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Aphorism
reply to post by Itisnowagain
I may have had a few things in mind, but mostly I sought myself, something I never found in the views of others.
How far do you need to go to find yourself? And did you need a Gee yoU aRe yoU?
The question is 'what are you'?
The misidentifying of oneself is often the issue.
Aphorism
I think you're clever enough to find this to be a contradiction to what I've written. What I have written contradicts what I have done.
Aphorism
reply to post by BDBinc
No there is no such "prevailing doctrines" that they disobeyed.
Ancient teachings of self knowledge were around before them, that means they certainly obeyed prevailing "doctrines" .
That's just false. A little research on your part might help.
It is not a matter of following someone else's doctrine.If you wanted to learn to fly a plane and did not know how to fly one by yourself you would trust and listen to the teacher's instructions on how to fly.
Some people can listen to the inner' Buddha' and do not need to externalize a teacher.
If you need to learn how to live, then that is because you don't know how to live. By all means, find a teacher if you do not know how to live.
Yes Buddha was a prince. Yes Buddha was a yogi. Buddha was an acetic.
These words successful prince, successful yogi, successful acetic are just some labels you don't want to put on Buddha in your mind.
You just don't want to see Buddha as successful.
His very enlightenment shows us he did not fail.
To know what you are you must first know what you are not.
He refused to become chieftain, thereby failing to become a chieftain. He refused his wife and child, thereby failing his family. He refused to remain a yogi, he refused to remain an ascetic, thereby failing to reach enlightenment through those practices. I never meant to imply Buddha was a failure, only that he failed many times. And without these failures, he wouldn't have become enlightened.
Buddha is human being. So he acted like a human being. So sometimes he also you see failed. He failed to perform miracle. The Buddha failed, but we, as the Buddha, fail constantly, and part of our suffering is our failure, our recognition of our failure.
- Dalai Lama
Aphorism
reply to post by BDBinc
In a fit of boredom I watched a documentary on Buddha recently:
Buddha is human being. So he acted like a human being. So sometimes he also you see failed. He failed to perform miracle. The Buddha failed, but we, as the Buddha, fail constantly, and part of our suffering is our failure, our recognition of our failure.
- Dalai Lama
But in the Pali texts I've read, Buddha never affirms his failures or justifies them in any way.
Aphorism
reply to post by BDBinc
The quote was in regards to Buddha not offering a political system to go with his philosophy. He wasn't able to stop the rampant war and violence that was plaguing India at the time.
Yes it was me that said Buddha failed at becoming a chieftain, being a father, becoming a yogi and becoming an ascetic. He tried these avenues and failed to find what he was looking for—the end of dukkha. He was mistaken. He did not succeed despite thinking he would succeed. You can use another word besides "failure" if you wish.
What I'm trying to say is that we learn from our mistakes, yet Buddha renounces his mistakes as not paths that one should take, even though he himself took them. Why would he renounce his mistaken paths, what he called the extreme paths, if he himself walked them?
Bluesma
Many years ago, while reading of Krishnamurti ( his teachings noted by his followers), I got to the realization that he repeatedly put emphasis on this being the wrong way to find any real freedom or enlightment. That listenign to someone else, reading someone elses experience, only leads you away from your own path.
He was afraid that after his death, a cult would be built around him and his teachings, and he didn't want that to happen, and of course it did. The people who sat at his feet and heard him saying not to do that, did it anyway.
"Here, monks, some misguided men learn the Dharma – discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions - but having learned the Dharma, they do not examine the meaning of those teaching with wisdom. Not examining the meaning of those teachings with wisdom, they do not gain a reflective acceptance of them. Instead they learn the Dharma only for the sake of criticizing others and for winning in debates, and they do not experience the good for the sake of which they learned the Dharma. Those teachings, being wrongly grasped by them, conduce to their harm and suffering for a long time."
source
Buddha did not say "I failed as a chieftain, a yogi, prince and ascetic " and "I thought I would succeed' , again these are just your thoughts about what you think Buddha thought without a breath of evidence supporting your idea . The Dalai Lama in your quote did not say that Buddha failed as a chieftain, prince, being a father or yogi .
Aphorism
reply to post by BDBinc
Buddha did not say "I failed as a chieftain, a yogi, prince and ascetic " and "I thought I would succeed' , again these are just your thoughts about what you think Buddha thought without a breath of evidence supporting your idea . The Dalai Lama in your quote did not say that Buddha failed as a chieftain, prince, being a father or yogi .
I didn't say they said it. I am sharing my opinion. Of course they're my thoughts. I don't see what your point is, because they also never said what you're saying.
I am making it clear its just your opinion (and not the Dalai Lama's when you take to using his quote out of context to try to support your ideas of Buddha as a "failed" prince, father, chieftain and yogi etc).
Enlightenment is success.