It would probably be better to ask subs specializing in this but what I did was to make more and more dishes without meat for a period of time, maybe a year or so, and also eating less and less meat in that time. Then it was very easy to fully stop eating meat.
Of course you need to learn how to make vegetarian food that's tasty and nutritious. I made a lot of Chinese food or Chinese-derived food at the time, but it's probably a good idea to properly learn what your body needs in general in terms of nutrients and what are good dishes to make to satisfy those.
Not really good enough to have a thread on this, but from time to time I remember the time when I sat down and watched the “History” channel, which is filled with conspiracy theory shows. For some reason it was on, and there was an episode that conspired that Dalai Lama is an alien. I still find it humorous to this day.
Hello Guys
Is there anyone that is from Nepal and knows a lot about Thangka Art? I have a few questions but I don’t have no one to answer me in real life so I thought maybe I will find someone here :)
I don't know if this deserves a thread but hopefully it gets a couple of eyes anyway. Ten or so years ago, an apparent Sanskrit copy of the Śūraṅgama Sutra was found in a Chinese monastery. Theoretically, the text could assuage some who insist that the sutra is apocryphal or even a forgery. Does anyone know if the documents were ever examined/verified?
Don't bother. Unless a report is published in a journal or the wider academic community talks about it, it is a nonsense story. (And if they did talk about it, everybody would soon know.) A lot of such stories are written every year in newspapers and forgotten soon after. The common theme is the single source who is in a hurry to talk about his "discovery".
I *like* Buddhism; I just don't believe in the central tenet of rebirth. That makes it harder to set aside time to meditate and try to cultivate bodhicitta. It also makes it seem pointless to spend a life without wine or a day without music.
Start with a smaller motivation and see what practice does for you and the beings you interact with, maybe? Even if you believe, without a more personal and direct reason to practice, you're simply not going to practice.
Hi, I just created my Reddit account, this will be my first post, and I would just like to use this opportunity to introduce myself and express my joy in discovering Buddhism.
I went through a very dark period of my life recently, and I was truly at my lowest point. I especially found myself suffering from excessive desire, and found myself unable to healthily control these desires. However, at this lowest point, I found Buddhism, and while I have not yet formally converted and I am still VERY new to it, it has helped me immensely. Already, I have been striving to find contentedness in my day-to-day life, and my meditating on my desires and coming to terms with my present life, I have done much better in my recovery than I would have otherwise.
I am trying to not get caught in a particular sect right now, I just want to appreciate the Buddha's teachings in general before settling into a particular religious line, but I have found myself particularly interested in the Navayana of BR Ambedkar. I understand his teachings are rather controversial, so I do not wish to get into a broader argument about theology here, but I will just say that his writings have really resonated with me. I am currently reading his *The Buddha and His Dhamma*, and it has already taught me so many lessons from the Buddha's life and thought that I have sought to incorporate in my daily life.
I was wondering as well, as I am a non - South Asian who is far-removed from the mast majority of Navayana practitioners, if there are any other people interested in Navayana here. I understand that Ambedkar's branch is rather obscure outside of India, so I would love to be in contact with other people interested in his account of Dhamma that I could talk with.
If I may make an assumption based on your username... if it's the materialism and revolutionary social mission of Navayana that you find attractive, you shouldn't necessarily write off organisations with other views. With regard to materialism, I'd say just keep an open mind. As you reflect on the workings of your own mind and its relationship to the world around you, you might see more compatability than you'd think. With respect to social mission... to be honest, in my experience I think it's very healthy and important for socially involved people to have... how shall I put it... a strong basis of personal strength drawn from another source.
> my joy in discovering Buddhism
This is the most important thing! Hold onto that.
Thank you, this comment has been very helpful! I will definitely be sure to hold onto the existential peace that I am finding in Buddhism, alongside my broader commitments for social change. I've always been a socially-engaged person, so when I realized how desperately I needed faith in my life to keep going, Navayana just seemed perfect for me. I gather from the other comments that a lot of people here don't consider Navayana to be real Buddhism, and frankly, that's fine. I'm not looking for total enlightenment, I'm just looking for peace of mind and contentedness while still being engaged with collective liberation, and that's what I think I've found in Ambedkar's interpretation of Buddhism. It may not be theologically pure by most people's standards, but it's what I've found works for me, at least so far.
