r/theravada

EDIT: Thank you to ALL of you that have responded. I appreciate the time, effort, consideration and compassion that I have seen in your responses. My apologies for not being clear on my experience to begin with. I am going to try to get in touch with Wat Metta tonight and hear their thoughts on the matter- as per some responders' suggestion. To all who were confused by the post, if you have any recommendations on how I can be clearer so that when I call them, I don't sound like a crazy person, your input would be greatly appreciated either in the comments or in a DM. Again, thank you all so much.

Hello All! I was wondering if anyone may have some advice or wisdom in regard to a rather distracting phenomenon during my breath meditation. I have scoured Thanissaro Bhikkhu's book With Each and Every Breath and read his advice on this particular issue multiple times, but I just can't seem to implement it.

Here is the context and issue: Every morning I go out to a field under a beautiful live oak tree and practice breath meditation. After about 4 months of doing this consistently, I feel like I am finally starting to really get the hang of it. My breath stays within the confines of the body and I can focus on breathing with the body in and of itself within about 20 minutes. The past couple weeks this focus has been accompanied by my arms raising slowly into the air. It feels very, very good at first to be honest, but I made sure not to focus this particular aspect and stayed with the breath. Tried my best to ignore it and let the feeling just sort of do its thing. However, the tension after a few minutes in my arms is extremely distracting. My arms, as I type this, are still shaking. The other day it felt as though they were literally going to explode. Like an overfull balloon. Today, my body felt like it just completely disappeared with the exception of my lower arms and hands, which were shaking very hard. I don't like this. Partially because I have epilepsy and the shaking is uncomfortable but also because I am trying to reach a state of "oneness" with the body. I feel as though I am on the precipice of being able to do this but how am I supposed to do that when my actual body seems to disappear into the ethos except for my lower arms and hands? I do know that these things are perceptions, but they are perceptions that are extremely hard to shake off.

Is there anyone here that has any experience with this particular issue and has been able to implement a practice to sort of overcome it? I am not sure I can progress further in my meditation practice until I can resolve this is some way.

Thank you!

Peace and Metta,

Samantha

Lately I've been curious about the status of Theravada Buddhism within the Han Chinese community, both mainlander and overseas. The only information I know of are the Tai-speaking peoples of Yunnan who practice Theravada Buddhism due to their cultural history with mainland SEA.

So my question is how often do Chinese Theravada practicioners appear, and maybe also ask where are they usually found?

I'm wondering how many of you have found yourselves in my situation. I actually live in a community with a strong Buddhist population. There are five or six Zen temples and three or four Tibetan ones. But the nearest Theravada group is 2 hours away from me.

I've found an online Theravada sangha that I feel very comfortable with and really feel like I fit in. But of course, I can't make in-person friends that way, and because of health and money issues, the likelihood is low that I'll ever be able to visit in person.

In the main Buddhist subreddit, I've seen a lot of people say that it's better to go to a sangha in a school you don't agree with than to refrain from going to the sangha. But Theravada feels like home. Not only that, but all I'm going to say is that I don't feel comfortable with several Mahayana teachings and traditions, including the bodhisattva ideal. But it would be nice to have people in my town who share my practice. Is it truly better to attend a sangha for a school you don't feel comfortable with than to be part of an online sangha? I'm not trying to be divisive, just trying to explain how I feel.

All the buddhist texts ive read mention how the nirvana is the end of the reborning, mentions niraya as some kind of "hell" and i really never understood nothing about it.

i know most of the things ive written does not make any sense, but it is because i really dont understand absolutely nothing about it.

can you explain it or recommend any youtube video/link that explains it?

On clinging to anything in the world, even at the conceptual level

In short, on clinging to the five aggregates, even at the conceptual level

Entrance to apāya, the underworld, the unbearable suffering

On a feeble magnitude of conceptual clinging (sakāyaditthi)

Entrance to the first and shallow realm of suffering

Where the gift of power, an enormous power

With discontent, and desire for more power

An instance when the existence of some kilesās

But when control over kilesas, a huge power, a deadly harm to the other side

Like with greed, accumulation of enormous wealth

But still no contentment, no satisfaction

Just a bit more clinging, the hungry ghost realm, with more discontent

Then, the animal realm and finally hell

If no gross conceptual clinging, but only a subtle one

Then, the destruction of the very root cause

At least the entrance to the human world, not if devas

Everything impermanent, along with body, mind, and possessions too

The sole reason for suffering, along with the bad actions time and again

For such possessions and the well-being of the same

In saṃsāra, the flood of clinging, everywhere personality

Every person, at least a demon, an Asura, in real, if not in hell

Vipassanā, the comprehension of dhātus as an escape

Polskie tłumaczenie

"BUDDYJSKA KOSMOLOGIA:

