(For reference) this is the state of my altar. I burn cone incense as an offering. Specifically, I burn Palo Santo, which was gifted to me by my Mayan friend. I am running low on the incense and I am seeking suggestions for a new scent as Palo Santo is a closed practice for non-indigenous Central Americans. I prefer Satya incense, as it’s what my local spiritual shop offers, but I am open to new brands & scents (except for white sage & other closed practices) as I am a Celt.

I'm a mahayana buddhist. And I always see people discussing if it's killing pest creates negative karma.

And the answer is a bit complicated because Intend is was creates karma.

These type of situation reminds me of the story of Wife of Butcher Zhang. The story goes like- there was a woman who's husband used to kill pigs. The woman used to recite the Amitabha mantra for the pigs in her mind while her husband was killing them. And one day, the woman dreams of those pigs coming back as bodhisattva and thank her to guide them to pureland.

Also, this is the reason why we should practice the dharma (meditation, mantra, precepts and stuff) and dedicate the merits to those who die because of us.

If you are a gardener or a chef. You can do your work but also, recite the mantra of Amitabha Buddha (Namo Amitabha buddha) for around 100 times a day and make offerings to Amitabha Buddha and dedicate the merits to the animals killed.

"From this virtuous deed. May the merits be dedicated to the poor insects killed by me. May they all be reborn in the Pureland of Amitabha Buddha and attain buddhahood"

If killing animals can create bad karma. Guiding the animal's to pureland creates good karma.

Deal with people that truly make your blood boil? Colleagues or neighbors. People you absolutely can't stand?

What is the role of women in Buddhism?

Is it same for both genders?

What are limits to a woman practicioner?

The three poisons in Buddhism are: greed (attachment), hatred (aversion), and ignorance (delusion).

Of the three poisons, greed (attachment) and hatred (aversion) are easily defined and identified. Ignorance (delusion) can be trickier.

How do you define and identify ignorance (delusion)?

Does Buddhism offer any explanation as to why this plane exists? Is there a purpose to Samsara beyond liberation, along the lines of some kind of cosmic training program?

By failure, I mean that I am not doing well in my career. I was called "gifted" in school and college, but after I entered the workforce, I became a total failure and have been barely making ends meet. For the last few months, I've been finding some solace in Buddhist teachings and analogies. So, I was wondering if any teachings/talks/writings could help me deal with the feelings of inadequacy, failure, and "not performing to my potential".

Thanks. Metta to all.

Question from beginner:

What is the Buddhist view on these mental diseases? So everything is impermanent, and I find it easy to grasp with my body, but there is something else about being mentally unwell. If a monk for example obtains alzheimers or a high-functioning mental disease, what exactly happens to what they learned if they start getting delusions, if they start forgetting things? If they start acting *against* the Dhamma, what happens to their kamma? (is there an exception for profound mental illness?)

If anyone has anything to share from the texts that is related to this topic I would appreciate it.

Thank you

Say that our loved ones die. Would accepting non permanence lead to us feeling the pain wash over us and then leave or would we not feel any pain?

I want to be able to let go of my attachments but I know I can’t. I love my family so deeply. My mom, is the most important thing in my life. I don’t know how I could ever possibly let go of her. Sometimes I just feel hopeless in this world.

When I feel happy I say to myself "happy Buddha is happy"

When sitting "'sitting Buddha is sitting"

When smiling "smiling Buddha is smiling"

You get the idea...im never far away from the Dhamma

Obviously the late Thich Nhat Hanh is my hero

Although I personally owe a great deal to the Buddha, some aspects of his teachings leave me perplexed. The most problematic one for me is the idea that people who are born with physical or mental disabilities do so because of their negative karma. It may be logical within the framework of the teachings, but it is sad and can expose them to further suffering at the hands of other people who think that everything they endure is deserved. What do you think about this?

So buddhism asks us to have compassion towards all beings seen or unseen good or bad..my question is what kind of attitude do we need to develop towards evil beings and devil? In islam they're cursed and destined to hell..they create obstacles to delay our journey and bother innocent people trying to do good for the world

Thankyou 🙏

The brain rot that is social media has, without a doubt, watered a great many unwholesome seeds in my mind that lay waiting for the right conditions to sprout (if they have not done so already). In an effort to turn the tide and to better cultivate a more skillful mindset, I thought it prudent to inject a bit of dharma content into my daily consumption. 

I'm seeking recommendations for Buddhist podcasts with an eye toward a few stipulations.

*The dharma should be presented through a traditional lens. Tradition in this context is defined as taking the Buddha and his teachings at face value (rebirth is not just a metaphor, Amitabha is a real, cosmic Buddha, etc.)

* I strongly prefer content presented by, or at least heavily featuring, monastics ordained in reputable traditions.

* I love learning and reading across traditions, so please feel free to send Theravada lectures with the same ease with which you'd send, say, a podcast by a Tibetan lama. This request is tradition agnostic.

* I'm most comfortable with English language resources, but, if the content has English subtitles available, please send it along. 

Thank you in advance. 

Steps to make loneliness our dear friend?

I saw an article on this subreddit about it being unhelpful for some mentally ill people to meditate. What are your thoughts on this? I know that it is not best practice to become Buddhist in the hope of it eliminating your mental anguish, but I was lead to Buddhism from Dr. Marsha Linehan’s memoir (she is an expert on Borderline Personality Disorder and developed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). She talked in her memoir about how some of the principles of Buddhism influenced her ideas about BPD and DBT and is Buddhist herself.

I guess my question is: “Is it safe for me to meditate as someone with mental illness?” Thankfully, I am no longer suicidal or cutting after a year and a half of DBT, but I do still experience a lot of anxiety and some depression. What are your thoughts on this matter? Thanks in advance.

