A gift from a Sotopana. Our mission while sitting in meditation. Vipasanna meditation. When we become fluent in vipasanna meditation, we begin to realise the state of mind we are in. It is very important to know that state of conciousness so as to progress further. One must differnciate it clearly or how then one is going to progress without knowing. The path of vipasanna meditation is to calm the mind to the state buddhist call it samadhi which are vitaka (initial entry to first stage of calmness) that lead to vichara(sustaining of the first state of calmness) This initial state of calm is known as 1st samadhi. Upon one ability to hang on to this first samadhi, the mental progress will continue to develop further reaching the state of piti which is the second state of calmness. Usual meditator experience it say he feel like, floating, lightness, tear flowing and mind is calm without much problem to watch the breath. Then as one can maintain this state of mind with ongoing inbreath and out breath, one will reach the 3rd samadhi calmness of mind that spell bodily pleasure more stronger then before when in 2nd samadhi. Some meditator begin to feel very happy, some see bright light, some see mind sparking, some see shadow passing. These are strong concentration that bring about nimita from the mind that appear to be real but the meditator must not attached to it but continue to be mindful, free from attachment and to be calm. After this moment occur and if the meditator mind is strong are not disturb, distract, non attached, no delusion, non greed on this occurance, the meditator will be continue to progress to realize and aware that the breath become softer, subtle, disappear and nobody sensation feeling aslo disappear and here it is UPEKA. Very important state of mind to reach as one is like being in the moment of emptiness, nothingness, space Thinking still exist during this experience. Here very important not to get lost, gets excite, gets deluded and too many on going thinking will take you out of this upeka. So during this moment stay calm as you can see there is thinking on going but do not let thinking become master or you will be kick out of upeka. Stay calm stop thinking and be with the condition. During this moment while you are staying calm in upeka your mind or i shall say you 5 mental faculties are in behind making adjustment and trying to be balance to be upeka and if successful if it is auto able to gets balance(meaning greed, hatred, delusions are removed as that 5 faculties are capable to become balance or become neutral, when that happen, your mind will shuts down and you enter the streams of ariya. Sadhu sadhu sadhu This article is written out of compassion for one who seek the path so difficult indeed and this article is carefully written from the path that was reached as a gift to all vipasanna practioner from a sotopana. BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI
The problem here is, as I see i. t the Bhante's is handicapped by his hearing disability and if the questions were put to him by the questioner going up to the monk we would all have been satisfied. I think Brother Billy should act as an intermediary on these occasions. Let us not forget that our dear Bhante is now getting older.
Yasa, a rich merchant's son became an Arahant while a lay person. He became a monk afterwards and also one of the first seven venerable Arahants of Buddha's sasana. Then there are two others, Uggasena - Son of a banker of Rājagaha and Bahiya- Daruciriya. Yasa & Uggasena became Bhikkhus afterwards but Bahiya Dharuciriya could not as he was killed by a bull before becoming monk. The reason why a lay Arahant should become ordained does not lie with arahantship but with the state of a layman, because it is too weak to support arahantship.🙏🙏🙏
EXCELLENT questions towards the end which he did not answer...which put the people in an awkward position because they are polite and did not want to press the bante for a more satisfactory answer, so in the end they just sit down quietly. Bantes should not be treated with such reverance when it comes to one wishing to interrogate and challenge and seek the truth ...
I agree. Some great questions here. I am exasperated with the brush-off of the brilliant question asking what is the purpose of the first two knowledges. Very very often a question is not answered. Bhante goes off on a bit of a tangent a lot of the time and "forgets" the question. The person posing the question should respectfully say that the question has not been answered and ask it again.
Thanks for the post. I wish to point out that what the Bhante said has not been written accordingly on the screen. I hope this can be stopped because those sentences obviously give out totally different meaning. Is the mistake deliberately done?
