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Explain Like I'm Five
Could you please explain to me, as if I were a five-year-old, the following concepts. And really, talk to me like you're teaching a mentally handicapped, five-year old with the ADHD ailment.
Karma.And then please tell me the implications of learning these things, and how to apply them in my life. Thank you all so much.
Emptiness/dependent-arising.
Enlightenment.
Rebirth.
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Comments
you have to take the two descriptions, and make them into a whole, understandable image for yourself.....Ok?
Karma is getting back what you give to others. but what you give, must be given on purpose.
If you have chicken pox, and you give chicken pox to your neighbour, that's not your fault.
But if you have an orange, and you give your orange to your best friend, because you know he loves them, then you get a good feeling, and your friend will be very happy. he may possibly give you a hug, or something in return, and that makes you smile.
But if you have an orange, and you know your best friend loves oranges, but you decide that, you're not going to give it away - hell, you're not even going to share it, but hide it and keep it from him....that's a bit mean, and you know it, because it feels sneaky. and when you eat it, you feel a little guilty, because something inside you keeps nagging at you....
And then your friend discovers you had an orange, and didn't share it with him - he feels hurt, and doesn't want to be your friend any more....
vippaka is what you do.
Karma is what happens as a result.
Emptiness/Dependent-arising.
Emptiness doesn't mean that there's nothing there.
What emptiness means is that everything you look at is actually made up of countless millions of other parts, and if you pull them all to bits - let's imagine that you could - the original thing you're looking at, wouldn't be there any more.
Let's look at a wooden chair.
It has four legs, a seat, and a backrest.
It's definitely a chair, look - you can sit on it....
now, take a screwdriver, and take out all the screws, holding it together.
Lay them all out.
It's not really a chair any more is it?
It's bits of shaped wood, you could make into a chair....
but what's that wood made of?
what IS wood?
It's a hard, fibrous material, that makes up the centre part - or trunk - of a tree.
Which tree?
well, maybe ash, or beech.....
and that tree once stood in a forest, and had branches and leaves....
and it was once a young tree, a sapling.... and before that, it was a seedling.....and before that, it was a seed....
so your chair is made from a seed.... which came from the seed-pod of another tree....
So that's emptiness. What we're looking at, doesn't actually exist, because there are so many other factors contributing to its existence, that you can actually break it down to nothing at all....
and dependent arising means that for the seed/seedling/sapling/tree to be a chair - first of all, you have to see it as a chair.
you have to know what a chair feels and looks like to name it a chair.
That chair, 'depends' on you for it to exist as the chair you're looking at.
If you're not looking at it - and you don't even know it's there, and you have no idea what it looks like - does it exist?
enlightenment has often been described as an 'Ahaaaah!' moment. That fleeting instant when you suddenly realise the answer to a puzzle that's been bugging you for ages.
Like a crossword puzzle, or even a jigsaw.... that second when all you can think about, is "oh, finally! I get it!" At that moment, your mind has absolutely no other thought in it but the 'ahaaaah! and the joy of accomplishing the ahaaaah!
the difference between that ahaaaah! moment, and real enlightenment, is that in real enlightenment, from that moment on, everything falls into place, and stuff that previously bothered you, nagged at you or got on your nerves, frustratingly - simply no longer does.
Rebirth can be expounded and explained in lots of different ways, but the simplest I have found, is the analogy of the candles.
Take a candle and light it.
Now take a second candle.
light it from the first one.
now blow the first flame out.
the second flame - is it the same flame as the one on the first candle - or is it a different flame?
some say re-birth is constantly happening.
That the 'you' today, is not the same as the 'you' from yesterday, and that the 'you' tomorrow won't be the 'you' that's here today.....
but you have to consider whether re-birth is something that's constantly happening, or something that will oly happen once, after you die.
the 'current' one is pretty provable.
the 'after you die' one - well, that's for you to consider.
But the important thing is not to be too concerned worrying about what will happen then, because otherwise you'll waste a lot of time when you could be enjoying your current days to the full.
sharing your orange, sitting comfortably in your chair.....
the implications?
