[Buddha-l] Re: The Buddha, an 'emotional weakling'? What are the "joys of living"?

[Benito Carral]

On Friday, June 23, 2006, Stefan wrote:

> In  your  view,  I  see  an anxious attempt to escape
> life's anesthetic little and greater joys.

   You  can  see  a lot of things that are not actually
present,  that  is  called  _illusion_  as you probably
know.

   The  two  emotional  unwholesome roots are greed and
hatred,  and  any  activity  promoted  by  them  is not
conductive to liberation.

> Maybe the wisest thing is to learn to live with one's
> own  temper  and enjoy life, even if you don't always
> get the movie you like to see.

   I  don't  know  what  you mean with "live with one's
temper  and  enjoy  life,"  if that means not trying to
transform  defilements or indulging in greed and hatred
from  time to time, that's not wise at all, just a show
of attachments in action. Many people try to enjoy life
following  such  an  approach, but nobody seems to have
succeeded in it.

   Anyway I try to follow the dharmic approach:

           Thus,  there  is  sensual  eating  and  wise
        eating.  When  the  body  composed  of the four
        elements   suffers  the  pangs  of  hunger  and
        accordingly  you  provide  it  with  food,  but
        without  greed,  that is called wise eating. On
        the  other hand, if you gluttonously delight in
        purity  and  flavour,  you  are  permitting the
        distinctions  which  arise from wrong thinking.
        Merely  seeking  to  gratify the organ of taste
        without realizing when you have taken enough is
        called sensual eating (Huangbo Xiyun).

   Then,   in  relation  with  salsa,  you  could  also
remember the seventh _uposatha_ precept, "the avoidance
of   song,   dance,   and   other   forms   of   public
entertainment."

   As  I  said  in a previous post, bodhisattvas try to
use   their  resources  serving  others  not  indulging
themselves   in   personal   gratification,   which  is
characteristic  of  pratyekabuddhas, and quite contrary
to the Mahayana spirit.

   Best wishes,

P.  S. You could also read master Xuyun's autobiography
to  understand  better how great Chan masters use their
time.  Well,  now  that  I think about it, maybe you're
right,  they  probably  "anxious(ly) attempt to escape"
samsara  and  help  other to do so, someone should told
them.

--
Benito Carral
  Asturias, Sepharad (Spain)