From Wisdom Publication's Majjhima Nikaya Note 73: The Ᾱjivakas, or Ᾱjivakas, were a rival sect whose teaching emphasised severe austerities based on a philosophy bordering on fatalism. Sutta 76, Page 621, Paragraph 13 "... a doctrine and view as this: 'There is no cause or condition for the defilement of beings; beings are defiled without cause or condition. There is no cause or condition for the purification of beings; beings are purified without cause or condition. There is no power, no energy, no manly strength, no manly endurance. All beings, all living beings, all creatures, all souls are without mastery, power, and energy; moulded by destiny, circumstance, and nature, they experience pleasure and pain in the six classes.'" Same paragraph in pāli, thanks to Suttacentral: Puna caparaṃ, sandaka, idhekacco satthā evaṃvādī hoti evaṃdiṭṭhi: ‘natthi hetu, natthi paccayo sattānaṃ saṅkilesāya; ahetū appaccayā sattā saṅkilissanti; natthi hetu, natthi paccayo sattānaṃ visuddhiyā; ahetū appaccayā sattā visujjhanti; natthi balaṃ, natthi vīriyaṃ, natthi purisathāmo, natthi purisaparakkamo; sabbe sattā sabbe pāṇā sabbe bhūtā sabbe jīvā avasā abalā avīriyā niyatisaṅgatibhāvapariṇatā chasvevābhijātīsu sukhadukkhaṃ paṭisaṃvedentī’ti.
I also get confused in some of Bhante's talks. Traditionally we are taught that it is consciousness that carries on from life to life. Not a self or soul, but an everchanging life-flow that takes with it all our experiences, kammas etc. and just keeps flowing, like a river that is always "not the same, not another". I very much like Bhante's scientific approach and can relate to and accept almost all of what he says, it makes sense, but this "consciousness" thing stands apart and I really wish I could understand. Bhante says that the mind is simply an activity of the body, or the brain, and the same thing with memory. It's just something the brain classifies and refers to somehow. My confusion is, the Buddha clearly talks about rebirth in many suttas. One of these three knowledges is even seeing his own innumerable past lives. And where anyone who dies gets reborn. So how can he or anyone do this if memory and mind are functions of the brain and the brain dies when the body does? How can there be any memories of past lives? How can many people recall their past lives, giving very accurate details of where they used to live and who their families were? There are many suttas where certain devas come to visit the Buddha and they say who they were in their past life. Even Anathapindika comes back as a deva. How can he know he was Anathapindika? How can the Buddha's own mother be living in a deva world and he goes there to preach to her? How can the future Buddha be living in one of the heavens waiting for the right time to be born?! It seems to me that consciousness is a very major thing in our existence, but Bhante doesn't ever seem to give it any importance at all. There doesn't seem to even be a Pali word for it. He seems usually to sort of fit it in (if someone asks him) around phassa, but it always seems to be a minor point in any discussion and gets brushed off. The traditional teaching in this respect makes more sense, at least until Bhante can clearly explain these things.
Perhaps you should read the Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta (The Greater Discourse On The Destruction of Craving) in Majjhima Nikaya 38. Download the popular translation here: - tiny.cc/mn38english The download Bhante Punnaji's partial translation and commentary on MN38: tiny.cc/mn38-punnaji And then watch Bhante's lesson on this sutta: th-cam.com/video/zJfAs9Yqr8k/w-d-xo.html Please do all this before you ask another question. Sadhu!
confused ... 24:16 ...He even says that 'most buddhists that read these translations in Emglish or people who know Pali dont understand' So really how many of us here now listening to him labour his way through can truly understand? (rhetorical) When presenting deep complex information the delivery should be kept as simple and straightforward as possible so that as many folk of all intellectual abilities can benefit. Either that or video should come with a warning of degree level intelligence required!!! (example) Peace
+Shreds of Wisdom - 'some' or most? Also, I heard it said, that there are STILL many pali texts yet to be translated. So, with all this uncertainty how can one definitively say this is fact or that is fact where some/most Buddhist doctrine is concerned. For example: 'No self' (aka 'Non-self'... No soul etc etc). For me *... Buddhism is like a beautiful unfinished painting that can appear different from varying viewpoints...* Wow, I love what I just said. Sounds like the sort of thing a wise monk might say, lol
+Shreds of Wisdom - 'some' or most? Also, I heard it said, that there are STILL many pali texts yet to be translated. So, with all this uncertainty how can one definitively say this is fact or that is fact where some/most Buddhist doctrine is concerned. For example: 'No self' (aka 'Non-self'... No soul etc etc). For me *... Buddhism is like a beautiful unfinished painting that can appear different from varying viewpoints...* Wow, I love what I just said. Sounds like the sort of thing a wise monk might say, lol
+Karl BHX That's why the meditation practice is necessary. I was in exactly same position as you now seem to be, but when the practice progress, things start to become more clear. Look up Kalama Sutta: “Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ - then you should enter & remain in them". Good luck.
