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Ordinatio as buthan kagyu wuseng

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  • Ordinatio as buthan kagyu wuseng

    Yesterday, I, 2 speak konvetionally of the self, was honored and stressed 2 be akcepted as ordained warrior monk (chinese: wuseng) of the bhutan kagyus. I have the strong hope to be able to end the suffering, slavery and ignorance of nonviolence 4 every beings of beings.

    As wuseng i do not have to comply with the vinaya of fully ordained nuns and monks but have took the vows of lay kagyu followers (pancasila: ahimsa, satya (truthfulness), asetya (not taking what is not given), bramacarya (ascetism of senses), aparigraha (nonpossessiveness)), vows of beginner bodisatvas (paramita: dana (gving). ksanti (patience), sila, virya (virtuous effort), samadhi (koncentratio), panna (sophia: nonviolence 4 every beings such as anima, politikal justice inkluding anima justice, substance(ousia), emptiness of independant existence (shunyata), essence (ideen), spirit (jiva, shen), athena, logos, doubt), tantrik vows of the samaya of Arya green Tara.

    U will note that the tenth vow of not destroying places such a town holds me far away from vietnamese napalm, gaza and afghanistan. I believe for those who look for the true taiji of yin/yang there are other ways to end the present wars: concentrating on kashmir, sudan, tchad, ethiopia, somalia, palestine, their right for freedom, human rights, justice, defence and a truthful, honest dialogue.I, of kourse, do not support any lies of any sides in order to gain personal benefits and spreading konfusion in the true service of nonviolence 4 every beings such as anima, in order to serve private interests and any lies whatsoever, payings hommage to Immanuel Kant and his "So kalled right to lie for humanity">
    http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/nav/n.html_184879529.html

    Following the Gelug founder, Tsongkhapa's fifteenth-century commentary on the bodhisattva vows, An Explanation of Bodhisattvas' Ethical Discipline: The Main Path to Enlightenment (Byang-chub sems-dpa'i tshul-khrims-kyi rnam-bshad byang-chub gzhung-lam), let us examine the eighteen negative actions that constitute a root downfall

    (1) Praising ourselves and/or belittling others
    (2) Not sharing Dharma teachings or wealth
    (3) Not listening to others' apologies or striking others
    (4) Discarding the Mahayana teachings and propounding made-up ones
    (5) Taking offerings intended for the Triple Gem
    (6) Forsaking the holy Dharma
    (7) Disrobing monastics or committing such acts as stealing their robes
    (8) Committing any of the five heinous crimes
    (9) Holding a distorted, antagonistic outlook
    (10) Destroying places such as towns
    (11) Teaching voidness to those whose minds are untrained
    (12) Turning others away from full enlightenment
    (13) Turning others away from their pratimoksha vows
    (14) Belittling the shravaka vehicle
    (15) Proclaiming a false realization of voidness
    (16) Accepting what has been stolen from the Triple Gem
    (17) Establishing unfair policies
    (18) Giving up bodhichitta
    Occasionally, a nineteenth root downfall is specified:
    (19) Belittling others with sarcastic verses or words

    Secondary Bodhisattva Vows

    Alexander Berzin
    August 1997
    Introduction

    The secondary bodhisattva vows are to restrain from forty-six faulty actions (nyes-byas). These faulty actions are divided into seven groups detrimental, one each, to our training in the six far-reaching attitudes (pha-rol-tu phyin-pa, Skt. paramita, perfections) and to our benefiting others.
    The six far-reaching attitudes are
    1. generosity,
    2. ethical self-discipline,
    3. patient tolerance (patience),
    4. joyful perseverance (positive enthusiasm),
    5. mental stability (concentration),
    6. discriminating awareness (wisdom).
    Although the faulty actions are contrary to and hamper our progress toward enlightenment, committing them, even with the four binding factors (kun-dkris bzhi) complete, does not constitute a loss of our bodhisattva vows. The less complete these factors are, however, the less damage we do to our spiritual development along the bodhisattva path. If we happen to commit any of these faulty actions, we acknowledge our mistake and apply the opponent powers, as in the case of the root bodhisattva vows.
    [For more detail about the four binding factors and the opponent powers, see: The Root Bodhisattva Vows.]

