Compassion is a result of knowledge. But what about Courage?
score:3
Which types of knowledge results in courage?
Emptiness. Realizing Emptiness leads to courage, because when you have nothing you have nothing to lose. Abidelessness is the ultimate courage. Abidelessness is having no conceptual home, no warm stinking lair of the ego to defend, no territory to call your own. You are a "wanderer" in the ultimate sense of the word.
Understanding Emptiness conceptually is not enough though. This aspect of vidya is active spontaneousness, sincere unforced action without calculations. Of course before you can be like that you have to remove all guilt first, hence the practice of sila, morality. As Buddha said in suttas, dirty mind has many fears, pure mind has none.
Then you have to "leap off the cliff", metaphorically speaking. This means, expose yourself, with all your imperfections. Become open and vulnerable in the world. You jump right into fear, the fear does not stop, but you ignore it, defy it, and keep going. You setup the intent to keep going, no matter what your doubts tell you. You make your own mood, instead of your mood making you.
You no longer rely on the expectations of the world to set your direction. You don't even rely on your Buddhism teacher and Dharma anymore. You have to figure out your path by yourself, which is like the baby learning to walk for the first time.
I refer you to the following articles:
- Facing Yourself by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Pema Chödrön
- Bravery: Taking a Leap by Sakyong Mipham
As well as this book by my beloved teacher Chögyam Trungpa: "Smile at Fear. Awakening the True Heart of Bravery”
Upvote:0
The knowledge of kamma (cause and effect due to volition) leads to us having the courage to build up wholesome and skillful thoughts and actions.
From Thanissaro Bhikkhu's essay "Freedom from Fear":
Conversely, this same principle can make us brave in doing good. If we're convinced that the results of skillful intentions will have to return to us even if death intervenes, we can more easily make the sacrifices demanded by long-term endeavors for our own good and that of others. Whether or not we live to see the results in this lifetime, we're convinced that the good we do is never lost. In this way, we develop the courage needed to build a store of skillful actions — generous and virtuous — that forms our first line of defense against dangers and fear.
The knowledge of kamma, impermanence (anicca) and suffering leads to equanimity (with regards to how we face challenges) and also compassion (with regards to how we view others facing challenges).
From Bhikkhu Bodhi's essay "A Remedy for Despair":
As we grope about for a handle to prevent ourselves from plummeting down into the pits of despondency, we may find the support we need in a theme taught for frequent recollection by the Buddha: "Beings are the owners of their kamma, the heirs of their kamma; they are molded, formed and upheld by their kamma, and they inherit the results of their own good and bad deeds." Often enough this reflection has been proposed as a means to help us adjust to the vicissitudes in our personal fortunes: to accept gain and loss, success and failure, pleasure and pain, with a mind that remains unperturbed. This same theme, however, can also serve a wider purpose, offering us succor when we contemplate the immeasurably greater suffering in which the multitudes of our fellow beings are embroiled.
And the essay continues to explain how deep reflection on kammic retribution leads to development of equanimity:
Deep reflection on kammic retribution does, however, brace us against the shocks of calamity and disappointment by opening up to our vision the stubborn unwieldiness of a world ruled by greed, hate and delusion, and the deep hidden lawfulness connecting its turbulent undercurrents with the back-and-forth swing of surface events. While on the one hand this contemplation awakens a sense of urgency, a drive to escape the repetitive round of deed and result, on the other it issues in equanimity, an unruffled inner poise founded upon a realistic grasp of our existential plight.
And then equanimity leads to us having the courage to face challenges and have endurance.
Genuine equanimity, which is far from callous indifference, sustains us in our journey through the rapids of samsara. Bestowing upon us courage and endurance, it enables us to meet the fluctuations of fortune without being shaken by them, and to look into the face of the world's sufferings without being shattered by them.
Upvote:1
Loneliness of the long distance Dhamma practitioner.
bit.ly/bbclonely BBC "Focus" March 2018 "You are not alone"
An article giving much focus on the fact of loneliness in this age of social networking. One solution reminded me of my bedsitter, pub socializing days in Belsize Park: strictly for the young.
Sadly no references to Dhamma, quite blind to this dimension.
From a Dhamma perspective, loneliness is the down side of the thrill of communication, on a conventional level - what goes up must come down - thus cutting down on social networking would thus cut down on loneliness. Perhaps a surprising conclusion.
On returning from 13 years of monastic life in NE Thailand to a relatives box room in Essex was workable, rather like the Kuti just left behind.
