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What to do with worn out or damaged Dhamma books?
bookworm
U.S.A. Veteran
I own one Dhamma book with suttas in it, and its in very good condition but I was wondering what can you do if you have Dhamma books that have been worn out or damaged? Is there anything in Theravada or Mahayana that knows how to handle a situation like that?
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Comments
Give them away! Find somewhere to post locally that people can come pick them up (like Craigslist), or put them on eBay for a penny (or free if that's possible) and only charge for shipping. Maybe there are used book stores or charities that would like them. There are plenty of things you can do if you don't want books any more... anything but throwing them away, which would be useless.
Obviously throwing it out is out of the question.
Might I suggest prisons? Most prisons have a book drop off box though a call to the chaplain would explain all the options.
@yagr Seconded! That's actually a great idea.
I gave some books I could no longer keep, to my Library. They fair near bit my arm off. Donated books, in good condition, are worth their weight in gold, not only because it extends their reference section positively, but also because encouraging people to actually take a book, open it and read it, is something being pushed with much effort, certainly here in the UK. Books are a godsend (pardon the irony) to a library.
I finished reading mine and i decided i need to stop reading and do more practice, i think i'll just write down the Magga Vibhanga Sutta on paper because i still haven't memorized it yet, and its really all i need and i'll just donate my book to my local library.
Thank you federica, thats a great idea just now it was what i was just thinking about doing before i read your comment.
My local library it is.
Thank you everyone.
If they are worn or damaged beyond use, the traditional thing in most Buddhist cultures is to bury them, burn them or throw them into the river or sea..
Its not to bin them.
Just for info.
Is this a trig question? Spontaneous answer is repair them? Give them away?
.
... or throw them away. Cittas suggestions were good.
/Victor
Kia Ora,
Worn out Dharma books have served their purpose, so wouldn't it be more beneficial for our environment to put them in the 'paper' recycling ? (So they can be reborn so to speak)
When I think of the op's question the first thing that comes to mind is emotional attachment...But that's just me....
I should point out, Dharma books in use, (still serving a beneficial purpose) I treat them in a respectful way....
Metta Shoshin .
..
It is just a paper. Give it to some one or just throw away. Don' t make too much big deal about it.
Imagine them going back to emptiness rather than thrown in the trash or wasted. I like all the suggestions I just thought it would be cool to send them back to emptiness. Form is emptiness! I am making deductive reasoning http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php from something I read about snuffing candles rather than blowing them out.
Shredded books are delicious to zen snails. Finally shredded they make bedding for Lhamas and stuffing for cushions. Recycled they make impermanent biodegradable paper mâché Buddha statues . . . :buck: .
We actually composted at least five hundred, maybe more, books. Hardback and paperback, and every single one of them extremely outdated science books
hoardedcollected by a friend who passed away. These were the books NO ONE wanted after weeks of free hand outs and all that.It took three years for them to decompose, buried beneath a thin layer of soil, and shat upon by every variety of farm animal, including pigs, and rained upon (very rainy and moist here) out in the barnyard. There is still a wayward page flapping here in there. I have been tempted to use them like an Angel card but I'm not imaginative enough.
My idea was to burn them, but indeed I lost the decision to my exhuberantly green adult children.
@Hamsaka
Wut?
I'm just kidding Hamsaka, and i'm sorry for your friend, you're right i think burning badly worn out Dharma books would be the best thing to do. I read somewhere in Vajrayāna that they read each page and say a chant before burning them.
@Hamsaka I was fascinated. What books did you burry? I am studying to tutor organic chemistry. So I perked up when you said science books. What did your friend study? Is an angel card like the christmas angel tree? That's, as I understand, where you find the wishes of a needy person and give them a gift.
