From: frank
Message: 14254
Date: 2010-01-04
On 1/4/2010 3:14 AM, ashinpan wrote:
>
>
> Dear Nina,
>
> Sorry, I have just come back from a trip hence this late reply.
>
> You wrote:
>
> > We are bound to be distressed about an unpleasant experience such as
> > an insult or a loss of dear people, but when we begin to develop
> > pa~n~naa we can gradually learn from such an experience. Sometimes,
> > when there are conditions, we may even be glad and full of confidence
> > in the Triple Gem, as we also read in this sutta:
> > < Tassa ce aavuso bhikkhuno eva.m Buddha.m anussarato eva.m Dhamma.m
> > anussarato eva.m Sa"nga.m anussarato
> > But if, when a bhikkhu recollects the Enlightened One, the Teaching
> > and the Community,
> > upekhaa kusalanissitaa sa.n.thaati, so tena attamano hoti...
> > equanimity with the beneficial (kusala dhamma) as its support,
> > becomes established in him, then he is satisfied.>
> >
> > Chapter I of the Visuddhimagga deals with siila, and passages on the
> > fourfold purification of siila can also be partly applied by a
> > layfollower in his own situation. We read in the Visuddhimagga (I,
> > 100, 101), that restraint of the sense faculties should be undertaken
> > with mindfulness, and <When not undertaken thus, virtue of Patimokkha
> > restraint is unenduring: it does not last, like a crop not fenced in
> > with branches...>
> > Also laypeople can remember that without satipa.t.thaana one is bound
> > to give in to akusala in thought, speech and action, there will be
> > impatience and intolerance.
> > We read in Vis. I, 49-51:
> > <Proper resort as support: a good friend. Proper resort as guarding.
> > Proper resort as anchoring:<It is the four foundations of mindfulness
> > on which the mind is anchored; for this is said by the Blessed
> > One:'Bhikkhus, what is a bhikkhu's resort, his own native place? It
> > is these four "foundations of mindfulness" (S.V, 148).>
> > These are like an anchor both for monks and laypeople.
> >
> > The following text of the Diigha Nikaaya, Mahaaparibbaanasutta (80)
> > shows clearly the impact of aniccaa sa~n~naa and anattaa sa~n~naa on
> > siila, good morality as to thought, speech and action. This
> > encouraging text that refers to the Order of monks is also beneficial
> > for laypeople:
> >
> > <So long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in the realization
> > of the ideas of the impermanency of all phenomena, bodily and mental,
> > the absence [in them of any abiding principle] of any "soul", of
> > corruption, of the danger of wrong thoughts, of the necessity of
> > getting rid of them, of purity of heart, of Nibbaana- so long may the
> > brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.>
>
> I agree with your comments and conclusions. All the sources you have
> quoted are from the Sutta Pi.taka, where we can meet the Buddha as a
> guide, as a patient teacher. However, in Vinaya we see the Buddha as
> an enforcer of law who practiced the policy of "carrot or stick". All
> Paatimokkha precepts, for example, are in the format of "Don't do this
> or else".
>
> I agree that meditation like satipa.t.thaana can really help
> individual monks to observe Vinaya rules but there is no rule to force
> monks to meditate. I sometimes wonder why the Buddha has not made
> meditation compulsory for monks.
>
> with metta
>
> Ven. Pandita
>
>
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