r/theravada

Hi, thank you for taking some time looking at this post. I would like to share a particular story of me after a particular meditation which has me really concerned about my own mental health and would appreciate any feedback and insight onto what happened as well as to what I should do next.

To preface I was looking to ordain as a Theravada monk in a Thai monastery. I am a self learned practitioner who does mainly anapanasati (breathing mindfulness) since I was a teenager (18-20ish) and I am 33 now. The following experience happened after a particular meditation session using a new technique I've devised myself after discussing meditation with a fellow layman at the monastery. Simply watching the breathing go in and out is the basic of basics, the new technique is adjusting that a bit: after noticing each breath I would stop and focus on the nostrils then see if there are any active thoughts going through my head if yes then I would keep holding my breath - if not then I would continue breathing in/out. Using this technique I've had a meditation session more intense than any other I've had in the past.

--- Actual Experience ---

Here is the actual experience and how it began itself: I was sitting in a hut alone around 7pm and started to meditate. After some time of intense concentration, all of a sudden it was as if a sudden personality shift occurred in me. (Please note I do not remember the exact words I have uttered going forwards but it'll be similar.) Right after the "shift" I said out "Oh behold devas, the time has come. Come for I have much dharma to teach" while simultaneously doing mudra hand signs constantly changing throughout the rest of this event (and later during the night even proclaim it the language of devas). During this "episode" I myself was aware of the meaning of the hand signs but in retrospect now sane I have no idea nor could I replicate those hand signs.

I then got up, got dressed and headed out without a flashlight - all whilst doing dharma talks inside my head and occasionally out softly in speech. I remember the whole thing but not what dharma talks in particular exactly I was talking about except for one later on which stuck with me. I started to walk deeper into the forest following a small paved path (this was a forest monastery which is pitch-black at night with minimal infrastructure). Along the way I rested down on the paved road looking up through the trees I discern shapes out of what I can see through the leaves to the sky. I recognized these distinct shapes to be two devas. Also along I way I saw what appeared to be fireflies for brief moments as I walked through the forest which I saw as devas.

After a bit of conversing with devas I got up and continued on and stopped at a meditation hall (? called a boat in Thai). Inside the hall I looked outside to an invisible crowd talking dharma to invisible ghost figures with no shape while also acknowledging devas once in a while. After a bit I tried to climb to sit on a heightened platform intended for monks but slipping in the process and hurt my face and finger, finger was mostly alright but face was bleeding and I could feel the blood flowing down my face. I proclaimed that this is intentional to demonstrate that while the mind may be mastered the body still follows the rules of the physical realm. Then I started to preach the one dharma talk that I could recall at time of writing: that death is inevitable, I rubbed the blood off my face and showed it to the crowd stating that no matter who it is - no matter how enlightened will die and to not forget this fact.

Some time passed, and I declared I will be taking a rest now. I took a short rest laying on the platform for a while. After noticing the crowd no longer there I decided to "go back to my abode" and went off into the darkness and into some hut and began to rest on something which I would later find to be a table. And then just like that I came to myself, confused in the dark with no idea where I am - I looked around and turned the lights on and found I was resting on a table between two big framed pictures of two famed Thai monks. This was a hut I've never been to but I could tell it was an important one.

After a brief moment wandering around that hut confused I could tell I was nearby a pathway I recognized so I turned the lights off and tried to find my way back to my actual hut. I had no flashlight so I slowly made my way back, luckily the only eventful thing that happened was me stepping on what felt like a frog which quickly leapt(?) away. I found my way back checked the clock and it was about 12:10~am so roughly 5 hours after I first began my meditation at 7:00pm.

--- Additional Info: Weed ---

There is one more important fact I'd like to share. Although this is the first time I've experienced this episode after a session of meditation, this isn't overall the first time something like this happened. About roughly 2~ years ago I had worked in a weed shop, note that I am not a regular consumer of weed at all and would avoid it in any regular circumstance (I worked there from a recommendation by a family member who plans to open their own shop and wanted me to get some experience working in such a shop). I was working the counter selling the products and the shop wanted me to understand the products to better recommend them to customers. One day, the shop had made a new infused brownie and I was invited to try it.

