Questions about Buddhism.

[arcticwolf]

The insights which you have provided have, indeed shed new light on both of my questions. It would appear that the widespread idea of literal reincarnation , as exemplified by the search for his reincarnation after the death of each Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama, as if the same person had persisted from one incarnation to another is not an authentic Buddhist view of reincarnation.

The present Dalai Lama once expressed surprise that, though his predecessor loved horses, he, the reincarnation of the former Dalai Lama, was indifferent to them. It would seem that he expected a bit too much of reincarnation.

Being mindful of the ever-changing flow of reality is very different from living in the non-existent present. In fact, it would appear to me that time is irrelevant to mindfulness. This is a refreshingly different point of view. It does not solve the time paradox because it is not concerned with the time paradox. I am sure that there are very few people who are bothered by the time paradox , just as an engineer friend of mine could not see why I was concerned about the fact what what I perceive when my eyes respond to light having a wavelength of 650 nm. and which I call "red" may be entirely different from what he perceived under the same conditions.

Philosophical questions are important to some, but irrelevant to most others.

Thst is correct. Mahayana is a later branch of Buddhism, which has a concept of Christ like Bodhisattva if you will, wish we had Mahayana Buddhist to shed light on this concept for us. The Lama thing is part of Tibetan version of Mahayana, there is no such thing in Theravada. I am not well versed in Mahayana, so maybe there is somebody on the board that can answer your questions about Mahayana better that I ever could, and I do not want to say things I am not qualified to, or have limited knowledge about.

Buddhism will only benefit one if practiced. One can know all the theory, complicated sometimes as it may be, but if one does not practice, one will not get far, because the essence of buddhism is the practice of mindfulness. That cannot be circumvented by any means, at any time, at any place. This is a must, no way around it, no shortcuts.

Buddhism is practice of mindfulness, without any believes, without faith, as such it can not even be compared to faith based religions, this is completely different level.

In Buddhism there is noone to save you, but you, and you alone have all the power you need to save yourself. It's the ultimate individualism if you will.

[arcticwolf]

All reasoning is based on intuition.

One doesn't stop thinking. Everybody think differently. When someone says to stop thinking he really means stop thinking certain thoughts.

When Buddhist says stop thinking, he really means stop thinking delusional thoughts. When most men say stop thinking, they mean stop thinking outside their delusional box.

No. When Buddhist says stop thinking he means no conscious thoughts at all. When you meditate, you see thoughts originating in the subconscious and entering conscious, as a meditator you observe them, but do not engage. They come and they go. Mindfulness can watch them see them trying to engage the conscious and see them dissipate.

What you said is true for an untrained mind, that mind has little control over the process, but that is not true with a trained mind.

You are not trying to think at all, you not modulating the thoughts, you observe it like any other passing phenomena. I know most people think that the thinking process is them, and they can't exist without it. Trust me you can.

You can use thoughts like any other tool, mental or otherwise. Like any other tool you can set it aside when the job is done.

You can exist without thinking, only some are able to do it though, because it takes extremelly hard work to get to that point.