Origins

Five Protections Against Sorrow by Buddhism now

/ Debra / 1 Comment

In Buddhism it is taught that everything that happens to us, good or bad, is the result of our previous actions — it is our karma. Refraining from five kinds of unskillful action will result in peace of mind and true happiness. In order to be protected against sorrow, therefore, one should:

• refrain from harming anything;
• refrain from taking that which is not freely given; refrain from all forms of immorality or any action which is subject to blame;
• refrain from speaking falsely, harshly, or unkindly;
• refrain from indulging in anything which causes the mind to lose its natural clarity, such as drugs or alcohol.

By refraining from these unskilful actions, one will experience the peace and happiness of one’s true nature, one’s Buddha-nature.

The Great Way starts beneath one’s feet

Buddhism Now is a great Buddhist Blog…” digital is a online Buddhist magazine, giving advice on how to practise Buddhism.”    Always timely.  _/!_  Please visit them often!

 

 

 

 

 

Buddha and Mara

/ Debra / 2 Comments

Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental opposition within human natures. While “Buddha” stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom, “Mara” represents a capacity for confusion, closure, and restriction. To live with the devil is to live with the perpetual conflict between one’s Buddha-nature and one’s Mara-nature. When Buddha-nature prevails, fixations ease and the world brightens, revealing itself as empty, contingent, and fluid.

-Stephen Batchelor, “Living With The Devil”

( I recently bought, ‘Living With the Devil’ by Stephen Batchelor. I have not put the book  in my ‘To Be Read’ (TBR)  stack yet. Soon though, soon! ~ Debra )

 

Quiet Revolution

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The Buddha did not teach escape from responsibility or society. He taught escape from ignorance and evil thoughts and actions. He founded not merely a religion or a therapy, he founded a quiet revolution, a total reorientation of the habits of individuals and societies that has continued to this day. ~ Robert Thurman

Earth and Us…

/ Debra / 2 Comments

Deep Ecology: We are the offspring of dirt and air and water

Lin Jensen is unstinting in his fierce dedication to environmental causes. The problem at its root is that we have become disengaged from the earth. We must correct this if we are ever to change our course. But can Buddhism help us do this?

There’s nothing in Buddhist philosophy like that of the biblical tradition granting humans “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Nor is there anything in Buddhist teaching that puts the care of earth in human hands. What the teaching actually does is put we humans in the care of earthly hands. We are the offspring of dirt and air and water, and no prideful boast to the contrary alters that.

The notion of interconnectedness ties us to all living things and our planet. There is no other place to go to. As Lin says, “We are the offspring of dirt and air and water”—shouldn’t we care for our parents?

 

from Tricycle…..please go HERE to read more.