Question & Answer #157: from Buddhist Causality to Woody Allen Movies

Questions include: Buddhist causality in everyday life; Qi Gong master John Chang; monastic sexual desperation; Bhikkhu Buddhadasa; Dhamma as gladdening the mind; Bob Dylan; avoiding conversation with stupid people; sankhara vs. dhamma in the three marks; when I stopped making progress; associating with normies; familial takes on Dharma immersion; religious strong and weak points; debating a Hindu; the problem of self; being drawn to Dhamma; belief in God; corruption in institutionalized religions; a new human with no karma; Schopenhauer; seeing mental illness in oneself; Buddhist halos; levels of conventional truth; is abstention enough; how to go deeper; “non-proliferative imagination”; “character is fate” in Buddhism; the good fortune of being ordained in a Burmese tradition; lion—birthday—pond; the ecology of my fish pond; the meaning of Om; the meaning of mindfulness; and my favorite Woody Allen movie.