Religious "Rules"
 

I saw Q talking about this... The precepts I use are similar to the christian ten commandments.

The Ten Precepts

1. I take up the way of not killing.

2. I take up the way of not stealing.

3. I take up the way of not misusing sex.

4. I take up the way of not speaking falsely.

5. I take up the way of not misusing drink or drugs.

6. I take up the way of not discussing faults of others.

7. I take up the way of not praising myself while abusing others.

8. I take up the way of not sparing the Dharma(Teaching's) assets.

9. I take up the way of not indulging in anger or violence.

10. I take up the way of not slandering the Three Treasures. (The teachings, the community, and the enlightened)

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Like everyone else, I sometimes have trouble following these, but I'm constantly working on it.

What are the differing opinions on following these kinds of "religious rules", if you want to call them that? I know many christians who say you dont need to follow the ten commandments to go to heaven, and use that as an excuse for ignoring them.

What do you think it does if you follow them?

What do you think it does if you don't follow them?

I like # 6








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i like 7

people doin that try bring themselves up but they do so while tryna keep everyone else down

OMB are you a Buddhist by any chance?

Yeah I am, I guess.

I dont do a lot of those things just cause I dont want to..

But I've never been all that good at following rules and I dont really care to start...

Not to mention the very word religion itself shits me...Fuck living by their rules, I'm not a lemming.

I'm not a fan of the whole concept of "religion" either, but its just for ease of reference.

Man you are deluding yourself with that not a lemming stuff. Your life is following the exact same pattern as millions of other people's. Your plan for life, your goals, they are very generic. You are the same as many other people who refuse to do busy-bee work like office jobs because it doesnt appeal to them. How many people do you know who really try to live by a set of these "religious rules"? Not that it matters, but they are far rarer than the people who don't pay stuff like that any consideration.

If you meant that by following these rules you would be less unique and acting the same way as many others, I dont see why, for the reasons I said in the previous paragraph.

And yo, these precepts actually improve your life. The "consequence" for breaking them is your own suffering and the suffering of others. I find that it is in my own interest to keep them as best I can... Here is an explination of two precepts:

6. I take up the way of not discussing faults of others. This Precept deals with an aspect of killing. More people get hurt by gossip than by weapons. The point is that nobody has a fixed character. Everyone has tendencies, and those tendencies can be used or misused, read or misread. The tendency to be accomodating can be seen negatively as passivity, and positively as patience. Encourage the tendency, and it will find its own perfection.

7. I take up the way of not praising myself while abusing others. The reason I praise myself and abuse others is that I seek to justify and defend myself as a certain kind of superior being.

Actually, I am not superior or inferior. My actions and words are appropriate or inappropriate to the needs of people, animals, plants and things, including myself. If I am authoritarian and put myself up and others down, then I am not meeting their need to grow and mature or my own to listen and learn. The balance is obscured. The world suffers.

If no one did anything wrong and suffered, there would be no balance.

The phenomenon of everything working in an equilibrium is prevelent in nature almost everywhere else, its only fair to assume good and evil should be the same.

These are like written laws to attempt to make you lean only to one side. That isnt really what life is about. Often humans learn their most important lessons from their mistakes which are usually a direct spawn of suffering. If your trying to cover all your bases and never do wrong, then your missing out on a big part of what it is to be human, living in this reality.

And nah, you dont understand that lemming shit.. What I'm saying is I wont take a group of set rules from a 3rd party and adapt them into my life. Sometimes I want to break those sort of rules and I dont give a shit if they think I shouldnt...

These rules are a prime example of balance. Take for example, not misusing drink and drugs.

Its not "THOU SHALT NOT USE DRINKS OR DRUGS", its do not misuse them. Lets talk tobacco... I smoke tobacco every once in a while. There are those that are addicted to tobacco, which will have a detrimental effect on their wellbeing and the wellbeing of others, this is one extreme. On the other end you have the people who will avoid tobacco at ALL costs and are strongly against it. They are constantly tight, on edge, wary of whether people around them are smoking, judging people who smoke... Its not good either. By abiding by this precept, you are maintaining the balance. (This is not to say that smoking in moderation is a requirement, many buddhists choose not to smoke but arent uptight about it or judgemental)

3. I take up the way of not misusing sex. Sexual intercourse is misused when it is an addiction rather than the peak experience of love between a committed couple. All the Precepts point to addictive behaviour, stealing, lying, using alcohol or drugs, slandering, even killing. Addiction reveals a lack of confidence, a need for something from others, the interdependence of all things inverted for just one being. It is no good condemning promiscuity as immoral behaviour, for it is only a symptom of general immaturity. Like anybody else, the addict needs guidance to find a way to forget the self.

In following these Precepts you are keeping an internal balance. This is not about being good or bad, its merely about non-attachment. It is perfectly ordinary for Buddhist masters (that have not taken corresponding vows) to drink, smoke, insult, hit their students etc... These "rules" are not even rules, they are flexible and open to interpretation depending on the situation. It is advised, however, that people with limited understanding, such as myself, follow these Precepts. My judgment would be too clouded, my perspective too narrow to decide for example if it would be necessary to hit someone, lie, kill, or steal.

Do you realise that almost everyone is attempting to defy the balance? They say they want to live a happy life, they dont want to suffer, they desperately chase things that give them joy, entertainment or pleasure, and desperately attempt to escape things that bring them pain and suffering. They only want to be doing things that they like, they dread not doing anything and consider it boring, they detest doing things they dislike and attempt to avoid those things. This is only wanting yin, and not realising that yin and yang are one, thus any good will come with bad. It is impossible to live a "good" life, which is what so many people desperately try to do.

In the end, when you have developed a true understanding, you will end up following these precepts anyway, except when it is truly necessary for them to be broken. And I havent read or heard it anywhere, but in my opinion they would only break these precepts in a situation where it would not cause suffering, or where the suffering it causes would in the end be a blessing.

^^yall are typin too much






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Nobody cares, fag face.

damn, beat me to it