And so I tried it, took one piece out of four and it was one of the worse choices of my life. Actually wrote a separate story for the whole experience but saved it in a notepad file in a separate computer which is currently broke. It is a similar experience - talking to devas so I'll give a short version only describing the more different parts: initially during the start it was different. I was manning the counter and time slowed down heavily and my legs felt like it was constantly being cut apart. Then I noticed a man sitting across me in a chair; he looks like a regular Thai person with dark skin. he asked me if I understood what is going on. The man was smiling the entire time but I was in a deep panic. My own thoughts were slowed and I found myself barely able to speak. I recall at least asking the man who he was to which he looked confused and does not reply.

Some time elapsed and I found myself trying to get away and upstairs to the 2nd floor stumbling and some staff came and got me to a room on the 2nd floor to rest on the floor. Not much time passed as I got up and somehow got used to the condition and then just like that the first time I've felt a sudden "personality shift" I left the shop starting doing the whole hand mudra and talking to devas stuff in public in a major public area. Didn't take long before for the first time in my life I was taken to a police station behind bars. Luckily I just had to stay one night before I was let out with a fine for disorderly conduct I believe.

Since then roughly every 4-6 months~ I would wake up in the morning or night, and have an episode doing the whole mudra and chant but it was always in my apartment room alone so I thought it was a temporary affliction. As time went by, the time between each episode increases to the point I thought it was a non-issue but apparently not.

--- Additional Info: General ---

Continuing on from the story in present day monastery, the next morning after the whole thing happened I went to talk to the head monk and told him the entire story. To cut it brief he is not sure about the whole thing but that he is concerned that I might be further harming myself if this goes on. The monastery has a policy of not accepting people with mental disorders which when I first joined I genuinely believed the whole weed experience thing wasn't any more an issue. Now seeing that there very much is an issue I suggested to the monk that I believe that it would be best I leave. After a few minutes of him looking contemplative he had agreed that it is likely best I leave. During the conversation the head monk had also suggested that perhaps a different monastery, or retreat(? I do not remember the exact word he used) with a monk more specialized in intense meditation may be of more help. The same day I left the monastery.

I am a very forgetful person normally so I can't recall everything except for particularly impactful things so I'm sure I missed details here and there - the specifics of the dharma talks for instance, which were just stuff I already know in my life so they weren't so impactful compared to everything else. At some point I did a dharma talk with solely the hand signs intended as a sutta specifically only for devas which me at the time intuitively understood but not sane me now in retrospect.

--- Ending notes ---

I'd like to note I am heavily skeptical of what happened to be true (devas and all that), I am concerned for my own mental health and is considering some sort of mental health check up.

I also have another concern as I have been looking to ordain as a Buddhist monk for my remaining life. I've wanted to do this since I was around 20~ years old only holding back until now since you need parent's permission to do so which only recently did they agree now. And with this whole new issue I am deeply concerned going forwards on what to do. I don't think it hard to imagine that most monasteries would have an issue with someone who would randomly go batsh*t insane ordain.

At time of writing I am currently living at my relatives' house in Thailand who I shared the whole story with and they have banned me from meditation out of fear that I may undergo an episode. I intend to respect their wishes.

I am new to posting on reddit so I am not sure if I am posting on the right subreddit, so my sincerest apologies if this isn't the most appropriate place. Also not entirely sure if I should repost to other subreddits.

Thank you for reading

With the Dhamma, it’s like going to the home of friends or relatives and they give you some fruit. When you take the fruit in your hand, you don’t know whether it’s sour, sweet, or unripe. In other words, if you simply hold the fruit in your hand, you can’t know its taste. To know the taste, you have to bite into it and chew it. That’s when you’ll know that it’s sour or sweet or what its various flavors are, in line with your own perceptions. It’s the same with the Dhamma. In everything, the Buddha has you take yourself as your own witness. You don’t have to take anyone else. The affairs of other people are hard to judge because they’re the affairs of other people. If something is your own affair, it’s easy—because the truth lies within you. It has you as its witness.

I started the "6 r's" meditation as taught by Venerable Vimalaramsi. He tells as to relax the muscles/the tension in my head. How does one do that ? Is there a technique? I know one can´t force relaxation. So I try to think of my kitten or imagine a calm beach. It kinda works, but is this what he had in mind? Thanks in advance !

Is desire somehow connected with aversion ? So for example, when we are met with an object; we oppose it, we are averse to it; But in order for that aversion to arise, we had to want things to be different than what they actually are.

I have close family who mainstream Western psychology would diagnose as having cluster-B personality disorders (either Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder). They are often volatile, extremely manipulative and outright abusive, and psychologists describe them as difficult to impossible to improve with therapy, because of their rigid coping mechanisms that are hard-wired into their personality, their inability/reluctance to self-reflect and share honestly, and tendency to be callous to those around them, even long-time family members.

