“The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Roath
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“The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by Roath »

All,

I’ve been told that “The gift of truth excels all other gifts” is wise word but works only spiritually.

What do you think? Would you agree or not? why?

Thank you.
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retrofuturist
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Re: “The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Roath,

The gift of the Dhamma exceeds all gifts, because it is the only gift that can result in the attainment of nibbana, the unconditioned.

All other things are impermanent, not-self and for this reason, are to a certain extent, unsatisfactory.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Paññāsikhara
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Re: “The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by Paññāsikhara »

Not just spiritually. One who lives by the truth, is honest and upright, is respected and loved by society in general. They live without fear, and at peace. For such good people as these, society will do what it can to care for and protect them, provide them with what they need.
My recently moved Blog, containing some of my writings on the Buddha Dhamma, as well as a number of translations from classical Buddhist texts and modern authors, liturgy, etc.: Huifeng's Prajnacara Blog.
PeterB
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Re: “The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by PeterB »

A Nasruddin story
The king says that there is absolute truth. Nasruddin says all truth is relative.
The king says I will prove to you that your argument is mere sophistry. I will have gallows erected and the executioner will ask the people simple questions..if they lie they hang.
Nasruddin agrees but askes if he can be first to be questioned.
The gallows are erected. Nasruddin approaches the hangman.
The hangman thinking he will start with something neutral says,
" Nasruddin why are you here ? "
" To be hung on those gallows " he replies.
" That is not why you are here is it Nasruddin ? "
" In that case I have lied and you had better hang me on those gallows " says Nasruddin.
" But that would make it true" says the hangman..
"Yes, your truth" says Nasruddin.
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appicchato
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Re: “The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by appicchato »

...society will do what it can to care for and protect them, provide them with what they need.
Oooh...if only this were true...
TheWaiting
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Re: “The gift of truth excels all other gifts”...

Post by TheWaiting »

Ok Im not sure if Im a buddhist so this perspective might not be incommon with any buddhist let alone therevada. Also Im about to through complex philosophy at you but hey this is buddhism. Just a forwarning.

In my view enlightenment is a state of perfect mental accuracy of existance. Ultimately the objective existance is just that; Objective. Void of our own views and interpretations. Its simply something that we strive towards. We can only gain the ultimate truth of our personal subjective existance. Not our memories, concepts, ideas, or any other illusionary manifestations of self but our conciousness and what we are directly concious of (not your computer but the concept, image, and sound of computer and maybe the feel of the keys) which creates concepts we rely on. The objective existance is only a common theory within just about everyones subjective mind. Everything we do with both the objective and subjective existance has to do with our understandings of them. These understandings could be wrong (an illusion) but its there function that counts.
We move with an understanding of the concepts of body, space, and purposefully done movement. We eat with an understanding of the information record known as "memory" that says eating stops hunger and provides a pleasurable taste. We give someone money with the percieved understanding that doing so will get them to give us what we want so that they will give the money to someone else to get what they want. We use our subjective concepts to effect the theoretical objective world so that we may shape our subjective universe. We use enlightenment of our subjective selves in everything we do. When we understand our subjective selves we understand how we understand. When we understand anything we understand how to use it. There is no function or activity that can not be improved by enlightenment. Lets not forget that it is solely our subjective reality that produces happyness, suffering, and anything else we ultimately do or do not want to be concious of.

Btw 1. What do you mean by spiritual and enlightenment? Spiritual is a hard word to define and due to such enlightenment is also difficult.
2. Was this post to difficult to absorb? I had a better post made up but was distracted and told I need to sign in again and lost it. Npt to mention its philisophical If you have any questions or flat out dont know what Im talking about please tell and Ill try to clear things up.
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