How to apply them into your life?
oh no buddy. you have to do the work on that one......
with all the questions you've posted, and all the answers you've received, don't you think it's a little unfair to just tell someone to go read up elsewhere?
We could have done that with you countless times - but we answered your questions, didn't we?
See...I understand how Bekenze feels.
When I was new to buddhism, I needed small, bite-sized, simple, easy-to-digest chunks of information, spoon-fed to me bit by bit.
And some of us are like that.
Some of us need it simple.
Heck, I still do!
read the initial post, then respond accordingly.
Not everything can be answered with 'look this up' or 'check this out'!
Thanks for the response.
Karma just seems like, er... common knowledge, I suppose. Why would people, on other threads, claim that there is no scientific knowledge to back it up and its BS and so forth.
A good suggestion would be to have a look at some of his stuff and click on titles that interest you; then settle down with a cup of tea!
Many people, in spite of their disclaimers, think of karma as a universal law of justice. It's used to explain how bad people always get what they deserve in spite of evidence to the contrary. That's why past life karma and reincarnation is debated in Western Buddhism. If you believe karma means the punishment fits the crime, then karma means fate, really.
But if karma is a general actions have consequences rule, then we can nod our heads. Bad actions increase the chance of bad consequences for yourself and others. It is not fate, though. Reality is not an either-or structure, it's a "maybe-maybe not" sort of thing. There are people who literally get away with murder, you know. There are people whose power and position insulate them from direct consequences. But those examples are rare. At any rate, the debate comes in when people want to use karma to claim that even these people eventually will suffer for their crimes.
But your question is how to explain karma to the young?
Karma: Just stick to actions have consequences. If you go around hitting other kids, you're not going to have many friends and eventually some kid is going to hit back. Because you make fun of other kids, you don't get invited to their birthday party and have to sit at home while the friendly kids have fun. Your actions have consequences.
Dependent arising: If you get mad and hit someone, then they get mad and hit you back, and you throw a toy at him and it hits your friend who starts crying and the adult makes you sit in a corner and your friend isn't your friend anymore, all because you got mad and hit someone. Everything is connected.
Enlightenment: When you hug someone just because you like them, and they hug you back.
Rebirth: Every morning is a new beginning and we get to try our best all over again.
If you really want to understand such things, I suggest you practice.
If, on the other hand, you want an intellectual understanding, then read on.
http://www.satipanya.org.uk/index.php?page=audioLinks/foundation1
http://www.satipanya.org.uk/index.php?page=audioLinks/foundation2
THANK YOU @federica !!!!! :clap:
All the names for the things
All the thoughts for things
All the things about things
Even the words for things....the word itself...
Take all that away....that is the emptyness. You'll learn more about that later...
The Rebirth explanation...well...he told me that alot of people....monks, lay, householders,teachers, scholars....everyone has a view. They all had ways to explain this,....but start with this....what goes around, comes around. In more ways than one. You'll learn more about that later....
Enlightenment...That is what Buddha called being Awake. When you grow up...People walk around asleep....at the wheel, at the house, at the job....etc.
Promise Daddy that you will always practice being awake and listen to what the followers of Buddha said. It makes sense. The more awake you are...the more you ..."learn about that later".
The only reason why it is different from the scrap paper in the garbage is because you were already told it was "worth" something. This paper is different.
The same object got assigned different details.
You didnt assign them.
Your view of the paper did not arise.
It was told to you already.
Emptiness are the illusions that makes you not want to give those things up.
Enlightenment is to be able to see everything just the way it actually is.
Rebirth is what happens when things become almost the same thing again but in another time and place.
Simply that there are consequences of our actions. Everyone knows this of course, karma just takes it to RELIGIOUS heights of MEANING.
Emptiness/dependent-arising
Simply that everything is impermanent and interdependent.
Enlightenment
Simply that all ignorance has been eliminated, whatever that means...
Rebirth
Simply whatever comes after an ending, and there are a lot of endings because of impermanence.