this is a tread from facebook... which i thought i'd share...
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i was reading about Pañcasīla in Wikipedia 'cos Vesak is next week and all that...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Precepts
i'm not a buddhist... i'm a atheist... a christian... and a scientist... look if god can be the father the son and the holy spirit why cant i have three persons? hmmmm
okay getting back to Pañcasīla and i dont know all these Pali chants but just looking at it from a philosophical point... i am so not doing the Pañcasīla properly...
1. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking the life of living beings.
Pānātipātā veramani sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi
Killing of living beings
i've got this anti-mosquito thing at home...
plus i love eating tasty animals...
but i dont support the war and i dont like ppl dying so i hope it adds points... heheh
2. I undertake the precept to refrain from stealing
lit. "taking what is not offered"
Adinnādānā veramani sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi
most sri lankans are guilty of this i guess 'cos they do not use genuine licensed software, music, movies and other intellectual property (IP)... add photocopying of expensive books to this and copying other people's coursework this list... so i think all this would fall under... "taking what is not offered"
and i'm a sri lankan... i'm guilty of the above...
i dont directly admit that i'm guilty of IP piracy!
3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct
Kāmesu micchācāra veramani sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi
adultery, rape, exploitation, etc.
sexual misconduct -> does pr0n fall under this?
4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false speech
lying
Musāvāda veramani sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi
ohh lying... at first i saw it as lynching... hehe getting old...
ya lie like every day...
ppl call and ask me if the project is complete and i'm like "almost" where as i've not even reached 50%...
and "shehal mahath weala..." and i'm like "naha naha mama prushtimath wela"....
and i lie 'cos its not nice to be rude... like ppl go on telling how good they were... they did this... they did that... went to church... chanted Pali... blah blah... and they claim to be good... but i know for a fact that they bitch about their friends... or support the war... say that its okay for a few ppl do die now and for a lotta ppl to live in peace later on... or waste their parents money on junk... but the thing is... if i tell them all this... they'll be like "you're rude"... so instead i tell them something to satisfy their ego like... "yeah i wish i could be like you" or "if only the rest of the world was good as you" or "wow you should be like second in command to God or something"...
and i always exaggerate!!!
5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to heedlessness.
Surā meraya majja pamādatthānā veramani sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi
yeah right!! hehehe... i mean most of the time i drink to get high... or i get high to get high...
but if there is good food (good cheese... tasty animals...) then i always prioritize... so i drink in moderation...
but i like vesak... so during vesak... i try to be a less Pañcasīla violator that normal... but then again i dont see the point because its like saying i pissed on your wall a little bit hehehe
what do you guys think??
16 comments
Updated about a week ago
Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 6:47pm on April 27th, 2007
well will comment on the last bit...
"saying i pissed on your wall a little bit hehehe"...
now each time you do this...if you make an effort to do it in a lesser quantity than last time...and next time even lesser...and so on and so forth...
you get what i mean...so it does make sense after all...just that it's a long endless vicious cycle...so keep perfecting those ill wills...you can do it...
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 7:57pm on April 27th, 2007
okay lets try this out...
i first piss on half the wall...
and each time i piss on half the amount i pissed before...
and i keep pissing infinitely
and the wall will not dry ('cos sins add up... right?)
the addition (+) operator represents "wall will not dry"
this can be represented mathematically by a geometric series:
1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 +...
and it converges to 1
so i would eventually be pissing on the entire wall regardless of what i do...
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 6:33am on April 28th, 2007
hmm...good...but what is the addition of the remainders? (1/2+3/4+7/8+...=?)...that is the total you kept away from possible sins...and may be also times you "could" have used for cutivation of good will...neda?
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 7:17am on April 28th, 2007
no its not
the wall represents my sin quota...
and the addition operator represents the accumulation of sin...
and its inverse operator subtraction represents forgiveness of sin...
pissing on the wet areas of the wall is not allowed... because if thats the case then the biggest sin i've do is what counts... and if i commit a smaller sin... then i can just wet the already wet area and my smaller sins wont add up... which is not the case right?
day 1... i commit sin... so that 1/2
next day i commit sin...
if i'm forgiven... then what i did yesterday can't be added... because the wall gets cleansed when i'm forgiven... so then i can piss on the same place i pissed before... so it'll be 1/4... because each day i piss half of what i pissed the previous day... and there is no need to add up remainders or whatever...
but if i'm not forgiven... then yesterdays sins are there... so the wall is not dry... and since i cant piss on the wet areas... my score is.. 1/2 + 1/4 + ....