    There are many details to learn about these forty-six, with many exceptions when there is no fault in committing them. In general, however, the damage to our development of the far-reaching attitudes and to the benefit we can give others depends on the motivation behind our faulty acts. If that motivation is a disturbed state of mind, such as attachment, anger, spite, or pride, the damage is much greater than if it is an undisturbed, though detrimental one, such as indifference, laziness, or forgetfulness. With indifference, we lack adequate faith or respect in the training to be bothered engaging in it. With laziness, we ignore our practice because we find it more pleasant and easier to do nothing. When we lack mindfulness, we completely forget about our commitments to help others. For many of the forty-six, we are not at fault if we have the intention eventually to eliminate them from our behavior, but our disturbing emotions and attitudes are still too strong to exercise sufficient self-control.
    The presentation here follows that given by the fifteenth-century Gelug master Tsongkhapa in An Explanation of Bodhisattvas' Ethical Discipline: The Main Path to Enlightenment (Byang-chub sems-dpa'i tshul-khrims-kyi rnam-bshad byang-chub gzhung-lam).
    Seven Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Generosity

    Generosity (sbyin-pa, Skt. dana) is defined as the attitude of being willing to give. It includes willingness to give material objects, protection from fearful situations, and teachings.
    Of the seven faulty actions that negatively affect our development of generosity, two harm our willingness to give others material objects, two our willingness to give others protection from fearful situations, two involve not providing the circumstances for others to cultivate and practice generosity, and one harms our development of the generosity of giving teachings.
    Two Faulty Actions Detrimental to Developing the Willingness to Give Others Material Objects

    (1) Not making offerings to the Triple Gem through the three gateways of our bodies, speech, and minds
    Because of being in a bad mood, like being annoyed about something, or because of laziness, indifference, or we simply forget, failing to offer to the Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, three times each day and three times each night, at least prostration with our bodies, words of praise with our speech, and remembrance of their good qualities with our minds and hearts. If we cannot at least be generous enough to offer these happily each day and night to the Three Jewels of Refuge, how shall we ever perfect our willingness to give everything to everyone?
    (2) Following out our desirous minds
    Because of great desire, attachment, or lack of contentment, indulging in any of the five types of desirable sensory objects - sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes, or tactile sensations. For example, because of attachment to delicious tastes, we nibble at the cake in the refrigerator even when we are not hungry. This is detrimental to our fight against miserliness. We soon find ourselves hoarding the cake, and even hiding it on the back of the shelf, so that we do not have to share it with anyone else. If we fully intend to overcome this bad habit but cannot yet control it because our attachment to food is so strong, we are not at fault in taking a piece of cake. Nevertheless, we try to increase our self-control by taking smaller pieces and not so often.
    Two Faulty Actions Detrimental to Developing the Willingness to Give Others Protection from Fearful Situations

