In Praise of Virtue

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
PeterC86
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by PeterC86 »

After some contemplation, I have decided to spend my time putting in further effort to show how silly doctrines and gurus are in an attempt to reach Nibbana/liberation. Not because I think I can help anyone, and not because I think I will change the world, but just for the simple fact that I have time, and I can, and it is funny, for me at least. This time I will take the provocative ridicule approach, because of the silliness, and my inability to help anyone. As an effect, maybe, beside a laugh, people start seeing the silliness, who knows.. I will refrain from any serious discussion or topics about doctrines and their content, because they are just silly, and I might break the Terms of Service when I do.

Any presumed virtue is a stinking pile of shit, and in that sense, the ability to show that pile of shit, is real virtue.

Just as in the way that precepts are presumed virtues, and a huge pile of shit, what people start calling Nibbana. Even though Nibbana is unconditioned, people start saying you are not there, because you don't look like shit.

And before you start serving Alan Watts off, ask yourself this; is prejudice a virtue?

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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Goethe (d. 1832)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Just as so many rivers, so many showers of rain from above, so many medicinal springs do not alter the taste of the sea, so the pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. For it maintains its balance, and over all that happens it throws its own complexion, because it is more powerful than external circumstances.
Seneca
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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I, for one, know of no sweeter sight for a man's eyes than his own country.
Homer
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Sam Vara
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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PeterC86 wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 10:32 am After some contemplation, I have decided to spend my time putting in further effort to show how silly doctrines and gurus are in an attempt to reach Nibbana/liberation. Not because I think I can help anyone, and not because I think I will change the world, but just for the simple fact that I have time, and I can, and it is funny, for me at least. This time I will take the provocative ridicule approach, because of the silliness, and my inability to help anyone. As an effect, maybe, beside a laugh, people start seeing the silliness, who knows.. I will refrain from any serious discussion or topics about doctrines and their content, because they are just silly, and I might break the Terms of Service when I do.
Moderator note: As you have obviously read the ToS, you might want to have another look at ToS 2d, g, and i, and 3j, before posting much more in this vein.

One of your posts has already been removed.

And please tone down the scatological references, which you appear to be increasingly fond of.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The overweening self-respect of conceited men relieves others from the duty of respecting them at all.
H.W. Beecher (d. 1887)
It is the admirer of himself, and not the admirer of virtue, that thinks himself superior to others.
Plutarch (d. 120)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Marcus Aurelius on bodily pain:
In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse.
Indeed, in the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting—if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination.
Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)—or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is an evil.
It will suffice thee to remember as concerning pain; that the mind may by stopping all manner of commerce and sympathy with the body, still retain its own tranquillity.
From Light From Many Lamps, page 96
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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You don’t have to believe in me or believe in the Buddha. Believe in your own inherent wisdom. Discover the wisdom in your own nature.

What is wisdom? It is a manifestation of selflessness. What is idle thinking? It is an indication of selfishness. Once selfishness takes hold, idle thoughts arise.
Hsuan Hua, Spring Sun, Lotus Flower.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Whoever is brave is a man of great soul.
In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in doing good to their fellow men.
Cicero
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Just as we commonly hear people say the doctor prescribed someone particular riding exercises, or ice baths, or walking without shoes, we should in the same way say that nature prescribed someone to be diseased, or disabled, or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor, prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone’s healing. But in the case of nature, it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.8.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Patrick Henry
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
]ohn Quincy Adams
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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He who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy day. The orderly arrangement of his time is like a ray of light which darts itself through all his occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidents, all things lie huddled together in one chaos, which admits of neither distribution nor review.
Victor Hugo
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Since a clear & explicit "connection" to Theravada is required in this section. I guess Paul can also lock this thread or move it to somewhere proper -- if that is possible.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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