I heard a few times the notion that in meditation one must focus on the sensations of breathing (which seems to make sense to me) but not the *idea* of the breath. What would be the 'idea' of the breath? Is there a single thought or mental entity one could focus on? I feel like thoughts change and follow one another quickly, I don't understand how one could try to meditate on the 'idea' of the breath. **What does such an idea refer to?**

Please don't tell book answer Please don't tell Buddhist explain Please give answers from your true experience Buying car is happiness ? Buying bike is happiness ? Buying home is happiness? Achieving government job is happiness? Happiness is dependent on something? --- I think Happiness is dependent on something. Today I am sad because I have no six pack and big muscle I am sad because I have no desire job I am sad because I have no money Happiness is suffering

First of all I will apologize because it will be hard to put that as a clear and simple question. Once a person decides to enter the Buddhist path, it becomes clear that one should avoid engaging in romantic relationships as impermanence will definitly create suffering for this person (either by changing or ending the relationship), also a relationship can reduce time for meditation and dhamma study. We can understand why monks are not married. Using the same logic a person should avoid having a child, as it will create strong attachments and dramaticaly reduce the time for other activities. That said, we still find lots of Buddhists that decide to have this "normal life", marriage, sons, career, etc... even though they practice the Buddha's teachings, meditate and understand anicca and emptiness. They believe in Samsara, rebirth and Nibbana, but they still make choices that will probably keep their minds tied to this plane. It must be a very hard moment in life, to decide what to do when there is a "conflict" like this. I'm facing such challenges in my life, because soon I will have to decide about marriage, sons etc. I will create strong bonds and attachments, anyone that passed thought the same thing could help?

>According to the suttas Are human beings capable of discerning what dhamma is outside of the suttas? Is it possible to know enough from the suttas and then make use of the Abhidhamma? What about the mere possibility that a dhamma practitioner could make use of Jesus's teachings, Hindu teachings, Sufi teachings or sutras outside the the official Theravada context? When is it appropriate to be more closed minded? When is it appropriate to be more open minded?

Is it correct to say that the buddhasasana (the teaching of the Buddha) is conditioned and impermanent in contrary with Dhamma itself which is unconditioned and permanent.

Well, I Keep hearing this dialogue by a few Buddhist meditation teachers, "It's very common for everyone to get **distracted by thoughts** when you start the meditation practise initially". I am curious to know whether Buddha, himself, faced any issues while meditating, initially, (lack of concentration, etc)?

The well-known yet often differently translated opening verses of the Dhamma use the Pali words "mano" and "manasa", as follows: > **Mano**pubbaṅgamā dhammā, > > **mano**seṭṭhā **mano**mayā; > > **Manasā** ce paduṭṭhena, > > bhāsati vā karoti vā; > > Tato naṃ dukkhamanveti, > > cakkaṃva vahato padaṃ. > > **Mano**pubbaṅgamā dhammā, > > **mano**seṭṭhā **mano**mayā; > > **Manasā** ce pasannena, > > bhāsati vā karoti vā; > > Tato naṃ sukhamanveti, > > chāyāva anapāyinī What do the Pali words "mano" and "manasa" specify refer to & why are they used in Dhammapada verses 1 & 2?

> Conditioned reality, the psycho-physical interdependence, only exist > because we experience it. This is how I interpreted Yuttadhammo's > videos on Ultimate Reality. Is this a correct interpretation and if > so, how can I apply this to my meditation practice? Metta!

http://9gag.com/gag/arOnzn5 says that the Buddha's "hair" on this statue represents snails. I thought Buddha shave his head like all his disciples. And there is a claim that his hair are actually snails.

Who am I? Am I my memory? For example, I am hindu. I am engineer. I am Rajput. Who am I without past memory? Am I my past memory? I am engineer. I am hindu.

I love my parents, but for some reason they do not understand my teaching and misinterpret what I say and won't listen to me. Their misinterpretations led them to take all of my books on Buddhism I was studying as well as prevent me from meditation whenever I try or try to be mindful of doing anything, they prevent me from having to do with the Buddha's teachings (However, I can still do online things in secret as you can see). They say that when I leave the house or grow to a sufficient age, then I can resume, but for now, they have the right to take away my religion basically and it is really putting a hard toll on my spiritual growth and practice for purity. They hope it will fade away, but I have used the Dhamma as my practice for two years now and I have grown to know its truth, unlike my parents. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should do? Are there any ways I can continue the practice even though my parents work effortlessly for me not to do so? How can I work to show metta to them when I want to but get frustrations when they push away my teachings or speak as if Buddhism is a "cult" that makes me anti-social and a bad person, even though I have explained all of it to them? Please help! Metta!

What are the results of various sins done. I heard that it has various kinds of results we get for sins done.