OK, though moving to a "studio" flat in Dunstable was very depressing: moving to a fully self contained apartment in Leighton Buzzard was positively suicidal.
However, developing a practice based around MahaBuwa/Anapanasati produced a very positive result, reminding me of a verse from the Pali, "Lonely as a Rhinoceros": defeating - nay vanquishing - that very sense of loneliness.
Sharing same in Buddhist forums is even more positive. Much gratitude for the opportunity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Sutra
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ati/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.03.than.html
More post
- 📝 are mundane acts of compassion meaningful?
- 📝 Source: direct literary origin of "three things a Buddha can not do"?
- 📝 Different state of mind during dhamma talk
- 📝 Samatha vs Vipassana. What are the mechanics?
- 📝 What is the Pali word for mundane knowledge ?
- 📝 In Buddhist ethics, where does personal responsibility end?
- 📝 Kamma and sankharas
- 📝 Does Viññāṇa generate Nāmarūpa in the sense that would make "uploading concsciousness" impossible?
- 📝 Information on string ceremony
- 📝 What does enlightenment actually entail in Shugendo?
- 📝 Buddhism and Astral Projection
- 📝 Why my Mind told me to Sleep?
- 📝 Why is real magic not a good illustration to realize Truth?
- 📝 What is this tile and what do its symbols depict?
- 📝 Can a bad karma happen just only with a thought without any physical or verbal action?
- 📝 Buddho : The one who knows which is above the mind? A Dhammatalk by Ajahn Chah
- 📝 Thai Theravada Buddhism
- 📝 How to avoid the dangers of gain and honor (lābhasakkara)?
- 📝 Watching crime in apps or website
- 📝 How do I proceed to seriously study Buddhism?
- 📝 Is it correct to refer to "Buddha" without "the"
- 📝 Describe all the Jhanas in everyday language
- 📝 Is clinging the reason for losing interest towards certain things?
- 📝 What's the role of mother-day in regard of a blessed life?
- 📝 Mettā Stage 4: "Difficult Person"
- 📝 Physical Lethargy
- 📝 practicing the brahma viharas in meditation
- 📝 💚What does the idea of "separation" have to do with the Buddha's teaching?
- 📝 According to Theravada tradition, was Siddharta Gautama illuminated after meditating under the Bodhi tree?
- 📝 Body scanning - right way of attention moving
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Compassion is a result of knowledge. But what about Courage?
- 📝 Apparently stream-entrants are destined to attain Nibbana but what about non-stream-entrants?
- 📝 How to explain to someone with no knowledge about Buddhism what is meant by "extinguishing" the self?
- 📝 What Buddha taught by his knowledge about human life?
- 📝 If someone causes me pain but I don’t lament it, feel sorrow about it- what circumstance, if any, warrants acting against the person causing pain?
- 📝 Can one practice meditation to gain knowledge about the universe?
- 📝 What does Buddhism literature and tradition say about transgender folks?
- 📝 Sleep - What about it?
- 📝 What does Buddhism say about boredom?
- 📝 What is taught about Buddha nature in Theravada Buddhism?
- 📝 What can be done about fake monks?
- 📝 What is Right Action for a Buddhist regarding talking about personal success?
- 📝 What did the Buddha say about music?
- 📝 What does buddhism say about bodybuilding (and weights training)?
- 📝 No aim. No perspective. Begin of 30y. Scared about political-decisions. Paranoid. What should I do?
- 📝 What does Buddhism say about how to manage other people's anger?
- 📝 What does Buddhism say about dealing with negative people?
- 📝 What is known about the years of oral tradition of the Pali Canon?
- 📝 What do secular Buddhists say about Nirvana?
- 📝 What does Buddhism say about creativity and spiritual development?
- 📝 What does Buddhism teach about fear of success?
- 📝 What Gautam Buddha said about "self", in Chapter Three of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra?
- 📝 What is the Distinction Between Knowledge of The Path and the Fruit?
- 📝 What does Buddha and Buddhism say about fighting against enemy of dharma?
- 📝 What are some entertaining/fictional movies, books, etc. about Buddhadharma or Buddha himself?
- 📝 What did the Buddha mean when he spoke about samma samadhi?
- 📝 What is special about physical contact in the context of erotic/sexual behaviour?
- 📝 How to talk to a friend about "lack of control" in what happens to her son?
- 📝 What does the Abhidhamma say about impermanence?
- 📝 What does Diamond Way Buddhism say about obstacles at times of becoming more conscious?