Everyone is so stupid
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I don't mean everyone is stupid and I am clever. Stupid people include me because I am not enlightened yet. In fact I wrote this partly to myself as a reminder. But just to share some of the things my dharma teacher said.. I recall from memory so many things will not be accurate.
Every lifetime we are the same person in the movie, but the characters revolving around us are constantly changing. Different story, same main character. Who asked you to come into this life? Nobody, you came here yourself. Since you came here, you should be willing to accept our life as it is. If you suffer, then it is 'huo2 gai1'.. What's worse, we are so ignorant. We are so caught up in relationships. When we are born, our parents soon teach us to call 'pa pa', 'ma ma', 'ge ge'. Then we plant the seed of name and forms of our parents in our consciousness and become deeply attached, and the next time we recognise 'pa pa', 'ma ma', 'ge ge' and so on. Then later our parents pass away, we become extremely sad because the form of our parents has passed away. The same goes to all the other people and the things we are attached on. All these are due to our ignorance and attachment to names and forms.
Some people may say, isn't that 'lack of feelings'? But do you know the person you love today, you will not recognise or remember him in your next life? You will simply walk pass each other without even recognising each other. You will be caught up in another cycle, another story, another drama with the same main character (you) but different people revolving around you. If you could remember your past lives, you will find it an extremely boring show. It is like a never ending drama. But each time a new chapter starts we completely forgot the last one. Nothing could be more boring as repeating the cycles of rebirth again and again. Yet people are still so caught up in them. If people persist in their old ways, they will be bound to continue to be trapped in the miseries of life and the sufferings of samsara. The enlightened person is different, he is free from the miseries of samsara and can even access your past lives. He will know which realm another person comes from the last life. They will know what are the conditions and affinity you had with them and will be able to help that person be liberated.
Therefore I think we all should practise the ways of Bodhisattva. Their love is not the limited sentient love based on their own personal feelings and attachments but the great unconditional love for all. -
(part 2)
Many of us have excuses, and continue to have excuses for not practising the dharma. For example when someone asks us to start learning the buddhadharma and practising, we may say, no, I am so busy now and I have to take care of my children who are very young. Then when the children have grown a little older you say, now I have to take care of my children because they are having exams. After the children graduated and finished their education, you say, I don't have time now.. I'm preparing for my children's marraige, they are in a relationship now and are going to be married soon. Then after the children got married, they tell us "I think now is the time.... your children have already finished their education and are happily married, you should be free". But we may say.. "No, now I am even busier than ever, my children has given birth to many grand-children and I have to take care of them"
Then what? Your life has about to reach an end and there is no more time for you to practise anymore. No more hope
This is all full of stupid excuses. Whatever we are doing, there is absolutely no excuse for us not to learn the dharma and practise. Buddhist practice is also not merely chanting or meditation although we should try our best to find time for that. But essentially, the dharma is not separate from our daily lives.
And we really have to practise now because if not now, we never will. And we may not even live to see another day.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma
see no Dharma in everyday actions.
They have not yet discovered that
there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.
Dogen
Meanwhile, of course, we must continue to engage in what is necessary in life, and practise the dharma in the midst of living. But just do not become lost in material pursuits.Life Is Uncertain
One day, Buddha questioned a number of his students,
"How long can a human life be certain?"
One of the students answered, "For a few days."
Buddha replied, "No, you have not yet understood life."
Buddha then repeated,
"How long can a human life be certain?"
Another student answered, "For a meal."
Again, Buddha replied, "No, you have not understood life either."
Buddha repeated one third time,
"How long can a human life be certain?"
A third student answered, "Only for a breath."
Buddha praised, "Great! You've started to understand life."[/quote]
Seriously ponder, would anything you do or think, or your worries and problems, matter at all a century from now? Life is only at most a few decades. Don't waste it and regret at the last moment. Life and death is an important matter. If you are not liberated now, don't expect to be liberated at death. The chances are much harder. Know what is priority, those that you can bring to the next life are priority, not those that only last a few decades.
[quote]Originally posted by An Eternal Now:"To find a buddha, all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the buddha. And the buddha is the person who's free, free of plans, free of cares. If you don't see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you'll never find a buddha. The truth is there's nothing to find. Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. Even if you have mountains of jewels and as many servants as there are grains of sand along the Ganges, you see them when your eyes are open. But what about when your eyes are shut? You should realize that everything you see is like a dream or illusion."
