[Buddha-l] Re: Diversions, distractions and off-topic discussions

[Benito Carral]

On Saturday, October 8, 2005, Mike Austin wrote:

>> It's  time to go further and adopt a broader view of
>> what   Buddhism   is,  and  a  fist  step  would  be
>> recognizing the collective side of dukkha.

> It  seems to me that the recognition of dukkha should
> be accompanied by a recognition of its causes and its
> cessation.  I  do  not see where debating presidents,
> governments,    nations,   wars,   other   religions,
> musicians etc., fits in with this.

   They  are a major factor in collective dukkha, so we
should   understand  how  they  work  from  a  Buddhist
perspective before thinking in developing strategies in
order to change their ways.

> This should be directed to those concerned.

   Why?  I  think that we all are concerned about those
forces, so why don't discuss them here?


>> Nowadays  boddhisattvas must talk and act about free
>> market     forces,     globalized     media,     and
>> multiculturalism--otherwise     they     would    be
>> practitioners isolated in their caves.

> Hehe!  I think you should tell them, not me! I do not
> recall  reading  that  the Buddha exhorted them to do
> this.  I would expect bodhisattvas to help individual
> beings,  who  create  such things. To stop something,
> one  has  to stop its causes. These things are merely
> symptomatic of the problem.

   What   you   call   "symptomatic  things"  are  also
conditions.  Anyway,  it  uses  to  be that in order to
establish  a  treatment  one  must  study  the symptoms
before.  But  maybe  we  are  writing a new page in the
history  of medicine. Then, as Joanna rightly said, the
Old  Indian  Guy  lived in a world completely different
than ours.


>> So,  in  a  Mahayana spirit, your question should be
>> reformulated   as   follows,  "Is  a  discourse  not
>> including  corporations, national governments, other
>> religions,   etc.,   relevant  to  our  contemporary
>> Buddhist necessities?" Maybe such discourse would be
>> the  one  held  by current pratyekabuddhas and their
>> acolytes.

> I  think  you  should  check  what  the Buddha said -
> unless  we  are  ruling  him  out  because  he is not
> contemporary.

   I  don't  know  if you assume that I don't know what
the  Old Guy said, that's up to you, but I would no say
that "we are ruling him out" just "updating his tought"
so it can be useful for us here and now.

   Best wishes,

   Beni