|
 |
|
|
How to turn "Greed, Anger, Ignorance" into "Precepts, Deep Concentration, Wisdom"
Buddhism teaches Kruna (compassion), but it also focuses on Prajna (wisdom), which is inherent in everybody and it can only be manifested by eliminating ignorance by self-cultivation. By using prajna, one is able to turn "greed, anger, and ignorance" into "precepts, meditation, and wisdom".
"Greed, Anger, Ignorance" together are known as the Three Poisons. These are sources of all illusions and desires. These three poisons continuously pollute people's lives, and are obstacles of Enlightenment.
GREED
Greed is a DESIRE or lust; one tries to get hold of something and to get more and more of it. Greed is one of the causes of thefts, some people steal because they're greedy, and they are not satisfied with what they already have. There was a story about a very greedy man who loves candies. One day, his wife bought a jar and organized all his candies in the jar for him. However, when he put his hand in the jar to get candies, he could not pull his hand out again! No matter how hard he pulls, his hand is still stuck in the jar. The wife was so worried that she called the firemen to help break the jar open to free his hand. When the jar was broken, they found that the reason why his hand was stuck in the jar was because he grabbed a hand-full of candies and refused to let go, but the jar opening was too small for him to pull the candies out all at once. If he had taken one candy at a time, the firemen wouldn't have to break the jar open to free his hand. Desire, as Tanha, is considered as being one of the Three Daughters of Mara as well.
ANGER
Anger arises when there is rejection on one's wishes; one becomes displeased. It comes in many forms: HATRED, jealousy, abuse, and cruelty. Anger is basically caused by a false belief that the illusory self has loss control over something that is important. When I was in high school, I had a friend who doesn't know how to control his anger. Once he was angry because his teacher would not accept his homework that was handed in late. He was so angry that he started hitting everything in site (i.e., lockers, walls). And as he was walking and wasn't looking where he was going, he hit his hand right into the glass of the fire extinguisher unit and his hand started to bleed right away from the broken glass. From his behavior, we could learn that when we are angry, we are very vulnerable to dangers because we do not have a clear mind and we become very aggressive. However, in the end, we are the one who gets hurt, mentally or physically. The Meditation on the Three Contemplations Sutra states:
If anger rises and you desire
to harm another being
already you have harmed
yourself far more than him.
And that is why you must
often think on compassion;
for compassion keeps from rising
all thought of anger, evil, and pain.
The Buddha said that anger was one of the Five Hindrances, which are state of mind that make us difficult to learn dharma. Therefore, anger causes the loss of all goodness.
IGNORANCE
Ignorance or delusion is a wrong perception of the world. There is a parable from the Scripture of One Hundred Parables. The story is a about a woman who only has one son, but she wanted to have more sons. The woman's friend told her that she has a way to help the woman to pray for more sons but she needs to make a sacrifice. The woman was told that she needs to kill her only son as a sacrifice to get more sons. When the foolish woman was about to kill her only son, a wise man approached her and stopped her and told her how foolish she is giving what she has now to hope for something that might not happen. Some ignorant people do not realize that they're doing something harmful to others and to themselves, and furthermore hope to born to the heaven. These three poisons circle around our world, poisoning our souls, blinding us from seeing the true path to enlightenment. They are poisons that prevent us from leaving the cycle of birth and death. All the worries we get sprung from the three poisons. However, the three poisons can be arrested through "Precepts, Meditation, and Wisdom".
THE THREE PILLARS
Sila (Moral Conduct), Samadhi (Deep Concentration), Prajna (Wisdom), are known as the Three Pillars. They are the guidelines to our lives. When we practice the Three Pillars we'll be walking further away from the Three Poisons. Precept is the training in moral discipline; it prevents wrongdoing. Besides the Three Pillars there are the Five Precepts: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no intoxication. Deep Concentration is achieved through meditation including such methods as Shikantaza, Samadhi and Vipassana. It is the training of the mind. It eliminates the scattering characteristic of ordinary mind and allows it to look directly at itself. Wisdom is the training in clear perception. A verse from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng, states:
If your mind is in balance,
What need is there to work at morality?
If your behavior is correct,
What use is meditation to you?
If you understand mercy,
Then you still naturally care for your parents.
If you understand faithful conduct,
Then all society will be in order.
Respect of others and ourselves is the key to balancing the mind. If you know how to respect ourselves, we would not be as anxious, therefore our mind would be balanced and practicing morality would be a natural process. We need to free ourselves from thinking that practicing morally is a stiff confinement. Morality is actually the key to our liberation. Deep concentration is from practicing meditation, however, meditation cannot be practiced well without morality. Once we have a balanced mind, and understand morality, our lives would be in accord with the deepest level of meditation. From deep concentration, we get wisdom. By meditation and wisdom, one cultivates one's mind, clearing the clouds of ignorance that is blocking the road to enlightenment. Therefore, it is very important for us to practice the "thee pillars" all the time in order to prevent ourselves from being "poisoned" by "Greed, Anger, and Ignorance".
