[Buddha-l] Re: The Buddha, an 'emotional weakling'? What are the "joys of living"?

[Benito Carral]

On Monday, June 26, 2006, Stefan wrote:

> Do  you  look  up to people who unvoluntarily live in
> conditions  which  come  close to your picture of the
> ideal Buddhist life?

   First  of  all,  it's not my ideal of Buddhist life,
it's the Dharma ideal which I share.

   Then I would not consider them like wise people, but
I  prefer  stupid people behaving in the right way than
smart  people  behaving in the wrong one. It's possible
that  stupid  people behaving in the right way could be
transforming   their  unwholesome  roots  even  without
knowing it.

> Suppose  everyone  became a cleric, what consequences
> would  you  foresee  for  society  and  its  economic
> structure?

   I  don't  care  much  about the society that we have
created--in  fact,  I  hope  it  passes away as soon as
possible. We would have a different and better society.

> Would  you  agree that lust has driven people to make
> the world a better place, like wanting to invent some
> kind of medicine, or become a comedian, for example?

   We  could  talk about how good medicine actually is,
but  that  would  be  a different issue. Lust makes the
world  a  worst  place  in  an overall sense even if it
seems  to  have  some  positive sides. Finally, I think
that  most  comedians are quite intoxicant--they use to
water  the  unwholesome  roots  in  order  to reap some
laugh.

> Can  you  think  of  possible  ways  where  lust  can
> positively contribute to something?

   Of   course,   lust   contributes   positively,  for
instante,  to  sex, drugs, fast-food, animal factories,
gambling and weapon industries around the world.

   Best wishes,

--
Benito Carral
Asturias, Sepharad (Spain)