Spiritual teacher Adyashanti describes how in the development of human consciousness, there comes a shift from a sense of a separate self toward the experience of unity. He points out that the fear of losing our individual identity keeps us from making this shift, and by confronting our fear we come into love. Adyashanti also suggests that reaching a point of crisis can allow an opportunity for consciousness to shift, individually and collectively.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Shift From A Separate Self To Unity (Video)
Spiritual teacher Adyashanti describes how in the development of human consciousness, there comes a shift from a sense of a separate self toward the experience of unity. He points out that the fear of losing our individual identity keeps us from making this shift, and by confronting our fear we come into love. Adyashanti also suggests that reaching a point of crisis can allow an opportunity for consciousness to shift, individually and collectively.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Adyashanti Awakening (Video)
Adyashanti 'Awakening' interview by Renate McNay
Adyashanti’s nondual teachings have been compared to those of the early Zen masters and Advaita Vedanta sages. Expressing both the infinite possibilities and the ordinary simplicity of a spiritually realized life, Adyashanti’s teachings are directed to those who are sincerely called to awaken to their true nature and embody this life-changing realization.
Website: Adyashanti
5 Types Of Religion (Video)
Ajahn Brahm talks about 4 things that religion should not be and offers up a "best practice model". In his usual entertaining style he touches on many things including disability and organ donation...
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Underlying Current
There is an underlying current—underneath all of the anger,
frustration, bitterness, hate, and violence—this current is what is churning
within us, our desires, passions, superficialities, the sense of lack and the
need for more—more material objects, more money, more fame, more fortune, more
recognition, more stuff to attempt to fill that void that is within us.
Pick up an object right now. It can be anything, a vase, a
chair—anything. Now, if you had more of that object, would you feel better?
Maybe, if they were in different colors? If you had 10, 20, 50, 100, a 1000 of
them—do you think you would feel better? No, you wouldn’t. You would have
numerous amounts of them, but you would still feel the same way about yourself
as you did when you had just one or even none of them.
Our society has to change—from a selfish, self-centered one,
to a compassionate and giving one, starting with our families and the way we
treat one another. The majority of our society, especially in the West, lives
from the ego (the false idea of oneself) instead of from the heart, where
celebrity, status, and wealth are cherished and sought after. People cannot
live joyful and peaceful lives with themselves, with others, with their
families, nor can humanity come together, united as one global family, when
they are constantly competing with each other.
I do not see much change happening in the world as far as
lessening the focus off of our egos, and becoming more selfless, more
compassionate; however, it is possible to turn this world around, but it starts
with each individual, starting with our families, being present and selfless in
all of our actions and interactions with others.
If you do not think that ego is a problem, then you choose
pain and suffering over peace. You are a part of the unconscious majority that
chooses to cling to living a separate life a part from the rest of the world.
When you choose to remain in the egoic state of consciousness, of what's in it
for me, of competition, power, and wealth, status and recognition—when you
idolize celebrities, would rather hoard than give, and when you choose to turn
a blind eye to children and families who are—still, to this day, senselessly
starving to death in Africa—this is the result, the outcome, of where our
consciousness is at, the underlying current, that results in children and
families starving to death.
Here is another example of the aftereffects of the
underlying current: I have never seen pictures of children who were physically
abused until I visited Petro Neagu’s blog today. It was the most horrific thing
I have ever seen! Most of them, were babies and toddlers. It appeared that one
of the children had passed on. She was under a sheet, lying on the floor with a
pillow under her head, as though she was sleeping, but in shades of blue. It is
deeply saddening and disturbing to see such extreme physical violence against
children. If you want to become actively involved in helping to prevent child
abuse or if you think your life is hard and you find yourself complaining about
how nothing ever goes right for you, nothing ever good happens in your life,
visit her website and read this article:
In order to wake-up and come to the understanding of what we
need to do to turn this world around, all we have to do is watch our kids. What
our kids care about, tells us what we care about. If all they care about are
celebrities and becoming famous, then we’re in trouble, on a personal level and
a societal level. It is our responsibility to teach our children life lessons
that will, not only, be beneficial for them as they are growing up into adults,
but that will also benefit our society as well—everyone that they come into
contact with. One of the main ways children can learn to be more compassionate
is to actively do volunteer work, taking the focus off of themselves and
helping others in need. Otherwise, they are just sitting around playing their
video games, gossiping online, or watching movies and—guess what, they grow up
to be adults just like you and me, and when they don’t get what they want, they
lash out at others, verbally and many times through physical violence.
