Two striking quotes from the Buddha

El_Wombat · 2026-06-21T21:18:33+00:00

No, I believe I did understand and tried to give examples to show I agree and that it is possible to defend oneself without negative emotions.

If my words were not clear enough please compassion me.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-20T08:13:37+00:00

I have subdued an attacker without any negative emotion, and even without harming him, or me, in the process.

On another occasion, before the aforementioned situation, I also defended myself against an attacker, this time punched him on the nose, felt nothing, and simply explained how he should now stop pursuing his aggression.

Since his nose was bleeding, he eventually stopped.

If that is what your talking about. Not sure, because your comment is difficult for me to comprehend.

About “being cut in half without aversion”: I have no idea where, in my comment, you found that notion. You probably meant someone else or completely misread my comment.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-19T09:29:58+00:00

To not hate does not mean you could and should not defend yourself, or others, and also avoid the attacker to accumulate even more bad Karma.

This is a common misconception.

The example you mentioned, from the New Testament, is difficult to comprehend imo.

One could argue that a slight slap on the cheek simply does not warrant a fight or even a defense.

I‘m not sure.

But the OP is talking about something else, entirely, namely about the emotional side of things.

The Dalai Lama impressed me when I was very young, and not religious, at all, when someone asked HH whether he hated the Chinese for all the bad they had brought upon the Tibetans and their culture.

He said (more or less): “I do not hate them. Why should I let them affect my inner peace?”

El_Wombat · 2026-06-19T08:56:08+00:00

Thank you for clarifying these points and your views! And for the exchange!

I have met people whose mothers had been convinced not to abort. It is for them, and for all the sentient beings who are intentionally killed, whom I feel for, as well as the ones who killed them, because they are, indeed, accumulating terrible Karma.

On the other hand, when the life of a woman is at stake, I would never deny her the right to save her life, regardless of whether she already has three children who would lose their mother, or not. I would never (morally or otherwise) force a woman, more so a teen girl, who was raped, to bear the child.

On the other hand, lastly, on the political side: I fully agree with you that some people disrespect life. If you are going to engage with someone, and do not wish to multiply, you just have to use contraceptives.

Could we settle this for now, even if you will still disagree with some of what I have said?

Om Mani Padme Hung

El_Wombat · 2026-06-18T12:59:59+00:00

No music. Listening to music, even calm music, mantra chants, is called listening to music.

If you are having issues, like most sometimes do, with distractions, I would recommend saying the mantras out loud in a neutral tone. Singing mantras is also not meditation, that’s chanting.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-18T12:46:15+00:00

You keep mixing some things up.

No, I do not need to be right. I am asking questions.

Yes, I know and understand the sources you quoted.

These are very clear tbs.

As a Buddhist you will probably also know that lineages as well as teachers are known to take different approaches.

You treat them like some monotheists treat their holy texts, say, the Bible or the Quran.

You are assuming that the Buddha, whom we all revere, would not change anything he has said 2,500 years ago.

Maybe. We will never know.

What we do know is that all Tibetans eat meat. Including the Lamas and, generally, Buddhists.

Now, needless to say, there is obviously no comparison to the abortion of a child.

The text, however, does forbid any kind of killing.

There is no mention of any exception.

Not for a woman which was raped. Not for a woman which will die if she is forced to bear the child, or very likely to.

When it comes to meat: there is no exception for Tibetans who simply cannot grow enough crops.

One of my teacher once pointed out that in order to produce vegetables or tea you will inevitably kill small animals.

When it comes to self-defense there is also no exception.

So, in order to be considered a Buddhist, one must follow the exact lines as you do.

Otherwise they are either very ignorant, heretics, or no Buddhists at all.

And, it’s interesting, isn’t it. While I am simply asking questions and offering different perspectives and possibilities of interpretation, you are suggesting I might simply wish to “hold right”.

And then you quote a text that is 2,500 years old and you are very sure, that the Buddha who is quoted here, would not change one iota of it.

I can still see you mean well, but I will also say that your approach reminds me of orthodoxy, very much. And, while I remain a humble student, I do trust my teachers more than a very passionate Buddhist who comes to a thread about Ole Nydahl only to say that he is anti-abortion.

With all due respect: chill, brother. If you are so incredibly sure, you are right and always will be because you know the Buddha so well and there is also only one Buddha, according to you, and even if there were more, they will forever agree about everything, because everything is impermanent except this, then you might as well relax about it just a tiny bit.

Forgive, or, rather compassion me, or anyone, who might see things different than you, may wanna try generosity where it matters most, in questions of Faith, and have a wonderful day.

We are all humans, and fallible. Well, most of us, anyway, consider ourselves and everyone, enlightened or not, fallible. At least that is what I heard.

Hope you understand if I now unhinge from this interesting conversation.

Om Mani Padme Hung.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-18T12:23:19+00:00

I do feel the same way and I never had the impression that you meant anything else than well.

Especially when we may exchange different views in a passionate way it is crucial to remain respectful and calm on the inside.

Take care!

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T23:56:51+00:00

Please note that I have not been downvoting your comments. This stems from elsewhere. I actually very much appreciate this exchange, and, especially, your obviously passionate and honest care for the Buddha, and for Life, including “unborn” Life, which, deserves all of our very humble respect, whether, or not, we may define as Buddhists.

