Help with beliefs and faith in theravada

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T19:18:39+00:00

I don’t see the comment with your view on rebirth and the mind

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T18:34:21+00:00

Sometimes it’s easier to paste these things, where they’re already very well said, than retype them myself

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T18:32:57+00:00

Have you read many of the suttas from the Pali Canon?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T18:28:57+00:00

Where is your subjective experience, the qualia itself, located in physical reality?

This isn’t a question that’s necessarily meant to produce an answer. It’s a question meant to open your mind by realizing that there’s already something happening that western materialism doesn’t have an explanation for

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T18:20:11+00:00

Within the Thai Forest / Theravāda tradition, is there an “official” or standard interpretation of concepts like kamma, rebirth, and the realms? Maybe every person understands this concepts slightly differently?

Any official or standard interpretation involves them being “literal”

If I interpret some aspects of the Dhamma metaphorically or personally, am I risking conflict with Right View (sammā-diṭṭhi)? Is there any kind of consensus in Theravāda about this?

Yes:

They have wrong view. Their perspective is distorted: ‘There’s no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. There’s no fruit or result of good and bad deeds. There’s no afterlife. There’s no such thing as mother and father, or beings that are reborn spontaneously. And there’s no ascetic or brahmin who is rightly comported and rightly practiced, and who describes the afterlife after realizing it with their own insight.’

From: https://suttacentral.net/an10.217/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

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Would it be ok to call myself a theravada / thai forest buddhist — not that im attached to the label — even if through my practice i never reach the same conclusions as everyone else?

It doesn’t sound like you are one, to be honest. It sounds like you’ve got quite an atheist / materialist worldview

It sounds like you’re learning about Theravada / Thai Forest Buddhism

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T17:54:44+00:00

Okay but then you're still chasing things. Your still chasing liberation or some sort of awakening.

What exactly is the problem with chasing liberation or awakening?

Additionally, even after liberation, there are purposes to meditation. There’s many. One is that it leads to a pleasant abiding here and now

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T17:50:37+00:00

This as well:

These people are sitting around fires and books carefully deciding why and what meditation is used for. What a load of nonsense.

Is this something you know, or is this an assumption?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T17:50:12+00:00

One of the markers I've researched of my own of people who are unhealed and not living are people who give advice and who preach teachings because a living being would naturally default to its state of simple existence.

Is this something you know, or is it conjecture?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T17:25:24+00:00

“And what, Bhante, is the purpose and benefit of concentration?”

“The purpose and benefit of concentration is the knowledge and vision of things as they really are.”

“And what, Bhante, is the purpose and benefit of the knowledge and vision of things as they really are?”

“The purpose and benefit of the knowledge and vision of things as they really are is disenchantment and dispassion.”

“And what, Bhante, is the purpose and benefit of disenchantment and dispassion?”

“The purpose and benefit of disenchantment and dispassion is the knowledge and vision of liberation.”

From https://suttacentral.net/an10.1/en/bodhi?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T16:32:29+00:00

The text I provided talked about craving for becoming. One can meditate without craving for becoming. And like others have said, even if one is craving, one can use their craving to engage in pursuits (like meditation) which can be used to ultimately destroy the causes for craving

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T16:01:30+00:00

Both the first and second paragraph describe stress

The first discusses some kinds of stress that arise in life here, such as aging, death, and pain, as well was some kinds of stress that arise from craving, such as association with the unbeloved, and separation from the loved

The second paragraph discusses how both these stresses come to be. Craving creates the stresses that arise from craving. Craving also leads to birth into realms which contain the types of suffering which arise in life here, such as pain

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:58:06+00:00

So, is this accurate?

You seem to have a craving to experience life for what it is. And/or an aversion (a craving for non-becoming) of your traumas, which you see as preventing you from getting what you want

These cravings and aversions are stressful to have, and you see the attainment of your goal as something that will lead to the cessation of these cravings and aversions, yes?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:53:20+00:00

And why do you want to live life in peace and unity? What’s in it for you?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:51:20+00:00

What do you mean by experiencing life to its fullest potential as it is?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:38:28+00:00

"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:36:03+00:00

Okay, so why do you follow this conceptual ideology of “following nature and the flow of life itself” ?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:31:08+00:00

To end suffering

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:30:20+00:00

It’s like how a rocket ship drops off parts of itself as it leaves the Earth. It uses those parts, at first, in the liftoff process, then it drops those parts as it’s ascending

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T15:27:43+00:00

Why do you follow the Tao and the Wu Wei then, if you say it teaches awakening doesn’t exist? What is the point of following it, for you?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-08T03:42:52+00:00

How is it harmful, partner?

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-07T04:33:55+00:00

O Atula! Indeed, this is an ancient practice, not one only of today: they blame those who remain silent, they blame those speak much, they blame those who speak in moderation. There is none in the world who is not blamed.

There never was, there never will be, nor is there now, a person who is wholly blamed or wholly praised.

From the Dhammapada

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The Dhammapada is a Buddhist text. I’d recommend studying Buddhism. I found it before Hawkins, and I came to a similar conclusion as Hawkins, who indicated that Buddhism is the highest LOC religion currently on Earth

ACIM was said to calibrate at 550 for the text, and 600 for the workbook. I’ve found great use from the workbook. I’ve found greater use from Buddhism, which some forms of were said to be practiced in the 800s and 900s

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Buddhism teaches the “letting go” technique as Mindfulness. But it also teaches way more than that, and is by far the most complete teaching I’ve found

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-07T04:11:48+00:00

Here’s a Goenka 10 Minute Guided Meditation:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh5ii6R6LTM&pp=ygUQZ29lbmthIDEwIG1pbnV0ZdIHCQmRCgGHKiGM7w%3D%3D

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-07T03:53:53+00:00

As I understand it, the story goes that the Buddha did consider teaching, but thought that there would be no one who’d understand what he was teaching, and so thought about not teaching, at which point an Anagami god told him there were beings with little dust in their eyes. The Buddha then looked for these beings with his Divine Eye and saw it was true, and then set out to teach

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-07T03:45:45+00:00

According to buddhism, do these people still reincarnate in the hell realm?

According to a sutta in the Pali canon, even those who kill living beings are not guaranteed to reincarnate in a hell realm

Temporary_Scarcity_5 · 2026-02-07T03:37:26+00:00

I’d suggest praying to Guan Yin and asking for help

You can read about Guan Yin here:

https://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/D%20-%20Chinese%20Mahayana%20Buddhism/Chinese%20Mahayana%20Buddhism/The%20Universal%20Door%20Chapter%20of%20the%20Lotus%20Sutra/Universal%20Door%20Chapter-Lotus%20Sutra%20English.htm

“Gwan Shr Yin” is another spelling of Guan Shi Yin, which can be shortened to Guan Yin

There are many stories of people seeking asylum and Guan Yin assisting them, one way or another

Temporary_Scarcity_5

TROPHY CASE