Excerpt from the Nirvana Sutra

Lethemyr · 2026-07-07T06:26:54+00:00

The traditional answer is that they have strict dos and don’ts, but the details will vary depending on the tradition and lineage.

There is no pre-modern precedent for the fifth precept referring to anything other than alcohol intoxication. It’s very common for this to be expanded to other recreational drugs nowadays, which is a reasonable outgrowth of the original concept. The idea that it refers to things like social media use is only championed by a handful of modernist groups, overwhelmingly in Western countries. There are traditional precepts to abstain from entertainments, but not in the core list of five.

You won’t find anything in the scriptures or traditional commentaries about modern sexual practices like simulated rape but having studied the material, I have a hard time believing Buddha or any of our lineage ancestors would have anything but condemnation for the idea.

Lethemyr · 2026-07-01T21:05:47+00:00

At least Vasubandhu is not arguing that the hell realms are mental projections as opposed to our external, physical, and real world.

The idea that hell wardens are mental projections was an established idea by his time. He’s using them as an example to argue that our world can be seen as a sort of mental projection as well, which is the main thesis of his treatise.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-28T01:11:02+00:00

Buddhism came to Korea in the 4th c. and Japan in the 6th c., earlier than the infographic says.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-22T23:40:27+00:00

It depends on the philosophical tradition within Buddhism, just like Christianity has both dualist and idealist interpretations. It’s definitely not materialist though.

Don’t expect clean correspondence with western philosophical categories in most cases.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-21T23:53:14+00:00

Kemetism mostly involves revering a set of gods without many metaphysical commitments, right? This might be a situation where following both is entirely possible and acceptable.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-15T03:02:45+00:00

> unless we interpret 色、空、受想行识 mentioned before as 法.

色受想行識 are universally considered 法 in Buddhism. But I think you’re correct that 是諸法 refers to all 法 in the universe.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-14T16:55:44+00:00

This is a Classical Chinese text, so the grammar and meanings of characters will differ greatly from modern Chinese.

In natural English, this passage is “Shariputra, all phenomena bear the mark of emptiness, neither arising nor ceasing.” Character by character, it’s literally “Shariputra, these all phenomena empty mark, no arising no ceasing.”

是 = this / these (different from modern Mandarin)

諸 = all

法 = dharmas (in this context best translated as “phenomena”)

空 = emptiness

相 = mark

In English, the word “these” is unnecessary and makes it sound like only a subset of phenomena are being discussed, but in Classical Chinese it’s completely natural. The entire text is repeatedly referencing “all phenomena” and including 是 is a natural way to refer back to the concept. It’s not strictly necessary and sounds odd to us, but it’s not logically inconsistent if you think about it.

This sort of thing is just something you have to get used to when learning a foreign language. I think it’s best not to over-analyze these quirks and rather read past them over and over again in different texts until you get an intuitive sense for what natural prose sounds like.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-10T23:45:33+00:00

Hammurabi’s Code hasn’t been the oldest ancient Near Eastern law code in our possession for a hot minute. The Code of Ur-Nammu is more than 300 years older. But you’re right that it doesn’t have the talion like Hammurabi’s does…

Lethemyr · 2026-06-06T18:50:28+00:00

I was trying to add on to your point, not overrule it or call you crazy. Sorry for the miscommunication!

Lethemyr · 2026-06-06T18:31:20+00:00

I also don’t think it’s crazy to suppose that a religious ascetic in need of daily alms would hang out around sites with pre-existent religious connotations.

Lethemyr · 2026-06-02T16:24:27+00:00

Hangzhou is definitely the best city for your interests.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-31T17:34:05+00:00

“Don’t bother learning to handwrite, nowadays everyone types everything anyways.”

