I've had some job stress in the last few days. I'm in the US, do a job connected with the government, and I have been waiting to see if the government will be shut down in about a week. I heard today that the project I work on *might* come to an end in the forseeable future. I'm very grateful I went...

I'm not an expert. I don't think it matters. I think what matters in the context of that retreat is watching the breath for the first few days as a means of getting relaxed and doing so with your attention focused on a smaller area to build up a little more concentration. Deviated septums and having...

A friend of mine is interested in learning mindfulness meditation ( vipassana ). She does better when she has written directions. I was thinking of recommending "Mindfulness In Plain English" to her as it is in a plain parlance, as per the title. The take away message, "what has to be...

I don't think his point is about sadness. I think his point is that people have compulsive habits like smart phone use, overating, drinking, surfing the net, bickering on the net, etc, because they are terrified being alone with themselves and whatever comes up. In other words, exactly what the dham...

Nobody likes it when people with the same affiliations/demographics as theirs publicly does things they and everyone else would object to. That is something everyone here with an interest in Buddhism has to accept, as well as people with mental illness. It happened, those things are who the shooter ...

Who is declaring war on the mentally ill?

Nobody wants to display their dirty laundry, but I would be curious to know how he got through all of the background checks for his security clearance. The CNN crew found about 9 major pieces of fail that should have stopped him from having one and they found it in a day.

Agreed. He is comparing his weight as a 50/60+ year old sedentary monk to a potentially skinny college student. It seems strange to me he went to Oberlin. The only people I met from Oberlin were other students in the 90s, and for lack of a better set of terms, they were all very doctrinaire Idealogu...

I do not see a reason why to discuss the shooter in terms of Buddhism ( other than for journalists to have something to write about ). People who go on planned shooting sprees are mentally ill. Mentally ill people of all religions do these sort of things. These kind of shootings have nothing to do w...

Buddhist community ponders apparent link between their faith and Navy Yard shooter
http://tinyurl.com/n4tczhh

In Asia people take food away from their own children to feed monks. They also donate money to build statues while poor people live in horrible condtions. That kind of thing is the more extreme manifestation, of an attitude which, I'm sad to say, is nevertheless also present amongst some Western Bu...

I don't have problems with this. He is a minor. He can wait 3 years until he is 18. The training he wants takes 15 years.

Mr Man wrote:How about would you feed a starving child rather than giving something to yourself? In my opinion that makes the dilemma more real.

In Asia people take food away from their own children to feed monks. They also donate money to build statues while poor people live in horrible condtions.

I think the OP was getting at something like what we often see here: http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2013/08/unthinking-tradition-distorts-dhamma.html where it is used for gaining some merit or for some advantageous position, better health, etc. But with the important qualifier of the intention of th...