Shreds of Wisdom - Ahhhh, now we are resonating. I often point to the Kalama Sutta as a way of quietening those that would have me believe in them or adopt their view etc 'hook line and sinker'. Also, yes it should boil down to meditation and the self introspective search for that which is the truth ..the reality behind the delusion (like Dorothy found when she dared to peek behind the curtain). What I yearn for is the 'knowing' that comes from within having tapped into what I sense is a power beyond any human explanation. Going of at a slight tangent, I wonder if Robinson Crusoe gained 'knowing'? (isn't amazing how the mind just unexpectedly grasps ..right for some unbeknown reason mine is grasping at the desire to be on a remote uninhabited tropical peaceful liveable island - is it because I have knowing that being 'alone' results in growth?) Maybe in another life you and I will be on such a island, that's assuming you are not already a non-returner! I hope you followed me... Peace
The Bhante's talk in this posting is very confusing indeed ?......Pardon me for my brashness! The sufferings in this mundane life is not a joking matter.......it definitely is not a game of jigsaw puzzles, where you try to put together themes from the various categories of modern sciences and philosophies and neuroscience, and the Buddha's dhamma.....in order to form the complete picture!,............. To talk beneficially about the Buddhist teaching of " Moksha ", i.e. the liberation from the bondage and slavery of ignorance (stupidity) and craving ( habitual clinging desires)....one must have the direct experience of enlightenment himself and possess the supra-mundane wisdom, to make sense of what himself is talking about......in order to benefit others !!! Otherwise you're just making a fool of yourself !!!.............No apologies needed,........Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu !🙏🙏🙏
1:03:22 - Is he sating we dont exist, but we are just an electro magnetic activity? Pheww, so nothing, i mean NOTHING in life matters. What we experience is not real, we are not real, we have no mind, no soul, we must not grasp at anything, an obeject (e.g. a cat) doesnt exist when our senses are not engaged on it for its just in our mind which doesnt exist anyway ..meaning the cat, car, wife, apple or whatever ..even you reading this doesnt exist. Is it possible that buddhism is perfect ..but perfectly flawed, at least in some areas? Why is always suggested that people cannot be happy and lead fulfilled contented lives unless they embrace certain Buddhist truths? I know of people who lived a largely happy an contented life to an old age; yes they felt pain when say a loved one died etc, but on balance they lived a long happy life and were content believing for example they would go to heaven after. So even if one was to say they were delusional ..so what, why burst their bubble if they were happy with their lot in life? I'm sure there are tribes living in the Amazonian jungle who live a simple contented life totally oblivious to buddhist teachings and they believe what they belive and its enough for them. So why not let sleeping dogs lie ..why wake them up and proclaim that they cant be free of suffering unless they accept this or that? Since watching and listening to buddhist talks like this ive become more sad and depressed and unmotivated than any other time in my life. so where is the benefit for me knowing i dont exist, i have no soul or spirit and nothing or no one i know really exists?
it all comes to an end one day. so now tell me. all that youve experienced is it still something? something concreate? or is the denial of our annihilation by age or other means not a real possibility?
brother dont be depressed. trust me the same happened to me several years on my practice. i became depressed unmotivated unwilling to go out and do the things i needed to do. you must learn to find a balance in your world. keep on being motivated and keep on being you. but dont forget your practice. not everything on the buddhist path is listening to dharma talks. go out there! spend some time in nature. enjoy the simple things, meditate and be grateful for what you have. One thing monks fail to tell lay people is that its just that. we are lay people we have jobs we have responsibilities and so forth and that we cannot ignore these things. we are 2 seperate worlds where they generally have much time on their hands to themselves. some monks do mention this issue. but overall we have our duties too. but we can find a balance between this and our practice. dont just listen to a dharma talk, meditate, be aware. sit quietly with yourself in a room and notice how you are by yourself. if in one month you still feel depressed let me know i'll be here if you need to talk.
Absolutely a great talk!
A gift from a Sotopana.
Our mission while sitting in meditation. Vipasanna meditation.
When we become fluent in vipasanna meditation, we begin to realise the state of mind we are in. It is very important to know that state of conciousness so as to progress further.
One must differnciate it clearly or how then one is going to progress without knowing.