Do the Buddha or other sources speak about the states that psychology labels as these disorders? Like in what makes their personality makeup different than non-disordered people, and how they interact with the practice. What I found so far were one remark in passing by Thanissaro Bhikhu and a talk by Ajahn Sujato on narcissists, both had the geist of sardonically making fun of narcissists as extremely difficult people that aren't worth interacting with, and I'm interested in deeper analysis.

Hello. On July 27th until Aug 8th I'll be in Europe with time that I can dedicate to practice. I can go anywhere that would be possible to arrive at from Prague by bus or train (at night too) departing July 26th. Moreover, I would like this place to be vegetarian. Vegan would be best but I understand that both are a bit rare​. Lastly, I would appreciate being able to receive monks' guidance there, attend lessons etc.

I read about Hillside Hermitage in Slovenia, but couldn't understand what kind of guidance I would​ receive there as a layperson. They seem to not rely on meat, ​which is a start.

What are your impressions and suggesetions?

I've spent a decent amount of time on samatha and am now trying to better understand the insight side of Buddhist practice. I'm somewhat familiar with the practical approaches to insight, but I'm curious how the major traditions themselves frame the bigger philosophical picture.

At this point I'm approaching practice from a largely phenomenological perspective. My impression is that this aligns reasonably well with much of Theravāda, though there are still teachings such as karma and rebirth that seem to extend beyond a purely phenomenological framework. I'm curious how the different Buddhist traditions understand these issues. I realize this philosophical discussion could become a distraction from practice, but it also seems worthwhile to have at least a rough understanding of what each tradition is ultimately pointing toward.

• What is the ultimate aim of insight practice? Are dependent origination and/or emptiness the central realization, or does each tradition culminate in something different?
• Are these understood as describing reality itself (ontology), ways of understanding experience (phenomenology), skillful means for liberation, or some combination? In other words, what does each tradition regard as the deepest or most fundamental level of understanding?
• More personally, even if you aren't a traditionalist, how does your understanding of the answers to these questions shape your own practice and daily orientation?

Always happy to hear thoughts from this community, as well as any books, talks, or teachers that explore these questions. Thanks!

What types of experience classify as neither painful nor pleasant ?

How does this differ from pleasant or unpleasant feeling ?

Edit: THANK YOU !!!

“The body belongs to the earth. It originates from substances derived from the earth and eventually returns to the earth. Indeed, the body can exist only within a physical environment suitable for bodily life. It requires the ground to support it, air to breathe, water for hydration, food for nourishment, and energy and warmth to carry out its functions, and so on. All of these things come from the earth. Therefore, this body is, in reality, simply a part of the earth.

Yet we stubbornly cling to it and claim to be its owners. Once we regard it as our possession, all the difficulties associated with bodily existence also become “ours”, difficulties that we do not enjoy. We do not like becoming ill, we do not like growing old, and we do not like dying.

We are familiar enough with the body that we can mentally examine its various parts and focus our attention on them, observing and reflecting on their characteristics, their connections, and the relationships of cause and effect among them. Since we already know so much about the body, it provides a very basic and suitable subject for meditation.”

Greetings! This is my first question in this community, so please feel to correct me in every way possible :)

I am a Student and I have a big inclination towards reading Research papers. I wanted help in finding Scholarly or Academic Research Papers, which could be specific to Theravada, if not then Buddhism at large, a platform or certain authors that i specifically need to lookup.

According to the Buddha’s teachings, birth in the human realm is rare. You’re more probable to birth in the animal realm, ghost realm, and hell realm. But the question is why it’s more probable to be born in realms lower than the human realm? It’s because the state of mind in those lower realms are not in favor of a human birth.

In those lower realms, your mind is almost always inclined to killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, deception, and various states of intoxication whether it’s anger, hatred, or other things. That said, it’ll take a very long time for one to shed lower realm births before getting the opportunity for a human birth.

I'm sure we all face difficulties from time to time with staying on track, staying motivated, and having the strength and discipline to follow the right path. It is very difficult not to give into materialistic pleasures and the temporary enjoyment they offer.

So I was thinking how helpful it would be to contemplate on the end goal and keep reminding of ourselves what it is we are trying to achieve, and the type of happiness and bliss we will get. This brought my attention to Upasamānussati – The contemplation of the qualities of Nibbāna.