--Bodhidharma
In reality there are only 4 things that can be brought over to the next life. They are Wisdom, Blessings (fu2 de2), Cause and Conditions (yin1 yuan2), and Karmic Strength. Therefore to cultivate Zhi4 (Wisdom), Fu (Blessings), Yin Yuan (cause and conditions) is most important.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not
emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause
suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions
and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with
a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected. (50)
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
More info, see: http://www.humanbliss.com.sg/knowledge_article_details.asp?articleNo=14
Click on 'Xia Zai' (download), and read from page 10 to 24. -
you practise buddhism seriously.
can you really kan de kai?
i ask this because i am very kan bu kai de ren. i have a lot of anger in me. -
I am also not liberated, but as one gains strength in practise, this becomes increasingly easier. One will also begin to see the illusoriness, dream-like and transiency of worldly phenomena.Originally posted by dragg:you practise buddhism seriously.
can you really kan de kai?
i ask this because i am very kan bu kai de ren. i have a lot of anger in me.
When one becomes angry.. observe the anger without labeling. You do not have to deny the anger, but observe. Just observe it like you observe any other things, without reacting or analysing the content of the anger.When you fully experience any negative emotion, with no story, it instantaneously ceases to be. If you think you are fully experiencing an emotion and it remains quite intense, then recognize that there is still some story being told about it - how bit it is, how you will never be able to get rid of it, how it will always come back, how dangerous it is to experience it. Whatever the story of the moment may be, the possibilities of postponing direct experience are endless.
For instance, when you are irritated, the usual tendency is to do something to get rid of the irritation or to place blame either on yourself or someone or something else as the cause of irritation. Then the storylines around the irritation begin to develop. It is actually possible to do nothing with the irritation, to not push it out of awareness or try to get rid of it, but to directly experience it. In the moment that irritation arises, it is possible to simply be completely, totally, and freely irritated, without expressing it or repressing it. ~ GangajiOne of the most common expressions of violence is anger. When my wife or sister is attacked I say I am righteously angry; when my country is attacked, my ideas, my principles, my way of life, I am righteously angry. I am also angry when my habits are attacked or my petty little opinions. When you tread on my toes or insult me I get angry, or if you run away with my wife and I get jealous, that jealousy is called righteous because she is my property. And all this anger is morally justified. But to kill for my country is also justified. So when we are talking about anger, which is a part of violence, do we look at anger in terms of righteous and unrighteous anger according to our own inclinations and environmental drive, or do we see only anger? Is there righteous anger ever? Or is there only anger? There is no good influence or bad influence, only influence, but when you are influenced by something which doesn't suit me I call it an evil influence.
The moment you protect your family, your country, a bit of coloured rag called a flag, a belief, an idea, a dogma, the thing that you demand or that you hold, that very protection indicates anger. So can you look at anger without any explanation or justification, without saying, `I must protect my goods', or `I was right to be angry', or `How stupid of me to be angry'? Can you look at anger as if it were something by itself? Can you look at it completely objectively, which means neither defending it nor condemning it? Can you?
Can I look at you if I am antagonistic to you or if I am thinking what a marvellous person you are? I can see you only when I look at you with a certain care in which neither of these things is involved. Now, can I look at anger in the same way, which means that I am vulnerable to the problem, I do not resist it, I am watching this extraordinary phenomenon without any reaction to it?
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To investigate the fact of your own anger you must pass no judgement on it, for the moment you conceive of its opposite you condemn it and therefore you cannot see it as it is. When you say you dislike or hate someone that is a fact, although it sounds terrible. If you look at it, go into it completely, it ceases, but if you say, `I must not hate; I must have love in my heart', then you are living in a hypocritical world with double standards. To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation or justification - then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it. When you see clearly the problem is solved. ~ J.Krishnamurti -
I don't know how can someone be fully enlightened when s/he still cares about his or her past and present karma.
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read The Power of Now, and A New Earth (i read them in that sequence)Originally posted by dragg:you practise buddhism seriously.
can you really kan de kai?
i ask this because i am very kan bu kai de ren. i have a lot of anger in me. -
The Bodhisattva only cares about the karmic Causes, they are careful to plant the right seeds in their and other sentient beings' consciousness.Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:I don't know how can someone be fully enlightened when s/he still cares about his or her past and present karma.
They are completely not affected by whatever karmic outcomes that are surfacing in their life and causing pain.
Therefore there's a saying, 'Pu Sa Wei Yin (cause), Zhong Shen Wei Guo3 (effect)' or something like that.
'Wei Yin' is wisdom, 'Wei Guo' is attachment. -
By the way, regarding anger, I have posted something about that previouslyOriginally posted by An Eternal Now:
Awareness without analysisOriginally posted by An Eternal Now:A year back... a topic on endurance.