Wszechstronny przegląd wczesnej buddyjskiej wizji świata; zgodnie z tradycjami Theravādy i Sarvāstivādy"

Autor: Punnadhammo Mahāthero

cakkavāḷaṃ atisambādhaṃ, brahmāloko atinīcako
„Krąg świata jest zbyt wąski, świat Brahmy jest zbyt niski.”
Vimānavatthu Aṭṭhakathā 15 (tłumaczenie I.B. Hornera)

Publikuję za zgodą Czcigodnego.

Przepraszam, za ewentualne błędy.

I was reading refuge by Thanissaro Bhikkhu as advised for beginners in this subreddits wiki.

Im starting to understand how love for something leads to the situation: you crave when it is not there, you delight when it is there, passion for getting it like this will make me happy (spoiler...it wont). Turning love for something into hate for something just inverses the problem rather than resolves it.

If you hate something, you crave for it to not be there, you suffer when it is there, a passion for getting away from it like getting away from it will make you happy (spoiler....it wont).

Dispassion like for my love of cheese, learning that it wont make me happy, clinging to it wont make me happy.

I am 355 lbs or 161 kg at 6'1 (185cm). Obese and unhealthy because of my passion for high calorie foods. I have clinged to them like they will make me happy. The reality is they have made me very unhappy with my appearance and health. I will retrain my mind to learn dispassion for food. Not an aversion but being able to taste something good without it taking over my mind.

What is your view on dispassion for sense objects ?

Many thanks for reading.

well, i didnt knew how to be clear enough in my title, so ill try to explain it better here
im a 15yo brazillian boxer, and found about buddhism like 2 years ago, after going for a lot of terrible stuff in my life. but there's only been like 10 months since i actually started implementing things in my life. studied the dharma, created a meditation routine, and changed completely the way i acted through life since that. i really see my improvement and that i am becoming a better person. but, some months ago, i realized that my relations with people around me were pulling me back on my path, and making me do really less than i should in every aspect of life - mainly on training and my "buddhistic life". so, trying to apply what i learned, i remembered that every answer comes from within, so i stopped answering messenges, unistalled all social media and became focused on who i wanted to be and what i wanted to achieve. and it has been absolutely amazing. but at this point, i dont really know why im doing it anymore. the felling that im letting people worried or angry at me has been growing a lot. but, everytime i go on and answer someone, i feel guilty, because it feels like losing all the progress i made on improving myself.

so, what im asking is: how do you guys find the balance between self-knowledge and relations with others?

EDIT: after reading a guy's answer, i realized that the guiltiness i feel is because back in the day i was active on social media and talking to people, i used as a source of happines, by seeking validation. and realized that my main struggle here is that im scared that talk to people and use social media again will make me lose all the progress and put me on that fake happiness seeking cycle again. how did you deal with it when you had to face something that once damaged you? (it dont need to be a situation like mine, i think any type of addiction also fits well here)

Pretty much every Burmese keyboard layout allows you to type Pali in Burmese script. The only catch is these layouts aren't as efficient as they could be if you're interested in typing just Pali. Retroflex consonants for example, are only accessible with the Shift-key, and others require you to stretch your fingers towards the number keys.

I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to take a Burmese layout .mim file and tweak it a little so all the characters I want would be within easy reach and require as few keystrokes as possible. These are the instructions I followed for making my custom layout executable on my machine:

https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/ling073/Making\_a\_keyboard\_layout\_using\_IBus

Except after executing the custom layout, somehow it's functioning exactly as the original file, as if I didnt make any changes to it.

Anyone good with custom keyboards and have some knowledge of Burmese to help me troubleshoot? Fwiw I'm using Debian and use Ibus for managing all my other keyboard layouts.

We should all train our heart, look after our mind. Our mind, when it’s not trained, is like a small, innocent child that doesn’t know anything. Whatever it comes across, it pounces. If it comes across water, it pounces on the water. If it comes across fire, it pounces on the fire. It keeps causing harm to itself. When you see the harm of what you’re doing, you can stop. You watch it until you can stop, until you can give it up. It’s like lighting a lantern and letting your child loose. The child doesn’t know anything. It crawls over and tries to catch hold of the flame. Then it’ll start crying. The next day, if you try to take the child to the flame, it won’t touch it, for it’s seen the harm from the day before. It’ll stop trying to catch it. Right here is where insight helps us. We really see. Whatever we really see, we can really let go.

