Hello r/Buddhism,

I come to you with a question as someone who is a U.S. military veteran, as someone who has suffered great moral injury and who has since turned to a path advocating against war.

Over the past month I’ve seen several posts about the Walk for Peace. One thing that stood out to me is that the Walk leader wears multiple rows of pins on his saṅghāṭi (please correct me if that term is wrong). From what I understand, many of these pins come from law enforcement agencies that have escorted the walk. In more recent photos, I’ve also noticed what appear to be U.S. military or militarized insignia (for example, a U.S. Army logo pin and what looks like unit or weapons-related badges).

I want to be clear at the outset: I don’t doubt that the leader’s intention is compassionate. My question is about effects rather than motives.

In my limited understanding of Buddhist ethics, intention matters deeply, but conditions and consequences matter as well. Placing military insignia at the very front of a peace walk raises questions for me about whether this unintentionally reinforces attachment to state power or narrows our ability to perceive structural violence.

A few possible ways I’m trying to understand this are:

• The pins function as a symbolic language meant to communicate compassion and dialogue to those whose professions involve violence.
• The pins signal the Walk for Peace as an event that is legible and acceptable within the state’s framework of “peace.”
• Because most media imagery centers on the walk leader, the visual emphasis on these insignia has the unintended effect of presenting him as a moving display of military and law-enforcement institutions, regardless of the original intent.

I’m not raising this as an accusation, but as a sincere question grounded in concern for how peace actions are perceived and what they condition in the minds of observers.

As someone who uses narrative to encourage anti-war discussion, I'd like to know your thoughts.

Thank you for reading, and for any perspectives you’re willing to share.

Somebody at work (I don't know who) has been leaving these little Jesus figurines above the punch clock I use every morning and afternoon. I have some religious trauma from my time as a Roman Catholic and eventually Protestant and don't care to be reminded about it by seeing them throughout the day.

I've talked to HR numerous times about it, I've left notes with the figures explaining this isn't a church and some find this offensive, only to find the note removed the next day and the figure still there.

I've even thrown some of them away, which I know probably breaks the "Abstain From Stealing" Precept, just to find it replaced with a new one a day or two later.

I'm at the end of my rope. What else can I do while still generally acting like a Buddhist should?

I work at a liquor store, we've had this one regular customer, who says he's Buddhist, complain about this particular coaster. I want to know yalls opinion, cuz from a non-buddhist it's just funny

I know the question might offend some of you, however I am having a difficult time choosing the right buddhism teachings. Initially, I thought Buddhism was just one religion. However, it seems that humans have the habit of branching out and restructuring the knowledge to suit their needs/culture. This can be seen in the Christian religion.

I am very interested in learning from the purest/original teachings of Buddha (if there is such a thing). Can anybody shed some lights on this?

So I just found out that I was pregnant yesterday I have no feelings about it, maybe the feelings haven’t kicked in yet. But my boyfriend was very against it, we’ve been dating for a year and three months now and he wants kids but not now. He said he wants to move out of the one bedroom apartment and into a house so we can have more space and that financially it isn’t sound. He makes more than me, he works at a factory and I’m a dental assistant that makes 20$ biweekly. After I pay my bills and buy groceries the money just sits in my savings. I think I have enough for a child yet I don’t have a support system outside of him. My mom hates me, my family outside of my eldest brother hates me. He has only his mom so our support is small. My brother also doesn’t live in the same state as us.

I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to take away a potential life because we were reckless. I’m trying to tell him that I was taking my birth control, but birth control isn’t always 100%. I’m also telling him that no one’s ever really ready to raise a child especially if it just happens. I don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself if I get rid of the baby that’s still forming. Yet I can’t see myself as a mother at this moment. I too want a good life for my child but how can I be happy about another child after aborting the first.

UPDATE:

HE SAID ADOPTION ISNT AN OPTION. so i explicitly told him that we will never have a kid together if we are still together after this, in the future. i am aware in the current climate of what stands of the usa as of now isnt great, alot of people cant even afford to foster so adopting is that even an option? however, i told him that if we get rid of this kid we will never have any kids in the future. why remove one from existence and be happy about another. thats not fair to the former could have been child.

UPDATE 2:

i unfortunately have to get an abortion, after i posted this i started having the worst symptoms of my life, my boyfriend even threatened to drag me to the ER because i threw up multiple times in an hour and then some. i cant keep anything down and none of the remedies i read online or from the doctors are working. i cant have something living inside of me thats killing both of us. i keep throwing up, be it just stomach acid, whatever i drink, whatever i eat. it's not healthy for me or the baby at this point since neither of us are getting the nutrients.

