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Hi Sky Dancer! Thank you for giving this oppourtunity. I haven't had a chance to speak with many buddhists.
I've never heard of that book. It might interest you to know that Buddhism discusses rebirth but rarely reincarnation.
They're different. Reincarantion is the idea that a real self, a personality reincarnates again.
Rebirth is the consciousness, and karma goes with you. Not your 'self' as a personality.
Buddhism pokes holes in the idea of an inherently existing 'self'.
Can you elaborate on this? I always thought the hindu and buddhist conception of reincarnation were similar? I believe in reincarnation simply because it makes sense to me. That substantial growth takes a lot more then one lifetime to achieve.
How would you consider the personality self to be different from the consciousness and that you retain one but not the other? Could we compare it to the conscious and the unconscious mind? I'm confused by this because I think I identify with my consciousness as being part of my self. That it is in fact part of my personality. But maybe that's because I listen to it too much.
Second question (probably not as confusing..lol): How do you meditate? On a word, a chant, an image? Or are you in fact, just emptying the mind? Which I find extremely hard to do. Seems much easier to at least give the mind one thing to focus on.
Hi Mystic,
There are many ways to meditate. The first one I encountered uses mindfulness of the breath as a place to come home to. In the beginning, as you have noticed it helps to give the mind one thing to focus on.
Then it's possible to open up the field of the senses further, to include body sensations, sounds, sights, smells, and thought itself, (or rather mindfulness of thinking). I have some experience with using mantra and visualization too. There are also mediations that are subject contemplations such as "what is the difference between love and attachment?" That's the kind of meditation where we engage the thinking mind, and we give it something to do, such as contemplating the subjecy. We always follow contemplation with resting or relaxing the mind.
There are thoughts, and there is awareness or a knowing of thoughts. We might call this awareness consciousness. At the same time, there is awareness of hearing, awareness of seeing, awareness of sensing we call this consciousness too. Most of the time we are walking around living our lives we are seeing, hearing, thinking etc but we are acting automatically. We aren't taking the time to become self-knowing. That's the function of medtation.
As we slow down and meditate, we become aware of a continuity of awareness moment to moment. We experience awareness as free. Sensations, come and go, thoughts come and go, but awareness doesn't go anywhere. It's always present, we just have to train to recognize it.
Once we open to this spaciouis quality of awareness itself, we rest in that. So we are no longer aware of some thing, we are just open and aware moment to moment.
Most of us have to train many lifetimes. Whatever meditation practice happens in this life as we train, it is that practice that goes with us into the next life.
I hope I haven't confused you further.
sky
Do Buddists have any special rituals for honoring deceased friends and family, Sky Dancer?
Yes. There are special prayers and practices that can be offered at the time of death. I can't speak to every Buddhist tradition but I can share my own. In my mother's case, I made offerings on her behalf at a week long retreat/sadhana practice and in a fire puja.
For the 49 days following her death I performed a special meditation practice for her. The 49 days after dying is considered the longest time any being will spend between lives and it is considered auspicious to offer prayers and meditation and visualization practice at this time.
I worked with a lama to make over 108 tsa tsa's, small symbolic representations of the buddha's mind. We prayed and meditated over each one and in each of them I placed a small amount of her cremated remains.
At the end of the 49 days, I packed the tsa tsa's in to a pristine waterfall and placed them where they would not be found.
It was a beautiful way to send her off.
Do Buddists have any special rituals for honoring deceased friends and family, Sky Dancer?
Yes. There are special prayers and practices that can be offered at the time of death. I can't speak to every Buddhist tradition but I can share my own. In my mother's case, I made offerings on her behalf at a week long retreat/sadhana practice and in a fire puja.
For the 49 days following her death I performed a special meditation practice for her. The 49 days after dying is considered the longest time any being will spend between lives and it is considered auspicious to offer prayers and meditation and visualization practice at this time.
I worked with a lama to make over 108 tsa tsa's, small symbolic representations of the buddha's mind. We prayed and meditated over each one and in each of them I placed a small amount of her cremated remains.
At the end of the 49 days, I packed the tsa tsa's in to a pristine waterfall and placed them where they would not be found.
It was a beautiful way to send her off.
And you don't consider this a religion? Gimme another break!
Yes. There are special prayers and practices that can be offered at the time of death. I can't speak to every Buddhist tradition but I can share my own. In my mother's case, I made offerings on her behalf at a week long retreat/sadhana practice and in a fire puja.
For the 49 days following her death I performed a special meditation practice for her. The 49 days after dying is considered the longest time any being will spend between lives and it is considered auspicious to offer prayers and meditation and visualization practice at this time.
I worked with a lama to make over 108 tsa tsa's, small symbolic representations of the buddha's mind. We prayed and meditated over each one and in each of them I placed a small amount of her cremated remains.
At the end of the 49 days, I packed the tsa tsa's in to a pristine waterfall and placed them where they would not be found.
It was a beautiful way to send her off.
And you don't consider this a religion? Gimme another break!
What difference does it make to you Hister? Does it really matter if Buddhism is considered a religion or a philosophy?
It's a way of life.
And you don't consider this a religion? Gimme another break!
What difference does it make to you Hister? Does it really matter if Buddhism is considered a religion or a philosophy?
It's a way of life.
You were the one trying to claim it was a philosophy. The fact that it's a religion means that all that krap about karma is based on faith, not facts, just like any old religion, oh, excuse me, way of life.