| Sep 7 @ 12:00 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Just thinking to start up new threads on Buddhism with different aspects of Buddhism for discussion. Rather tired of rantings so lets have some decent discussions.
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Buddhism teaches we are responsible for our actions. Does anyone object to that?
It also teaches that we are a physical body and a spirit body in its basics at a level we understand now for this thread discussion. (Meaning there is more to it than that but lets keep it simple without removing truth.)
Therefore, our actions can only originate from various sources of mind and body.
1. That is, actions through speech. We talk and we can effect that which is outside of us influenced by speech. We can cause people to be emotional happy or emotionally stressed.
Does anyone object to this?
2. Bodily actions, that is how we use our physical body to cause harm or good. Say kick someone one or love someone.
Does anyone object to this?
3. Actions through our mind, that is through our thinking. We can think good thoughts or bad thoughts which propogates into emotional stress or happiness.
Does anyone object to this?
These three actions are caused by us or any sentient being.
Is there anything else that could be the cause of our actions?
When we look at actions we can see consequences to them. There is going to be an effect in the world about us. How we speak, how we bodily move, how we think.
Does it sound easy? Just these three thinks effecting the world around us and it sounds all so easy.
But alas, it isnt. People hardly control these actions. They hardly control their lives from these three actions.
What did all the religious greats do? They controlled their actions. They dampened them so they would not cause harm to others.
Does that sound correct to you?
They controlled speech, body and thought. Eventually control gave way to none arising of harmful actions that seemed pretty automatic previously. Habitual behaviour took over. They gradually became better people in respect to doing good onlty with absense of harmful actions.
Does this sound reasonable?
These things are taught in Buddhism, but forget Buddhism. It doesnt matter where it comes from, buddhism doesnt want a hold on wisdom. These things are for any body who has a mind to see their actions do good for others and the world about them.
Namaste
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| Sep 7 @ 3:25 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,234
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Sorry, Knots, I just saw this thread.
Actions are so very powerful in our lives. Many people don't realize the cause and effect their actions have, not only on themselves and those they know, but even reaching far out into the world.
I do know that since I began following the teachings of the Buddha, I have an awareness of my actions that I never had before. It's not only for humans, but for every sentient being.
No matter what we think of "lesser" creatures, they too have the right to life and respect.
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| Sep 7 @ 5:41 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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horizon000
Posts: 924
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Is there anything else that could be the cause of our actions?
Good post. I agree with everthing written and believe envoirnment has a determining influence on actions too. The influence of others and events can and does affect the way (to a degree) we see ourselves and thus in turn how we treat others and think. Outside influences can test us, help us and hinder us. Interactions with people with different views to ourselves can do the same. Ultimately it is up to us as to the path we want to follow, but what is around us on that path will change the way in which we travel it.
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| Sep 8 @ 8:09 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Carl Jung
Would you change Religious greats to Philosopher Greats as Religions begets Institutions and I am unsure if we really gain anything by making The Buddha, Jesus or Lao Tzu into a deity by institutions. Can't their words stand alone?
The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness
The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.
Dag Hammarskjold
Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by some kind of cosmic lawgiver. 
[Edited on 9/8/2008 8:26 AM]
[Edited on 9/8/2008 8:31 AM]
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| Sep 8 @ 1:17 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Yash, I would have thought "religious" and "Philosopher" has the same problem. But not lets forget when learning Buddhism with this aspect of non-attachment that you and I know isnt really necessary at this point of the OP.
Notice how people "control" their actions in these threads.........  
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| Sep 8 @ 5:28 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,234
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I am out of control. 
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| Sep 9 @ 7:35 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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If you are out of control where does that leave us?
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| Sep 9 @ 9:53 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Keep still~!
"Chill out"
Meds
Or learn the ways of meditation.
Keep still~!
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| Sep 9 @ 9:56 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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Tip toeing through the Tulips!
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| Sep 9 @ 10:09 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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As you know Yash, the solution is very easy, yet people make it all so difficult.
Always, always, always people talk about all their problems, how everything effects them or they effect everything else and it all boils down to simple analysis - actions which can only come from three sources.... speech, body and thought.
Find the antidote to that then there is the solution to all their problems. Right?
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| Sep 9 @ 10:36 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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CPUfan
Posts: 3,051
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On the subject of philosophy, I've seen indications that Buddhism is right about reincarnation etc., in TV documentaries about near-death experiences. As described in the Book of the Dead I think it's called?
But first I'd like to relate a strange story I experienced years back in Copenhagen.
About ten years ago I had a Polish girlfriend Zofie Fus, a hairdresser who lived in an apartment in Østerbro København. What a babe she was... sorry it didn't last into the New Year but I kept on trying to keep contact for years.
Her apartment was very old, large with four rooms. She once told me she had nighttime "visits" from an old, grey bearded guy who looked like Santa Claus.
I didn't really think much of it at the time, but some time after that, she was called by a journalist from the Danish newspaper Politiken... He was doing a story about a guy who had lived in her apartment and wanted to come up and take pictures. When he came, he brought with him some pictures of the guy.
She said to him "that's the guy who comes and visits me."
"He comes and visits you?" the journalist asked, visibly amused. "Yes, I call him 'Santa Claus', he stands by the side of the bed and wakes me up sometimes."
"Miss Fus, that man is Willhelm Reich, the Austrian philosopher."
"Oh," she replied, "what's he doing in my apartment at night, then...?"
She showed me the newspaper article, the journalist was taking the piss...
"The strange thing is that Zofia Fus really believes she saw him there, and she genuinely didn't know who he was...," he wrote.
