GENIUS FORUMS

From "A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life" by Shantideva, which can be found here:http://members.optushome.com.au/davidqu ... deva01.htm

If fishermen, outcasts, farmers, and others, whose minds are fixed merely on their own livelihoods, withstand the adversities of cold and heat, then why do I not endure for the sake of the well-being of the world?
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While I have promised to liberate beings throughout space in the ten directions from their mental afflictions, I have not liberated even myself from mental afflictions.
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Without knowing my own limitations, I spoke at that time as if I were a bit insane. Therefore, I shall never turn back from vanquishing mental afflictions.
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I shall be tenacious in this matter; and fixed on revenge, I shall wage war, except against those mental afflictions that are related to the elimination of mental afflictions.
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Let my entrails ooze out and my head fall off, but by no means shall I bow down to my enemies, the mental afflictions.

Mental afflictions do not exist in sense objects, nor in the sense faculties, nor in the space between, nor anywhere else. Then where do they exist and agitate the whole world? This is an illusion only. Liberate your fearing heart and cultivate perseverance for the sake of wisdom. Why would you torture yourself in hells for no reason?

What mental afflictions should a Bodhisattva not wage war against, I wonder?

What mental afflictions are related to the elminiation of mental afflictions?

No woman can understand this, no man can let this go.

What mental afflictions should a Bodhisattva not wage war against, I wonder?

What mental afflictions are related to the elminiation of mental afflictions?

All mental afflictions can eliminate all other mental afflictions, because all mental afflictions are fundamentally the same, and by nature self-eliminating(self-contradictory.) E.g, the idea that things objectively exist can be eliminated by the idea that things relatively exist, and vice versa.

Unfortunately the few people who do try to eliminate delusions, eliminate only some of them, and leave the rest alone. As a result, they remain submerged in delusion. You can't swim out of the bottom of the ocean by moving only one leg, or one arm, or only one leg and one arm. Your whole body has to move if you are going to swim to the top.

BMcG wrote:What mental afflictions should a Bodhisattva not wage war against, I wonder?

What mental afflictions are related to the elminiation of mental afflictions?

Love of truth, the desire for perfect understanding, the will to Buddahood, etc. Like other afflictions these are all ego-based and emerge out of a fundamental misunderstanding of reality, and yet it is only through our engaging with them that all afflictions across the board can be eliminated, including themselves.

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I was troubled during my discussion about reincarnation, with the Tibetan Buddhist mentioned earlier. It took me a while to figure out why I was agitated, and noticeably so compared to this quiet, focussed person, whose observation that criticising a flawed interpretation - meaning, literal rebirth - seemed a total waste of time, and a distraction from the truth, seemed very reasonable on the face of it. It seemed reasonable to see my criticisms - of literal rebirth, and the way the Dalai Lama promoted happiness rather than a pure teaching - to be a distraction from focussing on ending mental afflictions, and living peacefully. And yet something still seemed wrong. Was I simply being prideful in wanting to drive home the point that worshipping at the altar of Buddhism as a tradition, rather than implementing its message, is a mistake? Or was it worth trying to communicate that point, at the risk of appearing impassioned and in the throes of samsara?

I intuited that his message of attaining peacefulness wasn't the complete story. Mental afflictions aren't themselves a danger. One ought not to be seeking peace at all costs. The one clear indication that I was on the right track in my discussion with this fellow, was his adamant statements that the old priests in the Tibetan order, having spent their entire lives in single-pointed study, should not be questioned or regarded in any way as dubious, being the holders of an ancient and very noble tradition. It rang a warning bell for me about the peace of submitting to a guru, and having their order imposed on one's life, thus removing the trouble and doubts of personal questioning and investigation. When he emphatically stated that he had been studying Buddhism for 28 years, implying he knew a lot more than myself, I was quite sure he was upset by the conversation as well - since he is my own age. That told me that he was trying to hold onto a different kind of peace: quietism. He wasn't focussed on nirvana, or else he had let his understanding of nirvana be warped by a desire to be free of suffering.

It reminds me of Hakuin's tale of the Zen monks lined up in quietisic meditation, heads nodding in half-sleep, unable to lift a finger to save anyone.


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That told me that he was trying to hold onto a different kind of peace: quietism.

looks like submission the way you tell it Kelly.

determined practice in order to get reward that only sits in the domain of a determined practicing..a doing...trying to hold ground..attachment...holding on...tight grip...tension.

a not-there with a recipe to get-there
based in hope.

I shall be tenacious in this matter; and fixed on revenge, I shall wage war, except against those mental afflictions that are related to the elimination of mental afflictions.

There is only one affliction, and that is, the thought that we are afflicted. However, this realization that affliction is of 'one taste', does not, of itself, eliminate this taste from our awareness.

Only when one has become aware of the pure awareness of themselves that is not afflicted, and acknowledges, faithfully and unconditionally, the presence of their non-afflicted pure awareness, does the 'dark lump' of affliction begin to be dissolved/absorbed into its living, pulsing presence.

Man is addicted to the civil war he has raged against himself. When he is ready to relinquish this addiction to self-loathing, he is readied for the arrival of the consuming love of his own reconciliation.