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What is considered the most self-destructive in Buddhism?
santhisouk
Veteran
Conceit? Anger? Hatred? Greed? Addiction? Laziness? Ignorance? Something else?
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Comments
all of these things come and go just like we have night and day.
just accept them for what they are.
you're asserting in your question that there is a "self" to be destroyed.
i am asserting that there is no self being destroyed. how can anger destroy anything by itself? it's your belief in self and your belief in anger that gives the illusion of "self destruction".
all things come and go.
All the best,
Todd
so stop believing in i, my, me and then you won't have something to be destroyed or something that is destroying.
i suppose it is belief/assumption that is most destructive.
In the end its hard to rank them, but the question was 'most destructive', so I still think its anger.
In response to taiyaki's no self answer... if one is to step in front of a moving bus, perhaps there is no-self to get smacked, but that doesn't mean we stop teaching "look both ways". Context is important in relating to truth and teaching.
because i totally disagree with you and i would like to hear your opinion.
"If one, longing for sensual pleasure,
achieves it, yes,
he's enraptured at heart.
The mortal gets what he wants.
But if for that person
— longing, desiring —
the pleasures diminish,
he's shattered,
as if shot with an arrow.
Whoever avoids sensual desires
— as he would, with his foot,
the head of a snake —
goes beyond, mindful,
this attachment in the world.
A man who is greedy
for fields, land, gold,
cattle, horses,
servants, employees,
women, relatives,
many sensual pleasures,
is overpowered with weakness
and trampled by trouble,
for pain invades him
as water, a cracked boat.
So one, always mindful,
should avoid sensual desires.
Letting them go,
he'd cross over the flood
like one who, having bailed out the boat,
has reached the far shore."
--Kama Sutta
by reason of immoral behaviour, that some beings here, right at
the breakup of the body, after death, reappear lost in states of
pain, in an unhappy destination, in the downfall, even in the hells...
It is caused by behaviour in harmony with the Dhamma, by reason
of moral behaviour, that some beings here, on the breakup of the
body, right after death, reappear in a happy destination, even in
the divine worlds!!! And which, friends, are the 3 kinds of bodily
moral behaviour in harmony with the Dhamma?
Here someone, stops all killing of living beings, abstains from injuring
living beings; with rod & weapon laid aside, gentle and kind, such one
dwells sympathetic towards all living beings.
Avoiding the taking of what is not given, one refrains from stealing,
what is not freely given. One does not take by way of theft the wealth
and property of others, neither in the village nor in the forest.
Abandoning abuse of sensual pleasures, such one gives up misuse in
sensual pleasures. One does not have intercourse with partners, who
are protected by their mother, or father, or mother and father, or
brother, or sister, or relatives, who is married, betrothed to another,
who are protected by law, in prison, or who are engaged to other side.
That is how there are three kinds of bodily moral behaviour in harmony
with the Dhamma... Such is Right Action!"
If you have some hot coals and embers, and if you were to ask which one these will burn the most, you can't really say which one because to say that one is, is to say that the other ones are not as equally hot. They are all potentially destructive if not extinguished properly.
It leads from ignorance, suffering and negativity to clarity, happiness and peace.
Travel along the middle path is made by the practice of the noble eightfold path.
Your question no doubt does not refer to that though!
I am not sure why you are asking which is the most. Work on your coursest defilements first. Your big addictions. Your big anger and mean spirit and selfish.
Work with them in such a way that you see them clearly as what they are. You see that you are not a perfect person who has to 'get rid of' stuff. From your defiled emotion it is just shed snakes skin. You need not get entangled in those emotions. As you relax you perceive clearly and the wrong view is released which purifies.
Next something else. Next. Next?
But as noted, there is no "self" to "self-destruct", and anything in the human realm is another matter entirely.