Just asking
Are there any here who are familiar with any particular Buddhist text/scripture? Which one? What have you gained from reading it?
70-79
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LesDawsonsPiano · 70-79
I suppose the best place to have asked my question would have been on a Buddhist Forum. Then I would probably have got a few answers.....The Lotus Sutra, some obscure zen text, or some such. All well and good. In fact I've been as good as banned from a couple of Buddhist Forums (one an outright ban, the second more a "you're not welcome around here, so shove it) which is certainly not any demonstration of "loving-kindness", but then again, hypocrisy is not the preserve of Buddhists only......😀
Answering my own question, I have a lot of time for the Majjhima Nikaya, or "The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha". Once in days of yore it virtually became my "Bible". I was quoting from it all the time. But looking back it was one Sutta (Theravada =Sutta Mahayana = Suttra) that proved fundamental. Number 63.
It's the "who fired the arrow" sutta. A guy gets struck by an arrow and basically wants to know who fired it and all sorts of other questions, but the wise old Buddha comes along and says that the best idea is to pull the arrow out. This relates to a whole lot of other stuff in the various texts, about what is "declared" by the Buddha and what is not "declared". It seems many people want the "answer" before they begin - and really, most of us are like this. Maybe not a totally self-conscious answer, but a set of ideas and assumptions that have conditioned us, which we have been born into because we were born HERE, and not THERE, in THIS age and not THAT age. From such assumptions everything is judged, and perhaps fitted neatly into our preconceived ideas.
Jung (I like this name dropping) spoke of the "spirit of the times" and of the "spirit of the depths". He spoke in his numerous books of the latter. Anyone at all can speak of the former (like me.....) but Jung wrestled all his life with the Spirit of the Depths. Thinking about it (just now, as I tend to ramble and waffle as a therapeutic exercise) I tend to think a major problem is to think we have accessed one, when in fact we only have the other. Oh yes, I think so.
Anyway, pulling the arrow out (rather than all the various alternatives) is the realm of the Dharma - the Truth, Reality-as-is. Not a formula, not a creed, not a name (above all other names) etc etc etc. Referring to the Dharma, the Pali word is "ehipassiko" which translated means "come and see for oneself".
Another way of describing the Dharma is as per the verse found in the text I mentioned:-
“So this holy life......does not have gain, honour, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of virtue for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakeable deliverance of mind that is the goal of this holy life, its heartwood, and its end.”
The "heartwood". That's it. Who would not want "unshakeable deliverance of miind"?
Sadly, at least as I see it, many think that they have it already, or maybe will be given it after death.
Each to their own. Let's not be dogmatic!
That's enough. Sitting in McDonalds again, with a white coffee and now a vanilla milkshake.
Answering my own question, I have a lot of time for the Majjhima Nikaya, or "The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha". Once in days of yore it virtually became my "Bible". I was quoting from it all the time. But looking back it was one Sutta (Theravada =Sutta Mahayana = Suttra) that proved fundamental. Number 63.
It's the "who fired the arrow" sutta. A guy gets struck by an arrow and basically wants to know who fired it and all sorts of other questions, but the wise old Buddha comes along and says that the best idea is to pull the arrow out. This relates to a whole lot of other stuff in the various texts, about what is "declared" by the Buddha and what is not "declared". It seems many people want the "answer" before they begin - and really, most of us are like this. Maybe not a totally self-conscious answer, but a set of ideas and assumptions that have conditioned us, which we have been born into because we were born HERE, and not THERE, in THIS age and not THAT age. From such assumptions everything is judged, and perhaps fitted neatly into our preconceived ideas.
Jung (I like this name dropping) spoke of the "spirit of the times" and of the "spirit of the depths". He spoke in his numerous books of the latter. Anyone at all can speak of the former (like me.....) but Jung wrestled all his life with the Spirit of the Depths. Thinking about it (just now, as I tend to ramble and waffle as a therapeutic exercise) I tend to think a major problem is to think we have accessed one, when in fact we only have the other. Oh yes, I think so.
Anyway, pulling the arrow out (rather than all the various alternatives) is the realm of the Dharma - the Truth, Reality-as-is. Not a formula, not a creed, not a name (above all other names) etc etc etc. Referring to the Dharma, the Pali word is "ehipassiko" which translated means "come and see for oneself".
Another way of describing the Dharma is as per the verse found in the text I mentioned:-
“So this holy life......does not have gain, honour, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of virtue for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakeable deliverance of mind that is the goal of this holy life, its heartwood, and its end.”
The "heartwood". That's it. Who would not want "unshakeable deliverance of miind"?
Sadly, at least as I see it, many think that they have it already, or maybe will be given it after death.
Each to their own. Let's not be dogmatic!
That's enough. Sitting in McDonalds again, with a white coffee and now a vanilla milkshake.
LesDawsonsPiano · 70-79
While I'm posting a few bits of Dharma, you can't get very far on any Buddhist Forum without finding the Kalama Sutta quoted. I suppose that's because many, fleeing from the perceived dogmatism of Christianity, welcome and wish to broadcast what is taken to be virtually a freethinker's charter.
