Are you wearing skins?...

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

Let's face it; this world is filled with horror stories. Beneath the placid surface of a lake everything is busy eating everything else; in the quiet grasses and bushes insects prey on each other: the fly in the spider's web, the praying mantis eats her mate. Birds pull worms from the ground silently screaming. Animals stalk and devour one another. There's a species of small catfish in the amazon that travels in large swarms, tunnels insides its living prey, and eats it alive from the inside, leaving a hollow shell. Human beings have been found, hollowed out by these fish, riddled by bullet-sized holes. Even we're not exempt, lots of things will gladly eat us if we fall within their territory. Under certain circumstances, we've been known to eat each other.

This is Nature. It's utterly horrid.

Unlike other animals, humans have the ability to choose. We can decide, "Today, I won't eat my fellow animals." Or as Venerable points out, not wear its skin.

J
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
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appicchato
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by appicchato »

Bubbabuddhist wrote:...humans have the ability to choose. We can decide...
This is the bottom line...
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

Yes sir. Kamma, eh Bhante? :anjali:

J
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
PeterB
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by PeterB »

And in the end, having kept the precepts to the best of our ability, and having lived a life characterised by what the Hindus call "ahimsa" , as we should strive to, having avoided the most gross infliction of cruelty on our fellow sentient beings..after all that..life is still predicated on death. Just as Tilt says.
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Kim OHara
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Kim OHara »

Bubbabuddhist wrote:Let's face it; this world is filled with horror stories. Beneath the placid surface of a lake everything is busy eating everything else; in the quiet grasses and bushes insects prey on each other: the fly in the spider's web, ...
This is Nature. It's utterly horrid.
This is, indeed, nature. But, "It's utterly horrid," is your response to it, not part of nature. Is it useful? Skillful?
Aversion to it seems to lead nowhere good.
:meditate:
Kim
PeterB
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by PeterB »

Its realilistic.
You will not find me quoting the late Da Free John too often, but he said something apropos.
He said we sit beside a tranquil looking lake on a summers day and it induces a sense of peace in us. That peace is entirely projected and subjective. Beneath the surface of the water everything is preying on everything else, its actually a scene of carnage...

Tofuburger anyone ?
Clueless Git
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Clueless Git »

appicchato wrote:
Bubbabuddhist wrote:...humans have the ability to choose. We can decide...
This is the bottom line...
:anjali:

Set me to thinking that to not use that ability is the greatest tragedy of all ...

Is not to do so anything less than choosing to put the most valuable incarnation, that as a human, entirely to waste?
Clueless Git
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Clueless Git »

:oops:

Double posted there ..
Last edited by Clueless Git on Sun Mar 28, 2010 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Clueless Git
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Clueless Git »

Clueless Git wrote:
PeterB wrote:Its realilistic.
You will not find me quoting the late Da Free John too often, but he said something apropos.
He said we sit beside a tranquil looking lake on a summers day and it induces a sense of peace in us. That peace is entirely projected and subjective. Beneath the surface of the water everything is preying on everything else, its actually a scene of carnage...
'Lo Peter :)

I remember the sense of peace that comes with watching the 'mindless' savagery of the natural world. The one that kinda says "This is the way it is. It explains what I am" ..

Another sense of peace comes from being able to watch the savagery of the natural world and, to paraphrase Bubbha, kinda know .. "I can choose to be that OR I can choose to be not".

Which is the greater sense of peace is difficult to gauge unless you have experienced both.
Tofuburger anyone ?
Only if you pull out its horns and wipe it's butt first .. :tongue:
PeterB
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by PeterB »

lo ?....Is that like in " Lo and behold" ?
Anyway, the reality is Cluless Git you can choose to reduce the amount of death and destruction you cause to" higher" sentient beings.
And that choice is commendable.
You cannot choose to be embodied and not be part of a chain of destruction. That comes with territory as long as we are embodied.
We are are all in this together, until Enlightenment.
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

Kim O'Hara wrote:
Bubbabuddhist wrote:Let's face it; this world is filled with horror stories. Beneath the placid surface of a lake everything is busy eating everything else; in the quiet grasses and bushes insects prey on each other: the fly in the spider's web, ...
This is Nature. It's utterly horrid.
This is, indeed, nature. But, "It's utterly horrid," is your response to it, not part of nature. Is it useful? Skillful?
Aversion to it seems to lead nowhere good.
:meditate:
Kim
Actually, Kim, I find noting my reaction, especially my aversion, leads to very good places. :anjali:

J
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
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Kim OHara
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Kim OHara »

Bubbabuddhist wrote:
Kim O'Hara wrote:
Bubbabuddhist wrote:Let's face it; this world is filled with horror stories. Beneath the placid surface of a lake everything is busy eating everything else; in the quiet grasses and bushes insects prey on each other: the fly in the spider's web, ...
This is Nature. It's utterly horrid.
This is, indeed, nature. But, "It's utterly horrid," is your response to it, not part of nature. Is it useful? Skillful?
Aversion to it seems to lead nowhere good.
:meditate:
Kim
Actually, Kim, I find noting my reaction, especially my aversion, leads to very good places. :anjali:

J
That's great, then. :twothumbsup:
Aversion without that insight into is the problem.
:namaste:
Kim
Clueless Git
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by Clueless Git »

PeterB wrote:lo ?....Is that like in " Lo and behold" ?
'Lo ... as in abbreviation of 'Hello' Peter :)
Anyway, the reality is Cluless Git you can choose to reduce the amount of death and destruction you cause to" higher" sentient beings.
And that choice is commendable.
My gratitude to those who taught me that is unending!

Problem is that it's a debt that, apart from by never ever shutting up about it, is totally unrepayable :lol:
You cannot choose to be embodied and not be part of a chain of destruction. That comes with territory as long as we are embodied.
We are are all in this together, until Enlightenment.
This is both very very true and very very wise Peter :bow:

I owe you and bubbha a debt too, btw ...

The bollocking the pair of you teamed up to deliver me on another topic has given me cause to contemplate upon my use of words.
PeterB
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by PeterB »

I am not sure it was teamwork so much as a shared view.
And not so much a bollocking as a fairly cogent request to examine the basis of certain assumptions... :smile:
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Are you wearing skins?...

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

Nah, in my case it was a bollocking. :lol:
But I do like you Clueless. Believe it or not. People I don't like I just ignore.

Hey Kim, the process this whole dog eat dog thing engendered in me went something like this (highly condensed):

(1) My word, how horrid. Why would God set up such a cruel system?
(2) If there is a Creator God and he did this, he should be horsewhipped.
(3) Therefore, there can't be a God, at least not one I'd care to know.
(4) I don't want to be part of this system, must be a better way.
(5) Aha, there is. I need to work harder not to come back to this system, especially not as someone's food.

I think in the Suttas, Buddha called this "disillusionment" with the world.

Here's to the 8fold path. :toast:
J
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
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