--- In [email protected], Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote:
>
> Steve,
> Â
> A Tibetan monk (I don't remember who) was incarcerated, facing a torturing
> jailer. He practiced tonglen, giving away his good karma, in exchange for the
> jailer's bad deeds. After a while, the latter relented and gave him better
> treatment. Eventually, the monk was released and came to live with Dalai Lama
> in India. He was lucky enough to be dealing with the second/third generations
> of Chinese officers, who no long had to fight hard to gain control of the
> country. When the situation changed to a Khmer Rouge jail in Cambodia, no
> matter how much tonglen the prisoner did, he would not escape or lessen the
> torture and end up in a mass grave. We are in a lucky position of sitting
> quietly, discounting everything as illusion. Does that work to lessen
> suffering such as hunger, death, cancer pain etc?
> Â
> Anthony
>
> Hi Anthony. Oh, I don't actually have any evidence that it works.
I was just playing "devil's advocate" as we say here, meaning I
was trying to come up with a hypothetical explanation of how it
might work. My personal practice is very simple. I sit morning and
night, I focus on "Amitabha" throughout the day, and I try to be
nice to people and practically help them when I can. If someone
is hungry, rather than trying to give them my good karma, I would
rather just give them a sandwich! However, I do try to keep an
open mind. That friend of mine that I mentioned, to whom I gave
a bunch of Buddhist books, practices Vajrayana. His practice
includes much that I have no practical experience with, so I
am just passing on 2nd-hand stuff.
Steve
>
>
>
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