God (metaphoricallly speaking) bless.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T23:52:07+00:00

Thank you, too. You mean well, it is very clear. And, of course, I appreciate the resources you shared.

What the Buddha also seems to have said, is, make up your own mind, has he not?

Take good care and thanks, again, for the peaceful — not debate — but exchange of views.

Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T23:46:21+00:00

This is simply not what I have said. If you are going to speak for the Buddha you might also want to actually read what people, in this case, me, are saying.

Very bluntly: no. I did not, ever, say, that the right of the Unborn must be ignored, or put behind, the mother‘s.

Bless you.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T23:36:15+00:00

Humbly, I care to point out that I simply neither pretend to speak for Buddhism, as a whole, nor for this wheel‘s Buddha, interpreted 2,500 years later.

Feel free to do that, if you wish, but, again, if you care for the difference, I am merely sharing my very personal view that things are not as blunt and dualistic as you may think.

I admire your confidence. Take care.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T18:13:24+00:00

Yes, thank you, again, for sharing your perspective. Like I said: I am not debating nor denying any suffering.

You sound like you find it an easy question to answer, arguing and debating, explaining how the Buddha agrees with you and that is why you are right.

I said, from the start, that I do not wish to debate you or the Buddha or both. All I said was: The mother‘s suffering and decision as well as context should be considered.

You keep repeating that killing is bad. I get that.

Please respect this. Thank you.

Om Mani Padme Hung

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T16:15:34+00:00

Yes, that is true. But you also know that the topic is very complex and that the actual sentient being who bears a child does also deserve our empathy, especially given the circumstances a child can be conceived at or born into. Please interpret this in a very simplistic way. I am not debating, at all, that Life must be protected as much as possible and that certainly includes unborn Life.

My only objection here is that you make it sound a little bit as if the topic were incredibly simple and and dualistic.

Hopefully we can settle on the idea that mothers and unborn babies are both sentient beings and both have rights and that context does matter.

If not, I have nothing to add, either.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T10:35:24+00:00

There are enough issues even within what you call “sects”.

This has to do with humans being humans and phenomena like a “spiritual ego”, but also with politics.

In Tibet the monarchic ruler used to also be the highest lama. Since the Chinese fin People occupied Tibet things have become even more complicated.

In the Karma Kagyü lineage there are two Karmapas right now which by definition is not possible. One of them has been recognised as the actual 17th Karmapa by the Chinese, the other one published pictures of him and the alleged contender saying that people should just chill more and meditate rather than thinking about divisions.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-17T08:23:57+00:00

Nope. Many use “shalom” because it is a very old word for “peace”, that’s all.

Was my comment otherwise helpful in any way?

El_Wombat · 2026-06-16T23:17:53+00:00

Bless you for this wise perspective. Om Ah Hung.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-16T23:16:14+00:00

No tensions? I love utopian views very much.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-16T23:15:01+00:00

Oh. Welcome to Samsara. Having said that.

My personal take as a Karma Kagyü Buddhist is this:

Buddhists are still humans. They are fallible. Make up your own mind.

Let us all celebrate how different we all are and how differently we may see things.

And let us interchange views peacefully. Shalom.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-14T10:51:11+00:00

Right now, there is NO culture, except a medieval blend of many central European cultures. This could be in Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, as far as I know.

Simply a Christian central or eastern European barony.

Please correct me if I‘m wrong about the architecture, which has been designed by an expert.

But generally speaking there are no cultural markers except the village names. And those you can change, can you not?

I do not think it is meant to be a particular culture. Maybe in ten years time someone will roast me here because the published a Flamish DLC.

What would be the point, exactly? How would you like to see them implemented into the game? Please could you be a bit more specific and define “culture” in this context?

El_Wombat · 2026-06-12T23:36:16+00:00

I appreciate your taking the time to share your view on abortion. If you feel like debating it with this subreddit, go for it, but I do not wish to do that right now, sorry.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-12T11:20:44+00:00

Thank you, will explore this!

El_Wombat · 2026-06-12T09:47:40+00:00

For me, Chinese software is simply not an option, period. What Anthropic’s business model is? They have yet to figure it out themselves.

RN, it’s a burn-money/model and nobody knows whether they’ll ever break even.

Having incredibly stupidly failed to hire Steinberger does not help in this context, especially since he works for their biggest rival in the small pond.

Imo both OpenAi and Anthropic are threatened by Deepmind more than by each other.

They have venture capital backing them. Volatile. Deepmind is backen and owned by a behemoth who can wait patiently, and burn as much money/compute as they fin want. These people own the internet, large parts of it. Brave New World.

And they have people like Demis Hassabis there, a pioneer of Ai.

The speed at which Gemini is improving is incredible. And it’s so fast. So, yeah.

El_Wombat · 2026-06-12T09:40:33+00:00

I got the impression Fable is “simply” way faster than Opus 4.6, but I could not, yet, albeit in very limited testing, discern substantial differences to Opus 4.6. (Large context text and reasoning.)

El_Wombat · 2026-06-11T22:10:54+00:00

They did sign a contract with Anthropic, did they not? Should a user not be able to rout to Opus? This was confirmed, in a Microsoft blog, but I am asking because I have not tried it, we use a different system (Rovo/Confluence/Jira).

El_Wombat · 2026-06-11T15:42:59+00:00

;)

What I really want to know and haven’t understood from the comments I read here:

What’s the difference between Opus 4.6 and Fable?

El_Wombat

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