User1249x wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 9:36 pm
4. This applies to monks who have changed into a different mode of life (see
AN 10.48, as quoted by DooDoot previously).
@4 is invalid, you can not say that what is good for a monk is not ultimately good for a lay person because of some arbitrary reasoning, it does not work like that, clearly if the goal is the highest goal it is the same the path and practice is essentially the same.
I trust a decent monastic training will quickly remove the above wrong view (unless the monastic training is not decent &, instead, a You Tube recruitment cult). In my opinion, the above view is born (
jayati) from sexual lust and is a common danger & pitfall of the celibate life because such a wrong view is born (
jayati) from the lust to dominate & control others. Its basically "
mental or priestly sex". I recall there are a number of suttas about the improperness of monks getting too close to laypeople.
The path of a householder appears to not be the same, according to DN 31:
The ascetics and brahmans thus ministered to as the Zenith by a householder show their compassion towards him in six ways:
(i) they restrain him from evil,
(ii) they persuade him to do good,
(iii) they love him with a kind heart,
(iv) they make him hear what he has not heard,
(v) they clarify what he has already heard,
(vi) they point out the path to a heavenly state.
DN 31
It appears most people
cannot be celibate &
cannot live in solitude based on natural genetic design. To quote the same sutta (which is the basis of monastic training & which you appeared to reject) about what the life of a monk truly is:
Also, quoting the same sutta, it clearly says there are "superhuman" faculties expected of a monk therefore obviously these faculties are not expected of the ordinary human:
10. "'Have I gained superhuman faculties ? Have I gained that higher wisdom so that when I am questioned (on this point) by fellow-monks at the last moment (when death is approaching) I will have no occasion to be depressed and downcast ?' This must be reflected upon again and again by one who has gone forth.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .piya.html
User1249x wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 9:36 pmOwing to this excessive preoccupation with each other, passion was aroused, and their bodies burnt with lust. And later, because of this burning, they indulged in sexual activity.835 But those who saw them indulging threw dust, ashes or cow-dung at them, crying: “Die, you filthy beast!
How can one being do such things to another!”
The above is regarded by most learned Buddhists as mere mythology but I can empathize with how you identify with it:
Once the Lord was staying at Savatthi, at the mansion of Migara's mother in the East Park. And at that time Vasettha and Bharadvaja were living among the monks, hoping to become monks themselves.
Regardless, it seems to contradict the Dhamma because the Dhamma does not say beings were originally pure or beings came to this earth from the heavens. The Dhamma says the world is created from ignorance & craving (SN 22.44; AN 4.45).
The "Long" Discourses (Pali digha = "long") consists of 34 suttas, including the longest ones in the Canon. The subject matter of these suttas ranges widely, from colorful folkloric accounts of the beings inhabiting the deva worlds (DN 20) to down-to-earth practical meditation instructions (DN 22), and everything in between. Recent scholarship suggests that a distinguishing trait of the Digha Nikaya may be that it was "intended for the purpose of propaganda, to attract converts to the new religion."
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sutta.html