[Buddha-l] Re: on eating meat

[Mike Austin]

In message 
<7964f6db0510251031k42f7ddddped5a712a4fce0610 at mail.gmail.com>, Hugo 
<eklektik at gmail.com> writes

>Sometimes it is precisely the wanting to stop dukkha what makes dukkha
>arise.  There I would say it is an unskilfull wanting.

Hi Hugo,

If we get it right, there is a bit of Dukkha now and less Dukkha later.


>I stopped reading and started contemplating the anger, the noise,
>etc.....then peace arose.....do I need to read that book now?  no.

Er - yes. Have you severed the roots of the anger?  External conditions 
may have subsided, but the root is still there.  Reading texts can be a 
good preparation for contemplation.

Samsara starts easy and becomes difficult.  Dharma starts difficult and 
becomes easy. The problem is that difficulties are too often attributed 
to Dharma, when it is really samsara to blame.


>One person asked Ajahn Chah what was better to try to become a
>Bodhisatva or an Arahant.  His reply "Don't become anything".

OK, one should avoid existence conditioned by delusion and karma etc. In 
that way, one should not 'become'.  And the epithet for the Buddha - the 
Tathagata means thus come (or thus gone, depending on how it is parsed). 
So I guess it is OK to 'thus come' (or perhaps 'to boldly go' as in Star 
Trek).


>> >I think it was Luang Po Atulo who was asked "Which defilement should I
>> >get rid of first?", his reply: "the one that appears first".
>>
>> That is because it is the strongest one - at that moment.
>
>No, that is because stopping the defilement immediately will prevent
>other defilements to arise.

It appears immediately because, at that moment, it is the strongest - or 
at least, the one in the way.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin