Just wonder if there are explicitly teachings on cause and effect of rejecting gifts. What might be the effect of rejecting a pure gift? Maybe one or another Sutta may come to your mind and maybe you like to share it in an answer. Gift here can be in the frame of material gifts, to time, effort, skill and knowledge.

Sunyata is more commonly used to explain Anatta, but how about Anicca?

Marriage (and/or a binding relationship) is not very popular among modern people, who believe strongly in promoted "pseudo-liberality". --- As an aside: - The word religion has very similar meaning like marriage, deriving from "[religiō](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio) ". >The classical explanation of the word, traced to Cicero himself, derives it from re- (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligo "**bind, connect**", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re- (again) + ligare or "to reconnect," which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. - A certain text from a possibly well-known song came to mind the last days: >[Love and marriage](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p8t5cOjlEPU) , love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage this I tell you brother you can't have one without the other. - Next to the possibly well-known wordily marriage issues, the "marriage" stance with the Jewels, for Nibbana in a guided, related way, goes "informal" like that: >“[I go](http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/tipitaka/vin/mv/mv01/mv.01.13.khem_en.html) to the Blessed One for refuge, and the Dhamma and the Saṅgha of monks. >“May the Blessed One remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge from this day forward, for life. --- What do you think, or what would you like to share on Dhamma, in relation to bonding, duties in relation to one partner (for worldly bliss), but also in regard of the relation with the Triple Gems for an end of suffering: - Is it possible to gain, either this in this world, or that beyond, if there is no real refuge and total acceptance of the duties in this "contract"? - Can a Hallodri (lightheaded man/woman) expect to gain one or the other, e.g. without real relationship (refuge), if they're either not giving promises or if they're carelessly breaking promises? - And what about relationships where both people mutually agree not to be loyal: can any higher attainment be expected then? *[Note: This is a gift of Dhamma, not meant for commercial purpose or other low wordily gains my means of trade and exchange]*

What is the difference between enlightenment/awakening and nibbana/nirvana? And how do these terms relate to parinibbana/parinirvana?

MN 117 states: > *And what, bhikkhus, is right view that is affected by the taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions? ‘There is what is > given and what is offered and what is sacrificed; there is fruit and > result of good and bad actions; there is this world and the other > world; there is mother and father; there are beings who are reborn > spontaneously; there are in the world good and virtuous recluses and > brahmins who have realised for themselves by direct knowledge and > declare this world and the other world.’ This is right view affected > by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions.* Why does MN 117 refer to a dirty defiled (กิเลส) right view? How can this be so? How can a right view be polluted with *asava* (effluents, outflows, taints, corruptions, discharge, secretions, กิเลส)?

How can we evaluate which description of nirvana is accurate? Also what problems does King Millinda point out about nirvana in his 80th dilemma?

On personal practice now no likes or dislike on thoughts no thinking too. what is the stage of mindfulness?

Specifically in his last life, both before enlightenment and after.

And how does one be free from craving food without starving to death ?

I was meditating. I was using classical music as my object of meditation. I know some don't approve of that but it's REALLY relaxing, especially while meditating. Anyway, as I was meditating the music became... so much more clear. I really can't explain it. It's like I had cheap headphones and all of sudden they switched to top brand headphones. That's how clear it became. Then my breath became very shallow almost as if it was disappearing. Now I have anxiety attacks, such as I had during my previous attempt at meditation. And that makes my breath feel shallow. But this was different I felt it slowly disappearing. And this very unusual feeling overcame me. My whole body was blissful. I never had that experience before. So was that a Jhana state?

What does the Buddha mean by ***arbitrary conception*** in the Diamond Sutra ? > Then the lord Buddha made his meaning even more emphatic by saying: > "Subhuti, when people begin their practice of seeking to attaining > total Enlightenment, they ought to see, to perceive, to know, to > understand, and to realize that all things and all spiritual truths > are no-things, and, therefore, they ought not to conceive within their > minds any arbitrary conceptions whatsoever."

Yes, in this information age, computer is like essential part in normal people life. But for monks, does it apply same way like that? Or computer can make harm than good to a monk? Does a book is better than electronic book on computer (in term of donation and uses by monk)? Typewriter (or more basic pen and book) is more distract-free than a computer? In this cruel world of advertisement, it is almost impossible a monk can avoid some explicit content while browsing internet. And internet and computer can be a great deal of wasting precious time of a monk if improperly used. Monks are not allowed to use/manipulate money but money is required to use a computer (buying softwares/applications/electronic books etc). Piracy is another serious potential issue for a monk who uses computer (it could lead to end of monk's life if stealing is involved). So is it better not to offer a computer to a monk or is there any chance that computer cannot make any harm to donor and monk both? If there are more harm than good, why do we need to care to offer a computer to a monk? If you are a monk and using computer but you are almost free from the harms that I described above, please let me know how this can be achieved? Please include do and don't if possible. It is expected that practices are Vinaya-complied uses of computer.

I noticed I sometimes feel anger when someone treats me unjustly, or criticizes me or one of my works. I *know* Buddhism advises waiting, or not acting upon anger. However, every time someone irritates me this way I am extremely tempted to say something mean, or when I get criticized I often delete my works or remove a comment. In a sense, these are respectively fight and flight responses. What would Buddhism advise to avoid reacting to anger in either way described? Thank you.

When inner conversation disappears, the "doer" disappears. How does the "knower" disappear, during vipassana meditation?

What's the Buddhist view of evolution of mankind? Why can't we accede to the theory of evolution? Can we get same path of an evolution theory and aggajha sutta ?

So I enjoy Dungeons and Dragons a bunch, and have recently begun trying to follow the first 5 precepts of Buddhism. I'm not a practicing Buddhist, but I think they are a good way to live my life. So I have lots of PDF's that I didn't pay for bookmarked so I can use them, but since I didn't buy them would that count as breaking the do not steal precept? Thank you!

I need some help understanding how the Buddhist view on 'accepting what is' and noticing how craving for it to be different to how it is causes suffering, is different to learned helplessness where you become conditioned to give up trying because you believe it's futile. They seem to be very similar to me. In what ways are they different. Is the difference that with Buddhism you don't give up trying? For example if I have a string of failed relationships it can cause learned helplessness and I might give up trying to begin a new one but how would I see it through a Buddhist lense? It's finished because everything is impermanent, now I accept that and I don't give up hope because that's just how it is? But still there is a part of me that feels it's pointless to try again if I know it's going to end in pain again.

In Germany it is not illegal to steal food when you're about to starve. Would someone who does this still would have to face negative consequences because of this stealing in the future?

Growing up in the Roman Catholic tradition, we were encouraged to go to confession (penance) on a regular basis for reconciliation and to be absolved of sins. In Buddhism, the only mention of confession I've seen is in regard to a practice for monks prior to the reciting of the patimokkha. I understand there is no idea of absolving sins in Buddhism, but why is it considered benefical or useful for monks to confess but not for lay people to do the same? I'm assuming there is some sense of unburdening in the confession process and wondering what serves that function for lay people? Thank you.

Is copying a Dhamma book in hard copy and converting it into a pdf to read on my kindle a breach of the second precept? I am planning only to read it myself and not give it to anyone. I also thought that Dhamma material should be free. Why are people amongst them well known monks and nuns charging for dhamma material?