How Practical Buddhism IS
The lord buddha preached the people the way to live in the society. This can be further discussed in later threads. For a peaceful society one must live according to the 5 "sickha pada" ( rules ). Those 5 are sub divided and further explained.
- Don't kill or harm living beings
- Don't steal property of some other person
- Refrain from socially unapproved sexual activity ( In this it's not clear whether he rejected masturbation, gay, lesbianism. One can start arguing on this point)
- Don't lie anyone
- Don't drink alcohol
5 comments:
Hi,
I honestly believe that those 5 rules may exist before the time of Buddha. Are there any ideas on that. Eg:- No religion in the world won't support all rules except 1st one ( according to my knowledge ). So it is not a saying by Buddha. Am I correct?
Yes, you are correct they existed in the society before Buddha. But the difference is they are not well defined like in Buddhism. Again people should always remember themselves that they are following the rules. So, if they are well defined people can do so with knowing the boundaries. So, in Buddhism those 5 sickas are well defined so one can identify whether he disobeyed the rules or not.
Actually, I would disagree slightly with Buddhist's last statement "those 5 sickas are well defined so one can identify whether he disobeyed the rules or not." I think that's true early in one's training. But Buddhism is a wisdom tradition and, therefore, one must use one's wisdom to truly understand the karmic "standing" of an action/thought. Buddha eschewed dogmatism, and to view the precepts solely from the viewpoint of "knowing whether you disobeyed the rules or not" I think is in danger of falling into the dogma trap. Of course, that's easier said than done, and is a product of lifetimes of training. :)
Well, Yes, I would also partly agree with Mike's statement. We have to be very careful with the wording. Those 5 sickas were there in the society before the buddhist preaching. People also can logically think what is right and what is wrong, depending upon their ability to understand things. But, there are situations where you need some guidelines. For example if someone participated in a killing of another living being without his intention to do so, and eventually finds out that a living being is dead because of his activities, there is a possibility for that person to repent. But in this case you haven't committed a sin.
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