What do we Talk about when we get together?

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying in Savatthi at Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's monastery. Now at that time a large number of monks, after the meal, on returning from their alms round, had gathered at the meeting hall and were engaged in many kinds of bestial topics of conversation: conversation about kings, robbers, & ministers of state; armies, alarms, & battles; food & drink; clothing, furniture, garlands, & scents; relatives; vehicles; villages, towns, cities, the countryside; women & heroes; the gossip of the street & the well; tales of the dead; tales of diversity, the creation of the world & of the sea; talk of whether things exist or not.

Bhikkhu Bodhi, Tolerance and Diversity

"For Buddhism, religious tolerance is not achieved by reducing all religions to a common denominator, nor by explaining away formidable differences in thought and practice as accidents of historical development. From the Buddhist point of view, to make tolerance contingent upon whitewashing discrepancies would not be to exercise genuine tolerance at all; for such an approach can "tolerate" differences only by diluting them so completely that they no longer make a difference. True tolerance in religion involves the capacity to admit differences as real and fundamental, even as profound and unbridgeable, yet at the same time to respect the rights of those who follow a religion different from one's own (or no religion at all) to continue to do so without resentment, disadvantage or hindrance."

Facing Uncertainty Today

27 May 2016

`Every morning I wake to hope, irrational as it may seem; hope for a more civilized world, for kinder, gentler societies and social systems, and concomitant best wishes for our overused, abused, and slowly dying planet.

To help muster the energy required to face the challenges of our complex world, I rely on what Buddhist activists call the 3 freedoms: Freedom from undue hope & expectations; Freedom from fear & anxiety; and Freedom from selfishness & bias. Ah, yes: although it's tough for an old dog, lama or not, to learn new tricks: undo old egocentric preoccupations and bias; and step away from the natural inclination to overlook and even deny the scientific and socioeconomic facts of life---while simple-mindedly hoping for the best, voting with my gut, and assuming it shall all be and be well.

Dhammapada 252-253

"Easily seen is the fault of others, but one's own fault is difficult to see. Like chaff one winnows another's faults, but hides one's own, even as a crafty fowler hides behind sham branches.

He who seeks another's faults, who is ever censorious — his cankers grow. He is far from destruction of the cankers."

Vajjiya Sutta or -Vajjiyamāhita Sutta AN 10.94 (Righteous Refutation)

Theravada Buddhist Council of Malaysia

Righteous Refutation

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Campa, on the shore of Gaggara Lake. Then Vajjiya Mahita the householder left Campa in the middle of the day to see the Blessed One, but the thought then occurred to him, "Now is not the right time to see the Blessed One, for he is in seclusion. And it is not the right time to see the monks who develop the mind, for they are in seclusion. What if I were to visit the park of the wanderers of other persuasions?" So he headed to the park of the wanderers of other persuasions.

Kalyanamitta

MahaParinibbana sutta

"And why, Ananda, is a Tathagata, an Arahant, a Fully Enlightened One worthy of a stupa? Because, Ananda, at the thought: 'This is the stupa of that Blessed One, Arahant, Fully Enlightened One!' the hearts of many people will be calmed and made happy; and so calmed and with their minds established in faith therein, at the breaking up of the body, after death, they will be reborn in a realm of heavenly happiness."