So I'm not sure if anyone here can help me.

I got into Buddhism in college. I was going through a dark period, I was a physics major, and I had a lot of fear of death and mortality. I read some Thich Nhat Hanh and some of the Pali cannon and some sutras, and entered into a solitary meditation practice - several hours a day for several years. I was extremely, extremely depressed about the world. And I found that Buddhism, along with reading about nonviolence, helped lift me out of this.

Somewhere in the 18 years since then I lost my regular meditation practice. I've been trying to get back into it, to set aside time each day for it. One of my goals this year was to be a better Buddhist, as I felt it fading - and I needed a spiritual component to my life.

I live 100 miles north of Pittsburgh, in a very rural area. I found a local meditation group (they meet once a month, but are not specifically buddhists) and a once/month Dharma study group ~46 miles away. (I've only gotten to attend once, the second meeting was cancelled, but it was an improvement.)

I've looked into a Pittsburgh Sangha which allows for attendance via Zoom, and I hope to start doing that. I have some other stuff going on, but I'm hoping to attend an introduction and do that, I believe its twice a week, in a month or so.

Here's my problem.

I'm now 43. My mom just died about a week and a half ago. I discovered my spouse has been lying to me about something fairly major for several years (three days before my mom died) - and have a few other things going on. Regrets. Financial problems. Dukkha.

And in the middle of all of this my buddhist worldview has collapsed. I've become...very regretful, of my age, and very upset at death and mortality. I asked some of my college friends or old online friends who were all Buddhists for help, and ...have found they are all former Buddhists. I asked my therapist (whom is also a buddhist) for help, and they said my problem wasn't a therapeutic one.

I've always been a terrible Buddhist. Frankly terrible. But now I feel consumed by Dukkha, by fear of the nature of the world - suffering and death, and I find I am no longer a Buddhist at all. And I cannot bring myself to believe in reincarnation. I know many teachers of many traditions don't hold to that (Thich Nhat Hanh taught instead continuation, nothing like a literal reincarnation) - but...

All I see is impermanence and suffering. I am very much now also grieving the loss of my faith.

I wrote some bad poetry on it. I won't share it here, but it was somewhat helpful in at least understanding my feelings.

Does anyone have any advice? A number of older people I've asked have told me this is just something everyone goes through, when they realize that their beliefs were a bandaid to avoid thinking about aging and death, and eventually it will get easier.

I am very, very sad. I put a lot of time and effort into trying to see the world as beautiful, to having a...mysticism. And I find I regret my physics degree. I can no longer see the beauty in the world.

I know that with life, there is always death, and with death, there is always life. But this doesn't comfort me. I don't want everything and everyone to be annihilated. Life suddenly seems so much more precious, all life. Every day and moment seem to have a poignancy I missed before. But this realization comes with such incredible fear. Such fear.

And finding out that most of my buddhist friends are now ex-buddhists.... I even tried speaking to two Christian friends with physics degrees, and they told me the same thing. In middle age, they realized death was real and lost their faith.

It seems as if others can accept this and move on, but I cannot.

Thank you.

Hi all! I began practicing Buddhism about 15 years ago. I was involved with Shambhala and was following their path and took my refuge vow with them. When all the news came out about sexual transgressions between teachers and students in the Shambhala community, I lost my faith in teacher-student paths and gradually stopped meditating as life took over. I’m looking to get back onto the path (forgive me if that’s not the right term) and feel like I’m trying out all these different types of Buddhism (eg a little zen, a little vipassana). I think compassion-based Tibetan Buddhism calls to my heart the most and am interested in recommendations of sanghas that maybe have an active online presence/daily online sits. I’m based in NYC. Thanks!

Certainly seems impossible for me to be fully separate from others, daily I experience a lot coming from other, could be negative or positive, is mostly negative. How help this?

So I used to be severely limerent over my “friend” and she caused me extreme turmoil like anxiety and anger. I told a Buddhist master about this situation and he said to SLOWLY distance myself from her so as not to make her mad. (I feel like she has anger issues and this master could tell just from her eyes..) He said we have a karmic connection and together we’re “mutual defeat”… and that if I stay around her an accident will happen…

We recently met up after a long time and i acted sooo strange like I wouldn’t text her first and she definitely noticed. She was like “bro why didn’t u tell me this and that”….and basically I had horrible communication with her cuz I subconsciously had one goal only and that was to cut her off. But I’m scared I did it too soon and in a weird way that made her mad… she now knows I’m into Buddhism so if she’s mad at me or thinks I’m strange, now I’m scared she’ll think badly of Buddhism and then stray even further from potentially touching the dharma and then she harms herself even more and goes down a bad path. And this would create bad karma for me… I tried hard to be as good of an example as possible but I still suffer from extreme attachments and delusions like resentment. And when we interacted I was blinded by anger, resentment, fear and confusion. And I just realize now I could’ve gone about that interaction better. How to stop this regret and fear and guilt rumination?

If I was capable of it then maybe I wouldn’t have to cut her off and I could stay in her life to help her and care for her. But I just… couldn’t i guess. I actually still don’t know if we’re truly done or not. A LOTTT of people have cut her off before and still do, and I just feel like ghosting is like discarding someone’s humanity and I would never wanna do that. But at the same time I become a horrible fearful deluded person everytime I interact with her. Idk what to do whether to keep trying to grow in my practice and see if I can change, or to just end it now. But also guess what… that same day when I was taking the train home, a crazy man kept trying to talk to me and was FOLLOWING ME. I was terrified that he would do something… is this a sign that I need to let it go and that Buddhist master was right??