Our society has to change, from an always getting mentality
to an always giving mentality. Otherwise, we not only contribute to our own
pain and suffering, but we also contribute to the pain and suffering of
humanity. As long as people continue to remain passionate about all things
superficial, nothing is ever going to change. The level of consciousness of
this planet will never rise any higher than it is and we will continue to
remain stuck in this egoic state of consciousness of endless amounts of pain
and suffering.
When you see violence on TV, or on the internet, or you hear
about it from someone, you can’t just think, “They need to be put away, to be
brought to justice,” because, it’s not just their problem, it’s our problem.
It’s the underlying current of faulty and false ideas, notions, and perceptions
about ourselves and others, our clinging to material objects, greed and
selfishness, that drives this kind of behavior. When there is inequality and
greed, people suffer, families suffer. They suffer from poverty, starvation,
and homelessness. It’s that underlying current that bubbles up to the surface.
Until the current changes and we start to live consciously—egoless—selfless
lives, where humanity is more important than ourselves, the issue of violence
and unrest will continue to rage on.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
said it best, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly
sick society.”
So, we have to wake-up from the dream of illusion and
delusion, the societal illness, the norm, to see reality and what no longer
serves us, humanity, living beings, the earth—but, to wake-up from it, you have
to see it, a light bulb has to go off in your head. You have to be sick and
tired of the way it is, the way your life is, the way life is, the way humanity
is. When you’ve had enough of pain and suffering and cannot continue on any
longer, that is when you are given the opportunity to wake-up.
You either wake-up or check out. And sometimes, you need to
check out, temporarily, to wake-up, because you are surely not going to do it
if you continue to go to work, play, and hangout at the fishing hole of
delusion, where you will find the majority.
I see and hear people complaining all of the time about the
system, the government, the corporations, Wall Street; however, these same
people are still actively shopping and buying the products and services of
these corporations. We have the power. The consumer has the power. If it wasn’t
for us, those greedy corporations would not be where they are today. They would
not be lobbying the government, because they would have no money. We have to
wake-up. Even while most of us have had enough, we are still ignorant to what
we are doing to ourselves. Instead of blaming, we have to be accountable for
the choices that we make. This is not to say stop buying
merchandise—no—research the corporations that make the product and offer the
services and the financial institutions that you are investing your money in,
first. If they are destroying the environment on a major scale, if they are
involved in child labor, if they are creating more unemployment, so that people
end up homeless, etc. don’t buy their products or services anymore. It’s
simple. Even better, buy your products from small, mom and pop businesses, as
opposed to the major corporations, which own most of the products you see on
the shelves.
If you want change, you have to open your eyes and see what
the real problem is and quit looking at the surface level of appearances. You
have to dive deep and take action that lessens the problem and does not
contribute to the problem.
If We Really Want
Change,
We Have to Wake-Up to
Reality,
But, Not Just
Wake-Up,
We Have To Take
Action.
The Violence Is Not
The Focus.
The Underlying
Current Is.
Copyright © 2012
Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved
Image licensed under
Bigstockphoto.com
Feel free to add a
comment, if there is anything that you would like to add or any experiences
that you would care to share.
Message To Humanity ~Kali Baaba
"There is no duality. In other words, there's no this way completely opposite and separate from that way. When you say duality, you say separation. No human being and no religion and no dharma is separate from another. They're different facets, different aspects. They are like grains of sand, but each grain of sand is different, but together they make the beach, and the beach serves the ocean and is served by the ocean; so, we must remember that there is no separation."
