Free post

Using my free blog post for this week. 

The Snake Simile and the Raft Simile (Late Post due 2/19)

The Snake Simile reminds me of many situations in life about truth telling and when the truth should be told and how it should be told. There are times where the truth needs to be told right away as a savior or as a means of clearance. However, telling the truth in the wrong times and how you tell it can have a bigger effect than you expected, and often in an opposite way than you would have hoped. In reading Ganeri's Concealed Art of the Soul, I quote that, "Those teachings, being rightly grasped by them, conduce to their welfare and happiness for a long time." shows me that the truth when used in the right way, can e used for the advancement of life and prosperity. Otherwise, learning the truth in the way of a vicious snake would cause one to be fearful or scarred by the truth.
In the Simile of the Raft, holding on to things that have helped you previously. may not be of utmost importance to hold on. For example, I still hold on to objects that have served their purpose in my life. I have teddy bears that were of use when I was a young child growing up. When thunder storms came, I would sleep with my teddy bears so that I would not have to feel afraid. Now that I am older and no longer afraid of thunder storms, there are no needs for me to take my teddy bears with me to college. That phase of my life has passed, as so should I in the case of holding on to things that have served their purpose in it's given time. Over time, holding on to my stuffed animals may become a hindrance when I want to make room for the new useful objects in my life. As the Buddha taught about the raft, when things no longer have value to us, we should let it go because attachment is a form of suffering. We should use what is needed to tackle the obstacle at hand then move on accordingly.

Thou Shall Spread the Good Word, or Not?

One of the most interesting things that I have seen in religious practices is the varying ideas of social or community responsibility. What I mean by is this is the 'duty' for lack of a better word, that is given to members of a certain faith to 'spread the word', or 'bring followers to the light' of whatever truth that is supposed to be uncovered. In Christianity we are told that while the process of getting to heaven is your responsibilty, if you do not share the teachings of Christ with others, you are not sharing the salvation of The Lord and that is a great sin. In Islam there is also responsibility of the man of the family to make sure the rest of the family is following correct Islamic practices. This weeks readings concerning the Buddhist faith stance on this has confused me however.

In The Concealed Art of the Soul by Ganeri, one of the most famous stories is told about the smilie of the raft. Now, this parable was told by the Buddha as a lesson of truth, but also of responsibility. 

"The Buddha tells the story of a man who, having built a raft in
order to get across from a dangerous place to a place of safety, then thinks
to himself 'This raft has been very helpful to me. Suppose I were to hoist
it on my head or load it on my shoulder, and then go wherever I want.'
The Dhamma is similar to the raft, says the Buddha: it is for the purpose of
crossing over, not for the purpose of holding on to."

(Ganeri, 45-46)

In class we discussed the fact that it was not uncommon for people to be concerned with the self and nothing else. This fine line between what is considered selfish and self-consumed is toyed with in this reading as the man had to be selfish to cross over, but must not be self-consumed enough to not aid another in there journey. This becomes an area of difficulty for me, though as I am not sure if this is aid is given because of the feeling of responsibility or fear of bad karma, inhibiting the continuation of the man to parinirvana. 

After looking at other passages for guidance I also came across this quote in Mahayana Buddhism:

The Doctrinal Foundations by Paul Williams:

‘The Lord has admonished us and praised us that we should live in seclusion’. But it is the
hermit, who considers the monk who visits villages and mixes with laity to be possessed 
of impure morality, who falls to hell after death, while the altruistic preacher is revealed to
be the Buddha in a previous life (Braarvig 2000: 130–1; cf. also Karashima 2001: 159–60)

(Williams, 38)

After reading this, I felt as if I was even more unsure of the answer to this question. The problem for me lies in the fact that the quote leans so much towards the social responsibility ideas that it doesn't actually sound like Buddhism to me. Now I am very aware of my minimal knowledge of Buddhism and when I look back at the last sentence I am confused as to what I menat by 'sounding Buddhist' but it just seems very liberal in comparison to the conservative readings that we have done previously. 

What are these readings saying? Is there a responsibilty to spread the word? And if not then how has the teachings of Buddhism spread over the thousands of years? If there is a responsibility then why is the culture areound the process of enlightenment a singular one? How can one truly release the idea of 'self' if the self is apart of the whole that you are carry responsibility for getting 'to the other side?' Is there even a black and white answer to these questions? 