[17:14] sigh im like all set up for practising the virtue called patience
[17:15] patience for what?
[17:15] everything
[17:16] like dun wan to pracitse also cannot
[17:16] u ever heard of teacher chen's quote?
[17:16] "Wu Ren Ke Ren"
[17:16] that is called transcendant endurance
[17:16] ya
[17:17]
[17:17] zen, wots the 'ren' tht beginners can do?
[17:18] suffer
[17:18] wrong
[17:18] observe
[17:18] ?
[17:19] yes. observation. but without other unnecessary thoughts
[17:19] what for u wanna observe?
[17:19] i was taught to observe, aware but not analysis
[17:20] this way one can be more happy and patient
[17:21] that because u analaysis
[17:21] human have 2 kinds of attachment
[17:22] one is pleasure
[17:22] the other one is more stupid is displeasure
[17:22] why does observation and awareness without analysis bring about joy and patience?
[17:22] everyday chant wang shen zhou
[17:22] Thusness: because this way we realise things truely are, mind will be more calm
[17:23] brandcs: namo coca cola
[17:23] u fuuck off cheebye
[17:23] * CBBot sets mode: +b *!*@bb220-255-247-245.singnet.com.sg
[17:23] * brandcs was kicked by CBBot (Bad words not allowed on this channel)
[17:23] there patient
[17:23] * ZeN`n1th sets mode: -b *!*@bb220-255-247-245.singnet.com.sg
[17:23] patience of buddhist -
yeah i was nub and back then my thoughts of sorrows flooded my mind (i thought my head was growing more and more crooked, and i thought i was losing my youth and still didnt have sex when 12 year olds these days are petting around already), then i read eckhart tolle's books and broke my volley of thoughts a little at first then i continued observing and now even today when telling the teacher i have done nothing to contribute to the project in front of the class i didnt feel a bit of anxiety or worry.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
and even though AEN and his dharma center were telling me the same thing as Eckhart Tolle wrote in his book but i didnt respond to them. i guess it is the very concise words used by Eckhart Tolle that was the cause.
and by "patience" in that irc chat probably meant waiting for someone to come and do something about my head. oh ya and i had a crappy computer (my older cousin helped me buy it) that wouldnt let me do anything except play neopets and surf message boards (where i came upon christian vs atheist discussion boards and the atheists won most of the time and i learned that reading every word carefully and backing up everything you say is very important) and go IRC (where i was polluted into thinking dirty) and i wanted a better pc because every normal kid in sg was playing WC3 but i didnt like to go out plus didnt know much about computers so didnt buy a new comp.
BTW i also take psychological medicine. maybe it is just the medicine at work. -
My opinion is that it's easy to put all in theory, but when it comes to putting in practice in our daily life, we are very much at the mercy of our "attachment". Why I said so? Maybe to use one exampled listed by AEN. We formed attachment towards our parents, our siblings friends and so on. When they eventually pass on, no body in this present era will not feel the effect of that attachment when they have to send the body of their love ones to the crematorium. Some will show their emotions, some won't . But those who won't doesn't necessary means that they have learnt how to let go.
I have friends who have love ones battling against cancer, and some of them are walking towards the end of their lifespan. While watching their love ones wilther away, it's not hard to feel the effect of Bu She De.
The real test is not when one explicitely spell out in theory, rather, when the actual incident happens. So if you thought you have attained that, think again. Cos when the time comes, can you really let go? -
i felt worse when my grandmother was being tortured by cancer. I was kinda glad when she finally died when i was 11. i didnt feel anything when she was sent for burning because she was already dead so she wont feel the pain of the burning and i wasnt planning to hug her corpse to sleep every night.Originally posted by path_seeker:My opinion is that it's easy to put all in theory, but when it comes to putting in practice in our daily life, we are very much at the mercy of our "attachment". Why I said so? Maybe to use one exampled listed by AEN. We formed attachment towards our parents, our siblings friends and so on. When they eventually pass on, no body in this present era will not feel the effect of that attachment when they have to send the body of their love ones to the crematorium. Some will show their emotions, some won't . But those who won't doesn't necessary means that they have learnt how to let go.
I have friends who have love ones battling against cancer, and some of them are walking towards the end of their lifespan. While watching their love ones wilther away, it's not hard to feel the effect of Bu She De.
The real test is not when one explicitely spell out in theory, rather, when the actual incident happens. So if you thought you have attained that, think again. Cos when the time comes, can you really let go? -
Master Hsuan Hua on Stupidity Versus Wisdom
Stupid people don't realize the severity of cause-and-effect and so they casually commit errors in cause-and-effect even to the point where they do not believe in cause-and-effect and argue that there is no such thing as cause-and-effect. People who possess a measure of wisdom realize the severity of the retributional response involved in cause-and-effect. And so they are fearful about making errors in cause-and-effect. No matter what endeavor one is about to do, "Contemplate it thrice and then proceed."
