I like the ancient Hindu way better. If you read the Buddha's story on how as a prince he saw the sufferings in people and then rejects all material comforts to go into the forest and medidate under the bodi tree to finally become enlightened and realize that hey all those sufferings are a result of the desire inthose people to live. His main theme was with attachment comes suffering, I think his ideas were somewhat short sighted...in the sense he only saw the negative aspect of life, he took everything else for granted..I mean he survived mostly on the food that people gave. Be dettached and just say "buddham saranam gachhami".[ I take refuge in the Buddha] Well those are all nice ideals but I don't think everyone can live like a sage. The Hindu way was people are born into certain castes (basically it was originally meant as a classification of their work). For eg, if you are smart and intelligent then you become a high priest or study sanskrit, understand philosophy, astrology. If you are strong be a solider or if you are street smart be a business man etc. Of course it was not always fair since people are tied to their birth and had little room to move across castes....there have been stories of how priestly class fellow jumps to be a warrier and vice versa .but it was not common. Anyway the point was just do your work (karma) and the fruits or the results will follow. Basically don't be attached to the result...just do what you are good at...since ultimately everyone belongs in the vishwarupa.( encompassing all the universe and everthing in it ) Summary of the Bhagavad Gita Karmanye Vaadhika-raste, Maa Phaleshu Kadachana; Maa karma-phala-hetur-bhoorma, MaTe sangostwakarmini. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, Verse 47.
Your right is to work only, But never to its fruits; Let not the fruits of action be thy motive, Nor let thy attachment be to inaction. I know it may sound totally crap..but I think this is the middle way. thanks -Sharath On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Krimel <[email protected]> wrote: > dmb says: > Yea, that's especially true for American trust-funders and other wealthy > Western Buddhists. But I think the middle way also means something else. It > is in the middle between absolutism and nihilism, between eternal truths > and > no truths. The MOQ's distinction between DQ and sq reflects this middle > way. > Truth is intellectual and provisional and practical, not eternal or divine. > Truth depends on context and perspective and it evolves but that doesn't > mean the truth is so fleeting that we are powerless to make any claims. > That's my favorite version of the middle way, anyway. > And "desire" in the context of Buddhism goes beyond the physical appetites. > The tougher task is to deal with the desires of the ego, especially for the > philosophically inclined. And it seems to me that the Western religions' > emphasis on "sin" is almost entirely about the body's desires and so > strikes > me as relatively undeveloped. It can open the heart and quell the beast in > you. It can make a person human, if you will, but enlightenment isn't > really > on the table at your local church. > > [Krimel] > I am ok with most of this but if you think that purse strings only matter > to > western high rollers, you really ought to rethink that. Buddhism's emphasis > on reducing expectations to a vanishing point is an emperor's wet dream. If > you think Constantine turned to Christianity to help subdue the empire, > imagine to joy of millennia of Indian and Chinese emperors dealing with > populations who think passivity and self denial are the high road to > heaven. > > I really can't take you seriously at all when it comes to western religion. > You have yet to show any substantial difference between "enlightenment" and > oneness with the living God. > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > -- --Sharath ============================== Ping-pong & life are similar - both a quest for perfection. ============================== Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
