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Truly respecting others
Rabmudtz
New
Buddhism in most cases really "cuts it" for me, but I'm really having issues with seeing others truly having the true "worth" as me. I understand that of course we are all worth the same, but I very often feel alot of disdain towards people (especially those who can't respect others). People like religious/ political extremists. I don't want to get into any left/right discussions, I don't care about people being more inclinded this way or that. However, people who support parties (no names, but any Swede here might get the clue) that truly work against co-operation promote rascism, fascism, etc. Hasen't the world been through enough bloodshed, violence and horror not to realise how wrong such notions are? I truly feel like giving them a solid knee-strike to the gut in sheer frustration, even though I know that won't solve a thing. How am I supposed to equalize myself with these people is what I want to know. How do you people here do it, cause I'm assuming it isn't just a local issue.
Thanks beforehand
Thanks beforehand
0
Comments
Some people are just a bit dumb. They can't really help it.
It's like blaming a rock of being hard. It's the nature of the rock to be like that.
As example, someone is driving like an ass...reckless...cuts me off...
I simply tell myself "In reality, I don't know why they are speeding, etc...is it possible they have an emergency? yes its possible. let it go."
No person on earth can make you suffer mentally but your own thoughts.
As far as people who do much more evil... one thing we share with them is the 3 poisons of mind
greed
hate ( sometimes aversion )
dellusion.
We might not kill, or steal, or start wars, but until we reach enlightenment we still have these 3 things. This is why people do what they do...some people have a shit load more of it than others.
I have a wish for world peace, but being buddhist also means being a realist. Help those that you can including yourself and let the rest go.
some considerations:
- to see yourself as equal to others (of equal worth) in buddhism is considered a form a conceit (interesting, isn't it?!)
- someone who has violent fascist ideas has an unwholesome mind state. If we feel like kicking them in the groin, then we are also having an unwholesome mind state (only love can conquer hate)
- people who have fascist ideas are creating suffering not only for others but also for themselves. Since nobody wants to suffer, they are clearly just mistaken, without realizing it (which does not mean we have to be passive about people that behave in fascist ways, it can be skillful to try and stop these people - or confront them - if they are about to harm other people).
I do like your observation. Lately it has been interesting for me to observe what happens inside of me when I get into an (polite) argument with someone. Most of all, I want to stay in touch with the feeling that I care for the other person, this feeling can easily get lost when the discussion gets heated.
The trick is to get skilled at metta, and learn that you can direct that feeling at anything, even things which totally squick you.
As the world gets more crowded, disordered and hungry, hateful thinking will only proliferate. So practice now while it's relatively easy.
Yoda
People need unravelling. We all do. We all have shells, some more than others. Impedimets and hindrances have accumulated around a set of circumstances and a persons being. You are fortunate if you have arrived at or worked towards an open and loving nature. We Buddhists have remnants of lower realms and are practicing towards the four higher realms . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_spiritual_realms
Metta Bhavna
http://www.metta.org.uk/wds/wds1.htm
:wave:
Recently I watched “Der Untergang” on TV. Some Nazis being absurdly loyal to the end (in this case the end meaning death) kept me thinking. What was wrong with these people?
Well, maybe nothing, maybe they just lived in uncertain and chaotic times; they needed some radical solution to their problems; in a powerful group process they fell in love with a charismatic leader and his vision of a new bright future and they couldn’t let it go.
They/we will do almost anything to end our suffering and we can lose touch with reality (like being in love) when we think we see a messiah and found the way to our personal and our collective salvation.
It’s not religion, not politics, not nationalism; it is suffering, the end of suffering and the person who shows and personifies the radical way to end this suffering.
Hey… that sounds familiar.
Buddhism is different though and it’s a crucial difference (imho). There is no Promised Land. Samsara is Nirvana. “The other shore" is under our feet. If you want to cross the ocean of suffering you must take the ship with no bottom.
The Buddhist path leads to where we are. The change is on our minds and in our hearts; we stop craving we start letting go. We realize the emptiness of the whole thing, we wake up and we are free.
But all of this is not the Promised Land; when life hurts it still hurts.
My point maybe is that we are a lot like religious or political fanatics; we are carved from the same wood, we are struggling with the same fundamental problem, but hopefully our understanding goes a bit deeper.
The biblical story in Luke 18: 9-14 of the Publican and the Pharisee addresses this very topic.
"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
To acquire the humility of the publican requires watchfulness and constant examination of thoughts and actions, so perhaps as part of daily practice, at the end of the day, an examine of the day's events using say the Noble Eightfold Path as reproof and a guide for clearly identify one’s actions can be done.
Some Buddhist traditions even have confession as part of their practice where one’s negative or unskillful actions are confessed to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with resolve to refrain from doing them in the future where positive or skillful actions are dedicated to benefit all.
Sadly though this practice has lost its importance despite the tremendous benefit it can provide. The weight of karmic transgressions or their purification is very much linked to one's remorse for doing them and it is through the practice of confession one comes to term with them.
Just like it says in the "Food Sutta" being discussed here.
Hope you are as inherently superior as me . . .
And thank you all others a great deal for the responses, many of you made quite an impact on me