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Aha! An excellent plan. In the Tibetan traditions, monks purposely train in the lower views of earlier Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical and spiritual systems and work their way up. :D It never is. Investigate unashamedly and tell us what you find. :)

It is not the details of each, but the view which is my concern. I came to Buddhism through the writings of the great Taoist masters - Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu. The Taoist view is as expansive as the Mahayana Buddhist, but they lack a path to follow, a method. Taoist writings come across as devoid of...

See the emptiness of self and other, of right and wrong, of suffering and sufferer, of samsara and nirvana. The excluded middle, free from all extremes, is the Buddha's middle way, the path to your own innate bliss, and true happiness.

This issue is a beautiful case of dependent origination (pratityasamutpada.) That is, a person's perception of their own behaviour has a proportional effect on its effect on other people. To illustrate - If a certain friend of mine swore at me, it would be like any other day. It's how he...

Perhaps how they want to be treated is not best for them. Or even, perhaps they don't know how they want to be treated.

In Zen they talk about "beginner's mind" Yathabhutam = Shikantaza(spelling??) = "As it is"

Just a precaution - There are some groups you might to stay away from, but I'm not sure about the forum's policy with listing these. Wouldn't let that stand in your way though. You're very fortunate to have so many centres in your area. Down here there are no gurus and the centres are small...

Go Mahayana. You can learn about karma etc from books, but in terms of the view, the Mahayana is supreme. If Tibetan rituals bother you that much, Zen has a very clean-cut approach and a healthily weighted interest in praxis. Oh, and don't forget Internet forums! Om Mani Padme Hum!

Hmmmm.... I feel like I've let down my friends with my Prasanghika view on things. Girlfriends in particular. Isolation is a common concern of mine, which I attribute to my insistence on the perfect view of things. But if the Madhamika is essentially saying it nothing really matters, nothing...

The different schools of Madhamika thought do not dispute the Nagarjuna's view on emptiness. They are in complete agreement. They dispute how this view is best conveyed to the novice. Prasanghikas hold that one should not affirm or deny anything, since this would hypocritically contradict the...

No doubt. Realised beings are more often than not most broadly learned. They don't let their knowledge limit themselves. Unattached. Personally I have found Taoism a valuable source of teachings. But then so did Buddhists in China, hence the formation of Chan Buddhism (Zen). If stoicism helps...

Namo Ciel The real world you say. If a sentient being dreams of losing a leg, they suffer so. When they wake, they realise the illusion of their suffering. But the awakened one looks back on the dream of samsara, and realises the Mara's illusion of suffering. One's corporeality is the...

I've been trying to come up with a good metaphor for this pain issue. Pain/suffering/dissatifaction/dukkha, whatever you want to call it. But really, it's just so simple, we don't see it. Why does pain have to be painful? Why can't it just be what it is...pain. Painful is not pain, painful is...

As far as I understand it, the Shakyamuni's attaining Nirvana was the top of the hill. That was the turning point when it all clicked into place. But what was already arisen, his body, speech, and mind, had yet to cease. He still ate, wept, slept etc. When he died, his aggregrates didn't die...

The thousand armed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is depicted with tears.

There's only one way to find out. :) Firstly, empathy/compassion, does not depend on knowledge, it depends on shared experience, or wisdom. Wisdom and compassion are two sides of the same coin. That said, the 50 year old Buddha you describe has lived innumerable lives in suffering, as a...

The traditional approach would be silence. Buddha was not interested in discussing the ultimate, since, as you say, it is beyond all conceptualization. It's like the sky to a dragon-fly nymph, whose present abode is in water. There is no way for the nymph to relate to what you're saying. Any...

Shock is a dissociated state, and involves experiencing the pain, but not the pain of pain. The Bodhisattva is completely present, and experiences the pain of pain as well. Consider having your finger chopped off in battle, and not knowing about it immediately because the nerves have been...

Namo Silverbackman The initial question was about why Buddhism came into being. The religion at the time was that of the Brahmins, which consisted of supplicating deities and fire liturgies etc, and had little to do with personal salvation, as is found in the yogic schools. The idea of a...

If you truly have no preference for whether you feel pain or not, imagine a total stranger was in agony. If you could, would you gladly give up your own happiness, your self-cherishing, to take on the pain of that person? I doubt many people would say yes to this. We're so conditioned to...