Does This (Dress) Make Me Look Fat?

These are probably the most dreaded words someone could ever say. Not because of the complexity behind the sentence or the meaning of each word. The difficulty lies in the answer to this age-old question, and many questions just like it. Honesty is sometimes brutal, and yet it is what it is. I guess this allows one to wonder what the idea behind the truth is and what it really means to tell the truth. Does the truth really set you free? Or does the truth set you up? Ganeri focuses on this subject he refers to as "Dangerous Truths" in The Concealed Art of the Soul. 

So to, prince, such speech as the Tathagate knows to be untrue, incorrect, and unbeneficial, and which is also unwelcome and disagreeable to others; such speech the Tathagathe does not utter.

Such speech as the Tathagate knows to be true and correct, but unbeneficial, and which is also unwelcome and disagreeable to others; such speech the Tathagathe does not utter.

Such speech as the Tathagate knows to be true, correct, and beneficial, and which is also unwelcome and disagreeable to others; such speech the Tathagathe knows the time to use such speech.

Such speech as the Tathagate knows to be untrue, incorrect, and unbeneficial, but which is welcome and agreeable to others; such speech the Tathagathe does not utter.

Such speech as the Tathagate knows to be true, correct, but unbeneficial, and which is also welcome and agreeable to others; such speech the Tathagathe does not utter.

Such speech as the Tathagate knows to be true, correct, and beneficial, and which is also welcome and agreeable to others; the Tathagata knows the time to use such speech.

This passage comes from a lesson from the Buddha himself. While looking upon this initially, it seems quite repetitive and can be a little confusing. What is occurring however the explanation of the truth in the relation to certain scenarios is. Notice that in only two areas does the Buddha decide it’s a time to speak. Ganeri talks about this decision in the 'Dangerous Truths’. Within the book, he also uses other parables, such as the simile of the snake, as well as the simile of the raft to explain the gravity of truth. To paraphrase both of these parables, there is a time and place for the truth and if it is handled incorrectly the effect is almost certainly negative. As stated in the reading above, it appears that the Buddha does not waste time or truths on unnecessary causes.

Within this chapter of 'Dangerous Truths' Ganeri poses the question does the Buddha lie? The answer to this question however, depends on many factors. First, what is a lie? Is a lie considered the complete absence of the truth or the altering of it? What about the omission? Is the omission of the truth a lie or is it just that? Ganeri tells us that the absence of the truth is not necessarily a negative thing when the absence of truth is not beneficial to a specific situation (54). Ganeri refers to the 'value' of the truth as instrumental, meaning the need for it is not always instant and may vary. With these implications, it would seem that if the situation called for such action, then the truth will not be presented if it has no overall benefit (55).

As I attempt to draw the correlation between these Buddhist concepts, and my own life I, too agree with the idea that the Buddha poses. We are taught by society to tell the truth and that it is the only way to go to heaven, (or nirvana in the Buddhist practice) as well as be a better person overall. As an individual who is known for being blunt, I felt as if I am persecuted for the one thing that is so valued in our society today. As I have matriculated through Spelman, I have realized that I do not express myself as much as I once did, because I find myself considering the feelings of others more important in some cases. Even though I may not agree with this idea. I believe that the negative energy that comes out of an unwelcomed truth is incapable of making impact. So in the future if I am asked those awful 7 words (Does this ___ make me look fat), I know that my answer may be no or even the omission of no and all other words.

