A Buddhist smorgasbord

A few here are keen to propagate their own brand of what could be called "religion" so I am emboldened to begin a thread on the Dharma, AKA Buddhism.

Made up of bits and pieces drawn from my own long journey through the "way of the Buddha". One guy, seeing the Buddha hold up a flower, "got it" straight away (whatever "it" is) but others like me need more time.

Anyway, whatever, a few brief words from one modern Dharma teacher:-

[i] The Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, the law. He did not teach a set of beliefs or dogmas, or systems that have arbitrarily to be accepted. Through his own experience of enlightenment, he pointed the way for each of us to experience the truth within ourselves. During the forty years of his teaching, he used many different words and concepts to point to the truth. The words or concepts are not the truth itself; they are merely a pointing to a certain kind of experience. In the Buddha's time, because of the force of his wisdom and skill, generally people did not confuse the words for the experience. They heard what the Buddha had to say, looked within, and experienced the truth in their own minds and bodies.

As time went on and people started to practice less, they began to mistake the words for the experience. Different schools arose, arguing over concepts. It is as if in attempting to explain the light on a full moon night one points up at the moon. To look at the finger, rather than the moon, is to misunderstand the pointing. We should not confuse the finger for the moon, nor confuse the words pointing to the truth for the experience itself.

[/i]

That is enough for now. No posts will be deleted, however negative.

Thank you

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Tariki

Continuing. I really have no particular direction in mind for this thread. I'm back at Oxfam today in the Book & Music shop, a little paradise, my own Pure Land. People come and go, you get to know a few characters. One old guy came in once, slightly bent over, a bit arthritic, the kind of guy my often terribly judgemental mind thinks can have had no life. He rummaged through the vinyl singles and brought a few over to the till. Old rock n roll classics. "Some old ones here" I said, and he said, "Yes, I'll enjoy playing along to them at home". It turned out he had a couple of Stratocasters and a Les Paul, and could play them." Ever been in a band" I asked him and he said "no", never had the confidence to play in public. Sad in a way.

But moving on, I might at some point get to "8 Fold Paths" and Noble Truths", [i]anicca, anatta[/i] and [i]dukkha[/i] but not now. I was thinking, because of the posts here from Christian friends, of posting the Metta Sutta. Metta is Pali for "loving-kindness". This sutta is found in one of the very oldest Theravada texts, the Sutta Nipata. Anyone familiar with the great "Hymn to Love" in the New Testament is welcome to see correspondences.

[i]This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
[/i]

That is all for now. I have Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" playing at the moment (in fact the bootleg version, "More Blood, More Tracks")

Thank you