I knew she wasn't taking the piss... when I looked at the picture, it was her "Santa Claus", just as she had described him to me...
The article closed that Reich, a disciple of Jung and on the Nazis proscribed list, had been a refugee in Denmark and had lived in her apartment, prior to the German invasion of that country.
He finally fled to America, where he died during the war.
I was left in no doubt that "Santa Claus" really did wake her up at night, on a couple of occasions.  
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| Sep 9 @ 10:36 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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Right action including non doing, Right Speech and Right Thought. None of these can be found outside of self so why then does the majority seek Right outside their self, simply a waste of time, ours and theirs.
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| Sep 9 @ 10:52 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Good sory CPU. Buddhists accept Reincarnation matter-of-factly. Of cause, many through the process of questioning it, or experiencing it, or other.
Two excellent works have been written on "The Tibetan Book of the Dead". But many books have been written in the west now.
The first known to the West:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
English translation by Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup
Compiled and Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford University Press) Evans_Wetz was a Porfessor at University of Oxford
"This book is the first English language translation of the famous Tibetan death text, The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State. Also known as the Bardo Thodol which means "liberation by hearing on the after death plane" (Bardo: after death plane, Thodol or Thotrol: liberation by hearing), it was originally written in the Tibetan language and is meant to be a guide for those who have died as they transition from their former life to a new destination."
The second by an authority, Sogyal Rinpoche who wrote a modern sequel:
"The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' and has wide acclaim in the health professions of many countries.
This is an excellent works for beginners alike.
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| Sep 9 @ 10:57 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Right action including non doing, Right Speech and Right Thought. None of these can be found outside of self so why then does the majority seek Right outside their self, simply a waste of time, ours and theirs.
I would think they do not analyse their actions and find the root cause of them.
It seems easy for us all to just "let fly" in our actions be on auto pilot for much of the time or dont think before doing.
If we practice we can be aware of any actions we make before they take effect and decide should it be carried out.
Yash, good point in bringing up the Eightfold Path. How many times do we read it, agree with it and just carry on as if it inspired us to do nothing of its wisdom 
It all gets back to, if you want to be good, do good with all the right views, actions, speech etc then we have to initially train ourselves until habitual behaviou of the old wrongs cease and the new good behavious take effect, then be aware of the practice but let go of it.
What do you think?
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| Sep 9 @ 11:28 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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It seems easy for us all to just "let fly" in our actions be on auto pilot for much of the time or dont think before doing I have attempted to address this many times as most peoples minds are on autopilot and they never or never have attempted to take control over their own minds from the concepts they wer raised with since they were born.
I think that too many people try to Emulate the Buddha, Lao Tzu and Jesus from their conceptual minds rather to see what is right before their eyes. The mind on autopilot only sees only the Extraordinary so the mind simply ignores the Ordinary that is the corner stone to our being in each present moment, from moment to moment, that is all we have in animal form during it's temporal existence; unless we Awaken to our True Nature.
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| Sep 9 @ 11:48 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Coming back to the NOW aspect of practice.
The past has gone. The future not yet arrived and what we have is this moment. No matter how much a person reads of any religions, of any philosophies or of any system of beliefs with all their good works, they are simply wasted unless the person reflect on their present circumstance and put into practice what is taught.
Back to Actions, the present moment. Do you allow anger to arise or do you become of the anger arising and smile at it and see it dissipate whence it came?
Same with any of the emotions and thoughts that arise before they become verbal, physical ot mental actions that cause harm or good of others.
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| Sep 9 @ 12:48 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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Back to Actions, the present moment. Do you allow anger to arise or do you become of the anger arising and smile at it and see it dissipate whence it came?
Same with any of the emotions and thoughts that arise before they become verbal, physical ot mental actions that cause harm or good of others. In practice I will feel the tingles of anger, sadness and emotions like little pin pricks and to fight them off I simply return to my center then I smile in my center.
I do not react to others musings with emotions for it is naught but their opinion and they have a right to it. My emotions neither care or do not care about anyones words. I just take words as words, nothing more, nothing less.
To react to the input of others is a crime one does to them selves by pulling them away from their center by becoming emotional about their words. Although I will often respond in a way to shake another up in the hopes they will start seeing clearly sooner than later. But I know I can never make another see what they refuse to see.
Trained as a martial artist in many differing styles has taught me long ago that to react to the actions of another emotionally even if they present a physical threat is a fools game.
[Edited on 9/9/2008 12:54 PM]
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| Sep 9 @ 1:53 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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CPUfan
Posts: 3,051
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Yes I'm learning to deflect and bypass the negative vibes that people throw at each other in word form...
Took me a long time but now I'm an old git. One of the benefits of being mature is that you don't bother any more with narrow-mindedness... Just let people be narrow in their own minds lol... who does that hurt most anyway? Duuuuuh...
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| Sep 9 @ 5:11 PM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,234
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The past has gone. The future not yet arrived and what we have is this moment. No matter how much a person reads of any religions, of any philosophies or of any system of beliefs with all their good works, they are simply wasted unless the person reflect on their present circumstance and put into practice what is taught.
"Now" is the only thig we have. "Now" is what our life will always be. We need to live now how we want the rest of this life to be.
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| Sep 10 @ 8:47 AM |
BUDDHISM ~ What are actions and how they effect us |
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yashaenka
Posts: 4,489
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"Now" is the only thig we have. "Now" is what our life will always be. We need to live now how we want the rest of this life to be. Yes as animal forms with a conscious mind we are the sum of everything that has come before by direct experience. Actions not thoughts are the bridge to the NOW moment of our reality that is thought by many to represent the future.
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