Problem in "traditional" way of practicing Buddhism...

[kalyanamithra]

Pinwath Mithurani,

Thought to start this thread seeing the responses in the tread "Problem in buddhism" [http://www.elakiri.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92864 ]

First of all, it was pleasing to note that many of us showed the Buddhist value of not getting agitated; showing Metta; in the replies..

Still it's sad to see not many of us were in a position to help our friend Zeus find the correct (I mean as explained by Dhamma) answer to his problem..

Is this because of some "problem" in the way Buddhism has been practiced in past couple of century?

Shall we make this an occasion to learn a bit more about Dhamma?
Shall we use this thread to highlight the myths we have and help resolve problems based on Dhamma?

Please give it a thought... Thanks... With Metta..

Theruwan saranai!

 

[sri_lion]

Good Work! So we can direct all those queries here!

 

[kasuncs]

Good idea. Core of Buddhist philosophy can show here.

 

[kalyanamithra]

Pinwath mithurani,

I have brought the reply (so it's a re-post) I made in the other thread here... I'll try to refine it later adding more...

Please be kind enough to analyze it and find faults it may have... That's a good way to help one another... It's really good if you can cite any resources you may have read/listened to/heard of...

Theruwan saranai!

Pinwath mithura,

This explanation is based on Dhamma; Nevertheless you are advised to refer to the Texts in doubt (I might be able to cite some of the facts from the suttas if you want; not sure I'd have time for that).

Buddhism reveals a samsaraic existence; in which any being is likely to be born in most of the worlds (not all, but it's not time to discuss that...).

Any being gets born because of Past Kamma (that it has from our virtually infinite existence). Once born the being (humans, animals, divine, etc.) engages in volitional (chethanathmaka) activities - which are actuated through body, wording, or thoughts. They are called Present Kamma (and they add to Past Kamma as time passes by). Depedning in the environment the being is in other past Kamma can become effective and produce returns (vipaka). But not all thing that a being undergoes is Past Kamma. For example if someone stabs me to death; it may not be my past Kamma; but it surely becomes that person's Present Kamma. Let's get back to your question..

Anything a being does that causes Lobha (various desires, etc.) Dveesha (hatred, etc.) and Moha (delusion, etc.) is a bad deed and becomes a sin ("Pava"). Yes a tiger killing an animal would add to its sins (I will explain it further in a little while).

Anything a being does that causes the opposite effects: Alobha, Adhosha, Amoha are good deeds and becomes a "Pin" (I'm not using the word 'merit' here purposely...). A tiger licking its cubs (because it's likely to have Metta at the moment) would get Pin.

Anmilas are in one of the worlds of ("Apaya") and therefore the opportunity an animal has to do "pin" is very low (It's a risk any being in an Apaya has; the opportunity is even low in places like Niraya - "Hell"). Only those in Human world and above can do considerable "pin"; nevertheless any being has thing it had done in past live stack up to comeforth to give returns...

This has resulted in an inbalanced dynamic equilibrium of beings with most of them being (at a given time) in Niraya; next in other worlds of Suffering (e.g. Pretha loka); next as animals; relatively few as Humans; and very little in the worlds of divine. We can see only the worlds of animals and humans. You can understand the Truth by trying to count animals visible to our naked eye (e.g. ants, birds, mosquitoes, etc) in your backyard; and divide by number of family members in your house...

This is explained in Dhamma: only a portion equivalent to "amount of soil that can be held in one of your nail in one of your fingers" those currently in human world gets born as humans the next life; where as a portion equivalent to "amount of soil in this whole earth" gets born in worlds of suffereing... Dhamma also states how crowded the Avichi hell is... Not stopping at that Dhamma also explains how this equilibrium changes a bit good towards the devine end when a Dhamma of Sammasambuddha is being practiced properly...

Another thing: none of the worlds have infinite lifetime. That's why Buddhists do not believe in eternal life at heavern or hell. Because whatever thing that makes the lifeform have finite duration. According to Dhamma an upperbound of life is determined by Kamma (e.g. there is a limit of extending human life through artificial means - e.g. difficult to live 100000 years even if we want to; even if we have very good technology). So lifetime in hell is finite; being dies after some time. But the probability a being in a world of suffering to be born as a human is low (because most of immediate Kamma it may have done are sins).

Neverhteless all beings have both Pin and Pav in Past Kamma. So they have a chance to exit from Apaya even if it remain thousands of years getting reborn in them.

That's why those developing ability to recall Past lives through Jhana easily get a feeling of Samsaraic existence. Why? Because we too have been in all but a handful of worlds. These exceptional worlds are attainable only by those who have completely eliminated Kama defilement in the mind; they do not get born as humans again (called: Anagami). So none of us have been there before.

Buddhism does not stop at explaining this unfair balance in the samsaraic existence. It shows how our mind grows with all input we get from the senses; as Current Kamma. It shows the reason for this. It shows how this reason can be suppressed; how the reason can be eliminated. It causes how this seemingly unending chain of life and death can be stopped for good.

Let's examine Dhamma in depth; there is nothing to belive blindly. We can expereince Dhamma in this very life time; dependeing on the vigour at which we practice it..

Theruwan saranai!

Reason for not using word "merit" for "pin": Buddhism explains Kamma very deeply. Not at surface level like many other religions. There are two categories of good deeds called: "pin" and "kusal". Hence using "merit" might cause ambiguity.

 

[kalyanamithra]

Good Work! So we can direct all those queries here!

Thanks my friend,
It's good to have friends like you keen on Buddhism...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[kalyanamithra]

Good idea. Core of Buddhist philosophy can show here.

Let's try to do it...
Theruwan saranai!

