Thursday, May 05, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
INSPIRING STORY
OneAnd once upon a time a certain householder approached the Perfect One and declared that he, aspiring to live the religious life, had renounced all worldly practices.
"What you, O householder, call 'worldly practice' is one thing," said the Master, "but what is meant by 'worldly practice' in the Āryan discipline is another thing.
"These eight Precepts in the Āryan discipline conduce to the renunciation of worldly practices: 1) Through making no onslaught on living beings, harming is renounced, 2) through taking only what is voluntarily given, pilfering is renounced, 3) through speaking truthfully, deceit is renounced, 4) through gracious speech, malicious speech is renounced, 5) through the absence of coveting, greed is renounced, 5) through the absence of invective, angry blame is renounced, 7) through the absence of vindictiveness, wrathful rage is renounced, and 8) through humility, self-conceit is renounced.
"When I say that through making no onslaught on living beings harming is renounced, I mean that an Āryan disciple considers the matter this way:
" 'I am attaining the renunciation of those fetters because of which I was one who made onslaught on living beings. Verily, if I were to harm living beings, conscience would upbraid me; intelligent persons, having found me out, would censure me; and at the dissolution of my body at death, I should arise in a world of woe. But those painful mind-and-body aggregates which would arise because of onslaught on living beings come not to be when onslaught on living beings is renounced.'
"And in like manner the Āryan disciple reasons concerning the other seven rules.
"O householder, it is like a hungry dog, weak from starvation, who might find his way to a slaughter-yard. Suppose the butcher flings that dog a bare bone with only a trace of blood on it. Do you think that the dog's hunger would be allayed by such a bare bone?
"In the same way, householder, an Āryan disciple reflects, 'Sensual pleasure has been likened by the Master to a bare bone, of great suffering, of great tribulation, which is only the beginning of a long series of sufferings,' and having by higher insight penetrated the truth of the matter, and having laid aside that indifference which is based upon diversity, he develops only that indifference whish is based upon unity, and in which all hankering after worldly things is brought to an end."
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Sunday, April 03, 2011
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