On Apr 23, 1:10=A0pm, Robert Epstein <vze25...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> dkotsch...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> > On Apr 23, 10:30 am, Robert Epstein <vze25...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >>dkotsch...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>
> >>>On Apr 22, 6:14 pm, Tang Huyen <tanghuyen{dele...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >>>wrote:
>
> >>>>Dave K wrote:
>
> >>>>>Right. =A0There is no "change the world" vs. "change other people."
> >>>>>Thich Nhat Hahn said that the enemies are greed, anger, and
delusion,=
> >>>>>not people.
>
> >>>>>Seeing as it's earth day I think I can reveal my greenhouse gas
theor=
y
> >>>>>of Buddhism. =A0Greed, anger and delusion are like greenhouse
gasses.=
> >>>>>Our job is to reduce emissions. =A0The less the world has the
better.=
>
> >>>>>No bothering about who's emissions they are. =A0No bothering about
> >>>>>whether it's better to do this in a cave by yourself or to be a
> >>>>>"useful member of society" who also writes letters to congress and
> >>>>>goes to protests or whatever it is that people do to be useful
member=
s
> >>>>>of society.
>
> >>>>>Go plant something. =A0Then sit under it.
>
> >>>>Very noble feeling, and presumably very
> >>>>noble action to follow through with it.
> >>>>However would you take your feeling
> >>>>and action to be universally valid, beyond
> >>>>any question, iow would you attempt to
> >>>>impose them on everybody else?
>
> >>>>Tang Huyen
>
> >>>I wouldn't even know how to do that.
>
> >>>-DavK
>
> >>Good to see you in any case.
>
> >>If sitting under a tree is the solution,
> >>and people are not the problem,
> >>where does that leave sangha?
> >>where does that leave compassion?
>
> >>I prefer the razor's edge of the Diamond Sutra
> >>to an either/or solution:
>
> >>a. =A0"The bodhisattva saves countless beings."
> >>b. =A0"The boddhisattva does not allow the thought to arise
> >> =A0 =A0 =A0that he is saving countless beings."
> >>c. =A0"Even though countless beings are saved, in truth there are no
=A0=
=A0 =A0 =A0
> >> =A0 =A0 =A0beings,they are just called such."
>
> >>In other words, he acts without a sense of separate self, he acts
> >>without a sense of a separate other, yet he still does act
> >>compassionately and does not refrain from acting on behalf of others.
>
> > Hmm, it seems no-one is picking up on my metaphor. =A0Guess it needs
> > work.
>
> > -DaveK
>
> Why don't you explain it, since we are not of the "superior" type?
Well I was just letting it simmer in my brain for a bit so that maybe
I could explain it better. And I hate when I get too verbose because
then I sound like some prat who thinks he knows everything.
So it's just a theory. Greed anger and delusion are called the three
evil roots or three poisons. "Poisons" is more poetic and probably
better illustrative. We generate and emit these things into the
environment. They go into the environment where they mix with other
people's poisons. But they don't really belong to anybody, right? In
a practical sense we are the source, but they are really just out
there, floating around and mingling in the atmosphere.
So other people are subject to their own poison, but they're also
subject to mine. It's also like second hand smoke. Remember when
people used to debate about smoking bans? One person would say "well
it only hurts the smokers" and another person would say "No, that's
not right. Secondhand smoke is just as bad if not worse."
So I said that our job is to reduce emissions. You can't reduce other
people's emissions, but you can stop poisoning other people. So you
go off somewhere to work on yourself. You reduce your emissions. You
become less of a burden on the environment. There's no need to
deliberate about what belongs to who or if there are any beings or
not.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu is better at explaining it:
"If samsara were a place, it might seem selfish for one person to look
for an escape, leaving others behind. But when you realize that it's a
process, there's nothing selfish about stopping it at all. It's like
giving up an addiction or an abusive habit. When you learn the skills
needed to stop creating your own worlds of suffering, you can share
those skills with others so that they can stop creating theirs. At the
same time, you'll never have to feed off the worlds of others, so to
that extent you're lightening their load as well."
=46rom "Samsara"
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/samsa=
ra.html
=46rom this perspective, I'm not saying that it's futile to go to
protests, write letters to congresspersons, or whatever it is that
productive people do, but it'd be better to do such things with a
clear mind, wouldn't it?
-DaveK
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