Anyone who finds themselves pursuing a casual to serious interest in Buddhism and Zen, especially so those seeking insights into spiritual Enlightenment a la Buddha and any relationship that exists thereof, it isn't long before they come face-to-face with some of the more esoteric aspects found in both religions, such as, for example, the super-normal perceptual states known as Siddhis, the mysterious hermitage said to exist somewhere beyond time in a remote area of the Himalayas known under a variety of names such as Gyanganj, Shambhala or Shangri-La, or the ability to fly. I only bring it because the Three Pillars so mentioned above, along with two other aspects, are the mainstay of the above three Buddhist phenomenon, in turn showing how all the various Buddhist aspects, concepts and precepts are interwoven and how they enhance the strengths and reasons for each other.
The Buddha is quite clear on the level of Attainment and criteria that MUST be met in order successfully set into motion such actions. A person cannot simply sit down meditating for a few minutes and then find themselves with the ability to fly off, for example, to someplace like the mysterious hermitage said to exist somewhere beyond time in a remote area of the Himalayas known under a variety of names such as Gyanganj, Shambhala or Shangri-La, re the following:
"The Buddha said 'If a monk should frame a wish as follows: 'Let me travel through the air like a winged bird,' then must he be perfect in the precepts (Sila), bring his thoughts to a state of quiescence (Samadhi), practice diligently the trances (Jhana), attain to insight (Prajna) and be frequenter to lonely places.'"
Simply put, for the practitioner to have the ability to fly he must be perfect in the precepts of Sila, Samadhi, Jhana, and Prajna. If the practitioner is not perfect in any one or all, no flying.
For those who may be so interested, in contrast to the above, as it applies to the Wanderling, and, although I am an advocate pro-advocate of the opening quote by the Buddha at the top of the page, I have on occasion run into situations where it just doesn't fit within the boundaries of how to accomplish the goals one is trying to accomplish. Typically those occasions fell under the sphere of a tribal culture. For me, most typically, a variety of Native American cultures of the desert southwest.
From Enlightenment onward the Buddha was a non-veering supporter and advocate of the implied intent of the opening quote as so shown at the top of the page. However, not all religions, cultures and spiritual beliefs back or practice such a concept in whole or in part --- not even some that fall within the boundaries of Buddhism itself.
"As you may have noticed, during my experience, nearly every precept put forward in the quote at the top of the page attributed to the Buddha and texts that may have followed, such as sleeping on the ground, the repetition of prayers, penances, hymns, charms, mantras, incantations and invocations have been in one way or the other, violated."
MEDITATION APPS
The past several years has seen a proliferation of smartphone meditation apps come on the market, all designed in such a way to ease, assist, familiarize, and put into use meditation techniques for almost anybody interested in learning and implementing the various ins-and-outs of meditation, at least as the manufacturers of the apps view meditation.
Beyond the manufacturers advertisement and promotions, for every page that shows up on the internet or elsewhere in support of using the apps, there is an equal number of pages knocking their use. What the knocking their use people are selling varies, but the in support folk seem to be in line with the app builders and promoters because if nothing else, the apps sell --- and sell big time, especially so the two top brands, Headspace and Calm.
People use all kinds of things to enhance or increase their ability to accomplish things. They wear glasses to improve the clarity of their physical vision. Some use dental implants and dentures to chew, eat, or look better. The same for the use of prosthetics, crutches, canes, or wheelchairs. They help people get things done and walk or move about who otherwise might not be able to. But, if glasses to read or see aren't needed, or implants or dentures, or canes, crutches, or wheelchairs, why use them? Initially, with meditation, other than a coming to know what meditation is and what it can do if you do it, nothing much than the desire to do so and then doing it is required Painting legs on a snake doesn't make it walk any better. Electronically painting photon-pushing meditation legs to swath your synapses with trompe l'oeil may be for some, better than nothing. However, and this is one of the biggest however's ever, it is that better than nothing that makes it not, not nothing, the goal of meditation.
HEADSPACE OR CALM FOR MEDITATION: NEEDED OR NOT NEEDED?