I don't presume to understand Buddhism very well, but I'm trying to increase my understanding of the Dhamma, so please don't take what I write the wrong way. I'm not being disrespectful, because even the Buddha praised Sariputta for his unwillingness to accept teachings on faith alone, but rather from his own personal experience and understanding. I sometimes feel like Buddhist practice is a slow form of suicide. Gradually, all interest in life, the world, family, friends, romantic interests, sense pleasures and even love itself needs to be ultimately abandoned and renounced. Nibbana is considered to be the ultimate freedom and highest happiness because it ends all suffering by extinguishing the mind from all forms of existence forever. This is denied as being annihilation because its argued that since there was never a true self to begin with, there was nothing to be annihilated. Nevertheless, we still experience *a subjective experience* of a self, otherwise, there would be no point in practicing the Eightfold Path. Because only a deluded (unenlightened) mind could have any motivation to extinguish itself, craving Nibbana seems very much like a strong aversion to existence. Anyone who tries to logically extrapolate this to justify suicide as a means to accomplish the same result is denied because its argued that a desire for annihilation (via suicide) creates more bad karma which causes rebirth. Yet, desiring annihilation via the Eightfold Path is somehow exempt from this. If someone wants to remain in Samsara forever, it's very easy to do, no effort is required. But if someone craves to permanently self-destruct via Nibbana, they must be highly motivated and diligent in their efforts, perhaps spanning many lifetimes. Some people even abandon all worldly life to become monastics to accomplish this in the fastest and most direct manner possible. Thus, it seems that to remain in Samsara requires much less desire and effort than to seek one's own annihilation via the Eightfold Path. Again, I realize people will argue that you can't annihilate what doesn't truly exist, but this existence which all sentient beings experience as subjective reality is all a deluded mind can ever know, so seeking to extinguish that reality seems like a desire for non-existence which is supposed to create more bad karma and rebirth. I honestly struggle to follow the logic of this.

What are the best resources to learn about yogacara buddhism? Online resources, books, anything would be fine.

How is personal continuity (including continuity at rebirth) explained in Buddhism in the absence of a persistent, unchanging self? Do all Buddhists agree on a single explanation? I am reading the book, Foundations of Buddhism, by Rupert Gethin. He has provided some explanation, but I am not sure whether it is the original Buddhist explanation or his own interpretation.

I have a similar question about the Samādhirāja-sūtra. Is the Samādhirāja-sūtra, a mahAyAnA sUtra or does it occur in the nikAyas or somewhere else? What is the historically accepted date of this sUtra? Does this sUtra precede nAgArjuna or is it a post-nAgArjuna sUtra?

There are a few posts on the site asking for good introduction/beginner books on Buddhism, but I can't seem to find any that a child could read and understand. Although age range doesn't really matter to the answer that people might post, let's say someone between the age of 7 and 14, just to have some context.

(One of the reasons for asking this question is that I thought that maybe some people needed some extra/other knowledge/insight in order for the Noble Eightfold Path to become more accessible to them.) Not necessarily to be "better" in knowledge and understanding than the Buddha overall, but to have a better understanding or additional explicit knowledge of some things or see certain things in more detail or accuracy with regards to certain aspects about the way out of suffering, and that may also address particular, "extreme" types of ignorance, mental illness, psychosis. To be able to answer other questions related to the way out of suffering that the Buddha was never asked.

As far as I understand, Vipassana meditation trains **attention** and **equanimity**. Both sound as great skills to have in order to battle addictions. However, after having attended a 10-day Vipassana course, I still don't fully understand how this technique can be applied to overcome a strong addiction to *FMO and **PMO. I mean, the technique, as teached in the 10-day course, pretty much trains you to be equanimously aware of your breath and the physical sensations in your body through continuous body scans. However, I'm left clueless about how that technique can be somehow generalized and applied in the concrete case of facing strong, compulsive cravings of PMO/FMO. In fact, the 10-day retreat forced me to go in such an abrupt, extreme cold-turkey abstinence that the cravings started to build up and during the middle and end of the course I was multiple times overpowered by the urge to fantasize, during the breaks and even during the meditation sessions. Thinking in hindsight, the urges to fantasize became stronger because in those days I experienced a lot of frustration due to reasons which had nothing to do with sex. I experienced back pain and also annoying breathing problems due to nasal congestion, and I guess that made me lose motivation and made me vulnerable to the urges to fantasize. I want to make clear though that I didn't masturbate nor watched porn during the whole retreat, because it was pretty much impossible due to the inexistent privacy (I was surrounded by people all the time, and the bathrooms were not very private either), and of course I didn't have access to any electronic device. So I didn't break the shila, unless you consider sexual fantasies as shila breaking. After I came back from the retreat, I was immediately and magnetically drawn back to PMO/FMO, overpowered by the urges built up by my last day's constant sexual fantasies. On the bright side, though, this retreat was an excellent opportunity to learn more about myself and showed me how impressively strong my addiction to FMO/PMO is. In fact, even in a retreat environment and deprived of privacy and access to internet, I am still very vulnerable to sexual fantasies. So, I would be very grateful of any practical advices on how to apply Vipassana to overcome PMO/FMO addiction. Has any body faced this addiction and successfully managed to break free from it by applying Vipassana? Is Vipassana meditation enough to overcome the addiction or should I resort to other meditation techniques, or other life style changes for that matter? Any practical tips/suggestions/help will be deeply appreciated. *FMO = Fantasizing, Masturbation and Orgasm **PMO = Pornography, Masturbation and Orgasm I borrowed these handy accronyms from the NoFap community.

In other words, how do I know if I'm really being objective?