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It is often said in Chan literature that there are 84,000 doors to the practice and 84,000 obstructions. The door that resonates with my practice are the teachings of Master Lin-Chi. “Teachings” is a misnomer, however, as there is nothing to teach and no one to learn.
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In Buddhism, compassion is the wish for others to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is based on appreciating other people’s feelings, especially when we’ve gone through the same ordeal. Even if we’ve never experienced what they’re going through, we can put ourselves in their shoes and feel how awful it must be. Imagining how much we'd want to be free of it, we strongly yearn for others to be free as well.
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It is necessary to see what is meant by the term moral discipline in general. This word indicates the distinction between right and wrong or good and evil in relation to actions, volitions and character. A moral sense is said to mean the power to understand the difference between right and wrong especially when viewed as an innate quality of the human mind, which is described as the moral faculty.Moral concepts are terms involving ethical praise or blame, concerned with virtue and vice or rules of right conduct. Here, moral virtue is distinct from intellectual virtue just as moral laws are different from legal and institutional laws. Other aspects of moral discipline include moral rights, moral force, moral responsibility, moral courage, moral behaviour and moral victory.
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“Then again, a certain person makes a gift to an ascetic or a brahmin, offering him food … or lighting. He now hears of the long life, the beauty, and the great happiness of the devas of Brahmā’s company, and he wishes to be reborn among them. He sets his mind on that thought, keeps to it firmly, and fosters it. This thought of his aims at what is low, and if not developed to what is higher, it will lead him to just such a rebirth. After his death, when his body breaks up, he will be reborn among the devas of Brahmā’s company. This, however, I declare only for the morally pure, not for the immoral; only for one free of lust, not for one who is lustful. Because he is without lust, monks, the heart’s desire of the morally pure succeeds.
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The text proposes an interesting twofold distinction of the
Dhamma Jewel: among all conditioned things (dhammā saṅkhatā), the Noble
Eightfold Path is supreme; among all things conditioned or unconditioned
(dhammā saṅkhatā vā asaṅkhatā vā), Nibbāna is supreme. Merely having confidence
in the Three Jewels, that is, reverential trust and devotion toward them, is
itself a basis of merit; but as the verses attached to the sutta make clear,
the Buddha and the Saṅgha additionally function as the recipients of gifts, and
in this role they further enable donors to acquire merit leading to the
fulfillment of their virtuous wishes. More will be said about this aspect of
merit just below.
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“Thus, student, the way that leads to short life makes people short-lived, the way that leads to long life makes people long-lived; the way that leads to sickliness makes people sickly, the way that leads to health makes people healthy; the way that leads to ugliness makes people ugly, the way that leads to beauty makes people beautiful; the way that leads to being uninfluential makes people uninfluential, the way that leads to being influential makes people influential; the way that leads to poverty makes people poor, the way that leads to wealth makes people wealthy; the way that leads to low birth makes people low born, the way that leads to high birth makes people high born; the way that leads to stupidity makes people stupid, the way that leads to wisdom makes people wise. “Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior.”
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The Nikāyas concisely organize the types of merit into three
“bases of meritorious deeds” (puññakiriyavatthu): giving, moral discipline, and
meditation. Text V(...) connects the bases of merit with the types of rebirth
to which they lead. In the Indian religious context,
the practice of meritorious deeds revolves around faith in certain objects
regarded as sacred and spiritually empowering, capable of serving as a support
for the acquisition of merit. For followers of the Buddha’s teaching these are
the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha. Text (V...) extols
these as each supreme in its particular sphere: the Buddha is supreme among
persons, the Dhamma among teachings, and the Saṅgha among religious
communities. The text proposes an interesting twofold distinction of the Dhamma
Jewel: among all conditioned things (dhammā saṅkhatā), the Noble Eightfold Path
is supreme; among all things conditioned or unconditioned (dhammā saṅkhatā vā
asaṅkhatā vā), Nibbāna is supreme. Merely having confidence in the Three Jewels,
that is, reverential trust and devotion toward them, is itself a basis of
merit; but as the verses attached to the sutta make clear, the Buddha and the
Saṅgha additionally function as the recipients of gifts, and in this role they
further enable donors to acquire merit leading to the fulfillment of their
virtuous wishes. More will be said about this aspect of merit just below
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Then the Blessed One spoke thus: “If, householders, both
wife and husband wish to be in one another’s sight so long as this life lasts
and in the future life as well, they should have the same faith, the same moral
discipline, the same generosity, the same wisdom; then they will be in one
another’s sight so long as this life lasts and in the future life as well.”
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As the king of the Dhamma, the Buddha takes up the task of
promoting the true good, welfare, and happiness of the world. He does so by
teaching the people of the world how to live in accordance with the Dhamma and
behave in such a way that they can attain realization of the same liberating,
Dhamma that he realized through his enlightenment. The Pāli
commentaries demonstrate the broad scope of the Dhamma by distinguishing three
types of benefit that the Buddha’s teaching is intended to promote, graded
hierarchically according to their relative merit:
Welfare and
happiness directly visible in this present life (diṭṭha-dhamma-hitasukha),
attained by fulfilling one’s moral commitments and social responsibilities;
Welfare and happiness pertaining to the next life
(samparāyika-hitasukha), attained by engaging in meritorious deeds; .
T he ultimate good
or supreme goal (paramattha), Nibbāna, final release from the cycle of
rebirths, attained by developing the Noble Eightfold Path.
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The Buddha says that
his teaching is about suffering and the cessation of suffering. This statement
does not mean that the Dhamma is concerned only with our experience of
suffering in the present life, but it does imply that we can use our present
experience, backed by intelligent observation, as a criterion for determining
what is beneficial and what detrimental to our spiritual progress. Our most
insistent existential demand, springing up deep within us, is the need for
freedom from harm, sorrow, and distress; or, positively stated, the need to
achieve well-being and happiness