Can good and evil live in harmony?
Upvote:0
In buddhism you perceive everyhit experience in 2 opposites may it be hot or cold, long or short, good or evil, etc. as simply:
- favorable or
- unfavorable or
- do not care
If you perceive something favorable you get a good feeling about it and get attached and if unfavorable you get a bad feeling about it and get averse.
What ever experience you should keep a balanced mind and use each experience to eradicate the unwholesome roots. See: PahΔna Sutta. The bipolar evaluation something as favorable and unfavorable always result in either craving or aversion hence result in misery. Also may result in Sensory Desire and Ill Will.
Moreover, if you are allergic to a flower and if hurts someone, this being good or bad is matter of perception hence resulting is pleasant and unpleasant sensation followed by craving and aversion followed by becoming. So if might be that the perception which may create more misery now and in the future than a person who is getting an allergic reaction. The allergic reaction maybe his Karma or negligence. When you harmonise your mind the notion of good (being favorable) and evil (unfavorable) will not be present but you will be equanimous.
Upvote:1
(this is less Buddhism than a demonstration that actions within the empirical world do not suit Essential concepts like 'good' and 'evil'.. though to me this flows from the Buddha's analysis!)
Moral system 1: Killing = Evil (100%).
You wake up and find yourself faced with two option (you are placed in this position by a third actor).
Option A, kill 1 person.
Option B, 100 people are killed (by that third actor).
Knowing that 'Killing = Evil', you choose option B (within that 100%, the non-relational, there can be no justification for choosing A).. In that you do not personally pull the trigger, you are not the 'efficient cause'. You have done no wrong (within your moral system).
Moral system 2: No killing > less killing > more killing.
Logically, B is never reasonable.
An essential moral construct like 'good' or 'evil' will agree with a relational moral construct in all scenarios, other than the one where it is compared to itself. As such, it is simply inefficient. No need for opposites in their essential form!
"Treat this as this, not this as that or that as this" As the Buddha said. (in other words, not 'This=This'.. given evidence from empirical experience, the law of identity is flawed!)
Now how this fits in within the Buddhist world view, whether you can put it down to past karma for finding yourself in such a position.. how to square that you are damned either way is the more interesting question! :D
More post
- π Was the Buddha harsh?
- π I feel uncomfortable about jury duty
- π Ultimate Lack of Discipline
- π Where did the Buddha teach about the "flow of tears"?
- π Is belief in the end of experience wrong view according to the Buddha?
- π Today, I killed
- π Is it necessary to be socialize to understand dhamma?
- π what to do, when you can't meditate?
- π Body feels like crying
- π Fake Dhammapadas
- π How can we know the original meaning of a word with certainty?
- π What arises first - feeling of object or visual representation of object?
- π How to help non-Buddhists understand a young person's desire to be ordained as a monk?
- π What exactly is Jhana?
- π Can we say cause/causes behind the world is/are eternal?
- π How can I smile when existence itself is dukkha?
- π A beginner facing Culadasa
- π The Sangha extinguished, the Dhamma sold out: what now?
- π If each person's mind creates "reality" then why do we need to eat?
- π Does any Theravada Suttas / sources refer to Oozing orifices? What are the Suttas?
- π How is one supposed to be compassionate and 100% free of suffering while others are suffering?
- π What does "intention" mean?
- π Don't teach Dhamma to those who can't appreciate it or aren't interested
- π How to experience Anatta
- π Why Lankavatara Sutra was replaced with Diamond Sutra by 5th patriarch?
- π Importance of good moral conduct
- π Should a Buddhist feel offended by misuses of Buddha's name or image?
- π Does Buddhism have a concept of blasphemy?
- π meditation on the heartbeat
- π Looking for Sutta reference for Mindfulness Meditation
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Can good and evil live in harmony?
- π Can a person live by the Dhamma and have another religion as well?
- π How can you use Q&A to gain good Karma and also aid to realize liberation
- π Can we meet the conditions of good feeling again and again?
- π How can I live life knowing other people work so hard for so little and people and animals suffer
- π Can good karma, bad karma or neither good and bad karma arise or not arise from not doing?
- π Can Buddhists be good workplace leaders?
- π Doing evil knowingly and unknowingly
- π How can one define luxurious beds and seats in the eighth precept?
- π Meditation and good deeds vs clarity of mind during death
- π Can one follow Hinduism and Buddhism at the same time?
- π Can a human being reside both in this world and Nirvana at the same time?
- π How can I accept losing control of my mind and will?
- π Who said "cease to do evil learn to do good purify the heart"?
- π What are good resources to study the historic evolution and comparative studies of Abhidhamma
- π Can Mahayana and Theravada learn from eachother?
- π Where can I read the oldest and purest texts of Buddhism?
- π What exactly are the last two of the Arupa Jhanas? How can we transcend them and for what?
- π Can a buddhist enjoy life - what are the limitations and restrictions
- π Can you gain stream entry by focusing on the clinging and stress going on at the five clinging aggregates?
- π Can loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy be developed through Vipassana meditation?
- π How can Name-and-form be the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate?
- π How can the Buddha (after he was enlightened) reflect that he was not at ease and then became at ease in seclusion?
- π Can someone be literally reborn in lower realms due to unskillful thoughts and emotions?
- π How can I work with doubt and existential concerns?
- π How to accept things as-is and live according to as-is?
- π I can feel the rising and falling of sensations in vipassana, but what to make of thoughts?
- π Where can i find buddhist chanting and music?
- π What does Buddhism say about the consequences of good and bad behaviour?
- π How are good and bad Karmas determined in Buddhism?