Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wake Up and Laugh; Venerable Ya-un: feeling superiour to others


Wake Up and Laugh; Venerable Ya-un: feeling superiour to others


I'd like to point out this specific post today, rather than simply the blog.

For a while, I was feeling like I was pretty smart, thinking, "I'm going to develop a mind that I am equal to all others."

Then, one day, Chong Go Sunim posted this as a footnote to a post about just such thinking;
 Don’t feel that you are better than someone else, the equal of someone else, or inferior to someone else. These are all considered wrong views.

For a minute I was thrown off. If we're not better, equal, or inferior, what else is there?

Then I realized these are all dualistic views that separate me from you. I'm still waiting to experience it on a conscious level but I've heard we're really all one.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Joseph

    I'm still waiting to experience that too. I heard a zen priest once say that when there isn't a self, there isn't other, because other depends on self. When self disappears, other disappears, and everything becomes one.

    I'm still working on this little koan story he gave. He said that most buddhists take the precepts not have unwise sexual behavior. His teacher told him if you hear a woman walking by, you've already broken the precept. He said most people won't understand this, he's hoping maybe 1 will understand. Hopefully someone will understand in 20 years lol. I think the "one-ness" thing is linked to this, maybe you could tell me what his is about lol

    Lee

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  2. My two yen's worth....
    If you see her as 'a woman', you've already put this person in a role, separate from you, in duality from you, defined and categorised.
    That's the theory.
    However, the practice (for us non-Buddhas) isn't to see the world like that through some force of will (it can't be done!), but to live with kindness and compassion.
    And, really, let the theory take care of itself.
    Marcus

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  3. Well, I think Marcus said about all I'd have said, and more...

    The only thing I'd add is that I believe, on some level, we are experiencing it in every moment, whether or not we're aware of it!

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  4. Well, dharma practice strips away just about everything! Darn it.

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