    (3) Not showing respect to our elders
    The objects of this action include our parents, teachers, those with excellent qualities and, in general, any persons with seniority or simply older than ourselves. When we fail to give them our seats on the bus, meet them at the airport, help carry their bags, and so on, because of pride, anger, spite, laziness, indifference, or forgetfulness, we leave them in a fearful and worrisome situation difficult to cope with.
    (4) Not answering those who ask us questions
    Because of pride, anger, spite, laziness, indifference, or forgetfulness, not happily answering others' sincere questions. In ignoring them, we leave them in a quandary with no one to turn to - also a fearful and insecure position.
    As illustration of the type of detail found in Tsongkhapa's commentary to these vows, let us look at the exceptions when there is no fault in remaining silent or postponing our response. In terms of ourselves as the basis for this action, we need not answer if we are too sick or the person asking the question has purposely woken us in the middle of the night. Unless there is an emergency, there is no fault in telling the person to wait until we are feeling better or until the morning.
    There are exceptions according to the occasion, for example when someone interrupts us with a question while we are teaching others, delivering a lecture, conducting a ceremony, speaking words of comfort to someone else, receiving a lesson, or listening to a discourse. We tell them politely to hold their questions until later.
    Certain situations, by necessity, require silence or postponing the answer. For example, if we were to respond in depth to a question about hells during a public lecture in the West on Buddhism, we might turn many people off, causing a hindrance to their involvement with the Dharma. Silence is preferable if in answering someone's question, for example a bigot's inquiry about our ethnic backgrounds, we would cause that person to dislike us and therefore be unreceptive to our help. Silence is also better if it would cause others to stop acting destructively and lead them to a more constructive mode of behavior - for example, when people psychologically dependent on us ask us to answer every question in their lives and we wish to teach them to make decisions and figure things out for themselves.
    Furthermore, if we are at a meditation retreat with a rule of silence and someone asks us a question, there is no need to talk. Finally, it is best to conclude a question and answer session at the end of a lecture if, by continuing when the audience is tired and it is very late, we will cause resentment and anger toward us.
    Two Faulty Actions of Not Providing the Circumstances for Others to Cultivate and Practice Generosity

    (5) Not accepting when invited as a guest
    If we refuse to go for a visit or a meal because of pride, anger, spite, laziness, or indifference, we deprive the other person of an opportunity for building up positive force (bsod-nams, Skt. punya, positive potential, merit) from offering hospitality. Unless there are good reasons to decline, we accept no matter how humble the home might be.
    (6) Not accepting material gifts
    For the same reasons as in the previous case.
    One Faulty Action Detrimental to Developing the Generosity of Giving Teachings

    (7) Not giving the Dharma to those who wish to learn
    Here the motivation for refusing to teach about Buddhism, loan others our Dharma books, share our notes, and so on, is anger, spite, jealousy that the other person will eventually outstrip us, laziness, or indifference. In the case of the second root bodhisattva vow, we decline because of attachment and miserliness.
    Nine Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Ethical Self-Discipline

    Ethical self-discipline (tshul-khrims, Skt. shila) is the attitude to restrain from negative actions. It also includes the discipline to engage in positive actions and to help others.
    Of the nine faulty actions that hamper our development of ethical self-discipline, four concern situations in which our main consideration is others, three concern our own situation, and two concern both ourselves and others.
    Four Faulty Actions That Concern Situations in Which Our Main Consideration Is Others

