Best Of
Re: Living without Stories
Stories are Mara's playground. My story, history, your story... But that is what makes life interesting, no? Netflix, HBO, Disney, Discovery, History Channel
Just something to give meaning to (distraction from?) reality.
Then Mara the Evil One, wanting to arouse fear, horripilation, & terror in her, wanting to make her fall away from concentration, approached her & addressed her in verse:
By whom was this living being created?
Where is the living being's maker?
Where has the living being originated?
Where does the living being
cease?https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn05/sn05.010.than.html
"This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.002.than.html
Re: Are Precepts commandments
Hi Vinlyn!
For me all the precepts make kind of sense, like "why wouldn't you follow them?" though the fifth precept was always a bit of a conflictive one. Ah Mary Jane...my love...sweet thick smoke... ehm... yes, back to the precepts being commandments or not.
I would define them as "great suggestions", in line with what you said as "guidance", not biblical commandments. In another thread I posted here I shared Ajahn Jayasaro's view on the 5 Precepts. In a nutshell: they help us to avoid the negative effects of bad kamma which is detrimental to our spiritual growth.
Kotishka
Re: Are Precepts commandments
Welcome back @vinlyn
I'm in the guidance camp with a big dollop of Ehipassiko (seeing for myself]) thrown in for good measure...
Commandment = Something that must be obeyed ( like for example an order from a god )
Guidance =Advice or information aimed at resolving a problem or difficulty, especially as given by someone in authority. ( like for example the Buddha)
Ehipassiko = Here's the DIY guide...knock yourself out...
Shoshin1
Re: Living without Stories
One could say, meditation is when Awareness (AKA the silent editor) edits out the 'fictional' parts of the story so to speak, one is left with non-fiction...based on a true story...
Shoshin1
Re: Are Precepts commandments
I think the difference is that following the precepts does not please a deity rather it is supposed to help the other areas of Buddhist practice. Wisdom, mindfulness, tranquility, meditation, equanimity and so forth become less obstructed as one stops harming themselves and others.
Jeffrey
Re: The Fruits of Zen Practice
Out of a great variety of human beings, two main two divisions in mental make-ups, in Buddhist meditation practitioners come to mind.
I think that I have noticed over the years that sincere persisting practitioners from any tradition who seemed to have tasted some of the fruit of suffering's cessation, do so in accord with how deliberately they chose to walk along a path towards renunciation.
You could call this particular mental makeup, one that's renunciation friendly.
Those sincere persisting practitioners from any tradition who seem to have difficulty in finding the fruit of suffering's cessation, do so in accord with how deliberately they chose to walk along a path that's acquisition based.
You could call this particular mental makeup, one that's acquisition friendly.
Here, these divisions in a mental makeup that a meditator faces speak less about the current mentalities that we find that we have created or inherited
and more about how we can choose to have them be either of benefit or detriment.
how
Re: Are Precepts commandments
Interesting question. I'm currently going through the old testament with a friend so this bit was somewhat fresh and they do not look the same to me even if there is some overlap.
The segment of old testament where Moses receives the ten commandments from God.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/exodus/20.html
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain..."
in comparison to a portion of the five faultless gifts
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sila/index.html
"There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the first gift, the first great gift — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans..."
Re: Are Precepts commandments
@vinlyn
Long time no see.
I think that...
Buddhist Precepts are guidances, which run in accord with enlightened action.
Biblical Commandments are laws, which when broken are against mankind & God.
Which makes me wonder if
precepts apply to Buddhist concepts of no soul
whereas
commandments better apply to the concept of a God and of a soul in peril?
how
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“‘I am bound’ and ‘I am free’ is exactly the same trap. So only the desire for freedom will help you, for you are what you think. Think of destroying the mind and the mind becomes a destroyer. Think of Freedom and you become Freedom.”
— H. W. L. Poonja
Jeroen
Re: Buddhist quotes
"If you are replacing a thought, with a thought of gratitude, you are not living in the present moment, you are still up in your mind too much, simply live in the present moment, study the noble eightfold path, the four noble truths, dependent arising, three marks of existence, any thoughts that crop up simply need be recognized and dropped, bringing concentration back to the present. "
Marc Hards
Kotishka