Is it OK to be a monastery monk (eating community gruel, etc.) but using your laptop to study for your career during half the day (instead of meditation with all of it)? Would the administrator be OK with freeloaders like that? I would help maintain the monastery, especially if it is related to my line of work (website development, etc.). Heck, I'd work full-time for free out of compassion. I'm thinking of asking this at a local monastery, especially since I don't care to be stuck in the cycle of apartment paying and being stuck at low-ranked IT job and being crushed by loans. I would rather take time to master certain subjects while cultivating and then come back to the city when I can achieve a higher salary to match the high cost of living as a city-dweller these days... and pay off my weighty student loans. My question pertains to monastery in California or the rest of the US. Especially those good with wifi connections. :-D

Where can I find sutta pitaka translations in plain English preferably from an author that has practised meditation. If the English is relevant to today's problems and sufferings, even better. Word to word translations are a bit boring to read and understand. I am hoping to gain inspiration for my practice by reading and memorising short suttas. I really like pariyatti publications but there only a handful I could find. Maybe someone knows if I can read the entire sutta pitaka online along with sub commentaries. That would help.

My teacher rightly emphasizes that sensations when observed equanimously will lead to eradication of suffering and he is very right. I have noticed a big change. But I just don't get the link between emotions and body sensations. I can understand when I am angry there is heat like sensations immediately, on arousal there are certain sensations although these are kinda on the extreme side and may or May not take excessive meditation to practice. But what about boredom, depression, love, jealousy, greed and so on? Are these sensations linked to the body too? (Stupid question to ask I know since I have been practicing for years now) but I sense results by practice which is great. But on the level of functionality I don't get it. I have read the mahasatipatthana sutta but I wish someone could explain it using normal terminology.

After sitting for 2-3 hours in a day there is a sense of annoyance that follows the littlest of things that are normally overlooked. Maybe this is because of heightened awareness or lack of tolerance for family and friends. It even happens at retreats during the earlier days. My teacher says sankharas are coming up. So is it right to assume that the more I sit, the more annoyed I will get and the more annoyed I will get I the more I should sit? If that makes sense. I do practice 5-10 minutes of metta bhavana at the end of the sit. But I don't feel like it comes naturally. And to my knowledge forced metta is as good as no metta?

How should one properly handle cases in which people use a rude language and indulge in idle talk or gossip, according to the Buddhist teachings? How to speak or act with a pure thought when people say stupid things and jokes at you, and use rude language towards you, trying to upset you, according to Buddhist teachings? And how to change the unwholesome thought to wholesome when the mind is full of hatred and aversion towards these people and cultivate loving kindness? Which way is best of sending metta to them?

One of the main problems I had to deal with, when I started to meditate and study the Dhamma, was the consequence of giving up attachment to reputation and pride. Of course this is an extremelly positive thing to do, you simply become stronger when you stop caring about how other people see you, you just care about your actions, about karma, about your thoughts. The problem is that people think you just don't care about anything else, they think you are not commited to your job anymore, to your appearance, to other people feelings... for instance: If they give you a bad feedback and you don't suffer and don't react to it, they think you are ignoring them. It looks like we need small portions of drama to live in this society, non attachment to reputation makes you look like an alien or a brain washed person. I don't know how to balance that sometimes, any advise?

I'm very interested in the polarity between ambition and expectation. On one hand to be ambitious is to be confident, to be strong, to have faith. With that comes a sense of hope, expectation that good fortune persevere. Dennis Prager is quoted with saying: > The more expectations you have, the less gratitude you will have. Can you be ambitious and not have expectations? Is being ambitious a bad thing? Are expectations the root of unhappiness? Alternatively, is it how we handle failure or disappointment when things don't go according to plan that is what creates unhappiness?

What is the exact meaning (definition) of satisampajanna? How can we develop and penetrate it in our practice?

Shunryu Suzuki famously said in Zen Mind, Beginners Mind > In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the > expert’s there are few But if one's beginners mind has gone is it possible to regain it. If so what can one do to get a beginner's mind back again. The motivation for asking this is that after a years practice I had a very strong feeling of my beginners mind leaving me. I felt very fresh, vibrant and curious about practice for about a year then one day I could literally feel that ebb away. From that point my practice was different - maybe not worse but definitely has a different quality to it. It feels more like work I guess. So I've always been curious to whether that initial state would ever come back and if there was anything I could do to encourage it.

Hi my Name is Tobias and I am 31 years old. Of course there is a personal story behind my question and a lot of causes and conditions that led to my current situation but in brief the question goes somewhat like this: What advice could you give someone who after a long period of looking deeply into buddhhism comes to the conclusion that there is actually nothing else to do in this life apart from practicing the dhamma (most preferably as a monk) but due to decisions earlier in his life this person is bound to live a worldly life (having two children to care for)? The obvious answer would probably be to practise as a layperson and become a monk maybe in the next life :) This sounds good in theory but I have come to realize that this is actually not easy to be done when you have no real interest in social interaction, seeing that most of the things people spend their time with are utterly useless. So it is like being caught between two things where you can´t really focus on either one completely! Thanks very much for your advice and opinion.

Is the use of Mindfulness of breath for falling asleep a "bad" practice? Might such a practice invite torpor during sitting meditation?