    (1) Ignoring those with shattered ethics
    If, because of anger, spite, laziness, indifference, or forgetfulness, we ignore, neglect, or put down those who have broken their vows or even committed heinous crimes, we weaken our ethical self-discipline to engage in positive acts and to help others. Such persons are in special need of our concern and attention since they have built up the causes for present and future suffering and unhappiness. Without self-righteousness or moral indignation, we try to help them, for instance by teaching meditation to interested prisoners in jail.
    (2) Not upholding moral training for the sake of others' faith
    Buddha has prohibited many actions that, although not naturally destructive, are detrimental to our spiritual progress - for example, laypersons and monastics drinking alcohol, or monastics sharing a room with a member of the opposite sex. Refraining from such behavior is training shared in common by Hinayana practitioners and bodhisattvas alike. If, as budding bodhisattvas, we ignore these proscriptions because of lack of respect or belief in Buddha's ethical teachings, or because of laziness to exercise self-control, we cause others seeing our behavior to lose faith and admiration for Buddhists and Buddhism. Therefore, with concern for the impression our conduct makes on others, we refrain, for example, from taking recreational drugs.
    (3) Being petty when it concerns the welfare of others
    Buddha gave many minor rules for monastics to train their behavior, for instance always to have our three sets of robes where we sleep. Sometimes, however, the needs of others overrides the necessity to follow this minor training, for example if someone falls sick and we need to stay overnight to take care of the person. If, because of anger or spite toward the person, or simply laziness to stay up all night, we decline on the grounds that we do not have our three sets of robes with us, we commit this faulty action. Being a rigid fanatic with rules hampers our balanced development of ethical self-discipline.
    (4) Not committing a destructive action when love and compassion call for it
    Occasionally, certain extreme situations arise in which the welfare of others is seriously jeopardized and there is no alternative left to prevent a tragedy other than committing one of the seven destructive physical or verbal actions. These seven are taking a life, taking what has not been given to us, indulging in inappropriate sexual behavior, lying, speaking divisively, using harsh and cruel language, or chattering meaninglessly. If we commit such an action without any disturbing emotion at the time, such as anger, desire, or naivety about cause and effect, but are motivated only by the wish to prevent others' suffering - being totally willing to accept on ourselves whatever negative consequences may come, even hellish pain - we do not damage our far-reaching ethical self-discipline. In fact, we build up a tremendous amount of positive force that speeds us on our spiritual paths.
    Refusing to commit these destructive actions when necessity demands is at fault, however, only if we have taken and keep purely bodhisattva vows. Our reticence to exchange our happiness for the welfare of others hampers our perfection of the ethical self-discipline to help others always. There is no fault if we have only superficial compassion and do not keep bodhisattva vows or train in the conduct outlined by them. We realize that since our compassion is weak and unstable, the resulting suffering we would experience from our destructive actions might easily cause us to begrudge bodhisattva conduct. We might even give up the path of working to help others. Like the injunction that bodhisattvas on lower stages of development only damage themselves and their abilities to help others if they attempt practices of bodhisattvas on higher stages - such as feeding their flesh to a hungry tigress - it is better for us to remain cautious and hold back.
    Since there may be confusion about what circumstances call for such bodhisattva action, let us look at examples taken from the commentary literature. Please keep in mind that these are last resort actions when all other means fail to alleviate or prevent others' suffering. As a budding bodhisattva, we are willing to take the life of someone about to commit a mass murder. We have no hesitation in confiscating medicines intended for relief efforts in a war-torn country that someone has taken to sell on the black market, or taking away a charity's funds from an administrator who is squandering or mismanaging them. We are willing, if male, to have sex with another's wife - or with an unmarried woman whose parents forbid it, or with any other inappropriate partner - when the woman has the strong wish to develop bodhichitta but is overwhelmed with desire for sex with us and who, if she were to die not having had sex with us, would carry the grudge as an instinct into future lives. As a result, she would be extremely hostile toward bodhisattvas and the bodhisattva path.
    Bodhisattvas' willingness to engage in inappropriate sexual acts when all else fails to help prevent someone from developing an extremely negative attitude toward the spiritual path of altruism raises an important point for married couples on the bodhisattva path to consider. Sometimes a couple becomes involved in Dharma and one of them, for instance the woman, wishing to be celibate, stops sexual relations with her husband when he is not of the same mind. He still has attachment to sex and takes her decision as a personal rejection. Sometimes the wife's fanaticism and lack of sensitivity drives her husband to blame his frustration and unhappiness on the Dharma. He leaves the marriage and turns his back on Buddhism with bitter resentment. If there is no other way to avoid his hostile reaction toward the spiritual path and the woman is keeping bodhisattva vows, she would do well to evaluate her compassion to determine if it is strong enough to allow her to have occasional sex with her husband without serious harm to her ability to help others. This is very relevant in terms of the tantric vows concerning chaste behavior.
    As budding bodhisattvas, we are willing to lie when it saves others' lives or prevents others from being tortured and maimed. We have no hesitation to speak divisively to separate our children from a wrong crowd of friends - or disciples from misleading teachers - who are exerting negative influences on them and encouraging harmful attitudes and behavior. We do not refrain from using harsh language to rouse our children from negative ways, like not doing their homework, when they will not listen to reason. And when others, interested in Buddhism, are totally addicted to chattering, drinking, partying, singing, dancing, or telling off-color jokes or stories of violence, we are willing to join in if refusal would make these persons feel that bodhisattvas, and Buddhists in general, never have fun and that the spiritual path is not for them.
    Three Faulty Actions Concerning Our Own Situation

