Expenses that eat 50 percent of income In these recessionary times, financial tips are flowing fast and furious about how to save money and stick to a budget. Facing a sea of information many people are asking, "Where do I start?" For most of us, five areas of spending will consume over 50% of the money we earn during our lifetime, so that's the best place to begin. The five areas are: home, car, children, education, and retirement. Here's what you need to know about each: More>>
"The wise and virtuous shine like a blazing fire. One who acquires wealth in harmless ways, like a bee that gathers nectar without harming the flowers, riches quickly mount up for that person like ant hill's stunning growth."
Anthills in warm parts of the world, moist and forested, appear overnight, leaving one to wonder how it happened so fast. Diligence and consistency are the keys. Our anthills are tiny by comparison, so we may miss the allusion the Buddha's audience would have surely understood.
Four Steps to "Buddhist" money management Wisdom Quarterly The Buddha addressed an amazing diversity of subjects in his 45 years of making known the Dharma. Philosophers focus on the imponderables he dismissed as not useful in gaining enlightenment and liberation. They would still like to debate those issues which, whether the answer would be this way or the opposite, would be harmful and retard progress. Others are not aware of all the things he did talk about.
Bhikkhu Bodhi (in his taped lectures on the Middle Length Discourses) marvels at how detailed and relevant the Buddha was when asked mundane things. His answers addressed not only monastic issues for the preservation of the Sangha and therefore the Dharma, but also ordinary lay life. The Sigalovada Sutra is a lengthy storehouse of information and advice for living a prosperous life in the world. (Scholars believe that this discourse is actually an amalgamation of many sutras woven as advice to one lay person).
There we find advice to householders on money, friendship, sex, drinking, working, saving, popularity, family responsibilities, and so on. The advice on money boils down to this: One should divide one's wealth or earnings (since the Buddha's audience asking about these things was often often the merchant class) into four equal divisions:
With wealth acquired in this [harmless] way, a layperson fit for household life in four portions divides such wealth: thus will one friendship win:
The first portion is used for one's wants.
The second portion is spent on business needs.*
The third portion is also spent on producing more wealth.
The fourth portion goes into savings for times of need.
*inventory, paying employees, advertising, insurance, taxes, and so on
Golden Buddha in Thailand (Flickr.com/LMerano)
The Great Discourse on Mindfulness (Maha Sattipatthana Sutra, DN 22; MN 10) can be summarized into 14 meditative exercises leading to enlightenment within seven years. Coincidentally, a summary of the Advice to Householders (Sigalovada Sutra, DN 31, named after the young Sigala who was asking for the advice) also boils down to 14 things (duties or dharmas) to do:
"Young householder, insofar as a lay disciple
eradicates the four vices in conduct
avoids four forms of unskillful karma
does not pursue the six channels for dissipating wealth
such a person, by avoiding these 14 harmful things, honors and protects all the directions [a metaphor for the six primary social obligations we have when living in society]. And one sets upon the way leading to success in both places: One is favored in this world and in the world beyond. One lives well here and now and goes on to be reborn happily!"
A wise and noble disciple, whose aspirations are higher than worldly and heavenly success, reaches for nirvana and is thereby completely liberated from having to worry about rebirths or any further suffering.
U Maung (Nibbana.com) Lists are integral to the enormous body of Buddhist Teachings (Dharma)
Buddhism was originally memorized and recited verbatim without being written down. To facilitate this oral tradition, many "lists" were developed. They are compact statements that are then unfolded and expounded on. Of course, for some it became dogmatic: there are this many; this is what the Buddha taught; this is the only right view, and all other views are wrong. In fact, the lists are flexible and only a device. The Buddha himself listed sets of things in different ways according to what he was emphasizing.
For example, in one sutra (Satipatthana) the Four Noble Truths are left out, and in another version they are included (Mahasatipatthana). No one doubts that these central teachings are crucial. But according to circumstances they are not mentioned in one context yet mentioned in another. The Noble Eightfold Path can easily be expanded to ten without changing anything but the way things are labelled. (This happens with the Ten Precepts becoming Eight Precepts by reshuffling; see sikkhapada).
