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The Five Precepts and Pali Canon Questionare
Hello, just wondering if someone could please answer the following questions below for a school report I have to do on the impact of The Five Precepts and the Pali Canon on contemporary Australia. NOTE: your responses will be completely anonymous in the report. All that I'm after is a general response. Any additional information will be greatly appreciated.
-What does the Pali Canon mean to you?
-What significance does the Pali Canon have to you?<O:p</O:p
-What relevance does the Pali Canon have to you in everyday life?<O:p</O:p
-Where and when do you observe the Pali Canon in contemporary society?<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the Pali Canon? If so, what are they?<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the authority of the Pali Canon? If so, what are they? <O:p</O:p
-How do the teachings of the Five Precepts relate to your everyday life?<O:p</O:p
-What does the Pali Canon mean to you?
-What significance does the Pali Canon have to you?<O:p</O:p
-What relevance does the Pali Canon have to you in everyday life?<O:p</O:p
-Where and when do you observe the Pali Canon in contemporary society?<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the Pali Canon? If so, what are they?<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the authority of the Pali Canon? If so, what are they? <O:p</O:p
-How do the teachings of the Five Precepts relate to your everyday life?<O:p</O:p
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Comments
Your questions related to the Pali Canon seem a little odd to me. For example, I see no difference between question 1 and 2. Likewise, question 4 seems odd, given the Pali Canon is a compilation of scriptures. Could you elaborate on your understanding of what the Pali Canon is, and what specifically you're asking for those questions?
Hope that helps...
The Pali Canon is comprised of three baskets or pitaka. The Sutta Pitaka means everything to me. The Vinayan Pitaka is irrelevent because it is for monks. The Abhidhamma Pitaka is mostly superstitious & intellectual non-sense & philosophy.
-What significance does the Pali Canon have to you?
The greatest significance. Whilst not all of the Sutta Pitaka is translated accurately, here one will find the perfectly spoken teachings of the Buddha himself. Even if one has alot of spiritual awakening, without comprehending the Sutta Pitaka in all of its aspects, one's awakening will be incomplete.
<O:p</O:p
-What relevance does the Pali Canon have to you in everyday life?
The Sutta Pitaka has alot of relevence. Even for a layperson, discourses such as the Sigalovada Sutta, Anana Sutta, Samajivina Sutta, Upajjhatthana Sutta and Metta Sutta have a lot of revelence.
<O:p</O:p
-Where and when do you observe the Pali Canon in contemporary society?
In one's skilful actions and in the skilful actions of society. If you carefully read the suttas above, if you are wise, you will realise their relevence & practise. The Buddha taught Natural Truth or Natural Law so many human beings have realised some of the Buddha's realisations without any exposure to Buddhism.
Even later teachers like Jesus, whilst believing in God, taught the same as Buddha about unconditional love & non-violence.
<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the Pali Canon? If so, what are they?
In the recent past, the Pali Canon was generally unavailable to most Buddhists. But in recent years, the greatest change has been its availability in an affordable & easy to read form.
<O:p</O:p
-Have there been any changes in the way you perceive the authority of the Pali Canon? If so, what are they?
In view of my previous answer, your question is backwards. The recent availability Pali Canon changes the authority of traditional Buddhism, in the same way the printing of the Bible changed the authority of the Catholic Church. Authority is found in the Sutta Pitaka rather than diminished. How ironical to infer a person such as you or me could exercise authority over the well-recorded words of the Lord Buddha himself.
<O:p</O:p
-How do the teachings of the Five Precepts relate to your everyday life?
The five precepts are the foundation of Buddhist spiritual life in that they nurture non-harming. Without being established in non-harming, one cannot venture far on the path of meditation, namely, concentration & insight.
When one does not abide in the five precepts (guided by wisdom), one's mind will not be free of afflictive & tormenting emotions, such as sensual desire, ill-will, sloth, restlessness, remorse, doubt & fear.
In such as state, a mind cannot find concentration & spiritual bliss.
<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p
In terms of the fifth question, I apologise for my lack of elaboration. This question is merely asking whether or not you have different viewpoints of the text, now that technology is increasing at a rapid level, and global availability is now increased. I can understand your reply in terms of the availability and affordability.
<O:pThank you for your help aswell, as I am only just starting this project (hence the perhaps lack of knowledge and badly worded questions), your insight has helped me greatly.</O:p
The Sutta Pitaka is very systematic & repetitive in how it was spoken by the Buddha. It is very difficult to alter the actual meaning because the language used in writing down the Sutta Pitaka was developed as a specialist technical language that could not be altered.
If one reads the new (mostly) accurate translations of the Sutta Pitaka, one will often find the Buddha's recorded words contradicting the commentaries of the translator.
This is because over time, the human understanding of Buddhism has changed, to the point where even the devoted translators understand differently to the words they are translating.
Bizzare but true. :crazy:
That is perhaps exactly what I was after. What you said makes much more sense and I have no idea why I didn't think of that before.
In contemporary society, the government, social & workplace laws are essentially the same. Our contempory society has laws against discrimination.
What about in terms of the Five Precepts?
Is there anything in society that you think would challenge these teachings, or make them less important? Or is it the same case whereby modern laws have over ruled the teachings?
:cool:
That said, of course our current society has many things that make the five precepts more difficult to follow for society in general, especially in regards to refraining from sexual misconduct, false speech & intoxicants.
Regarding killing & stealing, strong laws and social security (in Australia) make the first & second precepts easier to follow. Due to a strong system of social security (like Centrelink), there is probably less crime & theft in Australia than in other countries (like the USA).
={D
Similary, whilst providing many wonderful benefits, birth control often leads to human beings practising sexual misconduct. This also allows sexual extremes like pornography. These together cause confusion & suffering to people and lead to greater consumption of drugs & alcohol due to broken hearts & emotional wounds & all round craziness.
Whilst, birth control positively allows men & women to develop a warmer & more intimate love between one another and allows women to control having too many burdensome pregnancies, it also gives rise to alot of challenges & distractions.
Sometimes we telephone a call centre, say Telstra, and the poor girl or boy working must tell a lie so they can earn a living. It is sad some times.
I am not blaming them. For example, in our society people can buy as many investment properties as they wish. This causes real estate prices to escalate and the average boy & girl struggle to earn a living.
This causes family & relationship pressures. Many people separate or divorce due to economic pressures.
For example, young people listen to very adversial or egotistical rap music. These leads to alot of young people beating eachother up, as we sometimes read in the newpaper.
But a moderate sensuality & materialism is good for society. When people struggled to makes ends meet in the past, struggling to put food on the table, they also beat eachother up.
The Buddha taught the Middle Way. Not too little, not too much, not too cold, not too hot.
:buck:
Having had a lot of experience of working with teenagers, I personally I don't see the connection between rap music and young people beating each other up. Even in Shakespeare's time there were rival teenage gangs beating each other up, as popularised in 'Romeo and Juliet '.
When rock n'roll became popular in the UK, Teddy Boy gangs beat each other up with chains and knives. Later there were warring Mods and Rockers (with their favorite music), then Hippies and Bikers with various kinds of hippie music including 'Heavy Metal', then Punks (music of Sex Pistols, Clash) and Skinheads (who were always fighting) and their music and so on and so forth up to the present day.
In fact, although not a young person, I like some rap music myself - and beating people up is very far from my mind ! Anyway, I just wanted to make that point about not necessarily directly connecting music with violence.
.
I will take you left hook on the chin as deserved.
:buck:
Well spoken DD, I'm left handed !
Tell you what, if you give me your teddies, I'll give you a kiss on the chin instead !