I mean any mantra japa, even the most spiritual mantras does this.
I noticed it happening to me some time ago when I was really into practicing naam jap, people look at you for some reason and it was kinda annoying sometimes.
Do you feel or know someone who feel similar effects of mantra jap?
How do you choose it?
So I have some things I would like to talk about, first is:
I do believe in an ATMAN, like Hindus. Buddhists believe in Annata or non-self.
I also do believe in a ultimate God or creator like the Hindus does, Buddhists don't believe in such.
I believe that deities are real, buddhists seems to vary from believing in them to not believing at all in gods. Hindus do see them as real.
I like the idea o bodhicitta and compassion in every practice of Vajrayana buddhism, Hindu tantra does not seem to include that.
So in this topic I seem to tend towards Hinduism.
In the practice there also seems to be some differences of view:
Material benefits =
Hindus seem to be much more open on this aspect of their tantric practice, they don't hide that their practice brings these, in fact, they even sometimes practice for reaching these worldly benefits. If you look at the hindu subreddit everyday someone shows up asking for help with x, y or z mundane problem and dozens of people will try to help with something.
Buddhists seem to be much more secretive about these, if you ask for these in their subreddit they will blame you and make you quit with the famous "Vajrayana is not for you" phrase. For some reason they(or at least most of them) have a hard time to talk about their practices and worldly benefits, maybe because of the difference in view from Hinduism. It's interesting to note that I attend a 6 day retreat past month in the Vajrayana tradition where the lama taught a practice which brings worldly benefits and he even said "If we want to make other people lives better, first we need to have the conditions for that, be it money, etc..."
So after this retreat I understand that Vajrayana practices also do benefit us materially, but most of the people on their reddit will judge you the moment you ask for "worldly benefits".
Spiritual benefits =
Hindu practice does bring Moksha at the end, which is the last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that). So it takes you from start to finish.
Buddhist practice will also bring you to what they call Nirvana which is their last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that), taking you from start to finish, but here with the intention to benefit all beings and not just yourself, which I find amazing and is only a buddhist thing.
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I'm looking for a tantric path that gives both Bhoga(worldly benefits) and liberation.
I'm looking for a tantric path where the Gods protect the practitioner from external harm.
How do you choose it?
So I have some things I would like to talk about, first is:
I do believe in an ATMAN, like Hindus. Buddhists believe in Annata or non-self.
I also do believe in a ultimate God or creator like the Hindus does, Buddhists don't believe in such.
I believe that deities are real, buddhists seems to vary from believing in them to not believing at all in gods. Hindus do see them as real.
I like the idea o bodhicitta and compassion in every practice of Vajrayana buddhism, Hindu tantra does not seem to include that.
So in this topic I seem to tend towards Hinduism.
In the practice there also seems to be some differences of view:
Material benefits =
Hindus seem to be much more open on this aspect of their tantric practice, they don't hide that their practice brings these, in fact, they even sometimes practice for reaching these worldly benefits. If you look at the hindu subreddit everyday someone shows up asking for help with x, y or z mundane problem and dozens of people will try to help with something.
Buddhists seem to be much more secretive about these, if you ask for these in their subreddit they will blame you and make you quit with the famous "Vajrayana is not for you" phrase. For some reason they(or at least most of them) have a hard time to talk about their practices and worldly benefits, maybe because of the difference in view from Hinduism. It's interesting to note that I attend a 6 day retreat past month in the Vajrayana tradition where the lama taught a practice which brings worldly benefits and he even said "If we want to make other people lives better, first we need to have the conditions for that, be it money, etc..."
So after this retreat I understand that Vajrayana practices also do benefit us materially, but most of the people on their reddit will judge you the moment you ask for "worldly benefits".
Spiritual benefits =
Hindu practice does bring Moksha at the end, which is the last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that). So it takes you from start to finish.
Buddhist practice will also bring you to what they call Nirvana which is their last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that), taking you from start to finish, but here with the intention to benefit all beings and not just yourself, which I find amazing and is only a buddhist thing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm looking for a tantric path that gives both Bhoga(worldly benefits) and liberation.
I'm looking for a tantric path where the Gods protect the practitioner from external harm.
How do you choose it?
So I have some things I would like to talk about, first is:
I do believe in an ATMAN, like Hindus. Buddhists believe in Annata or non-self.
I also do believe in a ultimate God or creator like the Hindus does, Buddhists don't believe in such.
I believe that deities are real, buddhists seems to vary from believing in them to not believing at all in gods. Hindus do see them as real.
I like the idea o bodhicitta and compassion in every practice of Vajrayana buddhism, Hindu tantra does not seem to include that.
So in this topic I seem to tend towards Hinduism.
In the practice there also seems to be some differences of view:
Material benefits =
Hindus seem to be much more open on this aspect of their tantric practice, they don't hide that their practice brings these, in fact, they even sometimes practice for reaching these worldly benefits. If you look at the hindu subreddit everyday someone shows up asking for help with x, y or z mundane problem and dozens of people will try to help with something.