All of this is taken to the extreme in lists and lists of Buddhist lists. The point is not to become attached to lists or to the belief that there's something magical in the number of things enumerated. Any list is simply a handy way of teaching and remembering the Dharma, which is a vast body of information. With that in mind, here are some traditional formulations:
UNIQUE
There is only one unique situation where suffering (dukkha) is eliminated. It is nirvana, which is without geographical location. It is there that the four primary elements find no footing whatsoever.
TWOFOLD
Two chief male disciples: Thera Sariputta and Thera Moggallana
Two chief female disciples: Theri Khema and Theri Uppalavanna
Two seven-year-old arhats (enlightened ones) were the novices (samaneras) Sumana and Pandita (Dhammapada V. 382 & V.80)
Two kinds of happiness (sukha) are bodily (kaya) and mental (citta).
Two foremost teachers are mother and father.
Two kinds of personality-view (sakkaya-ditthi) are (1) taking delight in individuality (sakkaya-bhirata) and (2) striving towards cessation of mental and material phenomena (nirvana- bhirata).
Two kinds of individuals (bhirata) with distorted perception are those who hold either to eternalism (sassata) or annihilationism (uccheda).
Two persons whom one can never pay back the debt of gratitude in full are mother and father who raised one.
Two principles guarding the world (lokapaladhamma) are conscience (hiri) about harming and dread (ottapa) of consequences about doing harm.
THREEFOLD
Tipitaka (Three Baskets) of Buddhism: Discourses (sutras), Disciplinary Code (Vinaya), and Higher Teachings (Abhidharma)
Three kinds of bodhisattva (those destined to become a buddha): (1) Intellectual, those fulfilling the Ten Perfections (parami) for four incalculable periods (asankheyyas) and 1,000 aeons (pannadhika-bodhisatta); (2) Devotional, fufilling the perfections with conviction (saddha) for eight incalculable periods and 100,000 aeons (saddhadhika-bodhisatta; (3) Energetic, fulfilling the perfections with endeavour predominating for 16 incalculable periods 100,000 aeons (viriyadhika-bodhisatta).
Three kinds of Dispensation (sasana): (1) learning the Buddha's Teaching (PariyattiSasana); (2) practical application of the Buddha's Teaching (Patipatti Sasana); (3) the realization of the Buddha's Teaching (i.e., attainment of jhanas, paths, fruitions, and nirvana (Pativedha Sasana).
Three types of Essence: generosity (dana), virtue (sila), and insight (vipassana).
Three characteristic marks or signs inherent in all sentient existence: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and impersonal [uncontrollable] nature (anatta) of things.
Three kinds of attachment to existence (raga): in the sensuous sphere; in the fine-material sphere, and in the immaterial sphere.
Three categories of monastics: Elders (thera), those who have spent ten or more years in the Order; those of middle standing (majjhima), who have been in the Order from five to nine years; newly ordained ones (nava), who have been in the Order for less than five years.
Three kinds of craving (tanha): attachment to sense pleasures (kama-tanha); attachment to continued existence (bhava-tanha); attachment to views that karma entails neither rebirth nor future existence (vibhava-tanha).
Three Disasters (kappas): by famine, weapons, or epidemic.
Three Worlds (lokas): conditioned world (sankhara-loka), corporeal world (satta-loka), inanimate world (okasa-loka).
Three Supermundane Dharmas: paths (magga) and fruitions (phala) [entering the path to the four stages of enlightenment -- stream-winning, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship -- and attaining each stage]; nirvana (nibbana) [the ninth supermundane Dharma or Ultimate Truth as distinct from mundane states of consciousness].
Three kinds of Training (sikkha): in virtue or morality (sila), concentration or collectedness (samadhi), wisdom or understanding (panna).
FOURFOLD
Four Netherworlds (apayas): the realms of intense continuous suffering (hells, niraya); animal realms (tiracchana); hungry ghost realms (peta); realm of miserable beings (asurakaya).
Four Analytical Insights (patisambhidas): insight into the true meaning and consequence of things (atthapati-sambhida); insight into the nature of the Dharma (dhamma-patisambhida); insight into the meaning, grammar, and syntax of the language (nirutti-patisambhida); insight into the nature of these three knowledges (patibhana-patisambhida).
Four Intoxicants (stains, cankers, corruptions, or asavas): (1) attachment to sensual pleasures (kamasava); (2) attachment to material and immaterial meditative states and their corresponding states of existence (bhavasava); (3) holding [62 kinds of] false views (ditthasava); (4) ignorance with regard to the Four Noble Truths, past and future lives, and the Law of Dependent Orignation (avijjasava).
Four Attributes of Nirvana: it is expounded by a fully enlightened buddha (sammasambuddha desitam); free of sorrow (asokam), free of corruptions (virajam); peaceful (khemam).
"A person riding along on a boat looks around, sees the shore, and mistakenly thinks that the bank is moving. But if looking directly at the boat, one discovers that it is the boat, not the bank, that is moving.
"Likewise, with confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of myriad phenomena (dharmas), one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent.
"If intimately engaged in daily activities, one returns to right here, the principle that the myriad phenomena have no self is clear."
From here DogenZenji warns us against the view that the mind is permanent and only phenomenal appearances perish. He points out the fact that myriad phenomena [form, feelings, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness] are without self.
The view of permanence of the mind and the perishing of phenomenal appearances, to state it simply, is the view that the body changes and passes away, but the spirit eternally abides unchanging. It is a view that is generally easy for those of a simple faith to fall into.
The metaphor "a person riding along on a boat" means just what it says and can be understood by anybody.
"With confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of the various dharmas, one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent."
An unenlightened person is completely confused about body and mind. As long as one has not clearly seen that the five conditions (materiality, sensation, conception, discrimination, and awareness) are all empty.
No matter how great a scholar one may be, one is confused about body and mind. As a result one falls either into a view of permanence or a view of annihilation. Many people of a simplistic faith fall into a view of permanence. Many second-rate scientists fall into a view of annihilation.
Here DogenZenji warns particularly against a view of permanence. A view of permanence is considering there to be a single, permanent, guiding self. It is considering there to be a fixed, unchanging "soul." It is thinking that the "self" actually exists.
Unenlightened people have the karmic illness of considering whatever they attach themselves to as having a self [an identity, a persisting or unchanging entity riding or guiding the phenomenal process]]. If they make a group, they consider the group to have a self [a persisting reality or identity independent of its parts].
If they attach themselves to a nation, they consider the nation to have a self. One would hardly think that there was a self in the planet, but if the world were to become completely unified and there were such a thing as a world-state, perhaps they would come to believe in a world-self.
"The Buddha Way is no-self." The one who thoroughly realized that all things are without self [are impersonal or devoid of self] was Shakyamuni Buddha.
"The myriad teachings return to the one" is also fine. But if Buddhism compromises with religions that have a false belief in the "self" or "soul" or "atman," it is no longer Buddhism at all.
But then if religions other than Buddhism return to no-self, the bases of those religions will disappear, and those religions will be changed into something completely different.
However, since there can only be one truth, I think that when the wisdom of human beings advances, one way or another they'll become one.
In recent times the ones who, comparatively speaking, are least inclined toward a false belief in the "soul" or "self" are the scientists, particularly physicists and psychologists. But I'm quite afraid that if they make one false step, they will fall into a view of nihilism.
By no means do scientists think that body and mind exist separately. But they are liable to regard the body as important and neglect the mind. Western [allopathic] medicine up until now has been treating people from that standpoint.
In contrast, it seems that the Eastern medical tradition has emphasized the mind since long ago. The expression, "Illness originates in the spirit (kior chi)" is a common one. Even the word for sickness (byoki) means illness (byo) of the spirit (ki)." [Ki can also be taken to mean the energetic body, mood or mentality influencing the body.] But even Western medicine has lately come to regard the mind as quite important.
Of course, it is confused thinking to consider mind and body as existing separately. But attaching greater or lesser importance to the mind or the body is also confused thinking. So if one thinks that a fixed body or mind exists for even one minute, this is also confused thinking. [All is in flux, moving, shifting, processing, not "being" but becoming.]
When one thinks about everything with this kind of confused thinking as the basis, one makes the mistake of thinking that only the body changes, arises, and passes away. One mentally depicts something like a spirit or a self that is eternally abiding and unchanging. This is the way ordinary people think.
From there, the theory of the undying soul emerges. On the one hand, in fact Buddhism stresses that there is no [creator] God [responsible for all things] and no soul. On the other hand, people think that Buddhism is something that believes in an unchanging soul.
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