How to be a Buddhist

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Eelco

The story doesn't say whether he did or didn't get aroused. It just says that the Buddha stayed seated letting Mara's daughters do whatever they did without acknowledgement.

He did acknowledge it. He knew it was happening.

If we then read the recepy of the satipattana sutta we read that when desire arises the wise man knows there is desire within me. If desire is absent the wise man knows there is no desire in me.


Sitting under that tree, Gautama saw all of his past lifes in pretty great detail.
The sutta's often describe the Buddha speaking on how he contemplated some question and bring it to some logical conclusion.


Finally when under the tree he pierced the veil that causes attachment and that set him free, we have no knowledge what went on inside the man as these events occurred. Saying that he was doing nothing to me seems strange and indeed an overlay of some other religious thinking which may or may not apply to buddha.

I guess that applies equally to saying he didnlt acknowledge it.







With Love
Eelco[/quote]

[sky]

Originally Posted by Gem

How is it interpreted to say Buddha did something?

The same way as interpreting that he did nothing

There are many different Suttas/Sutras regarding Buddha's temptations each one interpreted according to the Scribe. As long as you get the basic message in the teaching I presume it doesn't matter which one you believe/don't believe.

[sky]

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/.../wheel419.html

[Gem]

Originally Posted by sky123

The same way as interpreting that he did nothing

There are many different Suttas/Sutras regarding Buddha's temptations each one interpreted according to the Scribe. As long as you get the basic message in the teaching I presume it doesn't matter which one you believe/don't believe.

What's the basic message as you see it?

[sky]

Originally Posted by Gem

What's the basic message as you see it?

To me it's all about freeing my mind from temptations as in attachments, unwholesome desires, negative thoughts etc: instead of my mind controlling me I control it.... I want complete peace of mind in this hectic life and the only way I can do this is by changing my mindset... I can but try

[Samana]

.

Yes, "Mara" represents our doubts and negativities. This can be seen in a dialogue between "Mara" and one of the Buddha's nuns who was called Vajira:

VAJIRA

Setting at Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the bhikkhuni Vajira dressed and, taking bowl and robe, entered Savatthi for alms.[26] When she had walked for alms in Savatthi and had returned from her alms round, after her meal she went to the Blind Men's Grove for the day's abiding. Having plunged into the Blind Men's Grove, she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.

Then Mara the Evil One, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in the bhikkhuni Vajira, desiring to make her fall away from concentration, approached her and addressed her in verse:

34. "By whom has this being been created?
Where is the maker of the being?
Where has the being arisen?
Where does the being cease?"
Then it occurred to the bhikkhuni Vajira: "Now who is this that recited the verse — a human being or a non-human being?" Then it occurred to her: "This is Mara the Evil One, who has recited the verse desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in me, desiring to make me fall away from concentration."

Then the bhikkhuni Vajira, having understood, "This is Mara the Evil One," replied to him in verses:

35. "Why now do you assume 'a being'?
Mara, have you grasped a view?
This is a heap of sheer constructions:
Here no being is found.
36. Just as, with an assemblage of parts,
The word 'chariot' is used,
So, when the aggregates are present,
There's the convention 'a being.'

37. It's only suffering that comes to be,
Suffering that stands and falls away.
Nothing but suffering comes to be,
Nothing but suffering ceases."

Then Mara the Evil One, realizing, "The bhikkhuni Vajira knows me," sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/...dhi/bl143.html

_/|\_

[Gem]

Originally Posted by sky123

To me it's all about freeing my mind from temptations as in attachments, unwholesome desires, negative thoughts etc: instead of my mind controlling me I control it.... I want complete peace of mind in this hectic life and the only way I can do this is by changing my mindset... I can but try

It sounds like the things that happen create disturbances to peace trough the response mechanisms one has to it, and peace is not actually maintained by responding differently, but by not responding at all. Trying is driven by a volition, and in the Buddhist context where Kamma pertains to the volition, the ending of kamma production is the cessation of volition. This leads to the interpretation that Buddha did nothing in Mara's temptation, because volition is the harbinger of doing. If one interprets Buddha doing when tempted, that would mean Buddha was generating kamma, and hence did not become liberated from the kammic cycle.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Gem

It sounds like the things that happen create disturbances to peace trough the response mechanisms one has to it, and peace is not actually maintained by responding differently, but by not responding at all. Trying is driven by a volition, and in the Buddhist context where Kamma pertains to the volition, the ending of kamma production is the cessation of volition. This leads to the interpretation that Buddha did nothing in Mara's temptation, because volition is the harbinger of doing. If one interprets Buddha doing when tempted, that would mean Buddha was generating kamma, and hence did not become liberated from the kammic cycle.

My peace is definitely maintained by responding differently.
I don't know if Buddha responded or not as I wasn't sitting next to him but if he didn't respond he was indeed doing something, not responding

[sky]

Originally Posted by Samana

.

Yes, "Mara" represents our doubts and negativities. This can be seen in a dialogue between "Mara" and one of the Buddha's nuns who was called Vajira:



_/|\_

Interesting article Samana, thanks..

[Gem]

Originally Posted by sky123

My peace is definitely maintained by responding differently.
I don't know if Buddha responded or not as I wasn't sitting next to him but if he didn't respond he was indeed doing something, not responding

Responding by not responding is just not responding.