Saturday, October 16, 2004
"equality within the midst of inequality is true equality."
Every has the same Buddha nature within and the same potential. but your actions create karma which give rise to cause and conditions that diverge your path, differentiating it from other people's ( inequality) .. but truly, beneath it all you are all equal.
just read a rather insensitive comment about my faith. Well, actually, not only about Buddhism, but it was rather pointedly aimed at other religions too. Well, i was rather peeved at first, but then I chewed on it for a while. it was quite useless getting angry. I'm just disaapointed of the lack of respect some pple have for other faiths. CX is right, pple believe wate3ver they wanna believe. I guess you can question other faiths you chose not to accept, but making baseless remarks and poking fun at other faiths w/o full understanding of them is really not the way to go. i've probably stated this time and agian.. all faiths are beautiful as long as teh guide you along the right path and benefit mankind. Buddhism accepts and supports all faiths. .. such is the compassionate and accepting nature of the Buddha and the universality of the Dharma.
This is already the 2nd time i'm facing this kinda attack. The 1st time which was a right- in -my -face barrage got me really really upset. but i've learnt that this kinda suffering for me was uncalled for. I had to let go of my attachment for my desire for other ppl to have the same view as me.
disharmony between views and oneself - ( part of the 3rd noble truth)
I just have to accept that and rejoice in the fact that i've had the good inner fortune to come by the Buddha's teachings and see the benefits it will bring to me.
anyway, juz to correct that erroneous view that i came across. yeah, we Buddhist do believe we are masters of our own fate. The comment was .. because we claim the above, should we ever be faced with an adversity so great , that all seems hopeless, we would have no one to turn to, coz the Buddha can't intervene and help us. Well, yez and no. We do pray to the Buddha in times of hardships, but it's not to ask for help, but to give us the inner strength and wisdom to seek a way out of the problem. It's like being in the library amidst thousands of books and asking teh librarian to help you locate the right one. The conditions are everchanging, the situation will change and it's up to you to harness the right conditions and get yourself out of the bind. First, you acknowledge and accept your ripened bad karma. ying ming4. By not resisting this karma, you will not exhaust yourself with denial , but NOTE this doesn't mean you give up all togehter.. because by acknowledging your situation, you can now see clearly where you should be heading and start of in the right direciton to rectify the situation. You can't just ask for a miracle and shou zu dai tu and wait for something to pop up. Yez, we are our own masters, but we haven't reached a level where we can go the whole way w/o help. the Buddha and the dharma are the boats that help ferry us across the ocean of adversities and obstacles.. But in the end, it is up to us to decide how we make the journey.
Even in terms of say. terminal illness..
the Dharma rings true.. life is impermanent.. if you can understand that, it takes away the fear of death. accept the situation of terminal illness but alsoremember the verses from teh diamond sutra. The situation may change for the better, so make good use of your remaining time. If your karma is good enough, things may turn around for the better. But even if you will in the end subcumb, making good use of your remaining time to do good and help other sentient beings > this will give you more good merits which will benefit both you either in your present or future life, as well as others.
it all boils down to internal locus of control, with a little help from our teacher of coz! And it boils down not to accumulating good merits only for yourslef, but having the compassion to help other ppl along to reach enlightenment.
It's kinda sad to see how most ppl equate buddhism with mysticism and superstition. I was among those ppl in teh past, i admit. A lot of young pple think that buddhism is all about marching to the temple and just asking some statues for things you want. they have no idea how wrong this idea is. and they have no idea about the mind blowing, life changing philosophy behind it. I really hope ppl do take a more open mind to Buddhism and other religions. Because even if it doesn't appeal to you, it does appeal to the devotees and it is their guiding path to life. I've to try to change my tact sometimes too.. i do tend to get carried away sometimes, yez.. tact is an important thing in religious harmony.
Thank you Reverend Yu for your wise words and for helping me see the light on this issue!
