Tag Archives: Buddhism

Ishmael

Posted on 14Nov2008 by | 5 Comments
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I have read a book called Ishmael. It’s a good book. It’s a philosophical book (fictional, but philosophical, there’s a telepathic ape….) that points out some very interesting and demonstrably true things in our world as it functions today and as it has functioned for quite some time.

In particular, I’m curious about what anyone happens to think about this little scenario, which is something I’ve said before reading Ishmael, but no one had any good answer about. I do not think anyone can/would have any answer to it now either; however, I’m a glutton for punishment.

Christianity states that the creator made the earth and all things in/on it. How is this different from any other mythology? I ask this question first because it will bring me to another item that is related. In particular, what makes the story of creation (pushed by Creationists) any different from the story of creation from the Romans or Greeks? Story aside, what really sets them apart? This leads me to the next bit, which has nothing to do with Christians. What is the “official” creation story that we have today?

As a Buddhist, I’m not sure that it matters which of them is true. If I had to pick one I’d go with the official science creation story; however, there’s a problem with the two faith based ones that may or may not (depending on a person’s bent) be a problem in the “official” creation story. That is, the purpose of the earth. The Greek or Roman mythologies each stop with the earth being pretty much the whim of the gods and created for man. The christian creation story says the same thing, the creator created earth and stopped with man. The “official” creation story (big bang/evolution) doesn’t say this, but depending on one’s bent one could see where it’s been stated that humans are the peak of evolution and the earth is ours to rule. I’m not sure I can go along with that. Not that it means anything to anyone else of course lol.

Again, as a Buddhist, I think it’s incorrect (I want to refrain from using the word wrong because that can imply to some people a moral reference where I do not mean one) to believe that the world was created for man. Just what exactly is wrong with the idea that the world wasn’t made for man? Man isn’t the end of evolution, and when man is gone (should we all cease to exist, such as in some catastrophic world wide event) does that mean the world no longer serves a purpose? Of course not, Earth will continue to exist and support life that has survived. Then again, maybe not. What is the purpose of any creation story, science, mythology, etc? What does it perpetuate in our society as it functions today?

This brings to mind another thought (obviously, it’s in my mind?) Why does man insist on treating the world and all that is in it counter to how the rest of the world functions? I’m curious about that. Man doesn’t compete with other animals, instead he destroys them. An example would be lions and gazelle. A lion will chase down a gazelle. The entire herd of them takes off running. As soon as the lion captures the gazelle, the herd stops running and proceeds to go back to grazing or drinking from the water. Why is that? To the best of my knowledge, this is because lions don’t kill in a manner that means to create extinction. They capture food and sit down to eat it, or drag it to safety, then eat it. The gazelle otherwise (unless being actively hunted at the time) pretty much ignore the lion. They are not enemies. Humans on the other hand do not function this way. Well, they no longer function this way. People in one of my cultures (Native Americans) would hunt enough to feed themselves. Kill a bison or two, and the other bison went about their business. Then came poachers, that slaughtered entire herds of bison/buffalo just for their pelts. Not to feed anyone, just to take their pelts and make money. The carcass simply rotted in the sun. Truly sad.

Quick Clarification: The above isn’t to say that as soon as the white man (or any man at all) came along that the world fell apart. That would be highly ignorant and highly offensive to I don’t know, the whole US population? As stated in a comment below, I’m not romanticizing Native American culture, this could easily apply to many cultures outside of them the further back into history we go. Thanks!

An interesting thought, what is the end result of creating more food in which to feed the starving? What happens when those that are starving are no longer starving? What happens then, what is the event that perpetuates the existence of starving people? I believe I know the answer, and I know I do not have a solution. In other words I know enough to know I don’t know hehe.

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Time

Posted on 9Jun2008 by | Comments Off
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If we have…presence of mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know right and wrong continually. There’s plenty of time to meditate, we just don’t fully understand the practice, that’s all. While sleeping we breathe, eating we breathe, don’t we? Why don’t we have time to meditate? Wherever we are we breathe. If we think like this then our life has as much value as our breath, wherever we are we have time. -Ajahn Chah, “Taste of Freedom”

Due to my rather unpleasant work schedule, I find myself saying to myself, I don’t have time to (insert subject here). I really don’t like saying it and I try to be mindful of it. The reason I am mindful of it is because of the above quote. Meditation is breathing, so there’s no excuse for not being able to accomplish it.