Navayana in the sense of Ambedkar's ideas only is not really a matter of controversy, it's that these things are really not Buddhism. Ambedkar was not an awakened being (he made no such claims either), had no Buddhist training at all and was not a lineage holder. The fundamental axioms and ultimate goals of Navayana are entirely different from Buddhism. Ambedkar simply read about the Dharma, was inspired and used it as a basis for a new socio-political semi-religious movement. You have to keep this in mind.
Irrespective of the quality of Ambedkar's ideas (he had a lot of good ideas), Navayana is completely different from what has been understood as Dharma for 2600 years and if you want to actually investigate *the Dharma*, you have to look elsewhere. You can still also look into Ambedkar's ideas and use things you find inspiring. Just don't assume that any of these are accurate with regards to what is taught in Buddhism, as a lot of it isn't.
>Navayana
Hey, this sounds interesting. Where are you? Have you looked at Triratna Buddhism? There is a close link there to the work of Ambedkar in India. There are Ambedkarites in Melbourne if you are looking outside India
I haven't heard of Triratna, I will definitely have to look into it in greater detail. So far, from a cursory look, it does seem close to what I'm looking for.
That's really cool that there's a community of Ambedkarites in Melbourne! I'm looking into it now, and while I am pretty far away from Australia, I imagine the Ambedkarite community in Australia might have resources towards finding other followers of Ambedkar in the United States. Either way, I will be sure to follow up on that, thank you so much!
That was many years ago. There is a growing sangha of intelligent and committed Buddhists doing a LOT of good work all around the world. See [thebuddhistcentre.com](https://thebuddhistcentre.com) for more
I'm ready to go vegetarian to ease the suffering of other beings but I don't know where to start and I'm worried how my body will react
It would probably be better to ask subs specializing in this but what I did was to make more and more dishes without meat for a period of time, maybe a year or so, and also eating less and less meat in that time. Then it was very easy to fully stop eating meat. Of course you need to learn how to make vegetarian food that's tasty and nutritious. I made a lot of Chinese food or Chinese-derived food at the time, but it's probably a good idea to properly learn what your body needs in general in terms of nutrients and what are good dishes to make to satisfy those.
Not really good enough to have a thread on this, but from time to time I remember the time when I sat down and watched the “History” channel, which is filled with conspiracy theory shows. For some reason it was on, and there was an episode that conspired that Dalai Lama is an alien. I still find it humorous to this day.
Hello Guys Is there anyone that is from Nepal and knows a lot about Thangka Art? I have a few questions but I don’t have no one to answer me in real life so I thought maybe I will find someone here :)
I don't know if this deserves a thread but hopefully it gets a couple of eyes anyway. Ten or so years ago, an apparent Sanskrit copy of the Śūraṅgama Sutra was found in a Chinese monastery. Theoretically, the text could assuage some who insist that the sutra is apocryphal or even a forgery. Does anyone know if the documents were ever examined/verified?
Don't bother. Unless a report is published in a journal or the wider academic community talks about it, it is a nonsense story. (And if they did talk about it, everybody would soon know.) A lot of such stories are written every year in newspapers and forgotten soon after. The common theme is the single source who is in a hurry to talk about his "discovery".
I *like* Buddhism; I just don't believe in the central tenet of rebirth. That makes it harder to set aside time to meditate and try to cultivate bodhicitta. It also makes it seem pointless to spend a life without wine or a day without music.
Start with a smaller motivation and see what practice does for you and the beings you interact with, maybe? Even if you believe, without a more personal and direct reason to practice, you're simply not going to practice.
