Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for How to survive Buddhism ? Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha

I see one aspect of your question is practice of rites and rituals much like other religions. This is also important for Buddhism to be socially and culturally integrated, but this does not give you liberation.

Secular Buddhists strip Buddhism of some of the aspects which cannot be conventionally seen (e,g, other realms, life after death) and perhaps some of the aspects not in line with western culture (e.g. respect to the Triple Gem). Accepting and dismissing things beyond your comprehension is a mistake, so would be accepting things which you cannot empirically verify. Until you know something at an experiential level it is best to set them aside.

There were many Buddhist sites in India which perhaps became sites for other religions.

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for What is meaning of Buddha and how he called Buddha?

Definition of Buddha based on Pali Dictionary is here. The Wikipedia entry is here.

Buddha means one who understood or awakened. This understanding / awakening is based on intelligence gained.

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for Consciousness and Name-Form

Taṇhā (craving) and upādāna (clining) creates saṅkhāra (fabrication) to experience the karmic result of what you craved for. To experience past fabrications when they materialise in the present a particular viññāṇa (consciousness) should arise, e.g. fabrication to experience pleasant taste now due to past conditioning you need tongue consciousness hence also a tongue and tasty food. Since viññāṇa cannot arise on its own, i.e., there cannot be tongue consciousness without an tongue, arises nāmarūpa (name form) with saḷāyatana (sense bases / faculty) so the particular experience can be felt. Since particular experience does not arise without phassa (contact) this should happen giving arise to Vedanā (feeling) so that the Karmic experience is completed. Avijjā (ignorance), i.e., not knowing the 4 Noble Truths, what make you react with craving and clinging hence creating fabrications and consciousness. Also the experience any residue of fabrication, Jāti (birth) must happen and if so Jarāmaraṇa (old age and death) follows.

In other words, past fabrication to experience creates the experience, to which contact, faculty, consciousness should be in place, and for faculties to be in place a live being with a body and mind needs to be in place.

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for Emotional Release: Images Versus Dry Body Awareness

Your metal experiences (thoughts, memories, emotions, etc) create sensations. You should use it to reduce your unwholesome roots.

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Latent tendencies

LATENT TENDENCIES ARISING THROUGH THE MIND. Bhikshus, dependent on mind and mind-objects, eye-consciousness arises.

When the three meet, there is contact. Dependent on contact, there is what is felt as pleasant, or as painful, or as neither pleasant nor painful.

When one is touched by a pleasant feeling, one delights in it, welcomes it, remains attached to it. Thus one’s latent tendency of lust (rāgânusaya) lies latent.

When one is touched by a painful feeling, one sorrows, grieves, laments, beats one’s breast and falls into confusion. Thus one’s latent tendency of aversion (paṭighânusaya) lies latent.

When one is touched by a feeling that is neither pleasant nor painful, one does not understand it as it really is, the arising, the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape with regards to that feeling. Thus one’s latent tendency of ignorance (avijjā’nusaya) lies latent.

Bhikshus, that one could make an end of suffering here and now, without abandoning lust for pleasurable feelings, without removing aversion towards painful feelings, without uprooting ignorance towards feelings that are neither pleasant nor painful this is impossible.

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Abandoning the latent tendencies

ABANDONING LATENT TENDENCIES ARISING THROUGH THE MIND.

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Bhikshus, that one could make an end of suffering here and now, having abandoned lust for pleasurable feelings, having removed aversion towards painful feelings, having uprooted ignorance towards feelings that are neither pleasant nor painful this is possible.

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for In Buddhist meditation is it thought that comes first or the dream images

The mental image (Nimitta) as per some teachers appear as a bright radiant light. You have to bring your attention to a particular stimuli and retain the attention on the chosen stimuli by continuously bringing your mind to the chosen stimuli. At some point you might get the Nimitta. This does not happen for everyone and every time.

If you are doing the above as Vipassana you have to look at sensation (or phenomena that is know and felt) and continuously keeping your mind on it. Then you will see the arising and passing of sensations, which perhaps you can consider the Nimitta.

Also see: Nimitta: The radiant and blissful sign [How to enjoy and benefit from your meditation] and Nimitta and Anuvyañjana: Signs and Details [Sense-restraint & wise attention: how to master the senses] by Piya Tan

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for Is the term " mind " another way of describing awareness?

If you take Namarupa according to the Skandha classification the following falls under Nama (mind)

• feelings
• perceptions
• mental formations
• consciousness.

You know or are aware due to consciousness but there other 3 items which form the mind. Also awareness is the fucntion of consciousness and not consciousness itself. So awareness is not mind.

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Answer by Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena for Philosophy.. About self

Any thought patterns about self which you cling leads to craving and misery. So you should eliminate clinging to ideas and view about self, including mis identification of the 5 aggregates and 6 sense bases as self. [Tanhā Jālinī Sutta]

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