I stumbled upon this quote purely on accident. I’ve not actually read “Taste of Freedom”, although I am familiar with the man as an influential and revered master of meditation. He’s actually Lao, I think but lived in Thailand. Think I’m going to go pick up Taste of Freedom next week after that paycheck thing happens.

Speaking of which. I think I should be getting a raise soon, we had our performance appraisals already. I need to discuss that with someone. I scored well hehe. I need a new CPU for my machine, literally, I want a dual core processor for Age of Conan. Which by the way is good. If any of you play MMORPGs, Age of Conan isn’t a bad game at all. It’s very unique with the fighting system. Not boring at all.

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Happiness

Posted on 26Feb2008 by | Comments Off
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The very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our lives is toward happiness.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

With that in mind, I’m drawn to a time sitting in the airport on my way back from the East. I believe I was in China at the time. As I was waiting for the next flight, I looked across the way and saw two monks sitting together. They didn’t speak English, which isn’t necessarily a problem but I wasn’t familiar with whatever dialect they were speaking. I refrained from speaking to them, I simply waved at one point. Of the two, the one on my right was obviously ill, and possibly a bit older than the monk on the left. I watched the ill monk attempt to open a mangosteen, and fail. He didn’t say anything, he simply made the attempt again from another angle.

Meanwhile the monk upon the left opened the mangosteen he possessed and unseated the fruit within. He then placed the pieces back inside and offered it to the monk who still had not managed to open his fruit. There were no words spoken at all, the ill monk simply took the fruit and offered over the unopened mangosteen. After the exchange, both mangosteens were opened and they ate in silence. The ill monk must not have had much of an appetite, but his companion made him finish it all. There was no bickering, only a simple second offering of the fruit that was left. The ill monk refused the first and accepted the second.

Interestingly, they were allowed on the plane first and taken off the plane first. The workers in the airport and even security toting mp5s behaved in strong deference to the monks. The stewardesses bowed especially low to them, and one young lady fed them during the flight. I suppose that’s only interesting to me because of the countries in question, but it made me feel good on the inside. I couldn’t articulate why exactly.

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How We're Supposed to Live

Posted on 31Jul2007 by | Comments Off
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I’m going to go out on a limb here. You’ll have to excuse me while I do this and hope to your deity that the earth doesn’t split open and swallow itself into a black hole or some mysterious singularity. My friend, Leesa, wrote down a phrase in her blog. What it amounted to was that the world would be a happier place if people lived the way they were supposed to live. My question then is how are we supposed to live?

That’s a pretty thought provoking question I suppose. Christian, I believe would point out that their ‘Good Book’ the Bible tells one how to live. The Bible doesn’t condemn slavery, but that’s neither here nor there I don’t suppose. I just am of the opinion that if we all lived by the Bible then a good portion of our society would be ‘servants’ and that would be perfectly okay. I also think that the Bible would condone quite a few things that I believe go against the nature of man. Clothing for instance, farming, and beating one’s slave (servant as they are named in the Bible and so long as they live 24 hours after the ceasing of the beating you’re not at fault). I am aware that the ‘Good Book’ says that man should love one another as they have been loved by the deity; however, one only needs to read the Bible to understand it’s a very fickle love and wrought with all manner of servitude and conditions. I think it’s not necessary to enumerate.

Thich Nhat Hanh said the following: “A human being is an animal, a part of nature. But we single ourselves out from the rest of nature. We classify other animals and living beings as nature, acting as if we ourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the question, ‘How should we deal with nature?’ We should deal with nature the way we should deal with ourselves! We should not harm ourselves; we should not harm nature. Harming nature is harming ourselves, and vice versa. If we knew how to deal with our self and with our fellow human beings, we would know how to deal with nature. Human beings [and nature] are inseparable. Therefore, by not caring properly for any one of these, we harm them all.”

That is how we should live, but until people come to grips with the oneness of all life and not just the oneness of familial and friendly beings the world is not going to be a better place. How we should live, isin m y opinion “The thought of renunciation, the thought of non-ill-will, the thought of harmlessness. This, monks, is called Right Thought.” –Digha Nikaya

Now, you may be wondering how exactly that translates into how we are supposed to live. I’ll tell you! Well, actually I’m going to illustrate it for you by telling you the pillars of Buddhist living:

Right Understanding
Right Thoughts
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

I’ll probably revisit this shortly, I am fuming still (sadly enough) over the theft of all my physical writing from my car.

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