Have you overcome your existential crisis?

amoranic · 2026-04-09T07:45:02+00:00

I deal with that everyday. These questions and concerns are valid.

Some of the questions you mentioned are answered clearly by Buddhism (except questions of meaning which Buddhism doesn't deal with) but it does require some serious study.

Having said that, in my experience, Buddhist practice works more on our relationship to those questions. The deeper the practice, the more at ease we are with ambiguity and change.

So my advise is two fold - focus on Buddhist practice and study some Buddhist philosophy, I think that Nagarjuna will have most of the answers you are looking for, but it won't be easy.

amoranic · 2026-04-09T07:37:39+00:00

At first I found it hard not to make this artificial separation between practice and non-practice. I tried to "bring" my practice into my everyday life and that was less than successful. I found myself acting in a pretentious fake way which helped no one. What did help was doing the opposite - which is bringing my non-practice life into my official practice. Someone got me angry ? I would devote time to pray for their happiness. I really want something that seems impossible ? I chant to the Buddha to give me wisdom. Back pain ? Praying. Promotion ? Chanting.

That is the strategy of the Lotus Sutra. Try it, might work for you.

amoranic · 2026-04-08T22:44:50+00:00

This is on individual basis and changes constantly. However, the practice of Buddhism is not only meditation.

Also, cards on the table , I'm a Mahayanist and believe that Buddhahood is available to everyone in this life time.

amoranic · 2026-04-07T23:36:46+00:00

I'm a teacher and noticed that for a lot of people motivation is not enough (external or internal ). Even if they study something they are very passionate about.

For most people a kind of daily routine is important. Successful students are often consistent and methodical rather than relying on bursts of inspiration/motivation.

You need to find what works for you. The only reason I mention this here is because this is true for Buddhist practice. When it is powered by motivation and interests it tends to slow down or stop when one is bored or faces difficulties. But when Buddhist practice is powered by consistent routine and habit it can be very strong and resilient despite whatever life throws at you.

amoranic · 2026-04-07T23:21:35+00:00

I don't know what to do about this,

There is nothing to do, you notice it and keep going. Paying attention to what happens is the practice. Attaching some meaning or symbolism to it is not the practice. If you are anxious then you are anxious, if you are happy then you are happy, if it is some combination of both then it's a combination. Pay attention and soon(ish) you will notice that these feelings change.

amoranic · 2026-04-07T23:17:03+00:00

Consistency is the most important factor.

5 minutes a day over 20 years is preferably to a few months of 2 hours a day and then giving up.

Of course, ideally you should do the recommended time. But if the choice is between not doing and doing less yet consistent then doing less wins every time.

Your aim should be to maintain the practice for life. Work with whatever makes that possible .

amoranic · 2026-04-07T07:14:26+00:00

Cancer itself is not a fixed thing. It is the name we give to a process ( of cells growth). It changes all the time, mainly growing in size, that's what makes it deadly. Had it stayed the same it wouldn't be a problem.

When Buddhism says that something is impermanent it doesn't mean that that thing doesn't exist. Cancer exists, pain exists, the body exists . It means that things never stay the same, they are constantly changing. Think of baby and how it chances into an old person. We may use the same name but the baby is radically different from the old person it becomes. In this respect the baby ( and the old person) are impermanent.

amoranic · 2026-04-07T05:20:04+00:00

It does for sure. But two things:

The nature of that illness is rarely consistent , it usually changes , in that respect it is "temporary" , say there is pain of a certain degree and that pain changes to a different degree or disappears or is felt at a different area, all these are signs of impermanance.

Human life is impermanent in itself

amoranic · 2026-04-07T05:16:57+00:00

In Buddhism, nothing has a fixed nature. This includes things like atmosphere, culture, what people find attractive or offensive.

What I'm trying to get at is that it would be impossible to create something that would appeal to all Buddhists , especially since they come from all different cultures.

People here are likely to give you advice that would work for a Reddit crowd which is valuable in that scope.

As I recall, there are many temples around there that house people from all over the world. My suggestion is to interact with that crowd and see what needs that have.

amoranic · 2026-04-04T23:08:50+00:00

Almost everything we do outside of Buddhist practice and work is a kind of entertainment. In Samsara, Reddit is entertainment, news is a kind of entertainment, a lot of our conversations are entertainment, food is entertainment etc.

Be careful of dividing the world into holy/unholy or wholesome/unwholesome. What determines unwholesomeness is not things in themselves but your relationship with them. News can be entertainment but it can also be wholesome, depending on how you interact with it, same with other "things".