So here are the qualities I found so far. I hope they will help you stay motivated to achieve Nibbāna and end suffering. Whenever you feel unmotivated, contemplating on these qualities will perhaps help you remember again what a wonderful thing it is that we are trying to achieve.

Qualities of Nibbāna

1. Ajara – Free from aging. Nibbāna is beyond decay and deterioration. It is not subject to the passage of time.

2. Amara (Amata) – Deathless. Nibbāna is beyond death because it is not a conditioned phenomenon that arises and ceases.

3. Abyādhi (Avyādhi) – Free from disease. It is completely free from affliction, suffering, and any form of illness.

4. Asoka – Free from sorrow. Nibbāna is untouched by grief, sadness, or mental anguish.

5. Asaṅkhata – Unconditioned. It is not created by causes and conditions, unlike all conditioned phenomena.

6. Santa – Peaceful. Nibbāna is the highest peace, where all agitation and suffering have ceased.

7. Paṇīta – Sublime or supreme. It is the highest, most excellent state that can be realized.

8. Sabbasaṅkhārasamatha – The stilling of all conditioned formations. All conditioned activities and fabrications come to complete rest.

9. Sabbūpadhipaṭinissagga – Relinquishment of all acquisitions. All attachments and the bases for continued existence are completely abandoned.

10. Taṇhakkhaya – Destruction of craving. Every form of craving is eradicated, ending the cause of suffering.

11. Virāga – Dispassion. All attachment, desire, and passion have completely faded away.

12. Viraja – Stainless or free from defilements. Nibbāna is perfectly pure and untouched by mental impurities.

13. Nirodha – Cessation. It is the complete cessation of suffering and the causes that produce it.

14. Nibbāna – Liberation or extinguishment. The extinguishing of greed, hatred, and delusion, resulting in perfect freedom.

15. Yogakkhema – Supreme security from bondage. It is absolute safety from the bonds of saṃsāra and all suffering.

16. Khema – Security or safety. Nibbāna is a state of complete freedom from danger and fear.

17. Siva – Auspicious, blissful, and secure. It is the supreme good, free from misfortune and harm.

18. Dīpa – The island (or refuge). Nibbāna is a safe refuge amidst the floods of saṃsāra.

19. Saraṇa – The refuge. It is the ultimate place of protection from suffering.

20. Pāra – The far shore. Nibbāna is the destination beyond the ocean of birth, death, and suffering.

21. Sacca – The truth. It is the ultimate reality that does not change.

22. Parama – The supreme goal. It is the highest attainment in the Buddha's teaching.

23. Visuddhi – Perfect purity. It is completely purified from every stain and defilement.

24. Acala – Unshakeable. Nibbāna cannot be disturbed, altered, or destroyed.

25. Ajāta – Unborn. It has no arising or coming into existence, unlike conditioned things.

26. Free from lamentation – There is no crying, mourning, or emotional distress in Nibbāna.

27. Free from pain – It is beyond both physical and mental suffering.

28. Free from grief – There is no inner affliction or mental burden.

29. Free from despair – Hopelessness and anguish have no place in Nibbāna.

30. Free from greed (Lobha) – All attachment, possessiveness, and craving have been extinguished.

31. Free from hatred (Dosa) – There is no anger, ill will, or aversion whatsoever.

32. Free from delusion (Moha) – Ignorance has been completely removed, and reality is fully understood.

33. Free from conceit (Māna) – All notions of "I," "me," and superiority, inferiority, or equality have ceased.

34. Free from wrong view (Diṭṭhi) – Every false understanding of reality has been abandoned.

35. Free from all defilements (Kilesa) – Nibbāna is entirely free from every mental impurity that binds beings to saṃsāra.

36. Free from all Mada (intoxications) – Nibbāna is beyond every form of worldly pride and intoxication, including pride of youth, health, life, birth, beauty, wealth, power, status, and knowledge. It is utterly free from every basis for arrogance or complacency.

(Edited translation)

For a bhikkhu who is developing the path to Nibbāna, going for alms from house to house in proper order is something that helps strengthen his own path to Nibbāna. When a bhikkhu goes on piṇḍapāta, in a village there may be an unseen distance from one house to the next. The residents of the houses are engaged in farming work. Poverty, faith, good conduct, and the wish to give dāna are present within them.

One day, while standing in front of a farmer’s house for piṇḍapāta, a woman came. She was young. A small child also came running behind her. She may have been the mother of one child. What she carried in both hands was a bottle of sugar. It too was half empty. She offered two spoonfuls of sugar into the bowl. Suddenly she began to sob and cry. “Venerable Sir, this child’s father spends everything he earns on drinking. There is nothing at home to offer,” she said in a very pleading voice, and she sobbed. Having shared merit with her, the bhikkhu departed.

