Selfishness, Reincarnation, Misery, Writing A Book, What Is Real

This thread is an ONTOPIC response to a locked thread titled "I Am The Most Selfish Person In The World", Started by RichardTheFrog on 12/1/2014.

Please forgive the lengthiness of this response.
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RichardTheFrog said: I just realized that I am the most selfish person in the world.

There is a remedy to this ... practice charity.

If you are the most hateful, angry person in the world, there is a remedy to this ... practice kindness.

If you are the most ignorant, delusional person in the world, there is a remedy to this also ... practice wisdom.

Easier said than done, especially the wisdom part. However, practicing charity is easy. Give to whomever you wish. Doesn't matter who. Give without thinking. Just give. If you have to think about what a person is going to do with what you give, then you're attaching conditions on your giving and you are not really giving because you are still attached to what you are trying to give away. Giving to those who will benefit will surely have a greater benefit for you, but then again that requires you to think about what a person is going to do with your gift. So just give without thinking.

Give food. Give money. Give toothpaste ... toothbrush ... shaving cream ... razors ... toilet paper ... paper towels ... writing paper ... pens / pencils ... towels ... washing rags ... soap (hand/dish/clothes) ... cigarettes ... toothwood ... inscense ... clothing ... blankets ... your time, etc.
Keep this practice going. Daily.

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[same thread, different post] RichardTheFrog said: I truthfully do not believe in reincarnation, though.
[same thread, different post] RichardTheFrog said: Do you believe in reincarnation?

No, I don't believe in anything. I may use the word(s) "I believe ..." but that is not because I have a system of belief in what follows those words, only a way of talking to express the words that follow "I believe ..."

The Second Noble Truth starts off with the word Ignorance to lend support to the understanding that Ignorance is the root to all the conditions of existence. In which birth is a condition of existence and death is a condition to existence. This teaching does not use the word "Birth" to indicate that as a result to those conditions between Ignorance and Becoming there is a RE-birth, but that rather Birth is a conditioning of continuous Becoming. And as a result there is a continuous Birth process, as well as a continuous Death process.

There is a whole different process of thinking revolving around this Birth process, and if you wouldn't mind I would like to suggest a good book relating to this, which is a rather small paperback, called "Dying to Live, Role of Kamma in Dying and Rebirth, by Aggacitta Bhikkhu". This book is also available in PDF with some Internet searching.

So to answer, Do I believe in reincarnation? No. Do I believe in rebirth? No. I do understand this process regarding continual Birth which conditions continual Death.

If you study the Second Noble Truth you will see that Ignorance conditions Sankhara (mental/verbal/physical actions). These actions in the Pali language goes like this ... mano kamma, vacca kamma, kaya kamma ... where the Pali word kamma is the exact equivelant to Sanskrit karma. So there is mental karma (thinking), verbal karma (speaking), and physical karma (body movement). Also know that Sankhara conditions everything else between it (Sankhara) and Death. So that the understanding is that Birth and Death are continually being conditioned by actions (kamma / karma).

This doesn't mean that Birth and Death actually exists ... yes (putting the misnomer aside) it is illusory. It becomes exactly what you think.

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[same thread, different post] RichardTheFrog said: And another question, why do Buddhists think the world is so miserable?
This is a loaded question. I know you didn't mean for it to be. But because you added the word "think", then it became loaded. In order for it not to be a loaded question, it would have been better to say, "why do Buddhists say the world is so miserable?"

To those Buddhists who do understand (I'm more inclined here to use a capital 'U') then they are not necessairly referring to the [invoked mental] idea by using the word "world". It is more a generalized idea of "Everything is miserable", i.e., those things conditioned by Ignorance. But the Buddha never really gave an idea or opinion of 'Misery', but rather Stress, or Suffering.

It is the continual process(es) being conditioned by Ignorance. Continual meaning never-ending, never-ceassing, never-stopping ... forever continuing, that give rise to the process of conditioning. Meaning that Ignorance itself is continuous in order to condition Sankhara ... Consciousness ... Mentality / Physicality ... Six Base ... Contact ... Feeling ... Craving ... Clinging ... Becoming ... Birth ... Death.

With this in mind, again saying "to those Buddhists who do understand", there is no belief in a Soul / Spirit, there is just that which conditions and the ensuing results. And as such the understanding that to every action (Sankhara conditioning) there is a result, and that at the moment of cessation (or Death) the results of actions which have not yet come to fruit will continue to move forward conditioning the next reality based on these results and as such continuing the entire process of perpetuating Ignorance which conditions the actions that bring about Birth and Death ... in this new reality (or, these realities).

Death is exactly that ... an illusion ... meaning it does not really exist ... it is NOT REALLY THERE. It exactly what you THINK it is. Death 'is' because you think it is. Birth 'is' because you think it is. Becoming 'is' because you think it is ... Consciousness 'is' because you think it is. And Ignorance is not understanding this entire process.

There is no misery, there is only the thought of misery. There is stress, but then again stress is what you are thinking. So the entire process being conditioned by Ignorance is stressful. This is what the Buddha said: "Birth is stressful. Death is stressful. Sorrow, grief, lamentation and despair is stressful. Association with the unpleasant is stressful. Disassociation from the pleasant is stressful. Not getting what you want is stressful. In other words, the five aggregates of clinging is stressful."

