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Fallibility and Dhamma
Dhammika
Veteran
For many years, I studied and practiced and thought I understood. But then I broke some of the precepts through heedlessness and hurt others and myself. I realized I was not really heeding the heart of the Buddhadhamma. So I''ve recently taken the 8 Lifetime Precepts at the Therevadan monastery I go to and am redoubling my efforts. How do we work with our fallibility and and unwholesome errors in life without being dragged down by them? I suppose we must vow to begin anew in the present moment. Any kindred experiences of working with one's fallibility are welcome.
3
Comments
I think you need to accept your fallibility and forgive yourself for your failings. Self-recrimination will only increase your suffering and hinder the path forward. I've found that greater discipline comes from accepting my own failings and working with them, rather than trying to repress them through sheer force of will.
I have a Buddhist practice, not a Buddhist perfect.
I heard a Zen story comparing keeping precepts to keeping a glass clean.
Dust settles, keep polishing.
Imagine saintly wisdom and perfectness = dharma douchebag.
Welcome to the Real World.
Morpheus
[oops failed again] ... Isn't 'right on' part of the eightfold path ...
Well, not saintly for me, but determined to keep trying and finding can progress along path that way.
@Dhammika
Great expectation often come unstuck...It is best to chip away at ones conditioning little by little...
The 10% Advantage Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
"It may indeed be foolish to preach to a man of ordinary mind that there is neither good nor evil that all his actions are unimportant in as much as he is not the author of them because he is moved by causes whose varying origins are lost in the inscrutable night of eternity." There is no you to take the blame or credit for anything.
Forgive yourself first. You are human. We all are.
Most important for me and most helpful for me is to: feel the emotion and drop the story line. Pema Chodron advises that and it's so incredibly helpful to me. Let the story line go. The emotions only last 90 seconds.... this has been shown scientifically. What drags it around are our thoughts about it and our perseverating about it.
welcome @lonehornrhino and hello, @ele.
Just to let you both know, this thread is 2 years old.
I suspect the OP has somewhat moved on since.
Emotionally, if not physically.
Fortunately, the member is still metaphorically 'live and kicking'!
Revival of old threads is fraught with uncertainty.
Look for newer threads to be sure of a cogent response from the OP, who may or may not still be active....
Eh, that sounds timeless.
@federica. I keep seeing the same threads over and over every day. Don't know what's up w that.
@ele, The threads you see are the current ones with daily discussion. Gradually, as people choose new topics, and bring up new subjects, they evolve, change and fall away.
But the same threads over and over, every day, are there because they're added to by members continuing the dialogue.
So they have new comments, even though they appear the same.
Nothing is ever the same, everything changes.
That would be newbuddhistanicca - or ...
We need to keep working on ourselves as people over and over and over. The mind is a funny thing, we need to make something a habit before it becomes second nature. You're probably not a bad person in general, you simply made bad decisions through ignorance, greed or some other afflictive emotion like we all have done. If you keep in mind where you want to be in the near future as a person from a spiritual point of view, keep reaffirming that way of life to yourself daily, seeing the reward of being virtuous and so forth, it will become second nature.
Perhaps you have heard the story of Sith master and bad boy yogi Milarepa ...
http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Av/Milarepa/Milarepa.htm