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http://www.moonpointer.com/stonepeace All past
blogs in blogspot will be gradually Monday,
August 04, 2003 Q: If
we are here to save all living beings, what are all living beings
here for?
-Dhammapada 290 We do
not rise above our present "happiness" because we do not
clearly see what is the greater happiness, and are thus unwilling
to put in effort to attain it. It's
only temporary la... The observer,
when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, -Bertrand Russell When
I see a stone -Stonepeace
Now.
This is it. -Timothy Freke This
is it. -Stonepeace
You are
the cause and effect of yourself, The only
Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
Sometimes
you need to find your Zen at the top of mountains. Y: If
my identity can be protected, I am free to circulate my online diary. A drop
of poison in a glass of pure water renders it all poisonous. zL: You
there? A few
months ago, a friend suddenly discovered I have double eyelids. Asking
my Mum, she confirmed I used to have single eyelids. How bizarre.
"Shit" doesn't just happen in life- "Strange"
happens. Just when you might think mine was a freak case, this friend
also had double eyelids sudddenly, a few years back. Strange karma.
Karma can work strangely. I winder what causes did we create to experience
these effects. The Dharma is whatever is true (in line with reality) or in line with the Buddha's teachings. So in this sense, the famous people you quote are indeed speaking the Dharma in line with BuddhaDharma, even if they do not know it. But when we share the Dharma, is it better to share it with or without Dharma terms and labels (subtle or not so), with or without quoting the Buddha or famous Buddhists? If the objective is just to share the Dharma in the short run, it might be okay to share it without Dharma labels or quoting the Buddha and famous Buddhists. If the objective is to share the Dharma in the long run, it might be a better idea to share it with Dharma labels or quoting the Buddha and famous Buddhists- because it lets the reader know that the wisdom shared is Buddhist, that he can discover more wisdom in Buddhism. Otherwise,
the reader is learning Dharma in bits and pieces from quotes from
different people and religions... He might feel lost, thinking they
are all the same, not knowing that Buddhism teaches the ultimate Truth,
missing the point that we are trying to point him to Buddhism. Words
have the power to heal or destroy. Thus
the Buddha taught us to reflect in the fourth precept- [1] What
one knows to be - With
paraphrased excerpts from Abhaya Sutta (The Buddha's Discourse on
Right Speech)
Do you
see winning as a personal achievement? If you
lose, If you
win, If someone
loses to you, If someone
wins you, "Greater
than one who wins a hundred battles, What
would you do now that I remind you Would
you fall to your knees and worship all? Would
you kiss the ground the Buddha walked upon? The person
waiting for an apology, The wronged
but magnaminous reconnects like nothing happened. It is
good for oneself to forgive from another even if no apology was given. As long
as even just one person, even if it is just the artist, sees something
as a piece of "art", it is art in the instant- even if it
does not follow popular taste. Perhaps then, art is the result of
attachment. Even if the emperor is seen as an ignorant fool parading
naked in his new "clothes", the "clothes" were
beautiful to him- before he woke to his senses. Art then, is just
something we hold in our mind as special, "better" than
the non-art. Anything
can be art as it is but just not appreciated yet- It's
personally apalling to me how many Buddhists do not see the 3 Universal
Characteristics as the common denominators in defining reality. If
a Buddhist does not bear these chaacteristics often in mind, I think
there is something very wrong. For such fellow Buddhists, let's go
back to the basics of the Dharma. We need to realise how the trio
affect our lives, and see them clearly. |