Buddhism
Have you ever read about Buddhism? Or how about practicing the faith of Buddhism? I received an email (spam) today and it was advertising a book:
Introduction to Buddhism: An Explanation of the Buddhist Way of Life
It included an excerpt from the book:
The Patience of not Retaliating
Patience, on the other hand, helps us in this life and in all future lives. As Shantideva says:
There is no evil like anger
And no virtue like patience.
With patience, we can accept any pain that is inflicted upon us and we can easily endure our usual troubles and indispositions. With patience, nothing upsets our peace of mind and we do not experience problems. With patience, we maintain an inner peace and tranquility that allows spiritual realizations to grow. Chandrakirti says that if we practice patience we will have a beautiful form in the future, and we will become a holy being with high realizations.
There are three types of patience:
1 The patience of not retaliating
2 The patience of voluntarily enduring suffering
3 The patience of definitely thinking about Dharma
The patience of not retaliating
To practice this type of patience, we need to remain continuously mindful of the dangers of anger and the benefits of patient acceptance, and, whenever anger is about to arise in our mind, we need immediately to apply the methods for eliminating it. We begin by learning to forbear small difficulties, such as insignificant insults or minor disruptions to our routine, and then gradually to improve our patience until we are able to forbear even the greatest difficulty without getting angry.
When we are meditating on patience, we can use many different lines of reasoning to help us overcome our tendency to retaliate. For example, we can contemplate that if someone were to hit us with a stick, we would not get angry with the stick, because it was being wielded by the attacker and had no choice.
In the same way, if someone insults us or harms us, we should not get angry with him, because he is being manipulated by his deluded minds and also has no choice. Similarly, we can think that just as a doctor does not get angry if a feverish patient lashes out at him, so we should not get angry if confused living beings, suffering from the sickness of the delusions, harm us in any way.
The fundamental reason why we receive harm is that we have harmed others in the past. Those who attack us are merely the conditions whereby our karma ripens; the real cause of all the harm we receive is our own negativity. If, in such circumstances, we retaliate, we simply create more negative karma and so we will have to suffer even more harm in the future. If we patiently accept injury, however, we break the chain and that particular karmic debt is paid off.
It takes a very strong, willful mind to be able to practice Buddhism. Wouldn't the world be such a happy place if we were all Buddhist?
Introduction to Buddhism: An Explanation of the Buddhist Way of Life
It included an excerpt from the book:
The Patience of not Retaliating
Patience, on the other hand, helps us in this life and in all future lives. As Shantideva says:
There is no evil like anger
And no virtue like patience.
With patience, we can accept any pain that is inflicted upon us and we can easily endure our usual troubles and indispositions. With patience, nothing upsets our peace of mind and we do not experience problems. With patience, we maintain an inner peace and tranquility that allows spiritual realizations to grow. Chandrakirti says that if we practice patience we will have a beautiful form in the future, and we will become a holy being with high realizations.
There are three types of patience:
1 The patience of not retaliating
2 The patience of voluntarily enduring suffering
3 The patience of definitely thinking about Dharma
The patience of not retaliating
To practice this type of patience, we need to remain continuously mindful of the dangers of anger and the benefits of patient acceptance, and, whenever anger is about to arise in our mind, we need immediately to apply the methods for eliminating it. We begin by learning to forbear small difficulties, such as insignificant insults or minor disruptions to our routine, and then gradually to improve our patience until we are able to forbear even the greatest difficulty without getting angry.
When we are meditating on patience, we can use many different lines of reasoning to help us overcome our tendency to retaliate. For example, we can contemplate that if someone were to hit us with a stick, we would not get angry with the stick, because it was being wielded by the attacker and had no choice.
In the same way, if someone insults us or harms us, we should not get angry with him, because he is being manipulated by his deluded minds and also has no choice. Similarly, we can think that just as a doctor does not get angry if a feverish patient lashes out at him, so we should not get angry if confused living beings, suffering from the sickness of the delusions, harm us in any way.
The fundamental reason why we receive harm is that we have harmed others in the past. Those who attack us are merely the conditions whereby our karma ripens; the real cause of all the harm we receive is our own negativity. If, in such circumstances, we retaliate, we simply create more negative karma and so we will have to suffer even more harm in the future. If we patiently accept injury, however, we break the chain and that particular karmic debt is paid off.
It takes a very strong, willful mind to be able to practice Buddhism. Wouldn't the world be such a happy place if we were all Buddhist?
posted by Mary at 10:55 PM
2 Comments:
LOL did anyone actually read this?
None of you want to become 'Buddhist' with me??!?!! LOL
Deluded minds........ ahhahaaaaa!!!!
My favorite was, "confused living beings, suffering from the sickness of the delusions, harm us in any way."
Okay... now that is a good one!
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