I once identified as a gnostic christian but that paths methods have been lost to time.
Too much has been lost for it to be an effective way to enlightenment.

Which brought me to theravada Buddhism...

The eightfold path seems like a very practical guide for reaching enlightenment.

We are luminous spiritual beings that have become caught up in physical existence.

Remembering who we are and becoming those spiritual beings in this life via removing all impediments to it is achieved via the eightfold path.

I have created some really bad karma for myself through unskilful actions of mind and body.
I might goto prison, I hope to turn my life around with the aid of the buddhas teachings and salvage some good from this existence.

Have started to learn samatha/vipassana meditation. Its progressing quite well. I have been learning diaphragmatic breathing as part of this.

Wish i could undo the bad things i have done but all i can do is change, not repeat those things and find a way to turn incarceration (if this happens) into a force for positive change.

How do i learn to relax knowing i might be incarcerated for an unknown ammount of time ?
Im not complaining just aknowledging how difficult the karma i have created for myself is.

Thank you for listening.

 you can understand how the core engine operates across practice:

Notice (Right Mindfulness): Right Mindfulness (sammā sati) acts as the sensor. It detects the moment suffering or friction flares up in your mind or body.

Identify (Right View): Right View (sammā diṭṭhi) inspects the situation, recognizing: “This is an unwholesome reaction; this causes agitation.”

Correct (Right Effort, Intention, Speech, Action, Livelihood): Right Effort (sammā vāyāma) steps in to abandon the harmful reaction, while Right Intention (sammā saṅkappa / mettā) helps you respond with loving-kindness instead of resentment to protect conduct (sīla — encompassing Speech, Action, and Livelihood).

Return & Reinforce (Right Concentration): As agitation dissolves, settled concentration (samādhi) returns naturally, strengthening your mental baseline so you catch the next trigger even faster.

This is an experience to have many times along the path to end suffering. Truth through experience. do you experience the 8 fold path?

There is a simple secret—three phrases. Remember them. These three phrases belong to morality, stillness, and wisdom:

Knowing, Calmness, and Letting Go.

Do you understand?

Knowing means awareness.

Calmness means collectedness of mind.

Letting go means not clinging—this is wisdom.

For example, when some emotion arises and touches you, causing suffering, making you feel angry or agitated—then you don't need to keep fabricating, keep proliferating, asking why it is this way, why this happened to you, why they did this or that. You don't need to keep creating stories, keep constructing.

When such emotions arise, simply be aware of them—knowing. Then let the mind be calm—calmness. And then stop fabricating further, stop proliferating, and put it down—that is letting go. It is that simple. Then your mind will return to that natural calmness, that happiness, free from suffering—you will feel at ease and light.

So please remember this, recite it, and listen to it: Knowing, Calmness, Letting go. Whatever the situation, memorise these words and repeat them. When you drive back home, with traffic jams and stress inside the car, just remain calm—knowing, calmness, letting go. When you get home and your family looks at you or interacts with you—knowing, calmness, letting go. Do you understand?

This is called guarding the mind. If you can guard your mind, then anywhere you go, whatever you do, you will have happiness. If you do not know how to guard your mind, there is not a single corner in this world where you can go and find happiness. Do you understand? If we cannot guard our mind, cannot take care of it, and our mind is in a bad state, then even with wonderful things—beautiful clothes, nice appearances, great wealth—if our mind is not good, we will have no happiness.

If we do not know how to protect the mind, it is very difficult to find this happiness. Do you understand? We seek happiness in the wrong places, we seek it externally—and that is why we end up this way. We should turn back to guard this mind, to cultivate this mind, and then we will attain true happiness.

I would say both minds have different resolves.

A skillful mind abandons what is unskillful, and maintains what is skillful. And what is skillful? Renunciation, non-ill will, and harmlessness.

Yet a released mind relinquishes what is both skillful and unskillful.

For these effluents of sensuality, becoming, and ignorance, when seen with discernment, develops dispassion for them. With dispassion, these effluents come to cessation.

And what exactly is dispassion? That these qualities, these very effluents, are worthy of relinquishing, not picking up.

