Of course you need harmony and suitable place to practice and develop parmis. Dhamma service is huge part in development, servitude towards others.SDC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:56 amA sotāpanna, who knows the extent of that accomplishment, wouldn't need harmony according to the suttas (which you don't trust because they "might" be wrong). A sotāpanna is a source of Right View, lower fetters broken, inclined towards Nibbana, free from states of woe - they need food and empty lodgings to refine that view into arahantship. Indeed a lay sotāpanna can break all of the precepts according to the suttas, but that is not the point I'm arguing here. I'm saying that a sotāpanna knows what his right view is, and doesn't need ideal external conditions to maintain it.
Sorry for having such a high standard for the state of sotāpatti, but I've grown weary of many of the contemporary notions that treat it as a choice, making it so much less than it is described.
Human rights are for the world. They are for the betterment of the world around you, external to you. In these terms, the world is the counterpart of you, the congruence of which would mean harmony for you. Wanting a better world means the change to arrange the congruence is external, and up to others, dependent on the world. Instead of ridding the experience of that need altogether, which is the real freedom described by the Buddha, the better world becomes the need.
I'm not saying this to provoke you into talking about worldly issues. I'm saying it because I don't think is about the worldly issues at all. I'd rather not look in that direction in this discussion. I don't believe the sotāpanna, let alone the arahant, has any need whatsoever for that congruence between internal and external in the terms described above. He has understood concern for that counterpart of his Self in that world was nothing other than the desire to tend to the concerns of his Self, which he now can see is not the reason for his experience and never was. Now he is concerned with the Law of Dhamma, where he is now striving to reach the end of the world.
I understand your concern about dangerous ideas being entwined in Buddhism, but considering I'm here lobbying for a very high standard found in the suttas, I doubt that can be called dangerous. Dangerous ideas that minimize and trivialize things that are very important. I'm quite sure you'll agree with me on that pont.
If you are with a group performing rituals, practices that you cannot support then there is no room for service in a whole hearted way.
It must be a proper fit.
At goenka centres, I agreed with their practice and formula, it was a perfect fit. A suitable place to practice.
Until recently with their Covid reopening, they are mandating masks and will not accept any exceptions. I was told that first course maskless I will be offered a spot but until then I am not allowed to sit or serve a course as long as this continues. As they know my attainments they said you have everything you need to practice at home. I understand that they will do whatever it takes to spread dhamma to even just one more student. This is the divisive nature of gov and health interventions currently.
Human rights are for the world, but never forget the balance required to seek out and practice dhamma. To much pleasure and no look, to much pain and no look, conditions of humanity must be a balance of the two.
This is what I keep my focus upon. At current we are heading into a globalist one governing body, they are working in lockstep and human rights are taking a backseat to their needs. I won’t go into detail of these coming changes but the buddha has warned of them. Few will be allowed to ordain.