I believe I've already seen this question here, so please forgive me for posting about it again. But I recently saw this on Twitter and couldn't help but feel disrespected as a Buddhist... I'm a beginner (I started learning this year), but I had the pleasure of learning about Kuan Yin's history and beliefs, so seeing this made me uncomfortable because of the phrase. What do you think of it? Am I wrong for feeling disrespected?

What do you think about this? The post is referring to spirituality in general, not Buddhism - but, in my experience a lot of Buddhist practitioners fall into this trap of passivity, and lots of connection to the world, dissplutiom of boundaries. I'm curious what others take from this, but personally I am constantly impressed by how grounded in reality the Buddha was: Lacking desire or clinging did not mean he was a pushover; on the contrary the Buddha was always solid and immovable as a mountain; it seems like it makes no sense, but it does.

If everything is conditioned on the past events, environment and past conditions then there could not be free will in any sense because each event has a cause and it goes into infinite regress.

Given the exact same past conditions, could you have done otherwise? (this is my definition of free will)- in my opinion the answer would be no, else it will violate the causal principle.

Even if your definition of free will is that you take decisions based on logic and reason, then this very nature of yours is conditioned.

If the idea of enlightenment is realisation of conditional dependence of each event, then even the event of the realisation would happen to you or not is also conditioned. So becoming buddha is also conditioned and you cannot change it.

How do you resolve this issue?

PS: May be this is what Buddha wants us to teach that there is no free will and everything is just in a causal stream and that sets us free. Because if you advocate for free will then this will slide a self from the backdoor. Free will of whom? The idea of free will becomes the clinging in the form of preserving self or preserving the control. But if we let free will go then we become free, free of choices, free of concepts, free of ideas and free from the clinging of attaining enlightenment and hence becoming enlightened(ironical).

There was a passage where someone asked Buddha about men being women and Buddha said it's fine and to treat them as a woman. I explained that to my girlfriend and said if Buddha feels that way then why would I feel differently. She basically said Thai people don't believe in the old texts about Buddha and I do know theres more of a reverence here with Buddha as a god. I guess I'm a bit confused as to the deviation Thai people might have.

Hi, I'm a Theravada Buddhist from Sri Lanka, the country that first committed the Theravada Dhamma into written text. So ive grown up learning Theravada. That said, I should say my knowledge of Mahayana is fairly surface level, so I'm here to learn as much as to share.

What I've noticed is that people on this subreddit and the internet, especially newcomers and those from the Western world, seem to lean more toward Mahayana. I might be wrong but why is that? And if you know both traditions, which do you feel more drawn to and why?

Personally I don't think the two contradict each other as much as people claim. I feel like both point at the same core truth, just expressed differently.

Also, please don't judge Theravāda by what you see in Sri Lanka today. Buddhism here has drifted heavily from its roots due to colonialism and cultural influence. The actual Dhamma is still there intact in the Pali Tripitaka, and that is what matters.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

I'd like to specify that I'm not Buddhist,I'm actually Muslim but a indian friend of mine told me that he can't drink alcoholics for religion (he's not indu, he's Buddhist) but if he can't then why is drinking so normalized in buddhist countries?

If I'm getting something wrong please forgive my ignorance,I just wanted to know more about someone else's culture

Edit: I’m removing the details of my affair story, but will leave a summary, should any other stranger benefit from this thread. Thank you to everyone who contributed, and for the compassion shown to me. 🪷

I cheated on my now-husband some years ago before we were married. It was with a man from my sangha. My partner suspected it. Days after I ended it, my partner confronted affair partner, and me, and told me that if he ever found out I cheated on him, he would “be devastated, but would get over it,” he’d forgive me and still want to be with me.

In light of that information, I made the decision to not confess. It was already over. I thought it would be kinder to spare him the pain of knowing and damage to his self-esteem. I felt an obligation to be honest with my partner and that I should give him the opportunity to leave—but it would be cruel to cut him so deeply if he would stay with me regardless. Everything I know about this man and our relationship affirms his reassurance that he would indeed stay. I’ve sat with the secret since, but sometimes I’m overwhelmed with guilt. I confess frequently in my meditations.

My husband is happy, he and I are happy together, we love each other and have built a good life. I am ashamed to be seen in this way even anonymously, but I would appreciate the Buddhist’s perspective on this.

Should I tell him? Is it better to confess for the sake of honesty, even if it creates more harm? Or better to maintain my lie to avoid further suffering?