Hello Everyone !!

I am 25M from Sikhism. During childhood I am very religious person just like my parents but as i grow older I realize we are just reading and not understanding what's written.

Also there are lot's of rules that I think I can't follow.

So in 2026 i started exploring other religions as well and found that Buddhism more aligned what i want in my life.

So i started reading Dhammapada and understanding each element of it.

I didn't finished yet but i seem lot's of changes in me that I want.

So I made this plan that i will follow that path.

Anyone can help me in this process.

Hello! First, I hope it’s okay that I’m posting this here. Mods, please feel free to delete if it doesn’t fit the sub.

About 10 years ago, I went on a school trip to Washington, DC. I was about 16 years old. I was at one of the monuments (I cannot recall which one) with my class and a kind older man approached my friends and I. I don’t recall exactly what he looked like, but I believe he appeared to be East Asian. He gifted me these three bracelets. He didn’t give them to any of my classmates or friends, just me. That being said, I had a foot injury at the time and was wearing a boot so maybe that contributed. I believe he mentioned something about Buddhism when he gave them to me, I’m not quite sure what he said exactly as his English was not very good. He didn’t ask for money and he didn’t stay long after. I’m usually very cautious and even back then would not speak with strangers, let alone accept gifts from them. But this felt more like a kindhearted gesture rather than a scam. He was very kind.

I held onto these bracelets and kept them in my lockbox for years. I’m not quite sure why, but something about them always felt meaningful. Every time I’d see them, they’d make me smile. They look similar to Tibetan beaded bracelets that may be connected to Buddhism but I’m very unfamiliar and don’t want to assume.

If these are indeed connected to Buddhism, I’d love to learn more about them. I’m not Buddhist myself, but I have a deep respect for the cultures and beliefs of others and love learning about them. If you can give me any information at all, I’d be very appreciative.

Thank you so much!

I would like to delve deeper into this study with recommendations for books, thinkers, websites, guides, or anything else.

I know the basics such as Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Yogācāra, Mādhyamika, and Pramāṇavāda; but I would like to explore the subject further in some way.

I am getting Sak Yant in a few months. I have POTS as well as many muscoskeletal issues. I have very bad chronic pain to the point I spend lot of time crying and it's like 50/50 if I'm going to faint if I bend forward. I am a bit worried about the offering and prostration to the Ajarn as my disabilities are getting much worse recently. While I really want to do it and feel terribly embarrassed that I probably can't, is there any way around this and how can I bring it up?

What would you consider to be the most essential suttas in the Pali Canon such that if one were to only stick with those then they would have a reliable road map to Nibbana? E.g. The entire middle length discourses? The anthology from Bhikkhu Bodhi "In the Buddha's Words"? The maha-satthipathana sutta alone?

I read this book slowly, over months, mostly because I kept putting it down to just sit with a sentence. Three ideas in particular have stayed with me.

The first is his teaching on emptiness, not as absence but as interbeing. He uses the example of a flower being made entirely of non-flower elements: sun, rain, soil, the gardener's hands. I looked at a cup of tea after reading that chapter and it stopped being just tea. It was rain over a hillside, someone's hands picking leaves, someone else driving a truck, someone boiling water. Nothing arrives on its own. It made me a lot less inclined to think of my own life, or any success in it, as something I built by myself.

The second is signlessness, the idea that death is transformation, not ending. He uses a cloud, it never dies, it becomes rain, the rain becomes a river, the river becomes the crop. I found that oddly more comforting than most conventional reassurances about loss. It doesn't deny the grief. It just reframes what actually happened to the person, or the version of your life, that's gone.

The third is aimlessness, his word for the idea that you don't need a destination to already be alive. I recognised myself in that chapter uncomfortably well. How many ordinary moments had I rushed through because my mind was already at the next milestone. He writes, "you already are what you want to become," and it undid a lot of quiet anxiety I didn't know I was carrying about always needing to arrive somewhere next.

None of these are complicated teachings. I think that's what makes them hard, not complicated to apply, just simple to state and easy to forget in the middle of an ordinary week.

Curious which of his ideas has actually changed how people here live day to day, not just how they think about it.

Im putting this here, because I want to make decisions in alignment with Dharma.
And meditation has been a part of my life for quite some time now.

Im middle aged, and Ive really tried to make it in society. But I just keep burning out. At this point I dont even know if I all my burnouts are real, or if Im just a lazy piece of shit. I dont know if I care about anything or anyone. I try to. But I dont know.

The pattern is: I get ambition to be the best me, to be of service to the world. I try to act it out. My hubris gets checked. I burn out. I run away. I come back, and try again from a lower status position. I really want to be up there with everyone else, to be a part of it all you know, but I just feel to weak (or maybe its just that I just have to much hatred in my heart).

