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  hardie karges 4:56 am on September 15, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), equanimity ( 3 ), Forbearance ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), justice, meditation ( 190 )   

  Buddhism in the Bardo Realms: Equanimity is Key…  

  

  Revenge is not sweet. Justice should be blind. Equanimity should prevail. This is a common mental trap, that somehow, we must ‘get even’, even when such is difficult or impossible to accomplish. Still, it’s a psychological juggernaut, somehow engrained in consciousness, that there is a balance beam of tit-for-tat justice, that somehow must be fulfilled or even expanded upon, as if something could be made ‘more right’ by applying penalties to deter future misbehavior, ‘punitive damages’ the operative concept.  

  And this is the basis of civil justice systems, of course, and that’s all well and good, but need not apply to your personal life. Because what’s good for Caesar is not necessarily best for you. The problem is that it’s a never-ending cycle which will never be at peace, just like old-time feuds between the Hatfields and McCoys. When the world was sparsely populated, it was easy just to leave and go elsewhere, but it’s crowded everywhere now. The Muslims made a positive step in limiting ‘punitive damages,’ so that ‘eye for an eye’ means just an eye for an eye, and no more. 

  But I think we Buddhists can go a step farther, so that not only is punishment not necessary, but neither is ‘getting even,’ even on a personal level. The only ‘evenness’ that we should be concerned with is evenness of mind, all the time, and that’s equanimity. There’s never any reason to get all excited, much less vengeful. If punishment is necessary to deter future crime in society, then maybe simple forbearance is the key to bring peace to the self and family. To just ‘let it go’ often works wonders.

   

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  hardie karges 4:08 am on April 7, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anger ( 6 ), Buddhism ( 429 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), Hatred ( 6 ), justice, kileshas ( 2 ), lovingkindness ( 16 ), meditation ( 190 ), self ( 20 ), selfishness ( 4 )   

  Samma Sankappa: Right Thoughts in Service to Buddhism  

  

  Anger is an object lesson, not just about hatred, but lust, craving and mindless passion. It feeds on itself until it destroys something. And that is implicit in the Buddha’s message, that these kileshas, i.e. defilements, feed on themselves. That is why Buddhist love is not the passionate kind, and even lovingkindness better be careful, that the passionate embrace of a babe in swaddling clothes stops well short of puberty, and so finds a larger audience in brotherly and sisterly love, instead of rape, pillage, and incest. 

  Words can do that, calm passions and waylay anger, though it can often create as many problems as it solves. The point is that it’s a tool, and that implies choice, and skill, in the manner of its execution. That is why they are such a double-edged sword, but a steel-edged sword at that, rugged and durable and thorough in its prohibitions. The only question is how to apply those prohibitions with justice and fairness and forethought in its planning. 

  If words can devote themselves, at the insistence of consciousness, to the cessation of anger and hatred, then it will go a long way toward solving the problems of the world. If that mission can be extended to lust, craving, and mindless passions, then it will go a long way toward solving the problems of the self. Because the problem of self is not just an abstract point of doctrinal dispute between Buddhists and Brahmins. It is a problem of selfishness in the lives of men and women. Lose the self and save the world. 
   
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  hardie karges 8:45 am on May 1, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), dharma ( 35 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), JEW ( 2 ), justice, lex talionis ( 2 ), Mosaic, moses, philosophy ( 102 ), REVENGE ( 3 ), Roman, sanatana   

  Buddhism and the Mosaic of Laws It Competes With… 

  

  

  Repay every aggression with kindness, sooner rather than later. Because in this way, not only can society progress and history advance, but wounds can heal, and toxic attitudes can change. This is one of the prime conceptual bases of religion, of course, all the best ones, that you don’t have to respond “eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth,” lex talionis, Roman if not Christian. Because that predates Jesus Christ and his subsequent Christians, going way back to the early Jews, Moses, and the Mosaic law that sits there like concrete, composed of gravel and mud, shards and pieces, cobbled together in an elaborate composite of moral, civil, and ceremonial considerations not unlike the various bodies of law(s) and customs that have subsequently been handed down from the example of it.

  There’s only one problem: that ain’t religion, not most of it. That’s law and politics and culture and custom, almost everything BUT religion, except the parts of it that can be considered ‘moral law.’ And those are almost indistinguishable from the Buddhist precepts: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, etc., and even then, the attitude most truly religious that they can muster is for the Christians to have no other god before God (Allah), and for the Buddhist to not claim any form of enlightenment that they really can’t deliver–boom. It was up to Jesus to bring true religion to the Jews, just like it was up to the Buddha to bring true religion to sanatana dharma (Hinduism).

  The Muslims kept the ‘eye for an eye,’ famously, of course, and in that sense distinguish themselves form Christians. The Jews did likewise for most of history, only shifting to the more liberal Christian orientation recently, c. 1948. The rest is history. But that’s politics. We want religion. And the lex talionis doesn’t preclude that, of course, it only limits its reach, which is not so bad, all things considered. And the main thing to consider is that it is NOT a proclamation of revenge, in fact just the opposite. Because it limits retribution to the original damage, and, in effect, prohibits the punitive damages that could be considered as revenge, i.e. more than simple punishment, and far more than actual damages. But true religion always tries to heal the transgressor with love and kindness, not revenge or even justice. Religion transcends justice. It should be better than that.

  Note: the word ‘dharma’ has often been translated as ‘law’…