~Kali Baaba
Order: What Is Order In Freedom?
As one observes all over the world, there is such extraordinary disorder.
Jiddu Krishnamurti Conversation with Dr. Allan W. Anderson San Diego, California 1974
Krishnamurti: The East, especially in India, they said measurement is an illusion, to find the immeasurable the measurement must come to an end. Reality is immeasurable. The measurement can never find, a mind that is measuring, a mind that is caught in measurement cannot find truth.
Krishnamurti begins discussing duality (for example: good/bad, right/wrong, poor/rich, smart/stupid), this as opposed to that, measurement, comparison, division, separation, disorder, and the fragmentation of thought starting at 0:17:00 of the video.
Excerpt from the video:
A Wholly Different Way of Living - Excerpt
J. Krishnamurti - Fifth Dialogue with Dr Allan W. Anderson in San Diego, California, February 1974
K: Can one educate a student to live a life of non comparison - bigger car, lesser car, you follow?
A: Yes.
K: Dull, you are clever, I am not clever. What happens if I don't compare at all? Will I become dull?
A: On the contrary.
K: I'm only dull, I know I'm dull only through comparison. If I don't compare, I don't know what I am. Then I begin from there.
A: Yes, yes. The world becomes infinitely accessible.
K: Oh, then the whole thing becomes extraordinarily different. There is no competition, there is no anxiety, there is no conflict with each other.
A: This is why you use the word total often, isn't it?
K: Yes.
A: In order to express that there's nothing drawn out from one condition to the other. There is no link there, there is no bridge there. Totally disordered. Totally order.
K: Absolutely.
A: Yes, and you use the word 'absolute' often, which terrifies many people today.
K: Sir, after all mathematics is order. The highest form of mathematical investigation, you must have a mind that is totally orderly.
A: The marvellous thing about maths too, is that whereas it's the study of quantity, you don't make passage from one integer to another by two getting larger. Two stops at two. Two and a half is no more two. Somehow that's the case.
K: Yes.
A: But a child when he is taught mathematics is never introduced to that - that I've ever heard of.
K: You see, sir, our teaching, our everything is so absurd. Is it possible, sir, to observe this movement of disorder, with a mind that is disorderly itself, and say, can this mind observe disorder, this mind which is already in a state of disorder. So disorder isn't out there but in here. Now can the mind observe that disorder without introducing a factor of an observer who is orderly?
A: Who will superimpose.
K: Yes. Therefore observe, perceive disorder without the perceiver. I don't know if I am making sense at all.
A: Yes, yes you are, yes you are making sense.
K: That is, sir, to understand disorder we think an orderly mind is necessary.
A: As over against the disorderly mind.
K: Disorderly mind. But the mind itself has created this disorder, which is thought and all the rest of it. So can the mind not look at disorder out there, but at the maker of disorder which is in here?
A: Which is itself the very mind as disorder.
K: Mind itself is disordered.
A: Yes. But as soon as that is stated conceptually...
K: No, no. Concepts are finished.
A: Yes. But we are using words.
K: We are using words to communicate.
A: Exactly. What I'm concerned with, just for a second, is what are we going to say when we hear the statement that it is the disordered mind that keeps proliferating disorder, but it is that disordered mind that must see, it must see.
K: I'm going to show you, you will see in a minute what takes place. Disorder is not outside of me, disorder is inside of me. That's a fact. Because the mind is disorderly all its activities must be disorderly. And the activities of disorder is proliferating or is moving in the world. Now can this mind observe itself without introducing the factor of an orderly mind, which is the opposite?
A: Yes it is. Of course it is the opposite.
K: So can it observe without the observer who is the opposite?
A: That's the question.
K: Now watch it, sir, if you are really interested in it.
A: I am. I am deeply interested in it.
