Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

While I was marooned in a hotel room on a recent visa run, I undertook to read a book which had been placed in my room:

The teaching of Buddha. 1966, 1983. Tokyo: ぶっきょ　べんど　きょかい (Buddhist Promoting Foundation).

Apparently, the Buddhist Promoting Foundation is the Buddhist counterpart of the Gideons.

Here are some conclusions which I have drawn from reading the book:

■ Buddha excluded other religions.

[flotsam]

THE CREED OF THE BUDDHA

The Buddha is generally associated with the doctrine of Ahimsa. That is taken to be the be-all and end-all of his teachings. Hardly any one knows that what the Buddha taught is something very vast: far beyond Ahimsa. It is therefore necessary to set out in detail his tenets. I enumerate them below as I have understood them from my reading of the Tripitaka :

1. Religion is necessary for a free Society.

2. Not every Religion is worth having.

3. Religion must relate to facts of life and not to theories and speculations about God, or Soul or Heaven or Earth.

4. It is wrong to make God the centre of Religion.

5. It is wrong to make salvation of the soul as the centre of Religion.

6. It is wrong to make animal sacrifices to be the centre of religion.

7. Real Religion lives in the heart of man and not in the Shastras.

8. Man and morality must be the centre of religion. If not, Religion is a cruel superstition.

9. It is not enough for Morality to be the ideal of life. Since there is no God it must become the Jaw of life. 10. The function of Religion is to reconstruct the world and to make it happy and not to explain its origin or its end.

11. That the unhappiness in the world is due to conflict of interest and the only way to solve it is to follow the Ashtanga Marga.

12. That private ownership of property brings power to one class and sorrow to another.

13. That it is necessary for the good of Society that this sorrow be removed by removing its cause.

14. All human beings are equal.

15. Worth and not birth is the measure of man.

16. What is important is high ideals and not noble birth.

17. Maitri or fellowship towards all must never be abandoned. One owes it even to one's enemy.

18. Every one has a right to learn. Learning is as necessary for man to live as food is.

19. Learning without character is dangerous.

20. Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Every thing is subject to inquiry and examination. 21. Nothing is final.

22. Every thing is subject to the law of causation.

23. Nothing is permanent or sanatan. Every thing is subject to change. Being is always becoming.

24. War is wrong unless it is for truth and justice.

25. The victor has duties towards the vanquished. This is the creed of the Buddha in a summary form. How ancient hut how fresh! How wide and how deep are his teachings!

--B.R. Ambedkar

==========

Pro Tip: "Religions" are Complex Things, Defying Even That Designation.

[Privateer]

I read a book on Zen Buddhism once and what I took away from it was ... whenever a disciple asked an enlightened one a question like 'O Master, what did the Buddha mean when he said blah blah blah?' the Master would say something like 'The drum goes boom!', which is supposed to provide a lesson on the uselessness of mere words.

To me the lesson is the uselessness of Buddhism.

But I am not enlightened.

[flotsam]

[Woland]

[flotsam]

But really, Mahayana Pure Land Buddhists are to Buddhism what evangelicals are to Christianity. It wasn't a good choice of reading for an overall perspective on Buddhist thought.

[marcus]

Yeah, I've read the book before, too. It's a little mickeymoused and not the greatest introduction to Buddhism.

During the summer I read a book about zen that was written during the 1970s. It had great stories, like this:

[Troll_Bait]

[Delirium's Brother]

Just as Wittgenstein once noted that the true meaning of a word isn't found in the dictionary, but in it its use in society (PI �43); I'd proffer that the collective meaning of a religion isn't found in its scriptures, but in its application in the world.

[Grimalkin]

[blaseblasphemener]

[Troll_Bait]

[dulouz]

Bhuddism is the greatest milker of human curiosity. There is no text you can self educate from, there is no discussion group, There is no orientation or hierarchy (little anyway). You just have to go back to the temple whenever you can for the next installment. Its like watching the Sopranos.

