We should do good for the sake of goodness, not in order to become a 'good person.'
If you are a 'good person,' then you will suffer.
Just be a human being. Otherwise you will always be annoyed by those who are not 'good people.'
The Buddha taught non-attachment. We should not even be attached to goodness because it leads to suffering.
-Ajahn Chah
We shouldn't be attached to 'goodness' but we shouldn't be attached to 'badness' either...
ReplyDeleteI've learned recently that being kind and/or strict with anyone - including ourselves - doesn't always feel "good", whether to ourselves or 'others'. Too strict is tiresome and prevents growth. But too kind is also tiresome, since it allows over growth that later requires an extremely strict and tiresome action...
Sweet and sour is a fine balance. Too much of either one or the other ruins the food and so does mixing both in equal measures...
Sometimes - depending on the circumstances - we need a bit more salt. Sometimes a bit more sugar.
Not an easy practice, is it?
You can quote him all you want Mr Fisher.. he is safely dead, but Luang Por Chah would have seen right through your brand of Zen-Lite in an instant...
ReplyDeleteLazy defending myself, much lesser my cyber zen teacher whom I trained happily with over the past decade. Well the problem here is as always ego. Try finding this thing known as an ego, as much as the Buddha Himself taught about anatta, what is the problem obvious here is how the Buddha Himself was a prince during His youth, so after serving 3 decades of His early life as a materially blessed one, the then Gautama wanted something else better, so that 28 year old thought about giving renunciant life a try. So despite all the years meditating, it occurred upon the 35 year old that moderation is key rather than either extremes. If you take a look at Ajahn Chah who was a reowned arahant-ish being in Thailand, what was the issue was that he neither got married nor did he have any kids. Honestly as a monastic if it were in terms of ascetic practices, Ajahn Chah probably outdid the Shakyamuni Buddha. I was proud of the Ajahn since I read a book of his that was translated into English. Still since he has passed on, I took a look at his disciples the like of Ajahn Brahmavamso, he is so famous by now I rather stick with an old-somewhat-anonymous-aging bloke known by a pen name of Genkaku. Barely makes for a perfect zen teacher or a zen enthusiast, then again when I take a look at other zen teachers like Eido-what-is-his-name, aww I rather have good youthful fun watching a Japanese pornographic video myself in private instead. The problem is obvious. The Buddha Himself after enlightenment spoke about forest dhammas that included genres of beings such as hungry ghosts and hell beings; He lived a Thai forest lifestyle just as Ajahn Chah did, then again because before He became a renunciant He had a wifey and a kiddo already, so that very karmic entanglement drags Him back into its set of human-like koans involving Rahula and His queen. If you take a look at forest monks, while Ajahn Chah was historically a bachelor his entire life, Ajahn Lee the said teacher of e.g. Thannisarro Bhikkhu did marry before. In fact there are two ways of addressing mundane issues: Ajahn Chah was one kind, without getting married and without having kids he shaves off his hair and adopts a lifestyle with an alms bowl and rope as his only friend, that is wonderful in fact I liked his tales, his western disciples too are great, they always look so happy. Still if you take a look at Ajahn Lee, after he survived his past marriage and became a monk, seldom do I find him photographed smiling, when was the last time his disciples smile a lot, show me, thank you?
ReplyDeleteAs an old adage by Adam Genkaku Fisher goes, "smile just one smile". Seeing through this, seeing through that, that's already dualistic. When was the last time anybody here at this blog read the suit-dressed professor Robert Thurman's translation of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra? Or with all zen koans summarised briefly in one sentence: why did the Buddha need a bowl of milk to look after His said indisposition, thought He had a perfect body?
Zen-lite or zen-hardcore, smile just one smile.
So Jesus lived till 33 while Buddha survived till He was 80. Which part of this planet's crust has got a gravitational pull that differs from 9.81m/s2 assuming that the planet is indeed round as the satellites suggested. It's just life <3
I don't wanna have to repeat what everybody knows.
I won't think Genkaku has got several spare toilet rolls till toothpastes that he can share with these nuns here at Sravasti Abbey a travelling distance away from his zendo http://sravastiabbey.org/generosity/wishlist.html.
Or as my mentor at my workplace reminded me: "have fun".