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

[Stefan Detrez]

2006/6/26, Benito Carral bcarral at kungzhi.org:
>
>
>           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).


This verse actually allows for many interesting readings and, more so,
questions. Suppose you are a craving person who is *not* careless. Would
he/she also become victim to the demonic 'attaching', you love to emphasize?
The monkey can be understood as a reference to hedonists. What if you are a
careful hedonist? Would this be a threat to society? I think,
notwithstanding the psychological advise the Dhammapada gives, most of the
language contained therein is pretty loaded. It tries to make things look
worse than they actually are.
Again, if you jump form life to life and you're stupid or wise enough not to
let suffering take command of your mental life, what's wrong with that?
Fruit-loving monkeys are vegetarian, aren't they? What wrong with that? Why
would 'growing like a creeper' give a bad impression of a person? Suppose a
verse would say: 'That person, whose insight in the Dhamma grows like a
creeper, is soon liberated from suffering.' Wouldn't that give a positive
impression of that person, and by extension, the creeper plant?

Cheers,

Stefan
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