Friends of Amida - Spiritual Networking -

The First Noble Truth

Part One

Permalink Reply by Kaspalita on June 13, 2009 at 12:07pm: Pat Two; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by juditta Ben David on June 14, 2009 at 12:14am: Thanks. In timely manner for me, thanks for the reminder. Isn't this a great new way of communicating the Dharma? Making me curious about the summer. Juditta; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dharmavidya on June 14, 2009 at 8:22pm: Yes, I think that there is a lot of potential in this method. We have had a wonderful weekend, by the way.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ratnacitta on June 13, 2009 at 1:17pm: When we 'fail',what can we learn from that, apart from the familiar scenario of picking ourselves up and carrying on.....?
Also, how do we really define right and wrong as Buddhists, when Dukkha is a Noble Truth ?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dharmavidya on June 14, 2009 at 8:30pm: Great questions:
1. As Buddhists, strictly speaking, we do not pick ourselves up - we learn that we have just experienced (a) a failure of faith and/or (b) a call to awakening. It is the things that go wrong that can jolt us out of our avidya.
2. A noble life = a life of refuge/faith = a life in which we intend good conditions for others
What constitutes a 'good condition' is not universally constant. It is a function of several things one of which is the spiritual level of the other person/people in question. There are situations where it is more skilful to create conditions that ill challenge another person rather than ones that will comfort the person. To make an appropriate discernment is what we call prajna.

Supplementary point:
3. Why does: "a life of refuge/faith = a life in which we intend good conditions for others"
because refuge faith means relying on Buddha not on self and Buddha's intention is the good of all sentient beings.; ▶ Reply to This