ooooommmmm
Ron left me 'Buddha for Beginners' for me to peruse.
"The sensations that are always flowing in upon us become problematic only when we seek to hold on to the pleasant experiences - when we try to capture the ephemeral. Conversely, when we feel indignant and personally injured or offended by the unpleasant sensations, we have mistakenly reified our self into an object (soul) when we are really nothing but a process of changing aggregates. That is to say, we have made the mistake which Buddha believes the traditional Hindus have made; namely, we have forgotten that we too (our selves) are impermanent transitory realities. As an impermanent transitory reality, I can only be injured or indignant if I cling to myself, if I think of myself as a substance enduring through time. Craving, for the Buddha, is both an emotional passion and an intellectual misconception about reality. The suffering is caused when we falsely attribute 'absolute' reality where is only 'relative' reality." -page 81
"Critical thinking, for the Buddha, is part of the moral path to freedom, for it allows one to recognize internal confusion." -page 89
"'Be moral and virtuous without being made of morals or virtues' (Majjhima-Nikaya 2.27) Compassion flows from the realizations of human suffering and the impermanence of all things. Even our 'enemies', for example, begin to arouse our compassion when we realize that they too are trapped by suffering. With this notion Buddha sought to rescue morality from the empty formalities of the Brahmins. Rules and rituals are blind without a cultivated heart of compassion." -page 98
"The sensations that are always flowing in upon us become problematic only when we seek to hold on to the pleasant experiences - when we try to capture the ephemeral. Conversely, when we feel indignant and personally injured or offended by the unpleasant sensations, we have mistakenly reified our self into an object (soul) when we are really nothing but a process of changing aggregates. That is to say, we have made the mistake which Buddha believes the traditional Hindus have made; namely, we have forgotten that we too (our selves) are impermanent transitory realities. As an impermanent transitory reality, I can only be injured or indignant if I cling to myself, if I think of myself as a substance enduring through time. Craving, for the Buddha, is both an emotional passion and an intellectual misconception about reality. The suffering is caused when we falsely attribute 'absolute' reality where is only 'relative' reality." -page 81
"Critical thinking, for the Buddha, is part of the moral path to freedom, for it allows one to recognize internal confusion." -page 89
"'Be moral and virtuous without being made of morals or virtues' (Majjhima-Nikaya 2.27) Compassion flows from the realizations of human suffering and the impermanence of all things. Even our 'enemies', for example, begin to arouse our compassion when we realize that they too are trapped by suffering. With this notion Buddha sought to rescue morality from the empty formalities of the Brahmins. Rules and rituals are blind without a cultivated heart of compassion." -page 98