A woman’s tears, her sobbing, the pain of separation, the man’s neglect, the compassion asked for by a mother of one child all these are the food that Māra gives you. It was Māra himself who fell crying before you in the form of a mother of one child. If you think, “Ah, poor thing. Because she has no food, she has no milk for the child either. I should give something from the bowl to the child. Tomorrow I should bring some biscuits or something and give them…”

If you go to sympathize with her sorrow in that way, then the one you are actually showing sympathy to is Mara. In the future, Mara will make you the servant of a mother of one child in a household.

However, if you are skillful, you should reflect like this: The woman crying before me has, throughout samsara, been born as a human daughter, a deva daughter, a hungry ghost (peta) daughter and an animal daughter. She has wept through grief, through separation and through being neglected by a husband. Even in this age of a Buddha's arising, she has inherited nothing but tears as a human daughter.

What she seeks is sympathy and compassion. What you seek is liberation (Nibbana). To seek sympathy and compassion is to seek to accumulate something. To cultivate the path to Nibbana is to let go. Therefore, you should let go of her tears and her sorrow. You should see tears and sobbing merely as their natural nature, just as a child is the natural condition of a mother.

Having let go of everything and gone forth from the lay household, one becomes ordained to develop the path to Nibbāna not in order to show sympathy to the world. Not in order to extinguish the suffering of others. It is to extinguish suffering within oneself. As you go on this journey, there will come occasions when even mettā, karuṇā, and sympathy must be let go of. By showing mettā and karuṇā to the world, you cannot realize Nibbāna within this very life. You have still not escaped from the helpless condition of dying, becoming ill, and aging within the world. First, free yourself from this helpless condition.

For meritorious people who run after the delusion that there is happiness in saṃsāra, who believe that their pāramī are still insufficient, and who make wishes for pleasing worlds according to their preferences, such qualities as mettā and karuṇā should indeed be developed more and more. There is no argument about that. Those qualities should be developed to the utmost possible extent.

Look how unwilling beings are to hurt Māra’s feelings. They long for his embrace itself. Māra’s embrace is bhava. While enjoying the warmth of Māra’s embrace with delight and relish, and while sobbing and crying, you have experienced it for hundreds of crores of kappas. Even today, you are attached to the saṃsāra that Māra stretches out his hand and points to.

You postpone liberation until the Dispensation of the future Buddha Metteyya. Then, for many more eons and through tens of thousands of rebirths, dying and being reborn again and again, if by some chance you are born as a human during the Dispensation of the Buddha Metteyya, then even at that time, just as today, Mara will point his finger toward the Dispensation of the next Buddha yet to arise. You will accept that as well. In this way, Mara has led you on, passing by hundreds of thousands of Dispensations of Fully Self-Awakened Buddhas, and has brought you to where you are now.

It is for this very reason that, by making Mara's warmth the warmth of your own body, you have inherited an ocean of suffering throughout samsara. If you wish to become free from Mara, who has brought you such suffering, you need not add anything to your life. What you must do is let go of everything.

Look at yourself, you are doing the difficult thing, which is accumulating, while avoiding the easy thing, which is letting go. If your mind comes to rest beside her tears, that is Mara's Dhamma. Letting go is the supramundane Dhamma. Do you wish to become a son of Māra? Or do you wish to become a son of the Buddha?

If what you do is collecting, accumulating, and heaping up, then you too are certainly a son of Māra. After death, ordinary worldling laypeople and monastics will compete to give sermons at the paṃsukūla ceremony, raise banners, and show you as one who has attained Nibbāna. Wearing the garlands of excrement placed on you by ordinary worldling laypeople and monastics, what will happen to you is that you will have to go toward another birth. That may be the four apāyas. It may also be the deva or human worlds. Yet in all of them, there is only suffering.

You must be skillful in making the practice of piṇḍapāta into a journey of seeking the requisites needed to develop the path to Nibbāna. If you are seeking only food, Māra will bless you. For you are seeking food for the sake of Māra’s continuation. Any of us can show mettā to the donor who offered dāna. What you must do is not what everyone does. It is what others cannot do. What everyone cannot do is to show mettā to the person who did not give.