K: If you will see. The observer is the observed. The observer who says, I am orderly, and I must put order in disorder. That is generally what takes place. But the observer is the factor of disorder. Because the observer is the past, is the factor of division. Where there is division there is not only conflict but disorder. You can see, sir, it is happening actually in the world. I mean all this problem of energy, all this problem of law, peace, and all the rest, can be solved absolutely when there are not separate governments, sovereign armies, and say, look let's solve this problem all together, for god's sake. We are human beings. This earth is meant for us to live on - not Arabs and Israelis, and America and Russia - it is our earth.
A: And it's round.
K: But we will never do this because our minds are so conditioned to live in disorder, to live in conflict.
A: And vocation is given a religious description in terms of the task of cleaning up the disorder with my idea of order.
K: Your idea of order is the fact that has produced disorder.
A: Exactly.
K: So, it brings up a question, sir, which is very interesting: can the mind observe itself without the observer? Because the observer is the observed. The observer who says, 'I will bring order in disorder', that observer itself is a fragment of disorder, therefore it can never bring about order. So can the mind be aware of itself as a movement of disorder, not trying to correct it, not trying to justify it, not trying to shape it, just to observe? I said previously to observe, sitting on the banks of a river and watch the waters go by. You see, then you see much more. But if you are in the middle of it swimming you will see nothing.
A: I've never forgotten that it was when I stopped questioning, when I stood before that droplet of dew on the leaf, that everything changed totally, totally. And what you say is true. Once something like that happens there isn't a regression from it.
K: Sir, it is not once, it is...
A: ...forever. Yes.
K: It's not an incident that took place. My life is not an incident, it is a movement.
A: Exactly.
K: And in that movement I observe this movement of disorder. And therefore the mind itself is disorderly and how can that disorderly, chaotic, contradictory, absurd little mind bring about order? It can't. Therefore a new factor is necessary. And the new factor is to observe, to perceive, to see without the perceiver.
A: To perceive without the perceiver. To perceive without the perceiver.
K: Because the perceiver is the perceived.
A: Yes.
K: If you once grasp that then you see everything without the perceiver. You don't bring in your personality, your ego, your selfishness. You say, 'Disorder is the factor which is in me, not out there'. The politicians are trying to bring about order when they are themselves so corrupt. You follow, sir? How can they bring order?
A: It's impossible. It's impossible. It's one long series of...
K: That's what's happening in the world. The politicians are ruling the world - from Moscow, from New Delhi, from Washington, wherever it is - it's the same pattern being repeated. Living a chaotic, corrupt life, you try to bring order in the world. It's childish. So that's why transformation of the mind is not your mind or my mind, it's the mind, the human mind.
A: Or the mind trying to order itself, even. Not even that.
K: Now how can it, it is like a blind man trying to bring about colour. And he says, well that's grey. It has no meaning. So can the mind observe this disorder in itself without the observer who has created disorder? Sir, this brings up a very simple thing. To look at a tree, at a woman, at a mountain, at a bird, or a sheet of water with the light on it, the beauty of it, to look without the see-er. Because the moment the see-er comes in, the observer comes in, he divides. And division is all right as long as it's descriptive. But when you are living, living, that division is destructive. I don't know if you know what I mean...
Jiddu Krishnamurti Conversation with Dr. Allan W. Anderson San Diego, California 1974
Krishnamurti: The East, especially in India, they said measurement is an illusion, to find the immeasurable the measurement must come to an end. Reality is immeasurable. The measurement can never find, a mind that is measuring, a mind that is caught in measurement cannot find truth.
Krishnamurti begins discussing duality (for example: good/bad, right/wrong, poor/rich, smart/stupid), this as opposed to that, measurement, comparison, division, separation, disorder, and the fragmentation of thought starting at 0:17:00 of the video.
A Wholly Different Way of Living - Excerpt
J. Krishnamurti - Fifth Dialogue with Dr Allan W. Anderson in San Diego, California, February 1974
K: Can one educate a student to live a life of non comparison - bigger car, lesser car, you follow?
A: Yes.
K: Dull, you are clever, I am not clever. What happens if I don't compare at all? Will I become dull?
