[Buddha-l] Re: What are the "joys of living"?

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Benito Carral schreef:

>On Monday, June 26, 2006, Vicente Gonzalez wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Therefore, there is not any precept for lay people to
>>avoid dance and sex.
>>    
>>
>
>   I'm  afraid that you don't read or understand what I
>write.
>
>   The Buddha taught everyone to avoid lust, lay people
>and   monastics   included.   Given  that  salsa  is  a
>lust-oriented   dance,   it   should   be   avoided  by
>Buddhists--it's  so  easy  like that. If you don't know
>how   to   apply  general  principles,  you're  missing
>something important.
>
>           The   craving  of  the  person  addicted  to
>        careless  living grows like a creeper. He jumps
>        from life to life like a fruit-loving monkey in
>        the forest (Dhp 334).
>
>   Of  course, the Buddha didn't prohibit lay people to
>indulge in lust, he only advised them.
>
>   Then  salsa or reggaeton are not like, for instance,
>the New Year's dragon dance.
>
>   Best wishes,
>
>  
>
Dear Benito,
you keep saying that the Buddha taught this or that, but did you ever 
bother to find out what it's all  about? Lust is  not the experience 
itself, but the way peple react to experiences. You can check this by 
doing vipassana. You may experience that at certain moments your mind 
lets go of experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant. This is absence 
of lust, suppression is not absence, it's just another way of keeping 
present. You can take a beautiful lady in your arms if only you put her 
down at the other side of the pool.


-- 


Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950