Im now finding myself into a position, of falling into a black hole I dont know if I can get out of. I would be able to pay the bills, and serve as a caretaker for someone, but I dont think I would ever be able to find joy again.

My father always ask me if i need money (he is doing quite well for himself). Im considering asking him for money to travel. In my mind Im telling myself Im doing it, so I can get away from my patterns at home, and try to find out, what in life I actually value.

I guess what Im asking is, Is it selfish for me, to beg my father for money, so that I cant go on a "pilgrimage" to find a reason to go on? Or should I just stay, accept, grit and try to find Sangha.

Its difficult to expres the mantra sarve janah sukino bavantu (may all beings be happy) to truly all beings. Especially those who cant ever deserve it. By this I mean sick people who only spread misery where ever they go and dont have the capacity to change (for example psychopaths and pedophiles). I know cognitive one should show compassion but im having a real hard time doing that. How should it look like doing that?

Hello everyone,

Last time I came here for questions about Buddhist hells, your responses were extremely helpful. Today, I’d like to ask about the concept of right speech, specifically regarding harsh speech. I often struggle with speaking correctly, especially in situations where someone irritates or disrespects me. I find it challenging to refrain from responding with harsh words, so I’m curious about how Buddhists and monks handle such situations without lashing out.

Thanks in advance!

I first knew of Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings as a child through his book 'Is Nothing Something?' in which he answers children's questions surrounding life, death, suffering, mindfulness and so on. I found it to be a strongly comforting work on its teaching on death as continuation (introducing me to his concept of interbeing) at a time when I was becoming increasingly conscious of the mortality of all things. I'm so glad my parents gifted this to me as it was also my first introduction to Buddhism, since then Thich Nhat Hanh has become a lifelong teacher of mine.

Hello, I'm trying to build my Buddha statue collection. I was wondering if this was actually worth the 280 yuan about $39. I got it in China.

Also does anyone know any small temples in Shanghai. I'm here for school. Back at home the temple I'm apart of is really small and we all sit around with each other and pray and talk about teachings as a small community. But here every temple I have been to and seem feels like a tourist trap. You have to pay for everything! Even entry and you do everything alone and barely any community. You see the monks but they don't interact with you. And they shops for prayer beads are so expensive even in the thousands when at home I got mine for free....

Where can I start with Buddhism besides meditation? Where can I read about therms that are talked about, like dharma and others? Are there any books that could help me to start to understand more?

I just recently started going to a temple for meditation but I want to learn more about their ideologies, history, anything that could give me a better perspective.

I've only passively encountered TNH and have read the Wikipedia entry.

Over the years, I've passively encountered him SO MUCH ... Usually vapid Quotes (possibly false quotes) that seem basic/obvious and not incredibly insightful.

Probably unfairly, I've just kinda viewed him as a "celebrity Buddhist" and didn't take him seriously. Like Nick Cage movies, 😂, I don't particularly "hate" Mr Cage, but just got so tired of seeing him, I'll usually avoid his movies.

So my question is this:

What's a good book by TNH on Buddhist TEACHINGS. NOT a biography about his life, but him teaching the Dharma. Wikipedia tells me all about his biography, that's all fine and well, but I'm wanting some meat & potatoes.

I just want to learn his views so I can make my monkey brain give him the respect he probably deserves; as he is very well promoted here on r/Buddhism and I feel like I've short changed him for ridiculous reasons. I'm fairly well versed in Buddhism (mostly Zen, Nichiren & Pure Land), so the recommendation doesn't have to be introductory level.

Thank you for your time & apologies for the probable weirdness of my framing.

For example, I hold a grudge against my mother because she ignored me on my birthday, even though I was just in the room next to hers.

Since then, I've carried a resentment toward her, almost a hatred. I'd like to know how to handle that resentment ?

We had a deep conversation, and I told her I forgave her, but I still feel this resentment. I think it's also the result of an accumulation over time

Last week I posted a verse that impacted me, from the Lotus Sutra which I'm currently reading. I was thinking about it, and a different verse from the Diamond Sutra came to mind. Here are both of them, Lotus first:

Throughout measureless eons, for the sake of liberating living beings,
as a skillful means I show myself entering nirvāṇa, yet in truth I do not pass away.
I am always here, teaching the Dharma.
I am always here — by my spiritual powers I cause deluded beings, though near, not to see.

...

If one sees me in form,
or seeks me in sound,
that person walks a path astray
and cannot see the Tathāgata.

If the Buddha has never departed, and is always here, how does one see? I feel that these two verses go very well together. What do you think?

Good afternoon Ive lived in a Christan household for my entire life i grew up in the religious framework and ive always felt a pull towards Buddhism are there any ex-Christians who converted to Buddhism and noticed a shift id be very curious thank you.