What are the best methods for karma purification? Can reading/reciting sutras and commentaries help?

This former Buddhist says he went to hell and is now a Christian because of it........not sure what to think. Curious what you guys make of his reasoning? He's been on a lot of podcasts lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbwWCFhQ3es

What makes Monks worthy to be treated special?:

What's the story behind their attire ?

Hi, I am new to Tibetan Buddhism. However, I am curious for those who are not and have been in it for a long time. How did you build a consistent practice that you were able to stick with on a daily basis? That's what I'm struggling with the most, and I feel deeply insecure about it especially when I meet other people that Seem to have the devotion.\nAnd it comes naturally to them\nAnd they're just devoted to their practice seemingly without flaw.

Image Jigme Lingpa’s vision of the Longchen Nyingtik, by Tara di Gesu

An Account of Jigme Lingpa’s vision of the Longchen Nyingtik.

*Excerpt from:

Dance of the Moon in the Water: An Account of my Realizations And Secret Visionary Experiences:

…on the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the Female Fire Ox year (1757), my devotion to the great master Guru Padmasambhava blazed so intensely that tears welled up. Prompted by some vague memories from the past, I was overcome with a profound sense of sadness: “We red-faced Tibetans behave like outcasts, and in this land where people live with a mere semblance of the Teachings and are rife with desire and aversion, I wander like an orphan left behind in the borderlands. That compassionate protector, greater than all the buddhas, has departed for the Glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain. When will I ever have the fortune to meet him now?” At this thought I was filled with immense grief. I fell asleep with tears flowing ceaselessly.

As I mentioned in the autobiographical account of my realization, The Dance of the Moon in the Water(direct pdf download), the following vision occurred to me. Amid a vast expanse of luminosity, all-pervading and boundless, I was riding a beautiful white snow lioness and was carried off into the limitless reaches of space. After a while a landscape took shape and I arrived on the circumambulation path of what seemed to be the Jarung Khashor Stūpa of Boudha in Nepal. As soon as I went to its eastern courtyard I met the dharmakāya wisdom ḍākinī face to face. She handed me a flat wooden casket shaped like a sealed amulet box and said:

For disciples with pure perception,\ You are Tri Songdetsen.\ For disciples with impure perception,\ You are Senge Repa.\ This is the treasure of Samantabhadra’s wisdom mind,\ The symbols of Vidyādhara Padma’s vast expanse,\ The great secret treasury of the ḍākinīs. Let the signs be absorbed.

The moment she had said this she vanished without trace and the vision grew faint and hazy. Overflowing with joy, I opened the casket. Out tumbled five rolls of yellow scroll paper and seven white crystals about the size of peas. As I opened the largest scroll on the spot, the air was filled with countless aromatic fragrances of medicinal herbs such as camphor. My head and whole body tingled, and suddenly a thought arose: “The treasure lord of this is Rāhula. These teachings are extremely potent and should be approached with caution.” When I gradually unrolled it, I noticed that outwardly it had the form of a stūpa and inside it was abound with the secret symbolic script of the ḍākinīs, beyond the reach of the intellect. Unable to read it, I began to roll it up again, and at that very instant, like a magical illusion, the drawing of the stūpa disappeared and the symbols within all turned into Tibetan script. It was a sādhana cycle of the Great Compassionate One (Dukngal Rangdrol). I skimmed through it and then stopped. Wondering to whom this transmission had fallen, to whom it had been entrusted and what kind of prophecy it contained about my future lives, I looked at the bottom and saw very clearly:

Entrusted as the Dharma share of the Dharma king, father and son.

When I read the rest, the entire text appeared all at once in my mind like a reflection arising in a mirror, yet it was somehow impossible to read it out in sequence. It was an experience difficult to put into words. Then, with boundless joy, I put some of the crystals into my mouth and was about to take the yellow scrolls and return home when a monk in disguise suddenly appeared beside me as a companion. He said, “I’ve long had a feeling that something like this would come to you,” and showed me extraordinary reverence. I became certain he was the protector of the teachings, the Great Sage Rāhula. At that moment I reached the northern courtyard of the circumambulation path. When I opened another scroll, I came upon the key inventory The Casket of Enlightened Mind. It was so exceptionally vivid in my mind that an experience of irrepressible great bliss blazed up. I thought, “This is truly liberation through seeing. I must show it to my mother.” Just then, through an opening in the sky, a richly adorned woman whom I took to be my mother came down abruptly. She was the one who later deciphered the symbols at Samye Chimphu. I showed it to her, saying, “Look, liberation through seeing!” She replied, “You really are too eager to show what ought to be kept secret. It’s not only liberation through seeing but also liberation through tasting, so eat it yourself!” She made me eat all the crystals and yellow scrolls, and when I gulped them down, every word and their meaning was imprinted in my mind, wondrous beyond measure. At that moment I awoke from the visionary experience…