The ancients said, "The errors of the superior man are like an eclipse of the sun or moon. Everyone sees them. If he immediately changes them, then people all look up to him." When a superior man has committed a transgression, it's just the same as when there is an eclipse of sun or an eclipse of the moon. Everybody is able to see it. If he is able to immediately change it then everyone will respect him and look up to him with admiration.
As for intelligent people, when they have committed a transgression, they are certain to change their ways. As for stupid people, when they have committed a transgression, they do not change their ways. -
Stupid is a point of view
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Stupid (ignorance) is not a point of view, it is clinging to what is by nature illusory. And all worldly phenomena is by nature Maya-like, illusory, like a dream.Originally posted by maggot:Stupid is a point of view "All composed things are like a dream,
a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.
That is how to meditate on them,
that is how to observe them."
~ Diamond Sutra -
Still don't get it.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:The Bodhisattva only cares about the karmic Causes, they are careful to plant the right seeds in their and other sentient beings' consciousness.
They are completely not affected by whatever karmic outcomes that are surfacing in their life and causing pain.
Therefore there's a saying, 'Pu Sa Wei Yin (cause), Zhong Shen Wei Guo3 (effect)' or something like that.
'Wei Yin' is wisdom, 'Wei Guo' is attachment. -
i think he means that labeling others as "stupid" is also another point of viewOriginally posted by An Eternal Now: -
Are you insinuating that our government is stupid becoz they resist change ?Originally posted by geforce:Master Hsuan Hua on Stupidity Versus Wisdom
Stupid people don't realize the severity of cause-and-effect and so they casually commit errors in cause-and-effect even to the point where they do not believe in cause-and-effect and argue that there is no such thing as cause-and-effect. People who possess a measure of wisdom realize the severity of the retributional response involved in cause-and-effect. And so they are fearful about making errors in cause-and-effect. No matter what endeavor one is about to do, "Contemplate it thrice and then proceed."
The ancients said, "The errors of the superior man are like an eclipse of the sun or moon. Everyone sees them. If he immediately changes them, then people all look up to him." When a superior man has committed a transgression, it's just the same as when there is an eclipse of sun or an eclipse of the moon. Everybody is able to see it. If he is able to immediately change it then everyone will respect him and look up to him with admiration.
As for intelligent people, when they have committed a transgression, they are certain to change their ways. As for stupid people, when they have committed a transgression, they do not change their ways.
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but then buddha can explain things in different levels for everyone. to guide some of us he has to speak in the relative level once in a while.Originally posted by Cenarious:i think he means that labeling others as "stupid" is also another point of view -
What do you not understand? Just to summarise what i said: bodhisattvas use their wisdom to plant pure and virtuous karmic seeds in themselves and others. But they are not attached to whatever karmic outcomes and effects that appear in their lives.Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:Still don't get it. -
yeah, and high level bodhisatvas purposely postpone their buddhahood to stay in samsara until their vows are completed.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:What do you not understand? Just to summarise what i said: bodhisattvas use their wisdom to plant pure and virtuous karmic seeds in themselves and others. But they are not attached to whatever karmic outcomes and effects that appear in their lives. -
I don't believe in agruingOriginally posted by An Eternal Now:"All composed things are like a dream,
a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.
That is how to meditate on them,
that is how to observe them."
~ Diamond Sutra I believe in realising it yourself
My copies of the Diamond Sutra don't have the following lines:
"a phantom, "
"That is how to meditate on them, "
And also the above translation is missing a few words...
Finally these words I think it is translated wrongly and very misleading
"All composed things" -
after realising it yourself you need to word it out for more enlightened people for confirmation because one might not really be enlightened but is deluded into thinking so.Originally posted by maggot:I don't believe in agruing I believe in realising it yourself
My copies of the Diamond Sutra don't have the following lines:
"a phantom, "
"That is how to meditate on them, "
And also the above translation is missing a few words...
Finally these words I think it is translated wrongly and very misleading
"All composed things"
and maybe the more enlightened people will help u move to the next stage -
no1 is clever .
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Maybe 'clever' isn't the correct term, the correct term is 'wise'. Because clever people can make atomic bombs, manipulate people, kill people for his own good and is very 'clever' at that.Originally posted by Taiwanpolitics:no1 is clever .
'Wisdom' is not like this.... and the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the sages are all wise, so we should learn from them.