 

[nalakaanjana]

WELL DONE

 

[kalyanamithra]

WELL DONE

It's to be done... Most of us (including me) are just beginners; or yet to begin... Let's do it*

*Let's discuss Dhamma, practice Dhamma and try to realize it in this very life...

Therwan Saranai!

 

[Zeus]

Ok i have another prob in buddhism

Lord buddha said
Boru kiyannata nokalahaki pavak natha
If its, all of can kill a man
(cz alla of us lied at least one time in the life)

 

[kalyanamithra]

Ok i have another prob in buddhism

Lord buddha said
Boru kiyannata nokalahaki pavak natha
If its, all of can kill a man
(cz alla of us lied at least one time in the life)

What about the Samsara? Each of us have done all sins you can think of...
That's why we should follow the Path that nullifies past Kamma and takes us out of Samsara... Because we do not know for sure what Kamma would give returns next...

That's why even a person doing good.. gets bad returns.. you should read "Maha Dhamma Samdana" sutta to find more... I have posted it in another thread... Please check the recent threads on Buddhism...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[Zeus]

What about the Samsara? Each of us have done all sins you can think of...

Im sorry what is samsara??

 

[booleanB]

හොද වැඩක්, සිංහලෙන් ඉමේජ් එකක් විදිහට දාන්න පුලුවන් නම් වඩා හොදයි

 

[kalyanamithra]

Im sorry what is samsara??

samsara ("sansara") Seemingly unending succession of life and death we are undergoing...
According to Dhamma we have been in it for very long... it's beginning cannot be seen...
It's there because of a mechanism we have within: It is called Paticcasamuppada. Samsara can be terminated if one stops Paticcasamuppada...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[kalyanamithra]

හොද වැඩක්, සිංහලෙන් ඉමේජ් එකක් විදිහට දාන්න පුලුවන් නම් වඩා හොදයි

මම සිංහලෙන් ටයිප් කරන්න කැමති නැත්තෙ Unicode කියවන්න බැරි පරිගණක (office වල වගේ) වලින් ගොඩක් අය මේව බලන නිසා...

Image වැඩේ හොඳයි... පොඩ්ඩක් වෙලා යන එකයි ප්*රශ්නෙ...

තෙරුවන් සරණයි!

 

[Zeus]

[/color][/size]
samsara ("sansara") Seemingly unending succession of life and death we are undergoing...
According to Dhamma we have been in it for very long... it's beginning cannot be seen...
It's there because of a mechanism we have within: It is called Paticcasamuppada. Samsara can be terminated if one stops Paticcasamuppada...

Theruwan saranai!

But i cant still understand
Borukarayata onema oavak kalahakida ????

 

[kalyanamithra]

(cz alla of us lied at least one time in the life)

Pinwath mithura,

What matters for the Path is not the things we have done... but the things we are doing... One cannot help what done in the past... [even those Kamma can be nullified only through practicing Arya Ashtangika Magga (Path)... ]

A person following the Path would never regret the past... he/she'd rather be happy about the present...

See the courage people like Angulimala had... to practice the path and end all suffering putting aside all regrets...

As for telling lies.. There are lot of us not telling (or trying not to tell) lies because of practicing the Path... Hope you are (would be) one of them...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[kalyanamithra]

But i cant still understand
Borukarayata onema oavak kalahakida ????

Pinwath mithura,

We cannot understand these things ourselves... These internal nature of people (Dhathu swabhava) can be understood only by a Sammasambuddha... There's no point thinking that.. we cannot understand it fully..
See Followers have to belive in some things with Shraddha (some of them would be understood only at arhathhood; some of them won't be understood even at that point)...

Fortunately most important things to know can be realized ourselves... They are the Four Noble Truths...
We should be careful not to spent the valuable time too much on investigating the "unthikables"...

Still we can examine your question against Dhamma...

Borukaraya is a person still prone to telling lies... He/she is not an Shruthawath Arya Shrawaka... such a person is call Ashruthawath Pruthajjana...

A Pruthajjana is prone to any sin... Only a pruthajjana can do the "Ananthariya Papa Karma"... Only a Pruthajjana can firmly go to a "Mithya drushti"...

Suppose you are a Pruthajjana; and lead a moral life (of course it's possible; a person need not be a Buddhist to lead a correct life)... You'll be born after death - again as a Pruthajjana. However there's no guarantee that you'll behave morally this time... because values you have are lost at death... That's why a Pruthajjana is prone to sins...

An arya shrawaka is a person in the Path; he has Shraddha, Viriya, Sathi, Samadhi, Panna as Indriya (organs)... which are not lost at death... Because of that a person in the Path can continue it even after death (of course: if he/she has not attained Nibbana by the time of death)...

Hope this addresses your problem...
What we can do is start examining Paticchasamuppada... not dwelling too much on these not-really-important-to-know-things...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[Sudantha_s]

 

[kalyanamithra]

Theruwan saranai!

Pinwath Zeus,

Paticchasamuppada is the process from Avijja to Dukha; see how causes and results are arranged when practicing the Path to take the person to Nibbana...

Although I've posted a graphical representation to depict the hethu-phala; you should believe this only after studying Dhamma; and after thinking accordingly till you realize that there is a Truth...

Theruwan saranai!

 

[Zeus]

Pinwath mithura,



Borukaraya is a person still prone to telling lies... He/she is not an Shruthawath Arya Shrawaka... such a person is call Ashruthawath Pruthajjana...

A Pruthajjana is prone to any sin... Only a pruthajjana can do the "Ananthariya Papa Karma"... Only a Pruthajjana can firmly go to a "Mithya drushti"...

Theruwan saranai!

Yes but y borukaraya so special