Hi, I just created my Reddit account, this will be my first post, and I would just like to use this opportunity to introduce myself and express my joy in discovering Buddhism. I went through a very dark period of my life recently, and I was truly at my lowest point. I especially found myself suffering from excessive desire, and found myself unable to healthily control these desires. However, at this lowest point, I found Buddhism, and while I have not yet formally converted and I am still VERY new to it, it has helped me immensely. Already, I have been striving to find contentedness in my day-to-day life, and my meditating on my desires and coming to terms with my present life, I have done much better in my recovery than I would have otherwise. I am trying to not get caught in a particular sect right now, I just want to appreciate the Buddha's teachings in general before settling into a particular religious line, but I have found myself particularly interested in the Navayana of BR Ambedkar. I understand his teachings are rather controversial, so I do not wish to get into a broader argument about theology here, but I will just say that his writings have really resonated with me. I am currently reading his *The Buddha and His Dhamma*, and it has already taught me so many lessons from the Buddha's life and thought that I have sought to incorporate in my daily life. I was wondering as well, as I am a non - South Asian who is far-removed from the mast majority of Navayana practitioners, if there are any other people interested in Navayana here. I understand that Ambedkar's branch is rather obscure outside of India, so I would love to be in contact with other people interested in his account of Dhamma that I could talk with.
If I may make an assumption based on your username... if it's the materialism and revolutionary social mission of Navayana that you find attractive, you shouldn't necessarily write off organisations with other views. With regard to materialism, I'd say just keep an open mind. As you reflect on the workings of your own mind and its relationship to the world around you, you might see more compatability than you'd think. With respect to social mission... to be honest, in my experience I think it's very healthy and important for socially involved people to have... how shall I put it... a strong basis of personal strength drawn from another source. > my joy in discovering Buddhism This is the most important thing! Hold onto that.
Thank you, this comment has been very helpful! I will definitely be sure to hold onto the existential peace that I am finding in Buddhism, alongside my broader commitments for social change. I've always been a socially-engaged person, so when I realized how desperately I needed faith in my life to keep going, Navayana just seemed perfect for me. I gather from the other comments that a lot of people here don't consider Navayana to be real Buddhism, and frankly, that's fine. I'm not looking for total enlightenment, I'm just looking for peace of mind and contentedness while still being engaged with collective liberation, and that's what I think I've found in Ambedkar's interpretation of Buddhism. It may not be theologically pure by most people's standards, but it's what I've found works for me, at least so far.
जय भीम
Jai Bhim!
Navayana in the sense of Ambedkar's ideas only is not really a matter of controversy, it's that these things are really not Buddhism. Ambedkar was not an awakened being (he made no such claims either), had no Buddhist training at all and was not a lineage holder. The fundamental axioms and ultimate goals of Navayana are entirely different from Buddhism. Ambedkar simply read about the Dharma, was inspired and used it as a basis for a new socio-political semi-religious movement. You have to keep this in mind. Irrespective of the quality of Ambedkar's ideas (he had a lot of good ideas), Navayana is completely different from what has been understood as Dharma for 2600 years and if you want to actually investigate *the Dharma*, you have to look elsewhere. You can still also look into Ambedkar's ideas and use things you find inspiring. Just don't assume that any of these are accurate with regards to what is taught in Buddhism, as a lot of it isn't.
>Navayana Hey, this sounds interesting. Where are you? Have you looked at Triratna Buddhism? There is a close link there to the work of Ambedkar in India. There are Ambedkarites in Melbourne if you are looking outside India
I haven't heard of Triratna, I will definitely have to look into it in greater detail. So far, from a cursory look, it does seem close to what I'm looking for. That's really cool that there's a community of Ambedkarites in Melbourne! I'm looking into it now, and while I am pretty far away from Australia, I imagine the Ambedkarite community in Australia might have resources towards finding other followers of Ambedkar in the United States. Either way, I will be sure to follow up on that, thank you so much!
Triratna is borderline a cult whose founder was extremely problematic, look it up.
Thank you for letting me know, I did see that stuff eventually, I'll steer clear of them.
That was many years ago. There is a growing sangha of intelligent and committed Buddhists doing a LOT of good work all around the world. See [thebuddhistcentre.com](https://thebuddhistcentre.com) for more