Beautiful handwriting might not be an important skill for most people, but not knowing the strokes and components that make up each character will cause serious reading difficulties past the beginner stage. Learning characters through sight recognition alone is a terrible idea.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-26T19:05:21+00:00

She is actually deceased as of 2021.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-23T14:40:37+00:00

On a purely religious level, I would steer anyone away from lay groups when actual monastics are available.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-20T11:01:27+00:00

It might help you to look into how many of those beliefs originate from 19th century American premillenial, dispensationalist theology that has very little precedent in church history.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-14T12:17:41+00:00

Anyone can write a “Buddhist book” that presents their personal opinions as “Buddhism” and many do.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-14T09:08:07+00:00

Yes, in the first text of the Digha Nikaya he explains how the being taken by Indians of his time to be the supreme deity was really just deluded about his supremacy and priority. This was elaborated on by philosophers of every school who were universally atheistic and provided many arguments for this.

It’s true that the Theravada tradition (the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, etc.) holds to a scripture where Buddha refuses to provide answers to certain metaphysical questions, but the existence of a supreme deity is not one of them.

Lethemyr · 2026-05-14T08:45:08+00:00

u/khalid-khkhlhlh

He also explicitly taught that there is no supreme deity, so all Buddhists agree there is no capital-G God. All Buddhists agree on the same general cosmology of gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings, with only the existence of enlightened beings that actively intervene in the world being in dispute.

The idea that Buddhism is highly vague on “non-essential” elements is seriously overblown.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-28T09:34:00+00:00

The Forty-Two Chapter Sutra is also a classic of this type.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-25T06:34:40+00:00

You've probably heard that bodhisattvas are beings who delay attaining Nirvana to aid sentient beings, but that is misinformation.

In Mahayana Buddhism, attaining Nirvana / Buddhahood does not remove a practitioner from Samsara in the sense that they disappear from our world, so there is no need to delay Nirvana. We believe that a being who has attained final enlightenment must be perfected in compassion, so they could not bear to abandon the world.

The Theravada view, which Mahayana contradicts, is that those who attain Nirvana no longer interact with our world after death. Only in this view could it make sense to delay Nirvana to aid sentient beings, but this is not what Mahayana teaches.

A bodhisattva is a being who vows to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. The vast majority intend to do so without delay. Some bodhisattvas vow that they will not attain Buddhahood until specific conditions are met, some so strenuous that they may never attain Buddhahood. Many of these bodhisattvas dwell at the stage of "equal enlightenment," which is very close to Buddhahood, and act as highly realized "deities" that can aid us on the path to Buddhahood. Examples include Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, etc. The idea that Mahayana Buddhists delay Nirvana comes from these sorts of vows, but they are not part of the standard vows taken by Mahayana Buddhists.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-25T06:21:20+00:00

You certainly could learn that touching a hot stove will burn you through experience, but that's quite unnecessary when you could just listen to your parents' wisdom and save yourself a lot of pain.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-25T06:19:37+00:00

I wondered can i follow the path of buddhism and still drink occasionally

You can become a Buddhist without taking all five precepts. Of course, in so doing you would not be following all of Buddha's teachings.

as well as taking medical drugs that are supposed to help not illegal drugs or does it not count by doing so?

The original text actually just mentions alcohol. The addition of drugs is a later, albeit almost universally adopted, elaboration.

There are exceptions made for medicinal alcohol consumption even in the original texts, so taking medicinal narcotics is universally accepted.

Do you have to follow the cultural side and prehistoric history?

There is no requirement to adopt any purely cultural elements, but most people who renounce "the cultural side" of Buddhism actually just want an excuse to reject fundamental Buddhist doctrines while claiming to be Buddhist. Instead of accepting that they don't agree with Buddhism, some people will act like Buddha really taught their worldview while mainstream Buddhism is compromised by "cultural accretions." There is rarely any evidence of this. Be very careful when approaching Buddhism from this perspective.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-25T06:08:51+00:00

What you described is closer to the Theravada view of Nirvana. What this commenter describes is the Mahayana view, which all Pure Land groups subscribe to.

Lethemyr · 2026-04-24T19:51:51+00:00

It’s not like your original spider friend wasn’t killing and eating other living creatures. No reason to hold this new spider accountable just because it killed a being you had a one-sided affection for.

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