AND NOW THIS:
A rather interesting phenomenon is how universal The Three Poisons, The Five Hindrances and similar such things are when compared to a wide variety of general code-like precepts that have arisen throughout humankind since emergence out of the ooze. Starting with the more exalted Noble Eightfold Path of the Buddha to the possibly more boots on the ground Cowboy Code of the West, without ever hearing about the Buddha or Buddhism or truly knowing it, for me the groundwork was being laid for a future acceptance and Enlightenment. Through those early precepts I was somehow able to innately grasp as a young boy, before I even knew there were more exalted forms, that there was a common thread that runs through them all.
As an example, and with absolutely no intention toward proselytizing or preaching, but only to illustrate the universal similarities most of the Codes, if not all, align in some way to the precepts as laid down by the Buddha thousands of years ago please note how close the The Five Hindrances are with the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man as found in Captain Marvel.
Even Billy Batson, as I learned as a very young boy, on his way to becoming Captain Marvel, as depicted in his origins, was paraded through a cavern graphically carved with the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man:
PRIDE, ENVY, GREED, HATRED, SELFISHNESS, LAZINESS AND INJUSTICE
BILLY BATSON MOMENTS BEFORE THE ANCIENT MAN GRANTS HIM THE POWERS TO BECOME CAPTAIN MARVEL
GOING BY THE CARVED DIPICTIONS OF PRIDE, ENVY, GREED, HATRED, SELFISHNESS, LAZINESS AND INJUSTICE.
KUAN YIN, SHAMBHALA, AND
OM MANI PADME HUM
THE COMPASSIONATE SAVIOURESS
(please click image)
DOING HARD TIME IN A ZEN MONASTERY
THE CODE MAKER, THE ZEN MAKER
OF SHANGRI-LA, SHAMBHALA, GYANGANJ, BUDDHISM AND ZEN
Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.
(PLEASE CLICK)
THE ZEN-MAN FLIES
Let Me Travel Through the Air Like a Winged Bird
(please click image)
ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL
30 MINUTES TO ENLIGHTENMENT
CODE OF ETHICS FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDES
SPIRITUAL GUIDES: PASS OR FAIL?
CLICK
HERE FOR
ENLIGHTENMENT
ON THE RAZOR'S
EDGE
PRESENTED THROUGH THE COURTESY OF:
the Wanderling
AND
Hsi-Lai Temple
3456 S. Glenmark Dr.,
Hacienda Hts., CA 91745
NOTE:-- It is thought at one time the
author of this paper was associated
with the above temple. Her present
whereabouts is unknown.
There are two main groups of precepts: the Three Pure Precepts (not creating evil, practicing good, and actualizing good for others) which correspond to an ancient standard Mahayana formulation, and the Ten Grave Precepts which consist of the standard Five Precepts, Sila (against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and taking intoxicants), together with a further set of five which are said to be formulated more specific to Zen. The First Four are included in the Patimokkha and are called The Four Parajikas, that is, the four major rules of conduct. If a MONK breaks even just ONE of the four rules of the Parajikas he is, not just can be, but IS, expelled from the Community for LIFE.
THE FIVE PRECEPTS
1. Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.2. Adinnadana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.3. Kamesu micchacara veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct. (see)4. Musavada veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.5. Suramerayamajja pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.
SEE ALSO:
THE PRACTICE OF BODHISATTVA PRECEPTS
"I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct." For some, this might mean celibacy, particularly for monks of the Northern Mountain Order. In other cases, not. The point is that all is original purity and dignity. In the light of this, how can we seduce or coerce another against their will? How can we sink our awareness into obsessiveness over glands and glamour? Sexual love arises clearly and purely between two persons. It is openness and warmth and communication. How can we choose to defile such an act with pettiness? How can we take something so simple and attach to it images of coersion, dominance and power and submission (and latex and whips and hard-core)? CAN HOUSEHOLDERS INDULGE IN SENSUOUS PLEASURES?
The TEXT(*) only says that 'one who has gone forth from the worldly life should not indulge in sensuous pleasures'. The question, therefore, arises whether ordinary householders who remain amidst the worldly surroundings could freely pursue sensuous pleasures without any restraint. Since the gratification of sense desires is the pre-occupation of common people, it would be pointless to enjoin them from doing so. But the householder intent on practising the Noble Dharma, should advisedly avoid these pleasures to the extent necessary for the practice. Observance of The Five Precepts requires abstaining from any participation in sexual misconduct. Likewise, possession of worldly goods should not be sought through killing, theft or deceit. (*)THE GREAT DISCOURSE ON THE WHEEL OF DHAMMA PART II
Bodhidharma: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of
the ungilded Dharma, not creating a veneer of attachment is called the
Precept of Not Misusing Sex.
Dogen Zenji: The Three Wheels are pure and clear. When you have nothing
to desire, you follow the way of all Buddhas.
(Delivered on the 6th Waxing Day of Thadingyut, 1324, B.E)