[kato]

[TroySantos]

HIYA!

On August 23 Grimalkin (sorry I suppose I've gotten your name wrong) mentioned having been looking for Buddhism's precepts for a long time. If you or anyone else is interested in a version I translated from Thai, I'd be happy to share. It's really detailed and I think it's great. It's short.

And, Seon. Tomorrow morning I go to a nearby temple for a Dhamma Talk. I don't speak more than a few words of Korean - I just arrived and am working on it - but a guy who speaks pretty good English says he'll translate for me. I was at the temple last Sunday. By chance (is there such a thing?) a guy arrived who speaks pretty good English and has been practicing translated some things the monk told me. That same circular language I've read in so many Zen books. "Look at your fist," the monk said, "do you see it as it really is?" Well, I didn't answer. I mean, I can only say that apparently no, I don't see it as it really is. At least so far as I understand the teachings. But until I see my fist as it really is, well, I can only see it as I see it. So in that sense, well, you could say that I do see it as it really is. I asked repeatedly how, what should I do so that I can see it as it really is, in some other sense anyway. The monk repeatedly remained silent on this. Then as the guy who translated and I were on our way out, the monk said, "Here, take this." He gave us a cloth - a lot like I've seen in someone's house or restaurant or some place, I forget where - with some Korean writing printed on it. The guy translated it for me. I probably forget the exact translation but the gist I think was something like this: don't push away things you don't like; and don't pull things that you are attracted to. Just study your internal life. And let go." Something of this sort. Well, I didn't say it at the time, but it later occured to me that this was probably the monk's answer to my repeated question of WHAT I can do to ....

This is the same way of practice that I learned in Thailand. Be aware, wise, and unmoved. That doesn't mean cold, callous, uncaring, and distant. Just to be emotionally unattached. That takes awareness / mindfulness, intention, and in-the-moment determination. Practice too.

I have only met this monk once so can't say anything much. He's congenial and hospitable. Seems likeable. My boss at the school I just started working for brought me to this temple. After a little explanation from my boss, the monk got on the phone and called a guy at a local university who speaks English. This guy will come tomorrow to translate the Dhamma Talk for me. I'm really looking forward to this.

The monk says to not read books. Just like some masters of old apparently said. I know that some authors say that reading too many books, and useless books is detrimental. I see that it is. You conjure up conceptions, and preconceptions, about the way things are, or about what should happen. And this is a kind of training. And it works to lock a person in to a mind set. An expectation. So that the person isn't free to accept whatever appears. I know this from my own experience. I haven't read a book on Buddhism, or on how to practice anything in a while though I'm sure they'd still jazz me like .... I've listened to Alan Watts lectures recently. Just like reading books. Preconceptions and all the rest. Delicious candy for the intellectual mind, and helpful also in inspiring me to practice mindfulness though. Philipp Kapleau, in Three Pillars of Zen warns us about reading. He says the best books are those that get us up off the sofa and on to the cushion. The sitting cushion, that is. The Santi Asoke group, and apparently some of the Chinese masters of old, maintained that sitting meditation was not the way to enlightenment.

I live on Jeju Island. Arrived two weeks ago. For me to meet up with this monk after only a few days on the island is pretty cool. I came to Korea for two reasons, mainly. One is to save up some money. The second is to get some direct experience of Zen / Seon. From a person / teacher / even a "master" if there is such a thing!! To date I've only read books. And loved them. Like the master who grabbed and twisted his disciple's nose .... Love those stories. Where in hell are those masters now? Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. But, ....

Back to the precepts thing. (I lived in Thailand for about seven years. Left just last month. I lived in two Buddhist temples for two years each. Great. Great. Great. Group's name is Santi Asoke. Fabulous in many ways.) The precepts in Theravada Buddhism are quite different from those in Mahayana. Or so it seems. I've not seen Mahayana's precepts many times so don't remember them very well. But from what I remember, they don't coincide. The one I translated is pretty detailed. I won't say any more about it than this.

Troy.