(1) According to Rob Burbea in *Seeing That Frees*, "both the neither-one-nor-many reasoning and the sevenfold reasoning are among the practices capable of revealing the emptiness of matter even at the most basic levels." Regarding the neither-one-nor-many practice, he goes on to say: "Even if we imagine down to the level of subatomic particles, these will necessarily have parts facing in different directions, or interacting with other particles in this or that direction. Anything that occupies space must have parts. Postulating the existence of a partless particle that would be truly singular will not work. It would be impossible to arrange or amass such particles in order to form any thing from them. Having no differentiable sides, other particles could not be arranged either side of it. Such a particle would not be able to bond or interact with other particles in any direction. All the surrounding particles would contact the central particle at the same point, and all effectively occupy the same space. Nothing with any extension could ever come to be." When I imagine a partless particle, I simply think of a sphere. I can't see how the reasons he states refute that possibility. He seems to think that a partless particle could not possess mass, or would just be an infinitely small point. Why could it not just be a sphere that can't be divided any further? (2) Two of the quotations he uses: "The element of earth has no nature of its own." (Prajnaparamita Sutra) "Matter itself is void. Voidness does not result from the destruction of matter, but the nature of matter is itself voidness." (Vimalkirtinirdesa Sutra) What are the other "practices capable of revealing the emptiness of matter even at the most basic levels?" Specifically this belief in the inherent existence of the "element of earth", i.e. sub-atomic particles.

Is there any resemblance between *bhanga* and the *jhanas*? If so, which is the accordance between both?

As I understand, once someone attains Nirvana and passes away, there is no more dependant arising, meaning this person no longer manifests as a person or being in any realm. This also means that this person loses his personhood (although this personhood is impermanent and is part of dukkha). On the other hand, by achieving the first four Jhanas, a person could be reborn in the Brahma realms, which I understand to be the best beings in the universe, besides the Bodhisattvas. Of course, this is still impermanent and part of dukkha, but one could keep trying over and over to be reborn again and again in the Brahma realms. The other possibility is to become a (Mahayana) Bodhisattva, in which case one maintains his personhood also. Although a Bodhisattva is destined to become a Buddha. The question is, why should sentient beings choose to end their personhood permanently, rather than trying to be reborn again and again as the best person possible?

Dukkha is said to have three types. 1. Can Vipariṇāma-dukkha be analysed in terms of Dukkha-dukkha alone? 2. Is the experience of Saṃkhāra-dukkha nothing more than Vipariṇāma-dukkha?

I need to find the *Sutta* in where it is stated how a human being will be reborn. There should be different states for example if you are born in a high society you were respectful towards parents, elders, teachers and so forth in the previous life/lives. If you were into torturing and harming people you will be reborn with a poor health, if you were killing people you will be reborn with a short life span. There are more states but i do not know them. Help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

There is a short sentence in the suttas where the Buddha said lay people should not involve themselves in the weapons business, but it seems this is not as serious as the five precepts. The question is, how much is considered weapons business? For example, is getting involving in the armor business considered weapon business? What about selling weapons designs, technologies, intellectual property, etc., but not selling weapons themselves? What if someone is only skilled in weapons/war and cannot make a living off of other professions?

In the search for meaning and purpose of life, it seems that Buddhism is silent on this issue that many modern people are concerned with. The way to reconcile seems to be "accept things as it is". However, I personally know people who have trouble living without a "meaning of life". They ask themselves questions like "Why do I need to do this? Why can't I do that instead?". They are not nonconformist, but just does not see the point of doing anything at all. These thoughts can actually lead some of them to become suicidal as a form of release. What does Buddhism teach about how lack of meaning of life can make someone so negative, and the method, procedures and way of thinking that can help people to "accept things as it is"? Notes to my personal understanding to help with better quality answers. - "Meaning of Life" and "Purpose of Life" are not necessarily the one and same thing. - Not finding the meaning/purpose does not mean it doesn't exist **Clarification:** I am not blaming Buddhism for "lack of meaning/purpose of life", although some of those troubled people *claim* to be Buddhists themselves. Instead, I am exploring the *real* Buddhist way of managing this anxiety. In other beliefs and religion, the meaning is prescribed and the troubled people find peace in that. But my views are similar to the Buddhist view, so I hope to find a way to cope without resorting to those religions or "artificial comfort".

Can anyone help me with finding *The Abhidamma Pitaka* or some of the 7 books from it? I seem not to be able to find anything when searching on google. Maybe im just not skilled enough to find books/pdf's about it. I can find only descriptions of what The Abhidhamma Pitaka is and what it contains. I would like to find it in english since i cannot read other languages. I really want to begin studying this Pitaka. Help would be much appreciated. May all beings be happy, peaceful and free from mental and physical suffering. Harshani --Update-- I just found this: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/abhidhaultsci.pdf I think its a condensation of the most essential teachings from The Abhidhamma Pitaka. Can anyone confirm this?

In terms of availability of technology, the modern world is very different from the world in which Buddhism arose, and the Buddhist suttas were written As a result, these days, people do things differently from the past, for example: - performing multiple tasks at once - using medication to try to improve attention - working with headphones on, listening to music or radio - constantly using smartphones and tablets Are there any consequences of all of this for Buddhist practice? For example, does technology impact meditation and insight? Are we becoming more distracted and therefore adding more suffering to our lives?