This week's featured monastic is Ayya Santussikā.

How exactly would buddhism work in another universe?

How would buddhism be like if I were reborn in a completely different world system, i.e., a completely different universe? Not this universe, not other realms. It is a completely different world system and universe.

What if you were reborn in a universe entirely separate from our universe, with its own cosmic history, worlds, and perhaps forms of life that have never existed here?

Would the Four Noble Truths still apply in that universe? Would the truths become false because the surrounding cosmos were different?

If a proposed universe had entirely different fundamental laws, or if its inhabitants did not possess anything corresponding to the mental processes described in Buddhist doctrine, can the inhabitants still achieve Nirvana and escape samsara?

Can rebirth occur across universes that have absolutely no causal connection, or is rebirth strictly only between universes that have causal connections?

Don't let your mind get stuck on or caught up on anything whatsoever in the world.

By "stuck," I mean fixated upon or obsessed about something, whether for positive or negative reasons.

As in, it doesn't matter whether your mind is getting caught up on something because you're lusting over it and are infatuated with it, or whether you're getting caught up on it because of ill-will and you feel wronged and hard done by.

Getting caught up on something is getting caught up on something, regardless of what the cause is.

As the Buddha said in the Mahāsuññata Sutta:

“Ānanda, I do not see even a single thing which, when one delights in it and is enraptured by it, would not bring about sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress when it changes and becomes otherwise.” (That's my own preferred translation.)

It's a wonderful thing to delight in the joy and freedom of not being fettered by or tied up by anything whatsoever in the whole world.

The Buddha spoke of the sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā (the perception of not delighting in anything whatsoever in the entire world) in the Girimānanda Sutta, which is a very powerful and liberating perception to develop indeed...

I think the description of that perception in that sutta describes this and what I'm trying to convey better than I ever could:

“And what, Ānanda, is the perception of non-delight in the entire world? Here, a bhikkhu refrains from any engagement and clinging, mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies in regard to the world, abandoning them without clinging to them. This is called the perception of non-delight in the entire world.”

Thanks for the opportunity to share this dhamma reflection. I hope it may potentially be useful to some.

Links:

Mahāsuññata Sutta:

https://suttacentral.net/mn122/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=sidebyside&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

Girimānanda Sutta:

https://suttacentral.net/an10.60/en/bodhi?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false

I've been thinking about something and I'm curious what people here think.

I recently learned about planarian worms. Apparently, if one splits into two pieces, both pieces can regenerate into complete worms and live independently.

That got me wondering about something in Theravāda Buddhism.

As I understand it, Buddhism teaches anattā, meaning there is no permanent self or soul, and rebirth happens through causal continuity rather than some unchanging soul moving from one body to another.

But what happens in a case like this?

Let's say one worm splits into two, and both become separate living beings. Before splitting, there was one worm with its own stream of consciousness and karmic history. Now there are two worms, each presumably having its own experiences.

So what happens to the original worm's kamma and consciousness?

Does the original stream of consciousness continue in one of the worms while the other develops a new stream? Or is it possible for two streams of consciousness to arise from the same original organism, without any permanent self needing to split into two?

And what about kamma? Could the original worm's kamma somehow condition both resulting beings, or would each have a separate karmic continuity?

Another thing I find interesting is that both worms inherit biological characteristics from the original worm. Obviously, biology explains a lot of this, but it made me wonder whether shared biological characteristics and karmic continuity have anything to do with each other in Buddhist thought.

I'm not trying to argue that Buddhism is wrong. I'm genuinely trying to understand how these ideas fit together. I might be overlooking something basic here.

Does the Pāli Canon or Theravāda Abhidhamma address anything like this? If not, how would you approach this question from a Buddhist perspective?

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts, especially if you can distinguish what the texts actually say from your own interpretation.

Before honoring any gods, deities, spirits, protectors, or divinities, we should look at the ones present in our daily lives. The highest of these divinities have fed us daily, have looked after us, and have provided food and shelter. They are our first teachers, and our first elder gods. We should treat them with respect and dignity, to those Brahmās should our food, drink, and hospitality go to. As the Buddha stated in the Sabrahmaka Sutta, Catukkanipāta, Khuddaka Nikāya:

“Etamatthaṃ Bhagavā Avoca | Tatthetaṃ iti vuccati:

“Brahmāti mātāpitaro,

pubbācariyāti vuccare;

Āhuneyyā ca puttānaṃ,

pajāya anukampakā | |

Tasmā hi ne namasseyya,

sakkareyya ca paṇḍito;

Annena atha pānena,

vatthena sayanena ca;

Ucchādanena nhāpanena, 

pādānaṃ dhovanena ca | |

Tāya naṃ pāricariyāya,

mātāpitūsu paṇḍitā;

Idheva naṃ pasaṃsanti,

pecca sagge pamodatī”ti | |

The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:

“Parents are said to be ‘Divinity’ and ‘first tutors’.

