[Buddha-l] Swearing

[Mike Austin]

I was interested in Richard's comment about the guy who assessed a man's 
religion by the way he swears. I wonder if the words themselves have any 
significance or whether they are copied from others and become habitual. 
For example, I most often use the f word and sometime Christ.  I have no 
idea what religion the f word could relate to but as I was brought up as 
a Christian, one could suggest some link there.  However, I think I have 
merely copied others - probably by watching the wrong sort of television 
programmes.  I think it is a sort of spontaneous swearing - an expletive 
without much conceptual thought or faith behind it.

There could be another sort of exclamation, similar to swearing, that is 
a cry for help.  This could be associated with concepts or a faith. When 
one is overwhelmed by a situation,  a frustrated call for help may sound 
like swearing. Perhaps this reveals our instinct, gut feeling or belief. 
One example that comes to mind was when I spoke with Prof. Paul Williams 
shortly after his return to Roman Catholicism. He looked at such moments 
and he asked himself who he really turns to - and it was not the Buddha, 
Dharma and Sangha - but Jesus Christ / God.

At our centre, we had an interesting discussion last week about praising 
the Buddha.  Our Geshe suggested it was something like flattery, wishing 
for something in return.  Any praise that expects something in return is 
an appeal for intervention on one's behalf. My point was that, if Buddha 
is wise, compassionate and equanimous, he will always be helping us. Any 
appeal to him - praise etc - only changes our own mind, not his. This is 
not to deny the benefits of praising Buddha,  but to appreciate what the 
process is.

Richard's attempts to create Buddhist swear words, if used as a means of 
appeal for help,  would be rather empty and pointless if he were to hold 
the same view as I do about praise to the Buddha.  That is, one would be 
appealing to oneself to change, wake up, get wise etc. rather that to an 
external being. So what one is left with is, perhaps, calling oneself an 
idiot in the present moment, recalling that one was an idiot in the past 
and resolving not to be an idiot in the future.  In short, one swears at 
samsara. Successful appeals for help are contingent on our own efforts.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin