Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
There is no Buddhist behaviour.
Citta
Veteran
Oh, there are the precepts which tell us what NOT to do, and even they need interpreting, and are training rules rather than commandments.
But there is no Buddhist position on most issues. Take something contentious like abortion. There are sincere, practising Buddhists on both sides of the argument.
Likewise with capital punishment. One of the pioneers in disseminating Buddhism to the west was a judge who passed the death sentence a number of times.
On western Buddhist websites there appears to be a preponderance of leftist view however in the wider non cyber world this is not the case.
Perhaps part of the problem is the fact that we call the teachings of the Buddha ..BuddhISM..we have made an ism of it. We have made " ists" of Dharma followers.
That ism and that ist are modern constructs..In the language of the ancients there was the Buddhadharma..The Buddha's Dharma.
Which led to Awakening..if society benefited then that was good.
But meat eaters, the wealthy, murderers, alcoholics, prostitutes and drug addicts number among the Awakened..
Not of course BECAUSE they were wealthy. murderers, etc..in fact they could be said to have stacked the odds against themselves.
Awakening cannot be earned by virtue..although vice may delay it.
Awakening happens by realising our original nature, and that happens by seeing things as they are.
But there is no Buddhist position on most issues. Take something contentious like abortion. There are sincere, practising Buddhists on both sides of the argument.
Likewise with capital punishment. One of the pioneers in disseminating Buddhism to the west was a judge who passed the death sentence a number of times.
On western Buddhist websites there appears to be a preponderance of leftist view however in the wider non cyber world this is not the case.
Perhaps part of the problem is the fact that we call the teachings of the Buddha ..BuddhISM..we have made an ism of it. We have made " ists" of Dharma followers.
That ism and that ist are modern constructs..In the language of the ancients there was the Buddhadharma..The Buddha's Dharma.
Which led to Awakening..if society benefited then that was good.
But meat eaters, the wealthy, murderers, alcoholics, prostitutes and drug addicts number among the Awakened..
Not of course BECAUSE they were wealthy. murderers, etc..in fact they could be said to have stacked the odds against themselves.
Awakening cannot be earned by virtue..although vice may delay it.
Awakening happens by realising our original nature, and that happens by seeing things as they are.
3
Comments
Good thread and i hope my brief comment helps al the best
What do you call the 8Fold Path, but a series of signposts on the best way 'to go'...?
"Buddhism " is a series of social and cultural constructs that partially correspond to Buddhadharma .
That at least is the Dzogchen view.
Buddhism is founded on the Dharma. Therefore,the Dharmic behaviour IS Buddhist behaviour. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what on earth you're talking about here.....
It's not clear to me exactly what the problem is. Can you clarify what the problem is? "ism and ist" may merely be modern semantics.
Of course it doesn't need to be said that we don't judge and condemn people for that or anything. This is why following the path is amazing because it isn't dogmatic and full of guilt and punishment. We want to do skillful and beneficial things because we see through our own experience that this is the way this is the way to go, and when we screw up, we take it as a lesson and work to be better next time.
:om:
We spent time talking about her situation, which like most was complex and there were many different ways of looking at how to make decisions regarding the best way forward and I saw this as being the Buddhist thing to do in this situation.