They’re worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods from their children, 

for they love their offspring.

Therefore an astute person would revere them and honor them with food and drink,

clothes and bedding, anointing and bathing, and by washing their feet.

Because they serve their parents like this,

they’re praised in this life by the astute,

and they depart to rejoice in heaven.”

In No Ajahn Chah : Reflections, precisely reflection 181 within the section ‘Miscellaneous’, Ajahn Chah responds to the Heart Sutra like so:

Ajahn Chah listened to one of his disciples recite the Heart Sutra. When he had finished, Ajahn Chah said, "No emptiness either… no bodhisatta." He then asked, "Where did the sutra come from?" "It’s reputed to have been spoken by the Buddha," the follower replied. "No Buddha," retorted Ajahn Chah. Then he said, "This is talking about deep wisdom beyond all conventions. How could we teach without them? We have to have names for things, isn’t that so?"

So subsequently, he's explaining … umm … what exactly? That profound wisdom transcends conventions? Although language remains necessary for teaching?

I don’t know, man, this comes off more like a Kōan than anything else, really.

How should these statements be understood within Theravāda Buddhist doctrine?

На протяжении 5 лет, после того, как подробно узнала про буддизм в университете, решила, что принципы и идеология этой религии мне очень подходит. Не скажу, что я супер ярый религиозный человек, но подчерпываю информацию с разных источников, что мне «откликается».
После просмотра бойцовского клуба, в сцене, где тайлеру его эго вылевает кислоту на руку, тайлер говорил фразу, что «медитация помогала больным раком, поможет и мне». Далее Пит говорит, что не нужно убегать от боли, нужно её прожить.
И после этой фразой задумалась над моим опытом медитаций. Есть правда, что в медитации мы убегаем от боли и приходим к спокойствию. Или же мы находим в себе силы не концентрировать внимание, с чем не можем совладать?

https://suttacentral.net/sn56.26/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

“Mendicants, those who you have sympathy for, and those worth listening to—friends and colleagues, relatives and family—should be encouraged, supported, and established by you in the true comprehension of the four noble truths.

What four? The noble truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.

Those who you have sympathy for, and those worth listening to—friends and colleagues, relatives and family—should be encouraged, supported, and established by you in the true comprehension of these four noble truths.

That’s why you should practice meditation …”

Recently I saw in social media about hell in Buddhism,it's was a animation on how someone who abuses his power and harms innocent are born as buffalos and before that suffer 10 billion years in hell and how a person who eats meat without compassion and kindness is born as fox or eagles etc .Does such hell realm exist in Theravada Buddhism too?

An Invitation to the Devas

Saṁyoga Style — Pāli and English

Pāli

Pharitvāna mettaṃ samettā bhadantā Avikkhitta-cittā parittaṃ bhaṇantu

Samantā cakkavāḷesu Atr’āgacchantu devatā Saddhammaṃ muni-rājassa Suṇantu sagga-mokkha-daṃ

Sagge kāme ca rūpe Giri-sikhara-taṭe c’antalikkhe vimāne Dīpe raṭṭhe ca gāme Taru-vana-gahane geha-vatthumhi khette

Bhummā c’āyantu devā Jala-thala-visame yakkha-gandhabba-nāgā Tiṭṭhantā santike yaṃ Muni-vara-vacanaṃ sādhavo me suṇantu

Dhammassavana-kālo ayam-bhadantā

Dhammassavana-kālo ayam-bhadantā

Dhammassavana-kālo ayam-bhadantā

English Translation

Having spread goodwill, benevolent venerable ones, Listen to the protective verses with unscattered minds.

From all around the world systems, May the devas come here. May they listen to the true Dhamma of the King of Sages, Leading to heaven and liberation.

Those in the heavens of sensuality and form, On mountain peaks and precipices, In palaces floating in the sky, On islands, in countries and towns, In groves of trees and thickets, Around homesites and fields.

And the earth-devas, spirits, gandhabbas and nāgas, In water, on land, in remote places, And those standing nearby: May they come and listen with approval As I recite the words of the excellent sage.

