sources) regarding this idea of trusting the physical sensations of the body as some great arbiter of truth. EDIT: Since someone mentioned not having more context, I'd like to make clear, we were not given much more context than I mentioned above. I'll do my best to explain what we were told exactly. This talk was specifically part of a once a week service for lay people who may not even identify or consider themselves Buddhist, and I do not believe the teacher expects that many of his audience even meditate outside of this once-a-week practice. The dhamma talk was centered on the Pāramitās and this discussion about the body was part of the part of the talk on generosity. The teacher briefly defined each term, and then spoke about them. For generosity, he said panhandling was an opportunity to practice generosity, which seems fair to me. Then he started talking about all the concerns he has had when approached by a panhandler- he spouted off a very very long list of negative beliefs or stereotypes about panhandlers, and then talked about how those thoughts were suffering. He made no positive statements regarding giving money to panhandlers, except for the initial statement that it was an opportunity to practice generosity. This is where he says that the mind always lies, but the body never lies, and that we should listen to our bodies when asked for money by panhandlers. Specifically, he said that if you felt bad and uncomfortable physically, you shouldn't give. This struck me as giving people carte-blanche to never be generous and also never consider why they didn't feel comfortable being generous. His only reference for "the body never lies" is a mention that "his teacher" taught him this, but throughout the talk he referenced non-Buddhist western "Mindfulness" teachers more than anything Buddhist, so I am unsure if his teacher was even nominally Buddhist. There was a strange emphasis on how these virtues were also important in Christianity as well, which I couldn't place/understand. The reason I asked the question is that I had an immediate reaction of "This can't possibly be true" but I wanted to get a second (and a third and so on if possible) opinion to be sure that I wasn't dismissing the teaching unfairly, or perhaps discover if it was at least rooted in something that was less likely to be used as an excuse for unskillful means.

The term 'kaya-sankhara' is defined in MN 44 as the 'in & out breathing'. The same term is found in step 4 of Anapanasati & in the 2nd nidana of Paticcasamuppada, as follows: > *He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming kāyasaṅkhāraṃ. 'He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming kāyasaṅkhāraṃ.' > Anapanasati Sutta* ~ > *And what are saṅkhārā? These three are saṅkhārā: kāyasaṅkhāro, vacī (verbal) saṅkhāro, citta (mind) saṅkhāro. These are called saṅkhārā. > Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta* My questions: 1. Does 'kaya-sankhara' have the same meaning in both contexts, i.e., in & out breathing? 2. If not, is there another alternative definition apart from in MN 44? 3. If not, is it possible for both contexts to have the same meaning?

Are the six sense faculties just the sense organs, sense objects, and sense consciousnesses, considered all together, that (conventionally) makes up a (conventional) person? Does it make any difference if we think about "ourselves" in terms of them, rather than any other scheme? What canonical literature talks about nirvana in terms of the six sense Indriyas?

Buddhism teaches to respect parents. I do follow. But when ever i bow down our relation with my mother, she constantly tries to bring me down. She makes me feel bad for the way i look. I cannot change my skin color or my height. She nags about my appearance. My childhood was ruined and now she is making me depresses by saying no guy would like to marry me. It is getting hard to listen to her day by day. I am a person who upholds goodcharacter above anything. I can never say a bad word to anybody's face. Yet i am facing this almost everyday by my mother. When she fell ill i could not leave he and i was the one who suffer her illness more than her mentally. I feel bad as why she cannot see me as a daughter and love me when all i want is to make her happy. What mistake have i done in my past life to her that she is constantly taunting me to death.

For the [reasons explained here](https://buddhism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2248/254) , can you recommend one or more books about Buddhism? - I suggest a format like, > Title of Book by Name of Author > A summary of what's in the book, recommended for these reasons. - One book per answer (but multiple answers, a different book for each answer, is welcome) - Books -- but not videos -- i.e. readable; published in print, and/or online - I think it's more important to mention why you recommend a book, and less important to summarise what's in it --- Unlike most other topics on this site, this topic is [Community Wiki](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/11741/139866) . If it's a good *introductory* book then post it here instead -- https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/60/254 -- and use this topic for other (non-Introductory) books about any more-specific topics.

I am in Varanasi , India where Buddha gave his sermons. I want to know ,are there any Buddhist monasteries near Varanasi ?