Even when touched by these effluents, a person doesn't become agitated because of that direct knowledge.

Thus a skillful mind leads to becoming going along with those effluents, siding with merit, but a released mind is free from that very becoming, seeing the fault in effluents.

So where do those resolves stem from?

Skillful: "There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves."

Released: "Whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently originated: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stress. Whatever is stress is not me, is not what I am, is not my self. This is the sort of view I have.”

A released mind is harder to achieve compared to a skillful one, but it is possible. And that possibility is given to you and everyone else too, thanks to the Buddha, the Sangha, and the propagation of the Dhamma.

I think for me that realization came when even clinging on to this Dhamma was stressful. When I read this line from Venerable Sariputta, "Indeed, it seems that the One Well-Gone speaks to us of the relinquishing of each of these qualities through direct knowledge," I came to realize that too. So look into your practice, and aim for a released mind. The teachings are here and now, well-translated, well-taught, for those who wish for release.

I believe I understand the roles of rebirth and the karmic over from this life, and of karma and karmic carry over from this life, as motivators for us to live morally. I also see them as an improvement over the concepts of sin and hell. But to me they also seem nonessential. One can be motivated to contemplate the Four Noble Truths and to meditate and follow the Noble Eightfold Path for the rewards Now, in the Present, in this lifetime, without resort to Karma or rebirth in the next life. TBH, instinctively I don’t believe in them, but there’s no opportunity to talk with Buddha about them. So my questions are, am I obligated to believe in them? Why should I believe in them?

I’ve been thinking about this from a Theravada perspective and I’m curious how other practitioners see it.

I personally prefer animals to humans and generally find them easier and more pleasant to be around. But to me, that’s simply a personal preference. It has nothing to do with how I value their lives. I value animal and human lives equally. My understanding of metta and compassion is that they extend to all beings regardless of our personal preferences toward them.

I understand that human rebirth is considered favorable in Theravada because of the opportunity to encounter and practice the Dhamma. But to me, that’s a different question from the moral value of the being itself.

This originally came up because I responded to a video from "Subway Takes" where the person interviewed argued that people who prefer animals to humans are essentially displaying an unhealthy attitude. He specifically said: "people who like animals more than humans are not good people". I reacted to it because the underlying idea that human lives should inherently be valued above animal lives feels like wrong view to me from a Buddhist perspective.

I commented on the video with making the distinction that preferring animals to humans doesn’t mean valuing animals over humans, and that I value all beings equally. This was strongly criticized, and I was asked whether I would save an animal over a human and whether I place animals at the same value as humans. I said I would save both and that yes, I value them equally. This is what I wrote:

"Buddhists disagree. All beings matter. Even tiny animals.

It's not a competition. Empathic people empathize with all beings.

Liking animals more than people is just a preference.

Valuing an animal's life over a human's life isn't really something animal lovers do? If they proclaim that they do, they are not mentally stable.

As an autistic I relate to and understand animals better than people, so I choose to surround myself with them more than people, bc neurotypicals are unfortunately exhausting for me most of the time.

This is a personal preference. I value all beings equally, as one should. (...)"

The reaction to this made me genuinely question whether there is something I’m missing in my understanding of Theravada. To me, universal metta toward all beings seems fundamentally incompatible with assigning greater inherent value to a being simply because it is human. I’m curious how other Theravadan Buddhists understand this.

I feel like this sums up the major difference between "dry insight" and other types of Theravada practices fairly well. Though technically, even in dry insight practice it's impossible not to intervene in experiences because even the act or intention of "just watching" is itself introducing an intention that will bring about a particular result.

Which of these two approaches seems more like what the Buddha taught? Did he teach people to just watch things arise and pass away, and to accept whatever experiences are coming up? Did he caution against having preferences, or wanting to control and shape experiences?

Or did he teach to intervene in our experiences to shape them and exert what control we can on them for the better? I heard Ajahn Geoff say in a talk recently that if we don't intervene in arisen experience, we can't learn. But I was trying to figure out why that is. Isn't quietly observing often a perfectly valid way to study and understand something? On the other hand, if we become too passive and commit to only watching and not intervening, can't that let a lot of hindrances and bad mental habits go unchecked and unchanged?

I've heard just watching will lead to letting go, but sometimes it feels more like it leads to giving up. And can't this giving up happen too early, and potentially make one stop and not reach the ultimate goal? Would the Buddha call either of these approaches unwise, or could both of them be correct in different situations?