The path of vipasanna meditation is to calm the mind to the state buddhist call it samadhi which are vitaka (initial entry to first stage of calmness) that lead to vichara(sustaining of the first state of calmness)
This initial state of calm is known as 1st samadhi.
Upon one ability to hang on to this first samadhi, the mental progress will continue to develop further reaching the state of piti which is the second state of calmness. Usual meditator experience it say he feel like, floating, lightness, tear flowing and mind is calm without much problem to watch the breath.
Then as one can maintain this state of mind with ongoing inbreath and out breath, one will reach the 3rd samadhi calmness of mind that spell bodily pleasure more stronger then before when in 2nd samadhi. Some meditator begin to feel very happy, some see bright light, some see mind sparking, some see shadow passing. These are strong concentration that bring about nimita from the mind that appear to be real but the meditator must not attached to it but continue to be mindful, free from attachment and to be calm. After this moment occur and if the meditator mind is strong are not disturb, distract, non attached, no delusion, non greed on this occurance, the meditator will be continue to progress to realize and aware that the breath become softer, subtle, disappear and nobody sensation feeling aslo disappear and here it is UPEKA.
Very important state of mind to reach as one is like being in the moment of emptiness, nothingness, space
Thinking still exist during this experience.
Here very important not to get lost, gets excite, gets deluded and too many on going thinking will take you out of this upeka.
So during this moment stay calm as you can see there is thinking on going but do not let thinking become master or you will be kick out of upeka.
Stay calm stop thinking and be with the condition.
During this moment while you are staying calm in upeka your mind or i shall say you 5 mental faculties are in behind making adjustment and trying to be balance to be upeka and if successful if it is auto able to gets balance(meaning greed, hatred, delusions are removed as that 5 faculties are capable to become balance or become neutral,
when that happen, your mind will shuts down and you enter the streams of ariya.
Sadhu sadhu sadhu
This article is written out of compassion for one who seek the path so difficult indeed and this article is carefully written from the path that was reached as a gift to all vipasanna practioner from a sotopana.
BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI
🙏🙏🙏
Sadhu x 3. Long life Bhante !
The problem here is, as I see i.
t the Bhante's is handicapped by his hearing disability and if the questions were put to him by the questioner going up to the monk we would all have been satisfied. I think Brother Billy should act as an intermediary on these occasions. Let us not forget that our dear Bhante is now getting older.
Yasa, a rich merchant's son became an Arahant while a lay person. He became a monk afterwards and also one of the first seven venerable Arahants of Buddha's sasana. Then there are two others, Uggasena - Son of a banker of Rājagaha and
Bahiya- Daruciriya. Yasa & Uggasena became Bhikkhus afterwards but Bahiya Dharuciriya could not as he was killed by a bull before becoming monk. The reason why a lay Arahant should become ordained does not lie with arahantship but with the state of a layman, because it is too weak to support arahantship.🙏🙏🙏
EXCELLENT questions towards the end which he did not answer...which put the people in an awkward position because they are polite and did not want to press the bante for a more satisfactory answer, so in the end they just sit down quietly.
Bantes should not be treated with such reverance when it comes to one wishing to interrogate and challenge and seek the truth ...
I agree. Some great questions here. I am exasperated with the brush-off of the brilliant question asking what is the purpose of the first two knowledges. Very very often a question is not answered. Bhante goes off on a bit of a tangent a lot of the time and "forgets" the question. The person posing the question should respectfully say that the question has not been answered and ask it again.
BILLY:
@@oriana7026 Bhante had a severe hearing problem
BILLY: Bhante suffered from a severe hearing problem even hearing aid was not able to assist
?? i am confused. I remember bhante saying there's no such thing as heaven & hell in past talks? refer to time mark 1:18:20
Kc Kong there is no permanent heaven and permanant hell that what he mean
Thanks for the post. I wish to point out that what the Bhante said has not been written accordingly on the screen. I hope this can be stopped because those sentences obviously give out totally different meaning. Is the mistake deliberately done?
From Wisdom Publication's Majjhima Nikaya Note 73:
The Ᾱjivakas, or Ᾱjivakas, were a rival sect whose teaching emphasised severe austerities based on a philosophy bordering on fatalism.
