Here are some facts about Buddhism you didn't know that I got from certain sources but am forbidden from sharing what those sources are.
Buddha's special dates:
Conception: 4 July 567 BC
Birth: 24 May 566 BC 21:09 UTC
Escape from the Palace: 1 August 537 BC 01:46 UTC
Buddhahood: 27 May 531 BC 17:59:59 UTC
Final Passing Away: 17 May 484 BC 19:45 UTC
An Eon (Kalpa/Kappa) is a term with variant meanings. One - the Earthly Eon - refers to the period on Planet Earth between an Ice Age and the following Ice Age. Earth has so far had 5 Ice Ages, and we are therefore in the sixth Eon. Ice Ages always follows Global Warming brought on by wrong use of sophisticated technology.
The Earth's age is more than 3 Billion Years but less than 4 Billion Years old. Another is a Univeral Eon, referring to Eons in cosmic time and space.
Dīpaṅkara Buddha, who gave Sumedha the prediction that he will become Gotama Buddha in the distant future, lived 2 Eons ago, or two Ice Ages ago.
A Buddha can only be so if he or she has a prediction from a previous Buddha or a Bodhisattva.
In this current Eon, after the last Ice Age, there have been 4 Buddhas: Kakusandha Buddha, Koṇāgamana Buddha, Kassapa Buddha and Gotama Buddha.
Kakusanadha Buddha lived in Ancient Greece and taught in Greece, Anatolia, Macedonia and Thrace. Greek philosophy and even mathematics descend from him. He was known by a different name there and is now forgotten, as far as I can judge. He lived 21 generations before the Buddha Gotama. (A generation refers to a person's life span plus stay in heaven in bardo (which is less than 13 years usually).
Koṇāgamana Buddha and Kassapa Buddha lived less than a generation apart in Ancient Mohenjo-daro (modern day Pakistan), 9-10 generations before the Buddha Gotama. Gotama Buddha got plenty of ideas from their descendant disciples who preserved their Dhamma orally as lay people, since their monastic order died out before Gotama's time. Gotama also got ideas from Kakusandha Buddha by disciples who carried the message over all the way from Greece.
If one has been virtuous one goes directly to heaven. If not, one goes to hell. Stays in hell are usually brief, lasting nanoseconds to days, also depending on the severity of the level of hell. After that one is reborn in heaven at all cost. This is the bardo, preparing for human life and usually studying the Abhidhamma that the Buddha taught there. An alternative is being actually born as a deva, which means spending more than 13 years in heaven.
I have personally seen devas and hungry ghosts. Truth. 4 Devas and at least 2 hungry ghosts. The devas are barely visible and are much like ghosts. One of them was more visible than the others. With the others, I had to close my right eye and even then I couldn't see the deva literally at all but I knew she was there and I could know what she did and was affected by it; same with the 2 male devas. The more visible deva was more like a ghost and I didn't need to close one of my eyes to "see" her, but I could barely manage to make her out. The hungry ghosts merge with their environment. I saw one merge with a bench in the dark in the park. At first for just a moment fear arose within, but I quickly as I struggled to make out what it was, but when I realized it was just a hungry ghost, I regained my confidence and went up to the bench and gave him my milkshake. The other hungry ghost merged with the ticket machine on the bus.
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I will add more information (as I get it) to this OP if it is editable as time goes by, if not: in subsequent posts.
Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Other Buddhas not amongst the 28 Buddhas in the list of Buddhas which is recorded since Ancient Indian times have existed all over of the world who taught the Dhamma but not as complicated as Gotama's. For example, some of them taught only 6 Dependent Origination link factors as in Ancient Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire). They all taught the Four Noble Truths, impermanence, suffering, sometimes a doctrine of self and sometimes a doctrine of notself, somewhere in between in between, karma and rebirth/reincarnation. In Ancient South America the Buddha there taught 50 mental factors. So, many similarities.
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Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Nonsense! There have been no technologically sophisticated societies on Earth before this one. If our civilization collapsed today, there would be evidence visible in geology and atmosphere for tens of milions of years to come.
Whaat!? Where does that come from? Certainly not in any suttas I've ever seen.In Ancient South America the Buddha there...
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Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
OK, but none of this information helps you find release from suffering, and is more likely to distract you from the path than keep you on it.
I would recommend speaking to an experienced meditation teacher and sharing your experiences.
I would recommend speaking to an experienced meditation teacher and sharing your experiences.
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Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
in our time we've become stupidly smart by rejecting the importance of myth
Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Always be careful whenever you hear from "secretive" sources for that's against the "open hand" spirit of the Buddha's teaching in DN 16:Stiphan wrote:Here are some facts about Buddhism you didn't know that I got from certain sources but am forbidden from sharing what those sources are.
Regarding Gautama Buddha's predecessors as had been living and teaching in Ancient Greece, that doesn't seem logical for their life span as described in the Buddhavamsa far surpassed that entire civilization (ie. Kakusandha Buddha was said to have a life span of 40,000 years, while ancient Greece civilization was merely 13th BC to 600 AD). Maybe you should go back to your source and give him/her the DN 16 quote above and ask them to "open-source" their info. by providing backup references and supporting literatures.DN 16 wrote:But what could the mendicant Saṅgha expect from me, Ānanda? I’ve taught the Dhamma without making any distinction between secret and public teachings. The Realized One doesn’t have the closed fist of a teacher when it comes to the teachings.
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Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Half of these "secrets" contradict several suttas in Buddhism. And the rest, while not contradictory, sound like total baloney. Gautama describes hell as lasting aeons, not nanoseconds, and life in hell is longer than life in any of the sense heavens (which also last millions of years). And of course, the previous buddhas lived for tens of thousands of years and thus cannot have lived in S. America or Greece a few thousand years ago.
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama
"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Stiphan, mind if I ask what your sources are?
There's a provocative new theory that's been buzzing in academia about potential advanced ancient civilizations that we may have overlooked : https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... on/557180/JamesTheGiant wrote: ↑Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:04 amNonsense! There have been no technologically sophisticated societies on Earth before this one. If our civilization collapsed today, there would be evidence visible in geology and atmosphere for tens of milions of years to come.
Here are some excellent sites for giving free Dana (Click-Based Donation):
http://freerice.com • http://greatergood.com/ • www.ripple.org • www.thenonprofits.com
http://freerice.com • http://greatergood.com/ • www.ripple.org • www.thenonprofits.com
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Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
Remarkable, thank you for that article, fascinating. I take my previous statement back then!LG2V wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:08 am There's a provocative new theory that's been buzzing in academia about potential advanced ancient civilizations that we may have overlooked : https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... on/557180/
Re: Secrets about Buddhism everyone wish they'd known
When someone tells you not to disclose who gave you this information, it is another way of saying I can't defend what I tell you so don't tell anyone it was me who told you.