The Characteristics of Life
The more I study religion…
If what you do doesn’t appear to make a difference then perhaps it doesn’t.
It is believed that as Lord Buddha moved ahead on the path of Enlightenment, He remembered all of his previous lives. In Buddhism, life is considered as a ‘samsara’, which means continuous roving. Often known as reincarnation, rather than rebirth, the theory implies the transfer of the essence or the soul. It does not follow the law of causality or dependant origination, like in rebirth. The main aim of Buddhism is to break away the circle of samsara and reach a new level, known as Nirvana. Lord Buddha reached the state of nirvana at the time of His enlightenment. After experiencing nirvana Himself, He decided to teach others the path to the same. According to Him, nirvana should be the ultimate goal of every individual. Forty-five years later, when He died, He passed through pari nirvana, the complete nirvana. Nirvana literally means extinguishing or unbinding. However, in Buddhism, nirvana means freedom from the constant cravings that we experience in life. It means freedom everything that leads us to dissatisfaction, like desire, jealousy, greed, ignorance, etc. After a person attains this sense of freedom, he moves into a state of total ecstasy. All karmic debts get settled and he doesn’t need to go through the cycle of birth and death again.
(Source: buddhist-temples.com)
Live in the now!
(Source: asia.si.edu)
Is it alright to have prayer in schools? What if it was used as a tool to teach children about other religions?
(Source: viewonbuddhism.org)
The basic problem according to Buddhism, is that emotions like anger and hatred are based on projections and exaggeration, not on objectivity or wisdom, and thus basically incorrect. There is little need to explain what anger and hatred do to ourselves by means of the laws of karma; the misery we cause others will come back at ourselves. Nobody wants suffering, so next is a summary of methods which can not only reduce but even eliminate anger and hatred from our minds. It must be emphasise that to completely eliminate these negative emotions from our mind is a lengthy psychological process, requiring study, mindfulness, reflection and honest observation of one’s own mind. To begin with, meditation is an ideal method to review a situation in which one became angry (see the page on meditation). This has the advantage that one is not exposed to the actual situation, but one can review it much more objectively. When regular meditation gives some insight into what anger is and what happens to oneself when feeling angry, then one can gradually try to apply it in real-life situations, preferably of course before one is already under complete control of anger. It is a slow process, but the change in your life and the ones around you can profoundly change for the better.
As His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentioned: “When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness.”
Is anger or hatred ever justified? A direct answer from Allan Wallace in ‘Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground up’: “‘Righteous hatred’ is in the same category as ‘righteous cancer’or ‘righteous tuberculosis’. All of them are absurd concepts.” This does not mean that one should never take action against aggression or injustice! Instead, one should try to develop an inner calmness and insight to deal with these situations in an appropriate way. We all know that anger and aggression give rise to anger and aggression. One could say that there are three ways to get rid of anger: kill the opponent, kill yourself or kill the anger - which one makes most sense to you?”
And as Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche mentioned: “Some people feel patience is showing weakness or pessimism. But, actually, patience shows the strength and clarity of mind, which are based on wisdom and compassion. Without proper wisdom and compassion, one cannot practice patience.”
But of course not only Buddhism recognises the shortcomings of anger, in the Bible for example in Psalm 37, 14-16 it reads: “The angry ones draw their swords, the angry ones aim their bows To put down the poor and the weakened and to kill those who walk on the path of righteousness. But their sword hits their own heart, their bows will be broken. With his poverty, the righteous one is richer than all the angry ones in their abundance.”
(Source: viewonbuddhism.org)
Once upon a time there was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. But gradually, the number of daily nails dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the first day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He proudly told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry’, the wound is still there.”
(Source: viewonbuddhism.org)
