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en:lib:authors:thanissaro:gettingmessage [2019/10/30 10:32] – docinfo_head del. Johann | en:lib:authors:thanissaro:gettingmessage [2019/10/30 15:05] (current) – navi addition Johann | ||
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+ | ====== Getting the Message ====== | ||
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+ | Summary: | ||
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+ | The Buddha is famous for having refused to take a position on many of the controversial issues of his day, such as whether the cosmos is finite or infinite, eternal or not. In fact, many people — both in his time and in ours — have assumed that he didn't take a firm position on any issue at all. Based on this assumption, some people have been exasperated with the Buddha, accusing him of being wishy-washy and indecisive, while others have been pleased, praising him for being tolerant and refreshingly free from ideas of right and wrong. | ||
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+ | Both reactions, however, are misinformed. The early texts report that a group of wanderers, in a discussion with one of the Buddha' | ||
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+ | In making this distinction, | ||
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+ | "And what is skillful? Abstaining from taking life is skillful, abstaining from taking what is not given... from sexual misconduct... from lying... from abusive speech... from divisive tale-bearing... abstaining from idle chatter is skillful. Lack of covetousness... lack of ill will... right views are skillful. These things are called skillful." | ||
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+ | Killing is never skillful. Stealing, lying, and everything else in the first list are never skillful. When asked if there was anything whose killing he approved of, the Buddha answered that there was only one thing: anger. In no recorded instance did he approve of killing any living being at all. When one of his monks went to an executioner and told the man to kill his victims compassionately, | ||
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+ | When formulating lay precepts based on his distinction between skillful and unskillful, the Buddha never made any allowances for ifs, ands, or buts. When you promise yourself to abstain from killing or stealing, the power of the promise lies in its universality. You won't break your promise to yourself under any conditions at all. This is because this sort of unconditional promise is a powerful gift. Take, for instance, the first precept, against killing: | ||
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+ | If you make exceptions in your promise to yourself — trying to justify killing in cases where you feel endangered or inconvenienced by another being' | ||
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+ | The dynamic of this kind of gift, of course, depends on an important principle, the teaching of karma and rebirth: If you act on unskillful motivations, | ||
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+ | <div excerpt_verse> | ||
+ | that hand can hold poison. | ||
+ | Poison won't penetrate | ||
+ | where there' | ||
+ | There' | ||
+ | for those who don't do it.]! | ||
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+ | </ | ||
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+ | This is why the Buddha listed virtue as one of a person' | ||
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+ | Even if you're not ready to accept the teaching on karma and rebirth, the Buddha still recommended an absolute standard of virtue. As he told the Kalamas, if you decide to act skillfully at all times, harming no one, then even if it turned out that there was no life after death, you'd still come out ahead, for you would have been able to live and die with a clear conscience — something that no amount of money or political influence can buy. | ||
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+ | So the Buddha' | ||
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+ | Because the Pali Canon is such an unpromising place to look for the justification of killing, most of the arguments for a Buddhist theory of just war look elsewhere for their evidence, citing the words and behavior of people they take as surrogates for the Buddha. These arguments are obviously on shaky ground, and can be easily dismissed even by people who know nothing of the Canon. For example, it has been argued that because Asian governments claiming to be Buddhist have engaged in war and torture, the Buddha' | ||
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+ | On a somewhat higher note, one writer has noted that his meditation teacher has told soldiers and policemen that if their duty is to kill, they must perform their duty, albeit compassionately and with mindfulness. The writer then goes on to argue that because his teacher is the direct recipient of an oral tradition dating back to the Buddha, we must take this as evidence that the Buddha would give similar advice as well. This statement, of course, tells us more about the writer' | ||
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+ | There are, however, writers who try to find evidence in the Pali Canon for a Buddhist theory of just war, not in what the Buddha said, but in what he didn' | ||
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+ | It's true that in the Pali Canon silence is sometimes interpreted as acquiescence, | ||
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+ | The soldier then broke down and cried — not because he felt that the Buddha' | ||
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+ | If the pride of soldiers and actors required special handling, even more care was required in the handling of kings, for their pride was often coupled with an unrestrained sense of power. A remarkable feature of the Pali Canon is that even though the Buddha was a member of the noble warrior caste, the discourses generally show a low regard for the spiritual standing of kings. In many passages, kings are mentioned in the same breath with thieves: They confiscate property and show little regard for the rule of law. The Canon does recognize exceptions — King Bimbisara of Magadha achieves stream-entry the first time he hears the Dhamma, and he never engages in war — but for the most part, kings are depicted as spiritually stunted. King Ajatasattu, on first seeing the Buddha sitting surrounded by monks, can't tell which person in the assembly is the Buddha, a sign of his spiritual blindness; this blindness is later proven by his asking the Buddha' | ||
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+ | Even King Pasenadi of Kosala, the king most closely associated with the Buddha, comes across as well-meaning but somewhat dense. An entire discourse, [[en: | ||
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+ | For example, there' | ||
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+ | In another discourse, Pasenadi comes to the Buddha and reports his own independent observation: | ||
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+ | It's highly unlikely that Pasenadi would have come to this conclusion if he hadn't spent time in conversation with the Buddha. From that conversation, | ||
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+ | We learn that the king did not always follow through with his insights, but that's not because the Buddha encouraged him to view killing as his duty. In fact, there is one striking example where these insights had at least a partial effect. Ajatasattu once attacked Pasenadi' | ||
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+ | <div excerpt_verse> | ||
+ | as long as it serves his ends, | ||
+ | but when others are plundered, | ||
+ | he who has plundered | ||
+ | gets plundered in turn. | ||
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+ | A fool thinks, | ||
+ | ' | ||
+ | as long as his evil | ||
+ | has yet to ripen. | ||
+ | But when it ripens, | ||
+ | the fool | ||
+ | falls | ||
+ | into pain. | ||
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+ | Killing, you gain | ||
+ | your killer. | ||
+ | Conquering, you gain one | ||
+ | who will conquer you; | ||
+ | insulting, insult; | ||
+ | harassing, harassment. | ||
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+ | And so, through the cycle of action, | ||
+ | he who has plundered | ||
+ | gets plundered in turn.]! | ||
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+ | </ | ||
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+ | Benighted as he was, Pasenadi still got the message. The question is, why can't we? | ||
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