Buddhists seem to be much more secretive about these, if you ask for these in their subreddit they will blame you and make you quit with the famous "Vajrayana is not for you" phrase. For some reason they(or at least most of them) have a hard time to talk about their practices and worldly benefits, maybe because of the difference in view from Hinduism. It's interesting to note that I attend a 6 day retreat past month in the Vajrayana tradition where the lama taught a practice which brings worldly benefits and he even said "If we want to make other people lives better, first we need to have the conditions for that, be it money, etc..."
So after this retreat I understand that Vajrayana practices also do benefit us materially, but most of the people on their reddit will judge you the moment you ask for "worldly benefits".
Spiritual benefits =
Hindu practice does bring Moksha at the end, which is the last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that). So it takes you from start to finish.
Buddhist practice will also bring you to what they call Nirvana which is their last stage(I know some of you will disagree with me on that), taking you from start to finish, but here with the intention to benefit all beings and not just yourself, which I find amazing and is only a buddhist thing.
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I'm looking for a tantric path that gives both Bhoga(worldly benefits) and liberation.
I'm looking for a tantric path where the Gods protect the practitioner from external harm.
So I just discovered that there's different ways of worship of deities in Tantra:
It can be Kaulachara - External Worship - offerings of flowers, food, fire rituals
And it can be SAMAYACHARA - Internal Worship - visualizations of body mandala, chakras
But does internal worship also brings the wealth and material benefits that external worship brings? If I worship deities internally, are the worldly benefits the same?
Sorry if this is not a question I should be asking here, I'm a beginner and I would like to understand this better, please enlighten me! Thanks!
If I practice the Dharma(mantras, sadhanas, sutras) near someone who is sufferung and will die in 4 months(according to doctors), can I speed up this person's karma so instead of suffering for 4 months this person only suffers for two weeks and then dies?
I ask this because I have a weird story that happened recently:
There was this person near me about to die, she was suffering from late stage cancer and dementia, doctors gave her only 4 months to live and said there was nothing to do.
I went to this person's house every day to do my sadhanas and mantra recitation near her so she could listen to it.
The idea was not to cure her, only a miracle could, I was just planting the seeds in her mind for a better next life. I also dedicated the practice as "May I with this practice ease the suffering of all sentient beings"
Then from the day I started, her condition worsened SO FAST, her dementia got a lot worse, her cancer spread even faster, and she died exactly two weeks after I started doing this.
Doctors said she went from a heart failure, a painless death. Doctors also said she would suffer until the end because of her situation. Doctors also said it's not common for it to progress to fast in two weeks time, it was supposed to happen in months, not days, even looked for a necropsy suspecting of poisoning.
She was expected to suffer so much more in these 4 months to come, the doctors said other horrible things that would happen to her in the process so we could be ready to face it the best way possible.
But none of these horrible things happened.
I would like to know if in some way I burned some of her karma to go through all of this suffering with Dharma practice.
Did I speed up her karma in some way?
Her family said the way she died was a "blessing"... They were expecting a living hell in the next months.
I did not only do the tantric sadhanas but I also read some sutras while I was there and also recited a considerable amount of 100 syllable Vajrasattva mantra.
If the Dharma really did this to help alleviate her from all the suffering to come, then this is amazing.
Honestly, I'm the guy who shows up here sometimes with controversial posts questioning the efficacy of the practices, but if these practices did help alleaviate her suffering, I'm never criticizing the Dharma again.
I would like to hear from you now, help me understand it.
Does the energy get to that person or pet(cat, dog) near you?
And if yes, does this happens to every Qigong system or only specific ones?
I will start quoting what I read:
"A Deva is not the same as an Enlightened Being. This means: Anyone can reach this stage of "Deva" by practicing the Dharma for many, many lifetimes, but you are not forever in this state, one day you will fall. The only way to be in this state forever is to become Enlightened".
But then this raised a question: Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesh, etc.. Aren't they just like every God in Hinduism considered"Devas"?
If so, they are not enlightened? They will fall someday?
And then, who is enlightened?
I will start quoting what I read:
"A Deva is not the same as an Enlightened Being. This means: Anyone can reach this stage of "Deva" by practicing the Dharma for many, many lifetimes, but you are not forever in this state, one day you will fall. The only way to be in this state forever is to become Enlightened".
But then this raised a question: Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesh, etc.. Aren't they just like every God in Hinduism considered"Devas"?
If so, they are not enlightened? They will fall someday?
And then, who is enlightened?
I'll write his message below and then I'll leave the link to the full topic at the end, it has 5 pages so it's worth taking a look, but I would also like to hear from you my fellow redditors! :)
Post from someone called "quad" in another Buddhist online forum.
==================================================
>Title: Why doesn't Medicine Buddha heal me?
>I guess this question is pretty straightforward, but could edge into the controversial territory of questioning the veracity of Mahayana sutras in general.