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Shehal Joseph wrote
at 8:19am on April 28th, 2007
i love to eat meat... but say i try not to...
because i dont want to kill animals (and eat them...)
and i dont eat meat...
but every time i get the smell of fried chicken...
its so painful to resist...
but i resist...
it was very hard... but i didnt violate (#1)...
time goes by... i lose the liking for fried chicken...
just like getting used to sleeping on a uncomfortable bed...
is that like... abstinence...?
being in self-denial...?
wont that lead to other bad things...?
which are worse than having a drink and eating some meat?
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 8:34am on April 28th, 2007
ok...but this has few parts...
1.to cultivate existing meritorious deeds
2.to cultivate nonexisting meritorious deeds...
3.to stop accumilation of existing sins...
4.to stop accumilation of nonexisting sins...
so...what we are working on here is on part 3 & 4...
which wld also provide room for 1 & 2 in the longer run...
yes...kala de pala de...unless it is overshadowed by a much powerful meritorious deed...
(meritorious deed=kusal sith...
sins=akusal sith...)
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 10:29am on April 28th, 2007
thats deep!
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Shehal Joseph wrote
at 7:51am on April 29th, 2007
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon enter Parinirvana or the final deathless state abandoning the earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which, according to different translations, was either a mushroom delicacy or soft pork, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the much-needed energy for the Buddha.
is that true?
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha#The_Great_Passing
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Shehal Joseph wrote
at 7:54am on April 29th, 2007
The Buddha's final words were, "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own salvation with diligence."
hmmm... i like that...
okay about how Buddha died... is that true?
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 1:41pm on April 29th, 2007
was out of town...just returned...
honestly...my guess is as good as urs...cause i didnt live in those times...so hv to come to a conclusion only after analysing whats on record...
...but...there's a long description...on physically how ill and weak Gauthama Buddha was before he set out on his last journey(last year)...
...so if the food had any impact it wld have been a bad reaction with the digesting system or its products due to Gauthama Buddha's severe ill health, rather than any karmic effect...
cause when you attain the Budhhahood...you dnt accumilate good or bad karma...it's a neutral state...but what had been accumilated before attaining Buddhahood will be completed...even bad karmas...
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 2:42pm on April 29th, 2007
thats not what i was asking....
see what that story tells is that he wasnt picky about what he ate...
he ate what he was given... for nourishment...
correct?
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 2:54pm on April 29th, 2007
exactly...
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 8:11pm on April 29th, 2007
and he ate meat... for nourishment... needed the protein... etc...
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 4:51am on April 30th, 2007
nope...like u writely wrote before...
"...he wasnt picky about what he ate...
he ate what he was given..."
an "offer" or "dhana" without the presence of lobha(greed),dvesha(hatred/avrice), & moha(delusion/ignorance) is the highest kusal one cld accumilate...so it was practised with the "giver", the one who is making the offering... in mind...
dhana cld be in different modes...offering of food, to goods ,to righteous knowledge..to extremes of even your own blood, organs, and may be even life!...
Shehal Joseph wrote
at 5:56am on April 30th, 2007
i see...
okay looking from a giver's perspective...
but arent most dhana is done with the intension of accumulating kusal for someone (dead or alive)?
like say someone dies... on their death aniversary... a dhana is given... with the intension of accumulating kusal... 'cos his/her soul is roaming somewhere in spacetime although he/she is not there physically...
so the giver wants kusal from the offering... for his/her soul and whoever else he is making the offering... doesnt that fall under lobha? as opposed to offering something out of compassion... 'cos you feel the suffering (like hunger) of someone and you sympathize and you offer 'cos you dont want him/her to suffer...
see what doesnt make sense is that ppl just do things 'cos it brings them kusal or its pin for them... and now 'cos they are compassionate... and i think that sux...
i'm not pointing fingers are buddhism... its the "reward" system that most religions offer that makes ppl do that...
not cool!
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Yadamini Gunawardena wrote
at 8:10am on April 30th, 2007
true...
moha(delusion/ignorance) covers it.like you said the mindset needs to be proper...proper understanding of things...to accumilate propers kusals/ping (can be presented as two differnt things)
doing things for the sake of doing it or... practising things with out proper mindfulness will never bring good...just like said in kalama sutta
but the transfer of merits to others, living or dead, is done only after the meritorious act is perfomed with proper mindfulness...ex: like u said offering of a meal to some one in hunger...with no lobha,dvesah,moha...and thinking that this act is performed purely to bring some food to end hunger for the time been...and thus may be even to save another from ill health or even death...once such is practised the accumilated merit is transferable to another living or dead...but shldnt be fabricated or premeditated
bottom line is mindfulness...if thats proper...u wldnt wanna cheat ur self? cause you knw that it will bring no positive result
