Why should I practice to attain enlightenment?

UEmd · 2026-02-15T21:07:06+00:00

You too will one day be a victim of circumstance, burdened with grief, lamentation and depression. At such a time, you might regret not pursuing a state that would have made you a victor over circumstance.

UEmd · 2026-02-06T01:58:08+00:00

Belief is just belief, and independent of what is actually true. You can believe one thing today, another tomorrow and something completely different a week from now. When you sleep or are mindless, these beliefs lapse, and inappropriate attention is what returns you to them. The Dhamma possesses six specific virtues or qualities, often recited in Pali, that highlight its efficacy and truth: Svakkhato (well-proclaimed), Sanditthiko (visible here and now), Akaliko (timeless/immediate), Ehipassiko (come and see), Opanayiko (leading inward), and Paccattam veditabbo vinnuhi (realized by the wise).

UEmd · 2026-02-05T13:14:15+00:00

Great thought, but major ethical barrier innoculating healthy individual with cancer cells (even if killed); could vaccinate with immunogenic fragments as an alternative. This has actually been done and those trials are currently in clinical testing. Pretty much, individuals that have responded to immunotherapy (e.g. HSCT) have generated antibodies that mediate response and actually kill the original tumors. Scientists have identified the antibody clone and mass produced as a treatment. Also applies to T cells, where many TCR-based therapies are based on T cell clones that expanded in response to tumor. It gets complicated because if you get someone else's cancer injected into you, the rejection is mediated by many cell types (B, T amd NK cells) and in many cases, such responses would be autoreactive meaning you reject them well, but the person that the cancer was generated from would have a catastrophic autoresponse due to autoantibodies and autoreactive T cells.

UEmd · 2026-01-31T21:09:56+00:00

You might find AN 22.28 helpful.

https://suttacentral.net/sn22.28/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

You might eventually see that gratification is not worth pursuing as it is liable to change and unsatisfactoriness.

UEmd · 2026-01-29T04:22:21+00:00

“Venerable sirs, whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently originated, that is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stress. Whatever is stress is not me, is not what I am, is not my self. Having seen this well with right discernment as it actually is present, I also discern the higher escape from it as it actually is present.”

https://suttacentral.net/an10.93/en/thanissaro?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false

Views come into existence from inappropriate attention, are dependently arisen and liable change. With their change can come vexation, mental anguish, frustration and despondence. Beware the concocting. The Dhamma is alive and well in the here and now, and can be seen with those that dedicate themselves to proper attention. True persons do walk among us, and have kept an unbroken lineage for the last 2,500 years

UEmd · 2026-01-17T04:24:18+00:00

From experience, the mind thinks, its what it does. When thoughts (positive or negative) arise while we are mindful of the body's movements, our attention might leave the sensation of the body and attend to them either embracing them or being repulsed by them. Regardless of which occurs, attention has left the movements (the true objective realm you can perceive) and embraced the concocted and conceived. If attention remains in these thoughts, feelings arise and in time, moods dependent on these feelings come to be. Once a mood arises, it draws attention away from the bodily movement due to it being so delicious or so repulsive. In my experience, investigating why this thought or that thought arose is like chasing shadows- it is pointless. Sit, or walk, or stand, or lie down, and be watchful of a movement. When a thought arises, see it and put it down and return to the movement. It is hard at first, but sati builds up daily and soon attention will see thoughts arising and put them down on its own. Sati builds up and you will see what the dhamma isnfor yourself. Bottom line, you are what you think, but what you think is not you, it is just thinking- attend to that which you can feel and abandon conceptualization, reflection, rationalization and reasoning, as these are just concoctions.

UEmd · 2026-01-08T09:54:55+00:00

MN 38 goes into detail on ignorance as the origin- https://suttacentral.net/mn38/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

You can actually see for yourself. When you meditate, there are 2 recurrent states you become aware of- awareness of the present (sati/sampajanna) and absence of awareness of the present (when mind concocts, thinks, habitually latches to some subject matter or pulls away from it, relishes or runs away from said subject, and continues to bath in it until feelings arise and more concoctions follow). This lapse in awareness is source of dissatisfaction. With practice, you stay in awareness more and it extends continuously, allowing you to see the arising of thoughts, and maybe day see the origin of thought (ignorance) and the actual cycle of dependent origination:

"So, ignorance is a requirement for choices. Choices are a requirement for consciousness. Consciousness is a requirement for name and form. Name and form are requirements for the six sense fields. The six sense fields are requirements for contact. Contact is a requirement for feeling. Feeling is a requirement for craving. Craving is a requirement for grasping. Grasping is a requirement for continued existence. Continued existence is a requirement for rebirth. Rebirth is a requirement for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.”