Thank you Buddha for your teachings...
Every has the same Buddha nature within and the same potential. but your actions create karma which give rise to cause and conditions that diverge your path, differentiating it from other people's ( inequality) .. but truly, beneath it all you are all equal.
just read a rather insensitive comment about my faith. Well, actually, not only about Buddhism, but it was rather pointedly aimed at other religions too. Well, i was rather peeved at first, but then I chewed on it for a while. it was quite useless getting angry. I'm just disaapointed of the lack of respect some pple have for other faiths. CX is right, pple believe wate3ver they wanna believe. I guess you can question other faiths you chose not to accept, but making baseless remarks and poking fun at other faiths w/o full understanding of them is really not the way to go. i've probably stated this time and agian.. all faiths are beautiful as long as teh guide you along the right path and benefit mankind. Buddhism accepts and supports all faiths. .. such is the compassionate and accepting nature of the Buddha and the universality of the Dharma.
This is already the 2nd time i'm facing this kinda attack. The 1st time which was a right- in -my -face barrage got me really really upset. but i've learnt that this kinda suffering for me was uncalled for. I had to let go of my attachment for my desire for other ppl to have the same view as me.
disharmony between views and oneself - ( part of the 3rd noble truth)
I just have to accept that and rejoice in the fact that i've had the good inner fortune to come by the Buddha's teachings and see the benefits it will bring to me.
anyway, juz to correct that erroneous view that i came across. yeah, we Buddhist do believe we are masters of our own fate. The comment was .. because we claim the above, should we ever be faced with an adversity so great , that all seems hopeless, we would have no one to turn to, coz the Buddha can't intervene and help us. Well, yez and no. We do pray to the Buddha in times of hardships, but it's not to ask for help, but to give us the inner strength and wisdom to seek a way out of the problem. It's like being in the library amidst thousands of books and asking teh librarian to help you locate the right one. The conditions are everchanging, the situation will change and it's up to you to harness the right conditions and get yourself out of the bind. First, you acknowledge and accept your ripened bad karma. ying ming4. By not resisting this karma, you will not exhaust yourself with denial , but NOTE this doesn't mean you give up all togehter.. because by acknowledging your situation, you can now see clearly where you should be heading and start of in the right direciton to rectify the situation. You can't just ask for a miracle and shou zu dai tu and wait for something to pop up. Yez, we are our own masters, but we haven't reached a level where we can go the whole way w/o help. the Buddha and the dharma are the boats that help ferry us across the ocean of adversities and obstacles.. But in the end, it is up to us to decide how we make the journey.
Even in terms of say. terminal illness..
the Dharma rings true.. life is impermanent.. if you can understand that, it takes away the fear of death. accept the situation of terminal illness but alsoremember the verses from teh diamond sutra. The situation may change for the better, so make good use of your remaining time. If your karma is good enough, things may turn around for the better. But even if you will in the end subcumb, making good use of your remaining time to do good and help other sentient beings > this will give you more good merits which will benefit both you either in your present or future life, as well as others.
it all boils down to internal locus of control, with a little help from our teacher of coz! And it boils down not to accumulating good merits only for yourslef, but having the compassion to help other ppl along to reach enlightenment.
It's kinda sad to see how most ppl equate buddhism with mysticism and superstition. I was among those ppl in teh past, i admit. A lot of young pple think that buddhism is all about marching to the temple and just asking some statues for things you want. they have no idea how wrong this idea is. and they have no idea about the mind blowing, life changing philosophy behind it. I really hope ppl do take a more open mind to Buddhism and other religions. Because even if it doesn't appeal to you, it does appeal to the devotees and it is their guiding path to life. I've to try to change my tact sometimes too.. i do tend to get carried away sometimes, yez.. tact is an important thing in religious harmony.
Thank you Reverend Yu for your wise words and for helping me see the light on this issue!
Thank you Buddha for your teachings...
Comments:
Post a Comment