@Jeffrey, he worked for the Dept of Natural Resources for my state as a geologist, but he was a lifelong armchair paleontology and fossil freak; there were human bones in his house we had to turn over to a Native American tribe who almost sued the estate, a fossil of the common ancestor of ducks and geese (which he should NOT have had), several pure nickel meteorites -- all returned to the proper authorities or dispensed according to his will (what a touchy thing that all was). The books ranged on all subjects geology and various subjects he was interested in. He loved geese like I do so I have two first edition books by Konrad Lorenz which are treasured. All that could be sold or donated, were; then we had a free book yard 'sale' and finally had to cope with what was left over. These were either so outdated or irrelevant to modern study that becoming compost (ssssllllllooooooooowwwwwwlyyyyy) was a good end for them.
As for the Angel cards, that was a joke; Angel Cards are a New Age gimmick, little cards in a deck with inspirational sayings on each one. The idea is you pick one at random each day and contemplate it. There are now and then loose pages of the composted books that just turn up out of 'nowhere' and my joke was that what was on the page was jokingly meaningful. Heck, maybe they were.
One thing I did not have to deal with was the consequences of his fascination with taxidermy. It also was a life long hobby, and since he died unexpectedly in his home, there were bins of dead critters soaking in preservative and frozen ones awaiting his . . . ministrations. Not good memories.
Hi, Hamsaka, so interesting. I like things like the deck of New Age things. I would have been right on it.
What a career, We have a moose at my dad's cottage hehe. Adds personality.
I luvs mousse :buck: .
If Pope Francis changes the Eucharist to mousse, I will be compelled by Christ to throw out all my dharma books . . .
Moose
.
Try covering one of those in chocolate.....
Well, have you ever seen a moose taking a mud bath? They can swim too.
I know. Both facts.
But covering them in chocolate would still be a challenge. Particularly if you're using milk chocolate and they have a penchant for plain.
Mud can LOOK like chocolate.
.
I can't believe we're having this discussion. I blame lobster.
Well, mooses are in nature -- @Jeffrey mentioned his father had a moose at his cottage. Blame @lobster and @Jeffery if you must, but I think lobster was joking or did not know what a North American moose was. that left me no option, I had to play Straight_Man.
.
Trust me. @lobster was joking.....
But that let me joke, in my own way.
Here is a good web cartoon, the oatmeal. http://theoatmeal.com/comics
I was trying to think o fa joke and the mousse just stared at me with a little face, see the mouth and eyes? Sorry to derail the thread
^^^ The mousse is real! :clap: .
My apologies for derailment. Here are some more ideas:
I stumbled upon this quote a moment ago and thought of this thread.
"Read a hundred books, listen to a hundred dhamma talks, see a hundred meritorious deeds done and you've accomplished nothing. Go blind, go deaf, put down the books and do. Toss the holiest of books in the dying embers of the shivering miscreant's fire and find truth."
There is this story of student in Tibet. He was very fond of his books and would take a load of them with him where ever he went. Finally after many years of study his master sent him away for a retreat in a far away cave. So he took his books with him and arrived at sunset on a very cold day only to discover somebody (wonder who?) had removed all the firewood from the habitat. So to survive the night he was forced to burn his books...
/Victor
@Victorious Now I am teh sad.
Doubtless he contemplated this:
I leave books that I no longer want on park benches and in railway stations so that others may, serendipitously, come across them and, hopefully, enjoy/profit.
In a hotel room next to the bible? Good idea! Ha!
Or how about leaving them in churches?
Leave them some place where you can be reasonably confident they will be picked up by someone who would LIKE to possibly read them, rather than being kicked around and mistreated....
A Little book I chanced to seen.
Carlyle's Essay on Burns was the edition -
....I left it lying in the same position.
>
Kia Ora,
Tis said that when it comes to understanding Buddhism, meditation is the key, more so than just reading books about it...So a possible solution could be to make the old worn out or damaged books into a seat for meditation, that way they are being put to good use-still serving a beneficial purpose, perhaps even more so than before...
Just a thought....
Metta Shoshin .
..
I left the Satipatthana Sutta on a train recently, but not intentionally. Oh, the irony of this lapse of mindfulness! But maybe somebody will benefit from reading it.
Your books are a short-cut to enlightenment. What better way....?!