[Buddha-l] Wealth and excess

[Vicente Gonzalez]

jkirk wrote:

j> Well, but there is also the case of the Buddha himself (not a
j> bodhisattva or a mere arhant) taming the enraged elephant that
j> Devadatta sent to kill him...to me this signifies that the Buddha
j> can do anything, contrary to the rest of us, who would either run
j> for our lives or pull out a death ray and shoot the monster.  

normally yes but there are many cases of people who don't feel fear
in front attacks of lions, tigers, elephants or whatever.


j> Maybe the stories you remind us of were invented to make us think
j> more deeply about life, death, compassion, etc., or even to
j> remind us of absurdity --that is, if there is room for absurdity
j> in Buddhism (?).

I think yes. Because absurdity exists when there is a lack of
logics. Logics exists because the lack of knowledge. Knowledge exists
because the lack of Wisdom. Wisdom exists because the lack of
ignorance.

So feeling absurdity can drive to Enlightenment as any other thing
when is felt as an anomaly regarding Wisdom. When we felt logics and
knowledge without realizing that both are an anomaly then they cannot
drive to nowhere.

Buddha's choice of preaching to non-existent beings lacking of a self
to be liberated, was an absurdity. A complete anomaly. Buddha moved
apparently to save the sheep. So the Jingshan answer is not of easy
solution. 
I don't believe that you, me, or any other people here, would avoid
the killing of only one being allowing the death of 4 billion.
This thought of solidarity and interdependence causes in us an
immediate comfort. While the other choice causes uncomfortable
feelings. 

You know, Christians says that God love us in front accusations of a
perpetual genocide in the Earth. However, we must accept that God is
not a genocide at least in heavenly terms, in where maybe the time is
a little bit longer, or who knows. Because it is a fact that Christ
was crucified instead we received a fiery response of that God, with
a reputation enough famous inside the Old Gospel

However, De Beers and similar they are prosperous lineages promoting
genocides with billion deaths in Africa. Maybe the western mind felt
herself emancipated, although here the contradiction is when we are
talking of a supposed Christian humanitarian legacy.
60% of Congo minerals transactions are  made in the Toronto markets.
For the rest, Canada is an exemplar and humanitarian country. Nothing
to do with Cuba, Venezuela and the axis of the Evil. So maybe the
difference is in Emancipation, and they don't need saving the sheep.
In fact we are trying to live in a beyond-land, leaving behind God,
Buddha, or whatever to feel some freedom. It seems to be an
Enlightened way asphalted with the corpses of the infra-humans Africans
and other species well catalogued with a cold, precise, scientific mind.



best regards,