Sutta 76, Page 621, Paragraph 13 "... a doctrine and view as this: 'There is no cause or condition for the defilement of beings; beings are defiled without cause or condition. There is no cause or condition for the purification of beings; beings are purified without cause or condition. There is no power, no energy, no manly strength, no manly endurance. All beings, all living beings, all creatures, all souls are without mastery, power, and energy; moulded by destiny, circumstance, and nature, they experience pleasure and pain in the six classes.'"
Same paragraph in pāli, thanks to Suttacentral:
Puna caparaṃ, sandaka, idhekacco satthā evaṃvādī hoti evaṃdiṭṭhi: ‘natthi hetu, natthi paccayo sattānaṃ saṅkilesāya; ahetū appaccayā sattā saṅkilissanti; natthi hetu, natthi paccayo sattānaṃ visuddhiyā; ahetū appaccayā sattā visujjhanti; natthi balaṃ, natthi vīriyaṃ, natthi purisathāmo, natthi purisaparakkamo; sabbe sattā sabbe pāṇā sabbe bhūtā sabbe jīvā avasā abalā avīriyā niyatisaṅgatibhāvapariṇatā chasvevābhijātīsu sukhadukkhaṃ paṭisaṃvedentī’ti.
I also get confused in some of Bhante's talks. Traditionally we are taught that it is consciousness that carries on from life to life. Not a self or soul, but an everchanging life-flow that takes with it all our experiences, kammas etc. and just keeps flowing, like a river that is always "not the same, not another". I very much like Bhante's scientific approach and can relate to and accept almost all of what he says, it makes sense, but this "consciousness" thing stands apart and I really wish I could understand. Bhante says that the mind is simply an activity of the body, or the brain, and the same thing with memory. It's just something the brain classifies and refers to somehow. My confusion is, the Buddha clearly talks about rebirth in many suttas. One of these three knowledges is even seeing his own innumerable past lives. And where anyone who dies gets reborn. So how can he or anyone do this if memory and mind are functions of the brain and the brain dies when the body does? How can there be any memories of past lives? How can many people recall their past lives, giving very accurate details of where they used to live and who their families were? There are many suttas where certain devas come to visit the Buddha and they say who they were in their past life. Even Anathapindika comes back as a deva. How can he know he was Anathapindika? How can the Buddha's own mother be living in a deva world and he goes there to preach to her? How can the future Buddha be living in one of the heavens waiting for the right time to be born?! It seems to me that consciousness is a very major thing in our existence, but Bhante doesn't ever seem to give it any importance at all. There doesn't seem to even be a Pali word for it. He seems usually to sort of fit it in (if someone asks him) around phassa, but it always seems to be a minor point in any discussion and gets brushed off. The traditional teaching in this respect makes more sense, at least until Bhante can clearly explain these things.
Perhaps you should read the Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta (The Greater Discourse On The Destruction of Craving) in Majjhima Nikaya 38. Download the popular translation here:
- tiny.cc/mn38english
The download Bhante Punnaji's partial translation and commentary on MN38:
tiny.cc/mn38-punnaji
And then watch Bhante's lesson on this sutta:
th-cam.com/video/zJfAs9Yqr8k/w-d-xo.html
Please do all this before you ask another question. Sadhu!
Will do. Thank you so much for replying!
confused ...
24:16 ...He even says that 'most buddhists that read these translations in Emglish or people who know Pali dont understand'
So really how many of us here now listening to him labour his way through can truly understand? (rhetorical)
When presenting deep complex information the delivery should be kept as simple and straightforward as possible so that as many folk of all intellectual abilities can benefit. Either that or video should come with a warning of degree level intelligence required!!! (example)
Peace
+Karl BHX The problem is that some Pali words had been mistranslated by western scholars.
+Shreds of Wisdom - 'some' or most?
Also, I heard it said, that there are STILL many pali texts yet to be translated.
So, with all this uncertainty how can one definitively say this is fact or that is fact where some/most Buddhist doctrine is concerned.
For example: 'No self' (aka 'Non-self'... No soul etc etc).
For me *... Buddhism is like a beautiful unfinished painting that can appear different from varying viewpoints...*
Wow, I love what I just said. Sounds like the sort of thing a wise monk might say, lol
+Shreds of Wisdom - 'some' or most?
Also, I heard it said, that there are STILL many pali texts yet to be translated.
So, with all this uncertainty how can one definitively say this is fact or that is fact where some/most Buddhist doctrine is concerned.
For example: 'No self' (aka 'Non-self'... No soul etc etc).
For me *... Buddhism is like a beautiful unfinished painting that can appear different from varying viewpoints...*
Wow, I love what I just said. Sounds like the sort of thing a wise monk might say, lol
+Karl BHX That's why the meditation practice is necessary. I was in exactly same position as you now seem to be, but when the practice progress, things start to become more clear. Look up Kalama Sutta: “Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ - then you should enter & remain in them". Good luck.
Shreds of Wisdom - Ahhhh, now we are resonating. I often point to the Kalama Sutta as a way of quietening those that would have me believe in them or adopt their view etc 'hook line and sinker'.
Also, yes it should boil down to meditation and the self introspective search for that which is the truth ..the reality behind the delusion (like Dorothy found when she dared to peek behind the curtain).
What I yearn for is the 'knowing' that comes from within having tapped into what I sense is a power beyond any human explanation.
Going of at a slight tangent, I wonder if Robinson Crusoe gained 'knowing'? (isn't amazing how the mind just unexpectedly grasps ..right for some unbeknown reason mine is grasping at the desire to be on a remote uninhabited tropical peaceful liveable island - is it because I have knowing that being 'alone' results in growth?)
Maybe in another life you and I will be on such a island, that's assuming you are not already a non-returner!
I hope you followed me...
Peace
The Bhante's talk in this posting is very confusing indeed ?......Pardon me for my brashness!
The sufferings in this mundane life is not a joking matter.......it definitely is not a game of jigsaw puzzles,
where you try to put together themes from the various categories of modern sciences and philosophies
and neuroscience, and the Buddha's dhamma.....in order to form the complete picture!,.............
To talk beneficially about the Buddhist teaching of " Moksha ", i.e. the liberation from the bondage and slavery
of ignorance (stupidity) and craving ( habitual clinging desires)....one must have the direct experience of enlightenment
himself and possess the supra-mundane wisdom, to make sense of what himself is talking about......in order to benefit others !!!
Otherwise you're just making a fool of yourself !!!.............No apologies needed,........Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu !🙏🙏🙏
1:03:22 - Is he sating we dont exist, but we are just an electro magnetic activity?
Pheww, so nothing, i mean NOTHING in life matters. What we experience is not real, we are not real, we have no mind, no soul, we must not grasp at anything, an obeject (e.g. a cat) doesnt exist when our senses are not engaged on it for its just in our mind which doesnt exist anyway ..meaning the cat, car, wife, apple or whatever ..even you reading this doesnt exist.
Is it possible that buddhism is perfect ..but perfectly flawed, at least in some areas?
Why is always suggested that people cannot be happy and lead fulfilled contented lives unless they embrace certain Buddhist truths? I know of people who lived a largely happy an contented life to an old age; yes they felt pain when say a loved one died etc, but on balance they lived a long happy life and were content believing for example they would go to heaven after. So even if one was to say they were delusional ..so what, why burst their bubble if they were happy with their lot in life?
I'm sure there are tribes living in the Amazonian jungle who live a simple contented life totally oblivious to buddhist teachings and they believe what they belive and its enough for them. So why not let sleeping dogs lie ..why wake them up and proclaim that they cant be free of suffering unless they accept this or that?
Since watching and listening to buddhist talks like this ive become more sad and depressed and unmotivated than any other time in my life. so where is the benefit for me knowing i dont exist, i have no soul or spirit and nothing or no one i know really exists?
it all comes to an end one day. so now tell me. all that youve experienced is it still something? something concreate? or is the denial of our annihilation by age or other means not a real possibility?
brother dont be depressed. trust me the same happened to me several years on my practice. i became depressed unmotivated unwilling to go out and do the things i needed to do. you must learn to find a balance in your world. keep on being motivated and keep on being you. but dont forget your practice. not everything on the buddhist path is listening to dharma talks. go out there! spend some time in nature. enjoy the simple things, meditate and be grateful for what you have. One thing monks fail to tell lay people is that its just that. we are lay people we have jobs we have responsibilities and so forth and that we cannot ignore these things. we are 2 seperate worlds where they generally have much time on their hands to themselves. some monks do mention this issue. but overall we have our duties too. but we can find a balance between this and our practice. dont just listen to a dharma talk, meditate, be aware. sit quietly with yourself in a room and notice how you are by yourself. if in one month you still feel depressed let me know i'll be here if you need to talk.