Greetings from Pennsylvania

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shipwright
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Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:48 pm

Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by shipwright »

Hello Everyone. It is a pleasure to finally introduce myself. I have been a casual visitor to DhammaWheel for some time now and learned a great deal from the myriad discussions on this forum. The hope now is that through active participation there will be much more wisdom to be had.

As a brief introduction… I am a relatively recent college graduate currently working in the finance industry (I am curious as to how the Buddha would have viewed modern finance in the context of Right Livelihood given what we all now know post 2008) while simultaneously back in school pursuing a graduate degree. In my early college years AccessToInsight was my best friend, but I am now happy to announce that this particle circle has expanded to include WisdomPubs the “Teachings of The Buddha” and now DhammaWheel.

I truly look forward to meeting and learning from all of you.
:hello:
...the cause, the germ, of the arising of dukkha is within dukkha itself, and not outside; and we must equally well remember that the cause, the germ, of the cessation of dukkha, of the destruction of dukkha, is also within dukkha itself, and not outside. -- Walpola Rahula, "What The Buddha Taught"
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bodom
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by bodom »

Welcome shipwright!

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Ben
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by Ben »

Hi Shipwright and welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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DNS
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by DNS »

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
:yingyang:
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Dhammanando
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by Dhammanando »

Hi Shipright,

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
shipwright wrote:(I am curious as to how the Buddha would have viewed modern finance in the context of Right Livelihood given what we all now know post 2008)
What is it that everyone (except me, it seems) now knows about modern finance post-2008?
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
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tiltbillings
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by tiltbillings »

WELCOME.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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cooran
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by cooran »

Welcome to DhammaWheel! :group:

with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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shipwright
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by shipwright »

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome.
Dhammanando wrote:
shipwright wrote:(I am curious as to how the Buddha would have viewed modern finance in the context of Right Livelihood given what we all now know post 2008)
What is it that everyone (except me, it seems) now knows about modern finance post-2008?
Dhammanando... I am afraid that a discussion on what went wrong with our modern finance and banking industry culminating in what has been called the “financial crisis” could quite possibly warrant an entire discussion forum all its own. But if one were to give a root cause it would be “greed”. Insatiable and never-ending greed.

If any of you would like some bedtime reading that is guaranteed to put you to sleep, below are some Wikipedia pages attempting to shed light on what happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_ ... %80%932008" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_scandal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...the cause, the germ, of the arising of dukkha is within dukkha itself, and not outside; and we must equally well remember that the cause, the germ, of the cessation of dukkha, of the destruction of dukkha, is also within dukkha itself, and not outside. -- Walpola Rahula, "What The Buddha Taught"
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Dhammanando
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by Dhammanando »

shipwright wrote:Dhammanando... I am afraid that a discussion on what went wrong with our modern finance and banking industry culminating in what has been called the “financial crisis” could quite possibly warrant an entire discussion forum all its own.
Well, thanks for the links. I scarcely followed world news at all in 2008.
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
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Jerrod Lopes
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by Jerrod Lopes »

Welcome to Dhammawheel. I'm pretty new here myself. I think we're in excellent company.

Insofar as what the Buddha said about finance; what I've read says that he strongly advised neither lending nor borrowing, but the associated work is not listed as wrong livelihood.

Again, welcome. Hope to see you around.
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shipwright
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Re: Greetings from Pennsylvania

Post by shipwright »

Dhammanando... I hope they were helpful. :D
Dhammanando wrote:I scarcely followed world news at all in 2008.
This is a very enviable position in so many ways. Often time’s world news and politics seem nothing more than the world’s biggest recurring soap opera… with the same themes, characters, and plot lines. Each time one thinks, “Surely we must have learned our lesson. Surely things will be different this time.” Unfortunately, all too often this is not the case.

Jerrod Lopes... Thank you for the warm welcome. Yes... I have already taken to reading some of your recent posts, very insightful. I look forward to seeing you around as well.
...the cause, the germ, of the arising of dukkha is within dukkha itself, and not outside; and we must equally well remember that the cause, the germ, of the cessation of dukkha, of the destruction of dukkha, is also within dukkha itself, and not outside. -- Walpola Rahula, "What The Buddha Taught"
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