If you are skillful on the piṇḍapāta journey, you can attain mettā-samādhi. If someone goes on piṇḍapāta seeking only food, what remains within him is not hunger of the belly, but the fire of bhava. If the fire of bhava is extinguished, all fires will be extinguished. Until now, what we have done is to throw straw onto the fire. Although Māra supplies the straw, it is you who burn in the fire. The nature of fire is to blaze. The nature of straw is to help it blaze. The nature of Māra is to bring these two together. What your nature should be is to extinguish the fire without putting the straw of defilements into the fire of bhava, and to do so without Māra seeing.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a1.html

When people are deluded, they deludedly see that hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, and skin are wonderful things. Beautiful. It’s like a fish biting a hook. Whether it’s biting the hook or biting the bait, it doesn’t know. It wants to bite the bait, but what comes into its mouth is the hook, snagging its mouth so that the fish can’t get away. No matter how much it wants to get away, it can’t. It’s stuck. It’s the same with us: When we see hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, and skin, we like them. We fall for them—and we’re already stuck on their hook. By the time we realize what’s happened, it’s already hooked into our mouth. It’s hard to get away. If we think about getting away to ordain, we’re worried about our children, our belongings—worried about all kinds of things. And so we don’t get away. We stay right there until we die.

I’ve been reflecting on craving (taṇhā) and how it shows up in my own life, from the perspective of understanding and practice rather than theory or doctrine.

For context, I’m in my mid-30s. Over the years I’ve been on well over hundred of dates, had relationships, and spent a lot of time dating, meeting women, going on dates, and engaging in ongoing interactions through dating apps and social media. There has often been a pattern of checking for messages, anticipating replies, looking at profiles, noticing notifications, and being mentally drawn toward the next possible date or interaction. Underneath all of this, it feels like there is a craving for intimacy, connection, and romantic relationship that drives a lot of this movement.

Over many years of dating and relationships, I’ve noticed a repeating cycle. There are moments of genuine enjoyment and connection, followed by periods where things feel less intense or uncertain, and then again new beginnings. Looking back, despite real moments of pleasure, there has never been a lasting sense of happiness that fully completes the search the mind seems to expect.

Recently, I took a break from dating apps and significantly reduced social media use. What I noticed in that period was a clear reduction in mental restlessness. It didn’t feel like craving disappeared, but rather that it became more visible and easier to observe without immediately acting on it. With less constant stimulation and input, the underlying movement of wanting attention, connection, and interaction came up more clearly to the surface, making it easier to understand and not automatically act upon it. Making craving and the overall pull more weaker.

Lately, in that same period of reduced stimulation, I’ve found more peace and simple enjoyment in everyday activities. Going to the gym, having quiet coffee time, meditating, lying on the couch doing nothing while listening to white noise from a fan, reading a book, or watching a movie. There is a kind of quietness in these ordinary things that feels more present when the mind is not constantly engaged in checking, anticipating, or looking for the next interaction. The not “wanting”(craving) anything is overall a peaceful feeling.

At the same time, I still value romantic relationships. I still have a desire for a partner and potentially a family in the future. My reflection is not about rejecting that, but more about observing the internal pattern around craving and stimulation. This makes me curious about what kind of relationship would naturally unfold or arise from a state of more peacefulness and less constant checking or grasping or less craving.

Curious about how others might relate to this kind of experience — whether this pattern of craving, stimulation, and eventual dissatisfaction is something others recognize in their own practice or life. Happy to hear different perspectives and opinions

Hello all. I'm a novice practitioner but deeply interested in theravada buddhism. One of the major concepts as far as I understand is not to make oneself too attached to their physical body as illness , decay and death are it's original forms.

Currently I'm noticing somewhat of a trend in my own behaviour where I'm becoming a bit more attached to my own body. This change has come from the progress I'm making in the gym , which is going good and I'm tracking my own weight , eating habits and my strength.

I would like to know what's the general advice for laymen who want to continue improving their strength journey , but still maintain a sort of healthy detachment from the results. Or is this thing not possible , what I mean is , if I'm not attached or attracted by my goal to gain strength , then it will be difficult to make myself excited to visit the gym.

For context I'm 27M and this is a new thing in my life. Wasn't much interested in physical development in the past.

Thank you in advance and hope to hear from you all.

I just had that thought and wondered if such a thing would be possible. I guess so because who’s to stop this person or organization. Dependent on the country it would probably cause some pushbacks from the established order and lay Buddhists.
And I guess it’s a big factor this is person has been formerly a monk or not.

Has such a thing ever happened in the past?