I think the misunderstanding in this comes from the interpretation of the word Dukkha, where many people intrepret this word as Suffering. Words invoke mental ideas of what the word is trying to relay. Some cultures, Southeast Asian Thai, Cambodian, and Laos for instance, understand the word Suffering as Stressful mainly because Buddhism is their primary religion and they have been taught this from first learning age. Where other cultures have the mentality that suffering is just the aches, pains, and lowly state of living, including mental sickness, or mental illness which have physical results.

Everyone, however, understands stress. The unpleasantness of stress. And in some cases the physical results of stress. Stress is everywhere, even in those who have everything they could possibly desire and believe they aren't suffering because they live in ease and comfort. But they still have to constantly do the things necessary to maintain this way of life and it's the constant busy that is stressful. Coupled with the interactions, that too is stressful.

The world itself is a result of what you think it is. All the things that happen in the world, that too is a result of what you think it is. You are constantly being lead to believe this, accept this, that one makes these directions a part of their thinking and are completely unaware that most of their thinking is the result of someone else (or several someone else's).

The formula as taught by the Buddha for existence (Second Noble Truth) is called Dukkha Samudaya, the beginning of stress. How stress begins. And this is applied to every thought, every speech, and every bodily action ... because ... let's face it ... All Thought Creates Reality as [you think] you know it. Stress is craving and clinging to moments that have momentary appearance and then disappear. Stress is not getting what you want, even if it is 'WANTING' people or things to behave the way you think they should, or believe the way you believe, or understand the way you understand.

To put an end to this (any and all of whatever 'this' is), one only needs to put an end to Ignorance, hence Understand, hence become Enlightened.

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[same thread, different post] ragmala said: How are you writing a book with a chapter on Buddhism if you don't know the answer to those questions?

I going to rely on my own understanding here and take it that RichardTheFrog didn't mean he was writing a book, but rather was writing from the book he was reading.

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[same thread, different post] RooRshack said: Buddhism turns that around, and says that when you stop desiring you stop existing. I would doubt that many Buddhists take that very literally.

First one needs to understand that Buddhism is nothing more than a word used to associate a listener (or reader) with the teachings of a Buddha. Second, that every individual with the capacity to understand written [and spoken] language all have different perspectives, feelings, perceptions, mentality, awareness, and as such have different levels of understanding. Some Buddhists might take that very literally but not the way you would think they would be taking it.

When one has a complete understanding of Dukkha, Samudaya, Nirodha, and Magga (stress, beginning of stress, end of stress, the path) then one comes to realize that reality itself is a mere illusion, that it doesn't really exist, that it is all a product of what you are thinking. And that just because you understand this doesn't mean that it will completely disappear into nothingness, that all you will perceive at that moment is total and utter blackness. You can still create reality by maintaining the thoughts necessary to create [a] reality, whatever that reality is, and in whatever realm of existence you choose.

If there was a person standing next to me, and I happen to exit that reality through the Death process, that reality will have ceased to exist for me but still exists for the person standing next to me because they are still creating it by the thoughts they are maintaining in relation to the reality they think they are experiencing.

But in answering this statement, even those who understand can do just that ... stop existing ... if they so choose. And not by terminating their physical existence. But by stop thinking it into existence.

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thedope said: What is not real does not exist.

This is exactly true. And as such what one thinks of as reality, that too does not exist except for the one who thinks it is real. Because, let's get real here, the one thinking it is real is the one thinking it. Outside of the thought itself, it is not real at all. Solidity is as real and solid as one thinks it is. It is not real (or solid) because someone says it is. That 'someone' is thinking it to be what they think it is, and to them it is exactly what they think it is ... real ... solid. To the thinker existence is real, reality exists. To the wise this is never disputed or brought into question. To the enlightened it is an illusion, it is not real, it is nothing more than a thought which has its roots in not understanding.

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RichardTheFrog said: Unless I'm missing something, then Gautama did not have the answers.

Well, Gautama did have all the answers ... for him. Not for you. However, he has a path you can follow to where you too can have all the answers ... for yourself. His answers are not yours, but can help you if you take the same path he took and that is what his teachings are: 1) an understanding of what suffering is; 2) an understanding on how it begins; 3) an understanding on the cessation to suffering; and 4) _the path_ that leads to the cessation of suffering. This is all you need to know. But in the case you need to know more, then there are upward of nearly 70K+ more teachings available in a complete volume called the Tripitika (or Tipitaka), however not all of it is written in (or intrepreted into) English (yet).

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I am sorry the original thread had digressed into the path it had taken. But I think the "bickering" was not really bickering at all, but a direction that was trying to lead whomever was engaged in the conversation at the time to a point where they realize there attachment to ideas, which includes the feelings of aggression, are all stressful.

As a concluding thought here, one doesn't need to be a Buddhist, or practice Buddhist teachings in order to become an Enlightened being. Sidhartha Gautama was not Buddhist. He was Hindu. Jesus was not Christian. He was Jewish.

Buddhism, as a representation to the teachings of a Buddha, is a guide, a map, on the road toward Enlightenment, Understanding for those who don't know where to begin, or even how to travel the path to freedom from ignorance.

 

selfishness would be harmless if it were, which it isn't.
our entire species, and because of us, our entire world, is paying the natural price, for the stubborn refusal of many, to discipline their own egos.

gratification without ego is perfectly possible. the avoidance of causing harm, perfectly within the scope of the capacity of our species.

 

sorry, i fell asleep

 

With that said you get no approximations from me.