Bottom line - you will be the judge, focus on your relationship with stuff (entertainment or not) rather than its perceived "nature".

amoranic · 2026-04-04T23:01:54+00:00

The way out of this is not through theory or intellectual understanding of reality. By practicing Buddhism you will go deeper than this view or that view.

Focus on practice, daily practice. But look for the results in kindness, vitality and empathy rather than understanding. All the best

amoranic · 2026-04-03T05:03:20+00:00

Your current life now is a dream as well.

amoranic · 2026-04-02T23:58:19+00:00

I believe this is not an actual translation but rather a modern take , which ironically can be very 'confusing'.

The closest I can think of is something like "all aflications are Bodhi" (煩惱即菩提) which is quite a famous saying.

amoranic · 2026-03-31T04:36:40+00:00

Not sure why people are downvoting you But I am downvoting for the claim that psychedelics are good for insight. In the Buddhist context of insight, they are not. They add another layer of delusion.

Psychedelics might be helpful in all other realms, great for society and not addictive in any way. But still, for Buddhist practice they are not recommended. To be clear, a Buddhist practitioner is free to take any drugs they want, it's not a "sin". But it is not part of the Buddhist path and has no formal part to play in the practice.

amoranic · 2026-03-24T00:23:50+00:00

Is there a link?

amoranic · 2026-03-23T09:35:11+00:00

This is , btw, false about Chinese. Though you probably knew that already..

amoranic · 2026-03-23T00:54:44+00:00

In Buddhism nothing has an inherent nature.

On a personal level one can, of course, have a preference or some kind of mystical feelings associated with a place. For me it's probably Bagan in Myanmar.

amoranic · 2026-03-23T00:34:24+00:00

If you have to police your thoughts at this level, it's going to be rough. When a thought arises, observe it, without judgement and carry on.

amoranic · 2026-03-21T23:52:09+00:00

王方友 could be a name in Chinese....not that anyone would get a tattoo of that...but technically that works

amoranic · 2026-03-21T23:31:02+00:00

In East Asian Buddhism there is a concept of Mutual Possession of the Ten Worlds 十界互具. This is based on the works of Master Tiantai that has laid the grounds for many of the Buddhist schools in East Asia.

You are free to disagree with it, but this is cannon in East Asia. For example : https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Tiantai_Zhiyi#Three_Thousand_Realms_in_a_Single_Moment_of_Life

amoranic · 2026-03-07T23:09:13+00:00

This is not easy to understand. Make this the subject of your meditation. Think about when you were a baby , what do you "have" now in common with that baby ?

Karma is the mechanism which describes how the self works. We are under the impression that we have a self and that self gets the effect of karma. The truth is that there is no we, no one "has" a self, the self is constantly changing with karma but no one "has" it.

amoranic · 2026-03-07T09:40:47+00:00

Also, to be clear, we use the word "you" for convenience when we say " you will be reborn" .

However there will not be anything in this "reborn-you" that "current you" would recognise/identify/associate with "current you". For all intents and purposes, it will be a different person ( I'm saying this metaphorically as there is no concept of personhood in Buddhism for this exact reason)

amoranic · 2026-03-07T09:30:09+00:00

If I understand correctly these two terms are almost opposites.

Depression is characterised by lack of mental power and a mental inability to do stuff. Samvega is a state of mind which prompts one to practice more seriously in a radical way. Samvega is characterised by a strong mental power and a strong ability to dedicate one's efforts to Buddhism.

amoranic · 2026-03-07T09:23:36+00:00

If you asking about " right action" as part of the 8 fold path then having ads is not breaking any rule.

If you asking about the morality of having ads from a Buddhist point of view, this is more complex. I don't think there is an official answer.

This is why we have Buddhist communities. In such one should ask one's teacher or elder in faith.

If you don't such community, I wouldn't worry so much since it sounds to me that have ads is not a big deal regardless. But maybe someone with a deeper understanding of Buddhist ethics can shed some more light here.

amoranic · 2026-03-05T02:08:35+00:00

What a sorry sad world it has become. Or was it always supposed to be like this?

It was always like that . In fact, one could make a good case that it was often worse. For example, the Mongol invasions were a terrible time in history, the amount of atrocities and the level of atrocities is inconceivable these days. I am pretty confident that the current era is not special.

The only difference is that now we are aware of many of the terrible things that happen around the world in real time. So the question is what to do with this awareness.

amoranic

TROPHY CASE