A: On the contrary.
K: I'm only dull, I know I'm dull only through comparison. If I don't compare, I don't know what I am. Then I begin from there.
A: Yes, yes. The world becomes infinitely accessible.
K: Oh, then the whole thing becomes extraordinarily different. There is no competition, there is no anxiety, there is no conflict with each other.
A: This is why you use the word total often, isn't it?
K: Yes.
A: In order to express that there's nothing drawn out from one condition to the other. There is no link there, there is no bridge there. Totally disordered. Totally order.
K: Absolutely.
A: Yes, and you use the word 'absolute' often, which terrifies many people today.
K: Sir, after all mathematics is order. The highest form of mathematical investigation, you must have a mind that is totally orderly.
A: The marvellous thing about maths too, is that whereas it's the study of quantity, you don't make passage from one integer to another by two getting larger. Two stops at two. Two and a half is no more two. Somehow that's the case.
K: Yes.
A: But a child when he is taught mathematics is never introduced to that - that I've ever heard of.
K: You see, sir, our teaching, our everything is so absurd. Is it possible, sir, to observe this movement of disorder, with a mind that is disorderly itself, and say, can this mind observe disorder, this mind which is already in a state of disorder. So disorder isn't out there but in here. Now can the mind observe that disorder without introducing a factor of an observer who is orderly?
A: Who will superimpose.
K: Yes. Therefore observe, perceive disorder without the perceiver. I don't know if I am making sense at all.
A: Yes, yes you are, yes you are making sense.
K: That is, sir, to understand disorder we think an orderly mind is necessary.
A: As over against the disorderly mind.
K: Disorderly mind. But the mind itself has created this disorder, which is thought and all the rest of it. So can the mind not look at disorder out there, but at the maker of disorder which is in here?
A: Which is itself the very mind as disorder.
K: Mind itself is disordered.
A: Yes. But as soon as that is stated conceptually...
K: No, no. Concepts are finished.
A: Yes. But we are using words.
K: We are using words to communicate.
A: Exactly. What I'm concerned with, just for a second, is what are we going to say when we hear the statement that it is the disordered mind that keeps proliferating disorder, but it is that disordered mind that must see, it must see.
K: I'm going to show you, you will see in a minute what takes place. Disorder is not outside of me, disorder is inside of me. That's a fact. Because the mind is disorderly all its activities must be disorderly. And the activities of disorder is proliferating or is moving in the world. Now can this mind observe itself without introducing the factor of an orderly mind, which is the opposite?
A: Yes it is. Of course it is the opposite.
K: So can it observe without the observer who is the opposite?
A: That's the question.
K: Now watch it, sir, if you are really interested in it.
A: I am. I am deeply interested in it.
K: If you will see. The observer is the observed. The observer who says, I am orderly, and I must put order in disorder. That is generally what takes place. But the observer is the factor of disorder. Because the observer is the past, is the factor of division. Where there is division there is not only conflict but disorder. You can see, sir, it is happening actually in the world. I mean all this problem of energy, all this problem of law, peace, and all the rest, can be solved absolutely when there are not separate governments, sovereign armies, and say, look let's solve this problem all together, for god's sake. We are human beings. This earth is meant for us to live on - not Arabs and Israelis, and America and Russia - it is our earth.
A: And it's round.
K: But we will never do this because our minds are so conditioned to live in disorder, to live in conflict.
A: And vocation is given a religious description in terms of the task of cleaning up the disorder with my idea of order.
K: Your idea of order is the fact that has produced disorder.
A: Exactly.
K: So, it brings up a question, sir, which is very interesting: can the mind observe itself without the observer? Because the observer is the observed. The observer who says, 'I will bring order in disorder', that observer itself is a fragment of disorder, therefore it can never bring about order. So can the mind be aware of itself as a movement of disorder, not trying to correct it, not trying to justify it, not trying to shape it, just to observe? I said previously to observe, sitting on the banks of a river and watch the waters go by. You see, then you see much more. But if you are in the middle of it swimming you will see nothing.
