"There are many opportunities in daily life to save small creatures from drowning, burning or being otherwise hurt. Millions of beings live in fear. Imagine rescuing them and making them feel safe and comfortable, freeing the thousands of fish caught in huge modern fishing nets, releasing battery hens or penned animals who never see the light of day. Imagine the fish gliding through the water and the animals in field and pastures wandering, playing and feasting on lush green grass."
Geshe Sonam Rinchen, a Tibetan Buddhist monk and author describes the giving of protection as a vital expression of generosity. He writes:
"There are many opportunities in daily life to save small creatures from drowning, burning or being otherwise hurt. Millions of beings live in fear. Imagine rescuing them and making them feel safe and comfortable, freeing the thousands of fish caught in huge modern fishing nets, releasing battery hens or penned animals who never see the light of day. Imagine the fish gliding through the water and the animals in field and pastures wandering, playing and feasting on lush green grass." Generosity requires the exercise of wisdom and intelligence, without which we may do more harm than good. - Geshe Sonam Rinchen
(* Note: Buddhism cautions against idiot compassion, which takes the form of supporting someone because you can't bear to see them suffer. The word 'enabling' is a form of idiot comapssion) Rabbi Marc Gellman is a high profile television personalty, part of the God Squad with Monseigneur Tom Hartman. Together they discussed and debated religion and cultural issues. In a recent Newsweek article, Rabbi Gellman wrote these words of praise for Buddhism on the occasion of Vesak - Buddha's Birthday Festival:
"What I love about Buddhism is that it never loses focus on kindness and compassion as the practical goal of human life. Buddhism is not overly concerned about theological disputes; it is not a proselytizing religion. It respects all faiths and teaches nonviolence and vegetarianism. The Buddhists I know are kind and calm — great achievements in our broken world." In her book, Watching The Tree, author and medical doctor, Adeline Yen Mah, explains that
The word for 'physician' in Chinese is yi sheng (healer of life) which denotes "a holistic herbal approach as contrasted to the western view of the physician as a curer of disease." Dr. Mah adds that "traditional Chinese 'medicine' consist not of injections, pills and elixirs" but largely of plant based ingredients brewed into a tea, a soup or a stew. Much like Ayurveda, the traditional Chinese approach is that food is medicine. A healthy diet prevents disease and illness from emerging and when there is an imbalance in the body, it can often be corrected by a dietary change. Don’t think that you’re different, that you can escape suffering because you’re special or wiser than others. It’s the arrogance of the ego to think you’re better, that you can avoid the difficulties and problems that everyone else faces in life. - Ajahn Brahm
“When touched with a feeling of pain, uninstructed ordinary persons sorrow, grieve, and lament, beat their breasts, become distraught. They feel two pains, physical and mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows, in the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed ordinary persons sorrow, grieve, and lament, beat their breasts, become distraught. They feel two pains, physical and mental.”—Buddha Shakyamuni, Sallattha Sutta
The first arrow is the unavoidable fact of suffering. The second arrow is our own mental proliferation about the fact of suffering. While there is only so much we can do about avoiding the first arrow, avoiding the second arrow is entirely possible. - Lama Tashi Nyima Buddhism does not demand asceticism from all believers where daily life is concerned. Regarding food, one should eat one’s fill; regarding clothing, one should dress appropriately. However, not one should use resources wastefully. - Hsing Yun
The person who has been most influential in bringing Ayurveda to the West is Dr. Vasant Lad. Both my partner and I study with him. He's a remarkable human and his contribution to the expansion of Ayurveda in the West is immense. Interviewed for the website Mind Body Green, Dr. Lad was asked how he came to study Ayurveda. Here's his answer:
When I was a child back in the 50's my grandmother got very sick. We were very close and it was painful for me to see her so sick. She had a Nephrotic Syndrome with high blood pressure and swelling. The doctor at the local hospital was not even able to feel her pulse due to swelling. There were no powerful antibiotics or diuretics at that time and we were told that there was no way to help her. Reluctant to give up, my father called an Ayurvedic doctor, who made a special formula for my grandmother. He gave me precise instructions that I had to follow to prepare a daily ayurvedic concoction for her. Using 7 different herbs, carefully measuring their correct proportions, I would boil them down into a thick brew to give to my grandmother. Miraculously, in three weeks grandmother's swelling was gone, blood pressure was back to normal and kidney function improved. My grandmother happily lived until 95 and an old Ayurvedic doctor who had me making the daily concoction told my father to send me to an Ayurvedic Medicine school. Here I am now. Why do you speak to
your lowest self? What if you spoke to to your highest self? - Victor M. parachin |
Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
May 2024
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