From: khoo hock aun (hockaun@pc.jaring.my)
Date: Tue Feb 10 2004 - 11:02:03 GMT
Steve wrote:
> Mark, did you know that he Dalai Lama considers homosexuality to be
immoral?
> He feels the same way about standing behind a pint.
>
> Every religion has it's dogma as does every culture. Buddhism appears
> uniquely willing to look at it's dogma ( at least from where I stand), but
> it's still there. I think that Westerner's only get the best of Buddhism
> (in other words, its most intellectual version is what gets exported)
since
> they get it from books rather than through their upbringing. I often wish
I
> had been born into a Buddhist family instead of a Christian one since I
find
> Buddhism much more intellectually appealing, but I wonder if I would have
> bristled at its dogma, too.
Dear Steve
I do find it interesting to note that you wish were born into a Buddhist
family instead of a Christian one; given that karmically, we find ourselves
in homes that are by extension the result of our trajectory across the
planes of existence.
As discussed elsewhere on this thread, there are no fixed categories of
christians or buddhists; there are intellectual and social varieties of each
and you would be fortunate to end up in a buddhist family with parents
inclined to Buddhist philosophy and practice. Or vice versa, your ignorant
parents would be so lucky to have you as a child, so perceptive and aware of
the universe as it is, that you could be the next dalai lama !
It is not an article of faith to have to believe in buddhist cosmology. You
may doubt any part of its worldviews as you wish and take whatever that
works for you. Take the 31 planes of existence for instance. In the one
plane mankind exists on, where our mind and physical body appears in a
combination that enables transformation into nirvana to take place. As for
the 30 other planes, mind and matter combine in various permutations
yielding existences ordinarily interpreted as heaven or hell states.
Geomantically, your birth date and place are but your worm-hole entry
co-ordinates into this plane's space-time continuum. Your death date and
place your worm-hole point of departure and entry co-ordinates to the next
plane of existence. Every entry and every departure has a karmic trajectory
fueled each action that you take at each point in time. Your life's
circumstances has been pre-determined by your past actions and your next
stop will be determined by what you do today.
In a nutshell, this is the most appealing explanation of the universe
offered me and the absolute moral criteria for behaviour for all beings on
all 31 planes of existence, whether they be humans, gods or demons is the
karmic value of their actions. Insist on your individuality as an
intellectual or sensual entity and you become transformed from one self into
another lifetime after lifetime. Recognise your individuality for what it
is - a mere microcosmic aggregation of the whole subconsciously propelled to
perpetuate itself - and we achieve metaphysical insight. When we stop doing
or become aware of what we are doing that is reflex, we see our "selves"
struggling to catch up with the rest of the universe - this we do when are
mindful when we meditate.
I know of no dogma in buddhism that is forced upon us. Even if there were I
would be free to reject it. An ordinary layperson is recommended 5 precepts
to enhance karmic virtue. A novice monk ten precepts. A fully ordained monk
in the theravada tradition 227. These are dogmas of practice - agreed upon
after the Buddha's own practice and centuries of experience an the objective
is to extinguish all karmic momentum, even within this lifetime. If it is
your time and the conditions have been attained, you could be a walking
living arahant on this human plane - as there are a number around us.
While the same practices with minor modifications, being total vegetarians
being one, pervades the mahayana tradition, the emphasis is on navigating
the bardos. The moment of death is an especially important one - your
departure from this plane as your body, including the mind, is dismantled.
In the bardo in between your dying and your next becoming, if you become
aware of where you are and decide not to born again, that is where you will
remain metaphysic forever. All effort in the mahayana tradition is focussed
on achieving this frame of mind at the moment of death, failing which the
next best thing is to choose wisely, if you can, your next birth in the
bardo of becoming.
And if what I have just said is dogma, forced upon me, I will trash it !
Best regards
Khoo Hock Aun
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