This is the time to listen to the Dhamma, venerable ones. This is the time to listen to the Dhamma, venerable ones. This is the time to listen to the Dhamma, venerable ones.

https://youtu.be/5ZpA8BHHD0E?t=916&feature=shared

A rousing sutta relating to reflecting on the uncertainty of things and making the best of the opportunities we have to practice and overcome obstacles and fetters, knowing that there are many different ways we could potentially die and that death could come at any time:

“Mendicants, when mindfulness of death is developed and cultivated it’s very fruitful and beneficial. It has freedom from death as its objective and culmination. And how is mindfulness of death developed and cultivated to be very fruitful and beneficial, with freedom from death as its objective and culmination?

As day passes by and night draws close, a mendicant reflects: ‘I might die of many causes. A snake might bite me, or a scorpion or centipede might sting me. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress. Or I might stumble off a cliff, or get food poisoning, or suffer a disturbance of bile, phlegm, or piercing winds. And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.’ That mendicant should reflect: ‘Are there any bad, unskillful qualities that I haven’t given up, which might be an obstacle to my progress if I die tonight?’..."

https://suttacentral.net/an6.20/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

Olá, gostaria de recomendação de livros que aborda o tema da Samsara e seus reinos, e também livros que fala sobre o Yamantaka (deidade irada)

Hello everyone; I’m trying to work out which sutta this description of the first precept comes from:

“Having renounced the taking of life and refrained from doing so, one lives a life free from violence, having laid down the knife, with a clear conscience, full of mercy and filled with compassion for all sentient beings.”

Hi Dhamma Friends,

Thank you very much again for taking your time in responding my previous questions on the 12 Nidanas.

While reading the book: Nibbāna – The Mind Stilled, Sermon 2, the explanation on the sakharas and bhava has come across to me as new and unfamiliar. Therefore, I hope to develop the correct understanding on them.

First, sakharas is translated to preparation. I have always understood sakharas as action through which consciousness arises. How should I interpret in this case a preparation through which consciousness arises? How do I bridge the gap between action and preparation? Also, before nama-rupa and vinnana are available, how is preparation understood?

Meanwhile, bhava is translated to existence. In particular, in the sermon, bhava is deeply connected to itthabhava (this) and aññathabhava (otherwise). Furthermore, it appears that thisness originates from the 'whirlpool' activity (Vatta and avatta) that comes from the interplay 'between name-and-form and consciousness'. There are two points I would like to raise here:

Is the 'whirlpool' analogy itself always the cycle of the Nidana itself here? If so, it would seem that the arising of itthabhava here refers to the process of the whirlpool that is also the process of the 12 Nidana.

See:

'The entire whirlpool now appears as a centre of activity'. p. 35

'The whirling of a whirlpool qualifies itself for a designation as a ‘this’.' p. 36

Secondly, I have always been confused on how bhava gives rises to birth. This question become particularly pronounced when I read:

'How can birth get born? Similarly death is a passing away. But here we have to say that death itself ‘passes away’. How can death pass away? Perhaps, as we proceed, we might get the answers to these questions.' on p. 32

Thanks for point out the right path.

Question

Please Gotama, do you speak to me
upon the person perfected:
how’s their insight and their conduct
so that they can be called “Peaceful One”?

Buddha

One who is craving-free
before the body’s breaking-up,
not dependent on the past
in the present is prepared,
(and in future) has nought preferred,

gone anger and gone fear as well,
gone boasting, gone remorse,
wise-speaker with no arrogance,
a Sage restrained in speech,

no hopes for what’s to come,
no mourning for the past,
not led astray by views,
the singled seer “mid senses” touch

one not concealing, not deceitful,
not hankering and neither mean,
not stuck-up, nor contemptuous,
and not to slander given,

to pleasures not addicted
and not to pride inclined,
gentle, ready witted, not
credulous and not attached,

training not in hope of gain,
nor disturbed by getting none,
by cravings unobstructed,
hankering not for tastes,

ever mindful and equanimous,
so, who as “equal” thinks not of themselves,
nor as better nor as worse,
has no of inflation any sense.

And for whom there’s no “dependence”,
not dependent, Dharma having known,
for such exists no craving for
existence, non-existence.

That one I call the Peaceful,
who no sensual pleasures seeks;
who therefore has no ties,
crossed entanglement.

He does not bring up any sons,
and has no fields or lands;
for him there is nothing at all
that is taken up or put down

on account of which, the people
with monks and Brahmins might accuse.
That one is undisturbed,
and by such words unmoved,

gone greediness and never mean,
not speaking of themselves as “high”
not “equal”, nor “inferior”
so the unfittable does not fit,

for whom is nothing owned in the world
and having nothing does not grieve,
who ’mong Dharmas ventures not
is truly called a Peaceful One!

Purābheda Sutta: Before Breaking-up - a Muni's Qualities (Snp 4.10)