I'm new to Buddhism, especially Vajrayana Buddhism. Although it has already been a few months and I've received quite a few empowerments and transmissions, I still do not know about my new religion. I've received advice to have a guru (teacher) but I do not know how it works. My Karma Kagyu Temple has some kind of weekly lessons where a monk teaches Buddhism. I asked the monk about receiving teachings and he was happy, telling me that the lessons would start again next month. Will the teacher become my guru then? (The monk I asked is the same one who will be teaching.) I heard that one should have a close relationship with their guru and that a guru should know his student well (and the other way around).

Also, I do not know how much of the rituals work, as well as certain concepts. For example, how do blessings, empowerments, and transmissions work? What happens/does it mean when a monk puts statues/bhumpa/texts on your head? What is actually meant by emptiness? Simple things like that make me curious, but saddens me because my resources are few. Please feel free to send me reliable sources on Vajrayana practices if you can.

Hi, I’m new and very interested in how Tibetans practice deity meditation. Do you know any books that explain the mechanics of that practice? Thanks.

I guess it’s Tibetan and Buddhist-related.

Hi lovelies
I want to start learning and practising Buddhism mostly spiritually not as a religion

I am based in Hanslow/ Twickenham
Do you know any centre or anything I can do this practice at?

Namaste

Can somebody help me with figuring out the meaning behind my Tibetan name? Like the positive things and most certainly the challenges of such a name; Dorje Gyaltsen.

She said "You must be Jokhang"

I recently read and recited The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Monlam). Afterwards, I read a short teaching by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche in which he strongly emphasized that aspiration prayers really do work and that their power should not be dismissed as merely poetic or symbolic.

This got me thinking, and I’m trying to understand how this is supposed to work.

We are not praying to a creator who hears requests and intervenes in the world. So, what exactly makes an aspiration prayer effective? How does it work?

What is happening when we recite a prayer like this? Is its power understood in terms of karma, causes and conditions, the transformation of our own minds and intentions, the blessings of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, or something else? I felt like the emphasis is mostly on the blessings of Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

And if the prayer is intended to benefit all sentient beings, how does that benefit actually reach them?

I understand that finding the teacher is so important. Please understand that I don't have a teacher right now and the only sangha I got is this virtual one. So please don't just tell me to get a teacher. I am aware that.

Hi y'all! I have been practicing translation with the goal of releasing an illuminated and open source translation of the Charyapada because it has been hard to find an English rendering. When I first heard these performed it was really moving. But here's my version of verse 14. Please forgive my various errors and confusions my Tibetan is still quite poor and the Bengali is realllyyyy obscure. However, while I doubt much merit will come from this effort, I'd like to dedicate any that does emerge to my wish that the great traditions of devotional and mystical poetry celbrating the precious three jewels with thrive and spread to many beings! Okay here is my translation of verse 14 that I call The Ferrywoman

The Ferrywoman Charyapada 14 · Rāga Dhanasī · Ḍombīpāda

Between the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā a boat is moving. 
There the priestess of Mātaṅgī, immersed, 
sails us young ones across with playful ease 
Row, priestess, row,
 the way has cleared.
By the true guru’s feet I will go 
again to the city of the Jina.

With five oars dipping at the prow and the rope tied at the stern, bail out the water with the sky-scoop; it does not fill our boat with dread. 
The moon and the sun, two wheels; creation and destruction,

the great schism

No more splitting, left and right, row, row, 
Row on however you please 

She takes no gift, she takes no coin; 
she ferries across of her own accord. 
Those who climbed onto a chariot cannot row; 

they sink at shore after shore.

Edit: Here's the source text I am working with Shastri’s 1916 edition, song 14, with Munidatta’s Sanskrit under it, on Bengali Wikisource/%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC/%E0%A7%A7%E0%A7%AA)

If karma leads to rebirth, doesn't that imply that there must have been a first rebirth at some point? And if so, what caused it?

Why am I suffering? There must be a beginning to all of this, shouldn't there? Even according to the principle of cause and effect, how can there be an endless chain of causes without an initial cause?

I genuinely struggle to understand this. Buddhism says that samsara has no beginning, but how is that logically possible? If every experience of suffering is the result of previous karma, where did that cycle start? I feel like I'm going crazy trying to wrap my head around this.

Just to be clear, I ask this out of genuine curiosity and respect for Buddhism. I'm simply trying to understand.