A: I've never forgotten that it was when I stopped questioning, when I stood before that droplet of dew on the leaf, that everything changed totally, totally. And what you say is true. Once something like that happens there isn't a regression from it.
K: Sir, it is not once, it is...
A: ...forever. Yes.
K: It's not an incident that took place. My life is not an incident, it is a movement.
A: Exactly.
K: And in that movement I observe this movement of disorder. And therefore the mind itself is disorderly and how can that disorderly, chaotic, contradictory, absurd little mind bring about order? It can't. Therefore a new factor is necessary. And the new factor is to observe, to perceive, to see without the perceiver.
A: To perceive without the perceiver. To perceive without the perceiver.
K: Because the perceiver is the perceived.
A: Yes.
K: If you once grasp that then you see everything without the perceiver. You don't bring in your personality, your ego, your selfishness. You say, 'Disorder is the factor which is in me, not out there'. The politicians are trying to bring about order when they are themselves so corrupt. You follow, sir? How can they bring order?
A: It's impossible. It's impossible. It's one long series of...
K: That's what's happening in the world. The politicians are ruling the world - from Moscow, from New Delhi, from Washington, wherever it is - it's the same pattern being repeated. Living a chaotic, corrupt life, you try to bring order in the world. It's childish. So that's why transformation of the mind is not your mind or my mind, it's the mind, the human mind.
A: Or the mind trying to order itself, even. Not even that.
K: Now how can it, it is like a blind man trying to bring about colour. And he says, well that's grey. It has no meaning. So can the mind observe this disorder in itself without the observer who has created disorder? Sir, this brings up a very simple thing. To look at a tree, at a woman, at a mountain, at a bird, or a sheet of water with the light on it, the beauty of it, to look without the see-er. Because the moment the see-er comes in, the observer comes in, he divides. And division is all right as long as it's descriptive. But when you are living, living, that division is destructive. I don't know if you know what I mean...
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Inability to Tame the Mind: Monk Radio
Ask questions at our live radio session every Sunday:
http://radio.sirimangalo.org/
or via our Question and Answer Forum:
http://ask.sirimangalo.org/
Monday, April 16, 2012
Living Life On Emotional Auto-Pilot
By Pamela J. Wells
Feel free to add a comment, if there is anything that you would like to add or any experiences that you would care to share.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Inspirational 108 Year Old Woman Survivor of a Nazi Concentration Camp
Alice Herz-Sommer was born in 1903 in Prague—the Prague of the Hapsburgs and of Franz Kafka, a family friend. Musically very gifted, by her mid-teens Alice was one of the best-known pianists in Prague. But as the Nazis swept across Europe her comfortable, bourgeois world began to crumble around her, as anti-Jewish feeling not only intensified but was legitimized. In 1942, Alice's mother was deported. Desperately unhappy, she resolved to learn Chopin's 24 Etudes—the most technically demanding piano pieces she knew—and the complex but beautiful music saved her sanity. A year later, she, too—together with her husband and their six-year-old son—was deported to a concentration camp. But even in Theresienstadt, music was her salvation and in the course of more than 100 concerts she gave her fellow prisoners hope in a world of pain and death. This is her remarkable story, but it is also the story of a mother's struggle to create a happy childhood for her beloved only son in the midst of atrocity and barbarism. Of 15,000 children sent to the camp, Raphael was one of the 130 who survived. Today, Alice Herz-Sommer lives in London and she still plays the piano every day.
The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism
By Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh (From the book Interbeing)
2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
3. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.
4. Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
6. Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
7. Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
8. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
12. Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
13. Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
14. Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.
________________________________________________________________________________
From the book 'Interbeing': Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, revised edition: Oct. l993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California
Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and the author of Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness, and many other books. He lives in a monastic community in south-western France called Plum Village, where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees world-wide. He conducts retreats throughout the world on the art of mindful living, and has conducted special retreats for American Vietnam War veterans, psychotherapists, artists, environmental activists and children.
Monday, April 2, 2012
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