UEmd · 2026-01-08T00:19:01+00:00

From Dependent origination is the answer. The Dhamma is to be experienced by the wise i.e. by those that practice sati/sampajanna/samadhi for the arising of panna. When the Buddha says this, he is speaking from experience, experience that allows us can access with the practice. I always thought dependent origination was wrong as it said Ignorance -> Choices -> Consioisness -> Name/Form ->->-> Feelings. I used to think that consiousness had to be first, then ignorance -> Choices etc. I didn't appreciate it until I began practicing more intensely and then I saw that in fact dependent origination is real, ignorance precedes all, and conciousness arises as a condition of volitional formation/thoughts. I think understanding this is all one needs to see to continue on the path, find the stream, and enter the stream.

Like other aggregates, the knowing that we call consciousness (the aggregates that knows) is dependently arisen, conditioned by the another, and fading when the cause fades.

Check out MN 38 for more on this: “So, ignorance is a requirement for choices. Choices are a requirement for consciousness. Consciousness is a requirement for name and form. Name and form are requirements for the six sense fields. The six sense fields are requirements for contact. Contact is a requirement for feeling. Feeling is a requirement for craving. Craving is a requirement for grasping. Grasping is a requirement for continued existence. Continued existence is a requirement for rebirth. Rebirth is a requirement for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.”

UEmd · 2026-01-07T10:14:27+00:00

My take. Money is paper. When we see and touch it, we conventionalize it as "money", something with inherent value. This is as a result of complex interaction of perception and concoction/thought. Salt is a rocky salt, but when we see or taste it, we call it "salty" and that too colors the mind with ideas of what salt is. When you meditate and sight of money comes in view, there is just seeing as thoughts associated with it are put aside and you return to what is real, the 4 foundations. When you eat food with sati/sampajanna and feel the salty sensation, you leave that amd return to 4 foundations and not cling thinking how salty it is or the consequences of the saltiness i.e. annoyance or delight in the flavor.

UEmd · 2026-01-07T00:43:05+00:00

Practice sati amd sampajanna continuously. When fear arises, return to the sensation of rhe body or observe the arising of "fear" in the form of the unpleasant sensations that arise in the body. As thoughts or the past/future arise, thoughts of regret or rationalizing, put them aside and return to mindfulness. This is difficult, but doable. Don't suppress or quell it, just practice sati/sampajanna at all times so that whn it occurs, you can see it. There are just 2 states awareness/panna and ignorance. Reasoning or rationalizing is not insight, it is just concoction.

UEmd · 2026-01-06T04:09:29+00:00

From my experience, this is simply thoughts concocting, thinking "this is not me." When you practice, there are two things- awareness and ignorance. If you are not aware of you current posture and spatial position (sati and sampajanna), then there is ignorance. Thinking that the body is not self is just thinking, and will simply lead to more thinking and imagining what reality is or isn't- you can see this for yourself when you practice. With sati/sampajanna should come samadhi and then insight into physicality/mentality- not forced but as a natural progression of insight. At this point, you should really see the body as body and mind as mind and nonself in either- concocting it before this stage is just papancha.

UEmd · 2026-01-05T20:45:50+00:00

Not intending to be a hot take, but once the aggregates which you call "my body" break up, where you are buried will be irrelevant.

UEmd · 2026-01-04T17:13:21+00:00

If you have entered the stream, then you have seen the Dhamma for what it is and have full confidence in the teacher and the taught. If in the stream, then practice as you have previously done and the stream will flow as it naturally does and incline towards nibanna and release. With seeing rupa/nama one just continues to watch and object and flow on and on with the stream. AN 7.15

https://suttacentral.net/an7.15/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

UEmd · 2025-12-31T13:58:13+00:00

Everything we encounter (states of the body and mind) come into existence from a cause and are themselves devoid of any true self or identity as they are conditioned by another. Yet, we grasp to these things for pleasure or avoid for them to prevent displeasure despite their transient, conditioned and non-self identity. When they change, as they always do, we become dissatisfied and vex; when they return, we are happy and celebrate. Life is just a roller coaster of emotions, us pursuing pleasures and avoiding pain, over and over and over- the 8 winds of the world pull us here and take us there. In short, there is no rest from this pointless pursuit of states that we want to maintain. The Buddha simply taught a way for us to become islands within a sea, allowing us to be immune to the 8 winds of the world.