But it is not quite that, given the words "commended by the wise" found within it - words that beg the question "who are the wise". Or even, "what is wisdom". I've often pondered this and at this point in my journey, I see "wisdom" as simply integral to, and inherent within, Reality-as-is. It can never be "ours". It follows that any "wisdom" we might "have" is simply having a greater alignment with Reality. Signs of such "alignment"? I really can't do better than speak of the "fruits of the spirit" as found in the writings of St Paul:-
"love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"
Myself, looking around, looking back through history, such "fruits" can be found in those of many Faiths and Traditions, and sometimes, even in those of none. Such is Reality.
Anyway, the Sutta (part of the Theravada Canon of Scripture):-
Do not be satisfied with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in scriptures or with conjecture or with logical inference or with weighing the evidence or with liking for a view after pondering over it or with someone else's ability or with the thought "The monk is our teacher." When you know in yourselves: "These things are wholesome, blameless, commended by the wise, and being adopted and put into effect they lead to welfare and happiness," then you should practice and abide in them....
But it is not quite that, given the words "commended by the wise" found within it - words that beg the question "who are the wise". Or even, "what is wisdom". I've often pondered this and at this point in my journey, I see "wisdom" as simply integral to, and inherent within, Reality-as-is. It can never be "ours". It follows that any "wisdom" we might "have" is simply having a greater alignment with Reality. Signs of such "alignment"? I really can't do better than speak of the "fruits of the spirit" as found in the writings of St Paul:-
"love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"
Myself, looking around, looking back through history, such "fruits" can be found in those of many Faiths and Traditions, and sometimes, even in those of none. Such is Reality.
Anyway, the Sutta (part of the Theravada Canon of Scripture):-
Do not be satisfied with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in scriptures or with conjecture or with logical inference or with weighing the evidence or with liking for a view after pondering over it or with someone else's ability or with the thought "The monk is our teacher." When you know in yourselves: "These things are wholesome, blameless, commended by the wise, and being adopted and put into effect they lead to welfare and happiness," then you should practice and abide in them....
LesDawsonsPiano · 70-79
For anyone interested, a short excerpt from the Majjhima Nikaya (not actually sutta 63)
The Buddha is speaking:-
Again, remember what I have left undeclared as undeclared and remember what I have declared as declared. And what have I left undeclared? "The world is eternal"- I have left undeclared. "The world is not eternal" - I have left undeclared. "The world is finite" - I have left undeclared. "The world is infinite" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is the same as the body" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is one thing and the body is another" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one exists" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one both exists and does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one neither exists not does not exist" - I have left undeclared.
Why have I left this undeclared? Because it is unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life, it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. That is why I have left it undeclared. And what have I declared? "This is suffering", "This is the origin of suffering", "This is the cessation of suffering", "This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering".
I can relate all this in one sense with some of the words of Thomas Merton, where he speaks of there being no key, no door............(The Palace of Nowhere)
The Buddha is speaking:-
Again, remember what I have left undeclared as undeclared and remember what I have declared as declared. And what have I left undeclared? "The world is eternal"- I have left undeclared. "The world is not eternal" - I have left undeclared. "The world is finite" - I have left undeclared. "The world is infinite" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is the same as the body" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is one thing and the body is another" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one exists" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one both exists and does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one neither exists not does not exist" - I have left undeclared.
Why have I left this undeclared? Because it is unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life, it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. That is why I have left it undeclared. And what have I declared? "This is suffering", "This is the origin of suffering", "This is the cessation of suffering", "This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering".
I can relate all this in one sense with some of the words of Thomas Merton, where he speaks of there being no key, no door............(The Palace of Nowhere)
LesDawsonsPiano · 70-79
Often the Lotus Sutra is cited as a favourite. It certainly is in the Buddhist heartlands and has been for many centuries. One of the great zen masters, Dogen, often referred to it in his writings. It contains the justly famous "Parable of the Dharma Rain":-
I bring fullness and satisfaction to the world,
like rain that spreads its moisture everywhere.
Eminent and lowly, superior and inferior,
observers of precepts, violators of precepts,
those fully endowed with proper demeanour,
those not fully endowed,
those of correct views, of erroneous views,
of keen capacity, of dull capacity -
I cause the Dharma rain to rain on all equally,
never lax or neglectful.
When all the various living beings
hear my Law,
they receive it according to their power,
dwelling in their different environments........
......The Law of the Buddhas
is constantly of a single flavour,
causing the many worlds
to attain full satisfaction everywhere;
by practicing gradually and stage by stage,
all beings can gain the fruits of the way.
I bring fullness and satisfaction to the world,
like rain that spreads its moisture everywhere.
Eminent and lowly, superior and inferior,
observers of precepts, violators of precepts,
those fully endowed with proper demeanour,
those not fully endowed,
those of correct views, of erroneous views,
of keen capacity, of dull capacity -
I cause the Dharma rain to rain on all equally,
never lax or neglectful.
When all the various living beings
hear my Law,
they receive it according to their power,
dwelling in their different environments........
......The Law of the Buddhas
is constantly of a single flavour,
causing the many worlds
to attain full satisfaction everywhere;
by practicing gradually and stage by stage,
all beings can gain the fruits of the way.