I’m sick. Been chronically ill with an autoimmune disease for a decade, sometimes much better... sometimes much worse. I mention that because it’s certainly possible for me to heal. It’s not like I want to regrow a missing limb here.
I discovered Mahayana Buddhism around the time I got sick. I liked that it seemed to offer some potential solutions to my worldly needs (such as health). I practiced in a few Tibetan Buddhist sanghas before starting to lose some faith. Honestly, not sure where I stand at the moment.
I simply don’t understand why Medicine Buddha wouldn’t heal me, if I followed the instructions Medicine Buddha Sutra to a T. Heck, I don’t understand why anyone who practices the Medicine Buddha dharini with faith continues to suffer ailments.
It simply seems to not work. I’m proof of that. So I’m left with a couple of obvious possibilities in my mind to work this out:
1 - It simply doesn’t work. Perhaps because it’s not true.
2 - It only works for people with enough faith, and I and many others haven’t achieved the required level of faith for it to work.
3 - It’s hyperbolic. Where the sutra promises healing, they really mean “Ehh...it might help a little in vague sense.”
4 - I’m doing it wrong. The mantra needs to be said in a certain way, maybe a certain pronunciation that I haven’t figured out, etc. If this is true than most people are doing it wrong, because it’s not like we don’t see highly realized people practicing Medicine Buddha get sick and die of horrible illnesses...
5 - It’s a translation issue. The original sutra made no such promise of healing of physical or mental ailments for people in THIS life, but merely for future lives.
Honestly, the doubt that this sutra has (overtime) created in my mind is tremendous. I’m like, “Well, if this is just a lie...what other sutras are full of it?”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to disparage the dharma. But this nags at me. But it’s only logical for me to have these thoughts, right? I’m doing the things the sutra asks of me, for many years, and none of its promises have come true. Still dying a horrible illness.
Thoughts are appreciated. I sincerely want to understand the position on this of so many members here who’s candid thoughts I’ve cherished for a long time.
Okay so I went to a Green Tara empowerment, and Rinpoche clearly gave the mantra as "om tarE tuttarE turE SOHA"
It was not "tarEY" or "SVAHA" as many say is the right pronuncition.
So what do I do now, Should I practice the mantra the way Rinpoche gave it or should I adapt it to be "Om Tarey Tuttarey Turey Svaha"?
Can I attend a Refuge Vow Ceremony and take Refuge from a Sakya Lama and then 2 hours later take an empowerment from a Gelug Lama?
Sometimes, when we have a problem with someone or someone did bad things to us it's hard to generate bodhicitta "naturally".
So usually I do a kind of Metta meditation before my sadhana to help to generate bodhicitta, otherwise I would start my sadhana in the wrong mood.
Are there other methods you use and would like to share? Like a specific prayer, a specific mantra, a specific phrase that is enough to help to ignite this bodhicitta, a specific practice(like I do), etc...
Basically a practice to purify the body and the 5 elements before any other more elaborate practice in Hindu like mantra chanting, etc...
Have any of you ever practiced it before your Buddhist sadhana practices or practiced something similar?
What if I do it in the morning before eating meat in the day?
And what if I chant it daily for 21 days while eating non-veg, is it too bad, like what would be the consequences it wouldn't work?
I really need it I'm going through a hard time BUT I LIVE WITH MY PARENTS AND THEY CONTROL ME if I go veg they will criticise me and they are Christians so I can't even explain why I would do it because it would create disarmony and they would argue with me and I don't want to fight.
Please I need some advice!
ALGUÉM TIRA A DESGRAÇA DESSA MÚSICA DA MINHA CABEÇA EU NÃO AGUENTO MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIS
To be a Buddhist we need to believe in ALL of the teachings from the Buddha?
But which exactly are those teachings, can someone list them? ALL of them.
I know there is the Four Noble Truths / the Noble Eightfold Path / Bodhicitta / Compassion / Emptiness / Renunciation.
But does the Philosophy things also applies as Buddha teachings, like the ideas of Interdependence, Anatta, Karma and Reincarnation? If those do apply as Buddha teachings, can someone be a Buddhist but believing in them like the Hindus does?
For example: Would it be contradictory if a Vajrayana practitioner, instead of believing in Annata(no self / Buddhist view) believes in the Atman(true self / Hindu view)?
If I go and start chanting many naam japa, this means just the name of each god 108x, and each day I try a different God/Goddess, until I feel I connect with one of them, is this good?
I mean, if I chant one God's name 108x and feel nothing probably he or she isn't my Ishta Devata, but if I chant the name of one god and feel strong devotion and maybe even start crying(as some people mentioned) this can give an idea of who is my Ishta Devta.
Yes I know it won't be 100% sure but I mean, it's more likely to be a deity I feel devotion than a deity that I just feel nothing.
The version I knew was to chant only "Ram" and it was enough, now I saw someone mentioning to chant "Shri Ram" and now I'm lost.
Is there any difference?