Remindings

When I read the readings from Friday It reminds me of how when someone tells you what shouldn’t be done (how the Buddha says not to delight in pleasures) you try to find exceptions or make up your own rules to try and test what was said or to find a way around the rules (how Arittha says pleasure is not an obstacle along the path to liberation.) In the end we know that most rules are set to help us and not hurt us.
            When I read the story of the simile with the snake I also thought of how when people hear things, they like to take it and run with it, when they don’t know the essence of what is being told to them. I also thought of the saying “the more you think you know the less you actually do.” When I read the lines “Instead they learn the Dhamma only for the sake of criticizing others and for winning in debates, and they do not experience the good for the sake of which they learned the Dhamma” many things popped in my head. The first thing I thought about, being a Christian, is how many people feel that Christians are hypocrites because many of them act in this manner. A lot of Christians will throw bible verses at you, but do not live according to the words in the bible. Then they use the verses to try and condemn you and make you feel like a bad person when in reality they are the ones who are worse off than you. I also thought of how some people to charity for recognition instead of doing to from the heart. Some like to pretend to be interested in the needs of others, but truly couldn’t care less about the beings of others. Or in movies, and possibly real life, people put on for the cameras and when the cameras cut off they show their true character because they feel no one is watching. It reminds me of a movie I watched called Good Deeds and the woman felt as is she was a charity case for the man and she didn’t believe that he would ever want to interact with her if she didn’t need help. I don’t remember the exact quote, but they got into an argument and she said “you don’t even know the price of a gallon of milk!” she was basically saying that he was to busy worrying about how other people saw him that he didn’t truly know the lives of the people who worked for him. (I know I probably went off topic but that’s what I thought about when I was reading.)
            When I read “while the one limits the impact the truth can have on them, the other allows it to saturate the whole of his mental” it goes back to what I was saying in the first paragraph and rules and how they are made to help and not hurt. I thought about how when we don’t learn our lesson from something the first time, you keep going through it, maybe something worse, so that you actually learn your lesson. When we are more receptive to things we don’t have to go through hard times for the point of the lesson to come across. I also thought about how we don’t take things for what they are worth and how we take so much for granted.
            The simile with the raft it reminded me of how as kids our parents/guardians give us things such as pacifiers, night lights, and baby blankets to help us get through different phases in life during times of transition. Once the object has served its purpose it is not needed anymore. Sort of like using training wheels to ride a bike, once you master how to balance on your own the training wheels aren’t needed, but you know the next child on a tricycle will eventually need to the training wheels to get from a tricycle to a bicycle.
            In the next chapter I thought about how sometimes it is so important for people to learn things, people don’t care how the message is said. Some people may even lie to you if it means that you get/understand/hear what you are supposed to. Or how when people have something that you need to hear, but there will be opposing views, they simply state facts as to not appeal to a certain side.

When to tell the truth

This is the first part of my blog post and the quotation is taken from The Concealed Art of the Soul, Passage on Dangerous Truths:

“The Buddha too comes across as reluctant to speak the truth about the self; indeed, he is portrayed as wondering at first whether to try to teach it at all. In a telling moment, he is made to liken his ideas to a snake, hard to grasp safely, dangerous if seized the wrong way. More often, he is given to speak in parables,…”

This section stood out the most to me in the entire section because it’s the most important lesson for one to understand about knowledge. When the question is asked what is the meaning of life? That phrase in itself is a normative question derived from a normative word which is life. We have the biological and scientifical explanations for how to determine a person is alive but what is the meaning of life? There are thousands and millions of answers to that exact question because in reality every one perceives life, their own individual life, to mean something different than someone else.

And the fact that the meaning of life can’t be measured or broken down into one to two simple explanations it’s that reason alone that the Buddha feared trying to blatantly answer that question. And he couldn’t really answer that question because there is no one answer; or to some there may not be an answer at all but if there is an answer then it’s up to us, the people or followers, to figure out and understand the meaning for ourselves. Something this grand and massive can’t merely be given to us but we have to seek it for ourselves.

Because we would not be able to handle the truth about the things the Buddha has already seen, or the things he knows. Somewhere the translation would be lost and that’s why it’s easier to speak in parables to say things are like something else or such as because if we knew the truth we would not be able to grasp or handle it at one time. So does that mean we don’t deserve to know the truth? Don’t deserve to understand the meaning? No. It means we have to read and reread the texts, follow the teachings and try to seek understanding for ourselves as well as vision for ourselves. If the truth got out and taken in the wrong context it could lead to disaster for oneself or many if we can’t comprehend what it is we should comprehend at the time. At least that’s what I got from that passage. 

The Most High T. Norman

"Holy be the name of your lord most high
who created then gave form
who determined then gave us guidance
who made the meadow pasture grow
then turned it to a darkened flood-swept remnant

We will make you recite. You will not forget
    except where the will of God allows"

This sura makes me fully aware that I have no control over the universe where I have not been given that power. GIVEN. I also now know that there will always be reminders of the Sura recitations."The Most High" gives a label to only one entity, who cannot be called a mere person, but a God. the divine God that has allowed life to grow. At any moment, when people of the world under the God that is powerful do not obey or do not honor their blessings, all of it can be taken away. (Taken from: then turned it to a darkened flood-swept remnant).