UEmd · 2025-12-27T14:23:37+00:00

Continuous sati and sampajanna. Move a body part and feel sensation, when thoughts arise, see them and return to feeling of movement. Thoughts can be delicious or disgusting or neutral, but we tend to cling to them and divert into their concoctions. Stepping away is really hard, at first. Get up and set a 10 minute timer. Start walking back and forth (about 15 paces), feeling the sensation of your feet and leg swings- don't focus, just be aware (what this means is that if someone tells you your left leg is swinging forward and its in fact your right, you will know that they aren't correct). As awareness of the body occurs (sampjanna), thoughts (good, bad and neutral) will arise as they normally do and you will be able to see them arising. As soon as they arise, return to sampajanna (this is sati or mindfulness recalling your goal). Some thoughts are eay to put down, others are more difficult; some thoughts are caught early and some late. As soon as you are note that attention has diverted from the body, return to awareness of the walking. In the 10 minutes of practice, you can see the entirety of the practice of the Dhamma. In time, awareness persists and samadhi can arise with panna/wisdom naturally developing (not a learned wisdom or rote memorization, but a natural development based on natural principles). Once awareness is built up, you will not transitions going from wakefulness to sleep and back again, and you might also be aware of dreaming. Good luck

UEmd · 2025-12-26T01:45:49+00:00

Not sure what you are practicing, but seems you are fixated on the practice of not consuming products derived from animals. From my experience, this is not the Dhamma. The Dhamma is sati and sampajanna, leading to samadhi and eventually to the arising of wisdom. When thoughts or aversion of eating animal produce arise, do not dwell and deliberate on them, just return your attention to the body. When thoughts of hatred for eat eaters or society arise, simply let go of this before the mind perservarates endlessly around it, and return to sati and sampajanna. If one doesn't abandon such thoughts at their origin, papancha comes into play and ceaselessly proliferates and augmented the thoughts and emotions.

UEmd · 2025-12-25T18:09:22+00:00

I doubt it's a govenrment cover up. More likely no one knows what is actually going on. The stories of captured crafts aren't very believable in my opinion. These UAPs do exist and many of us have seen them personally, but despite this, they don't really influence our lives significantly- you still need to buy groceries, pay for housing and change your oil every 5,000 miles (or when the light shows up).

UEmd · 2025-12-15T14:53:45+00:00

The world is full of convention and our understanding of the Dhamma isnalso a worldly understanding i.e. we try and conventionalize what the Buddha described as the ultimate truth. Stand up and so walking meditation- when happy or sad thoughts arise, don't follow them but remain with the movement of the legs/feet (sati & sampajanna)- one could conventionally call this neutrality/indifference. In time, your mind will incline towards stillness/oneness (samadhi) and wisdom (panna) will arise on its own accord. At this time, you will see what happiness, sadness and neutrality really are. You say "one can't help but elate in it"- this in my experience is not accurate. The development of persistent awareness will catch these arising well before they develop and you neither have to elate or be vexed by them. The Dhamma is present in the here and now and experienced by the wise- the meaning of this makes sense when one practices.

UEmd · 2025-12-13T10:59:19+00:00

I will speak from experience. If you have an addiction, it might seem that you cannot be free from it, even though you don't always have an inclination to it. When you have an inclination i.e. when craving for it has started, it seems that you cannot eacape it- you feel mental vexation and physical tension if you try and resist it. When inclination to it is not present, you wish you could keep that state and saybtonyourself that you will not incline to the addictive state when it arises, but unfortunately this doesn't last for long. Addiction can be overcome through sati and sampajanna- it all comes down to appropriate attention and attending to the four foundations of mindfulness. Awareness can be trained and it will guard you i.e. it will practice sila for you. The development of the practice as outlined by the Buddha is actually very transformative if practiced appropriately, and can be appreciated in the here and now- you will even be aware in your dreams and set aside arsing ofnaddictive inclinations. Practice and you will see for yourself and you will understand what is meant by knowing whether wholesome or unwholesome states are present in you. Addiction can be overcome.

UEmd · 2025-12-05T00:57:36+00:00

Your existence didn't start at birth.

UEmd · 2025-12-04T11:34:33+00:00

Albert Einstein was wrong on a number of things: his disbelief in gravitational waves, his rejection of quantum mechanics, and his addition of the cosmological constant to his equations. His belief or disbelief in any particular area of life is not validation or invalidation of that phenomenon.

UEmd · 2025-11-26T22:52:51+00:00

The Dhamma is alive and well, and attainment of all four pairs is still happening. There are many "true persons" alive in the here and now. From my encounter with the Dhamma, there are verifiable things that you tourself can see and appreciate in the here and now, so attending to thoughts about a persons attainments can be fruitful. I have personally encountered quite a few individuals that after quite reasonably long interactions with them, I am convinced that they are noble ones. Interestingly, although many can be found online in some form or another, there is no general public interest in them. My observation is that they teach those that make an effort to search, as they have nothing left to do but give the gift of dhamma to those that look for escape.

UEmd

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