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Pastimes : History's effect on Religion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (87)	5/8/2003 4:53:18 PM
From: Volsi Mimir	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 520

but even Buddhists do not believe that it is just in your head. ================================================= So what came first, the Chicken or the Kamma? ================================================== In Buddhism, the distinction between what is good and what is bad is very simple: all actions that have their roots in greed, hatred, and delusion that spring from selfishness foster the harmful delusion of selfhood. These action are demeritorious or unskillful or bad. They are called Akusala Kamma. All those actions which are rooted in the virtues of generosity, love and wisdom, are meritorious -- Kusala Kamma. The criteria of good and bad apply whether the actions are of thought, word or deed. Buddhist ethics are based on intention or volition 'Kamma is volition,' says the Buddha. Action themselves are considered as neither good nor bad but 'only the intention and thought makes them so.' Yet Buddhist ethics does not maintain that a person may commit what are conventionally regarded as 'sins' provided that he does so with the best of intentions. Had this been its position, Buddhism would have confined itself to questions of psychology and left the uninteresting task of drawing up lists of ethical rules and framing codes of conducts to less emancipated teachings. The connection between thoughts and deeds, between mental and material action is an extension of thought. It is not possible to commit murder with a good heart because taking of life is simply the outward expression of a state of mind dominated by hate or greed. Deeds are condensations of thoughts just as rain is a condensation of vapor. Deeds proclaim from the rooftops of action only what has already been committed in the silent and secret chambers of the heart. saigon.com My favorite story from Chuang Tsu is of the gnarled tree, now so huge to have rested a thousand four-horse chariots-- yet entirely useless, curved and knotted, the leaf left a burning taste and because it was good for nothing, becoming holy and fortunate.