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Admirable motivation! Sounds an excellent basis for approaching Buddhism. On Zen, the Flesh & Bones book is not any kind of introduction, only thought provoking quotes and ideas. The actual practice of Zen is both much more formal and more intelligable than people expect, it has a great deal...

Am intrigued to read the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book Of The Dead. However there are many many translations and commentaries on it. Anyone read? Any recomendations which is best? I'm hoping this place hasn't completly ground to a halt, I like the idea of it, having always been interested in...

Given its open tolerant philosophical and musical nature, why has Sufism not won more Western converts? apart from the popularity of Rumi's poetry Sufi thought seems to have had little impact on peoples perceptions of Islam. I saw a great program in the Faith & Music series which mentioned a...

Hi, can anybody tell me about the core dsitinguishing texts of Quakers and where to find them online? I had hoped they might have them in the texts on here but they don't. What do other orientations of Christianity think of Quakers? I certainly have enourmous respect for Michael Eavis and the...

Is it valid to distinguish between philosophical and religious Taoism as per here? http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A980958

The reverse must also be true - you must not mind people causing you suffering if it suits them. The increase in popularity of free-range eggs has saved many chickens from having their beaks cut of so they don't peck themselves to death out of rage and boredom - eg. McDonalds now use free range...

I have experienced this on several drugs - however, it dissapears like dreams do on waking. To maintain the benefit of such dissolution, there is no subsitute for working at it. It can help, it can be quite disturbing and upsetting - it depends on your life and your mind. If you are with...

Wow, Vajradhara has certainly given you a lot to read! let me say first, that I think there is fudnamnetal unity to be found not so much between Religions, but between great thinkers in all religions, and i am far from alone among Buddhists in thinking this (eg. Thich Nhat Hanh's Living Buddha...

Hmm, yes, loopy Snoopy. My post did post after all :) I think its taht the karma is not attached to each of us, it does not belong to us. There is no-one for it to belong to. It is not that a shift of perspective will make all suffering clear as being a trick of the light - because we can...

However, disregarding killing, might not violence under some circumstances improve the other person? It is said the Shaolin used only non-bladed weapons such as staff and rope as weapons, yet they still defended their temple to further their teaching. I remember also, a story about a Zen...

Is it the sole effector? A particular problem as I see it is that other people have choice, the karma resulting from those choices may affect you. So unless all our actions are concomitently predetermined in accordance with karma, in which case there is no need to feel responsible for anything...

Then please, by all means define your terms.

I forgot to add - echoing the words of the Buddha, surely the key is to seek to accept responsibility for what we are responsible for, and wisdom about what we can know? ("Thus O Brahman, I am awake" - Sutta Nipata) Ok, the external world bit. it is common in Buddhism to deny that the world...

You can call me Nen, although of course, that is not essential. Hi Snoopy. I just wrote a big post about Glen hoddles views, and the way the Boxing Day Tsunami was discussed as resulting from the dead and sufferers past action. But I keep getting logged out and my posts wiped after I try to...

You can call me Nen, though of course, that is not essential.. Ola Snoopy. I wholeheartedly agree with you about what Glen Hoddle said - and in fact I think it makes no sense, logically aswell as morally. In what sense is someone born braindead, or even without a brain say in the case of some...

Is Buddhism essentially pacifist? When if ever is violence acceptable?

The Buddha is thought to have died from food-poisoning. The Dalai Lama was imprisoned by the Chinese. According to the common view, essentially the Hindu view, for bad things to happen to good or 'Dharmic' people they must carry a kind of blame, spritual guilt akin to sin in the form of bad...

I would say there is ego, and self consciousness - but they are not what they appear (and no Transcendental Self, though of course the mind is Buddha). We believe self and other are divided by this skin, and that each of us is the same person throughout our lives. These are not the case. Ego...

Different cultures I think especially - in China many Taoist and traditional/folk deities have become synchretic with arhats boddhistavas and buddhas, much like saints in Christianity. Which is to say they may or may not bebased on real people though they usually are, but go on to take up...