    (5) Earning our living through a wrong livelihood
    Such livelihoods are through dishonest or devious means, primarily of five major types: (a) pretense or hypocrisy, (b) flattery or using smooth words to fool others, (c) blackmail, extortion, or playing on people's guilt, (d) demanding bribes or exacting fines for imaginary offenses, and (e) giving bribes to gain something larger in return. We resort to such means because of total lack of a sense of moral self-dignity or reserve.
    (6) Becoming excited and flying off to some frivolous activity
    Because of being discontent, restless, bored, or hyperactive, and desirous for some excitement, running off to some frivolous distraction - like wandering in a shopping mall, flipping through the stations on the television, playing computer games and so on. We become completely engrossed and out of control. If we engage in such activities with others in order to calm down their anger or lift their depression, to help them if they are addicted to such things, to gain their trust if we suspect they are hostile toward us, or to strengthen old friendships, we do not harm our ethical training to discipline ourselves to act positively and to help others. However, if we run off to these activities feeling we have nothing better to do, we are deceiving ourselves. There is always something better to do. Sometimes, however, we need a break to help renew our enthusiasm and energy when we become tired or depressed. There is no fault in that, so long as we set reasonable limits.
    (7) Intending only to wander in samsara
    Many sutras explain that bodhisattvas prefer to stay in samsara rather than achieve liberation themselves. It is a fault to take this literally to mean we do not work to overcome our disturbing emotions and attitudes and achieve liberation, but just keep our delusions and work with them to help others. This is different from the eighteenth root bodhisattva vow of giving up bodhichitta, with which we fully decide to stop working for liberation and enlightenment. Here, we just consider it unimportant and unnecessary to free ourselves from disturbing emotions, which seriously weakens our ethical self-discipline. Although on the bodhisattva path, especially when it entails anuttarayoga tantra, we transform and use the energies of desire to enhance our spiritual progress, this does not mean we give free reign to our desires and do not work to rid ourselves of them.
    Two Faulty Actions Concerning Both Ourselves and Others

    (8) Not ridding ourselves of behavior that causes us to fall to ill-repute
    Suppose we like eating meat. If we are among vegetarian Buddhists and we insist on eating a steak, we invite their criticism and disrespect. They will not take our words about Dharma seriously and will spread stories about us, making others unreceptive to our help as well. As budding bodhisattvas, if we do not rid ourselves of such behavior, it is a great fault.
    (9) Not redressing those who act with disturbing emotions and attitudes
    If we are in a position of authority in an office, school, monastery, or household and, because of attachment to certain members or the wish to be liked, we fail to scold or punish those with disturbing emotions and attitudes who are acting disruptively, we damage the discipline and morale of the entire group.
    Four Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Patient Tolerance

    Patient tolerance (bzod-pa, Skt. kshanti) is the willingness to deal, without anger, with those doing harm, with the hardships involved in practicing Dharma, and with our own sufferings.
    (1) Discarding the four positive trainings
    These trainings are not to retaliate when (a) verbally abused or criticized, (b) made the target of others' anger, (c) beaten, or (d) humiliated. Since training ourselves not to retaliate in these four trying situations acts as a cause for our patience to grow, if we put this aside we damage our development of this positive trait.
    (2) Ignoring those who are angry with us
    If others are annoyed with us and holding a grudge, if we do nothing about it and do not try to assuage their anger, because of pride, spite, jealousy, laziness, indifference, or not caring, we hamper our perfection of patience because we allow the opposite of patience, namely anger, to continue unabated. To avoid this fault, we apologize whether or not we have offended or done anything wrong.
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