Moral teaching

After a long time i am writing this blog.Many events happened these days,for instance ,i am now living in a new city.Anyway, i start this blog with a small story,Which is very dear to me. After the Buddha was enlightened he was walking down the road in a very happy state. He was supposed to have been quite a handsome prince before going off to be a monk. So here’s this handsome prince now recently enlightened, wearing golden robes and obviously quite happy, and very special from all accounts. And he met some people and they said, “You seem very special. What are you, are some kind of an angel or a deva?” He seemed inhuman in some way. “No.” “Well, are you some kind of a god then?” “No.” “Well, then are you some kind of a wizard or magician?” “No,” he replied. “Well, are you a man?” “No,” he said. “Then what are you?” And he answered, “I am awake.”
And in those three words —“I am awake”— he gave the whole teaching which Buddhism contains. To be a Buddha is to be one who has awakened, awakened to the nature of life and death and the world in which we live, awakened to the body and mind.
I am aware that it needs lots practise and effort to achieve this purified state.We may not achieve this in our whole life.But we can pursue few simple moral training ,so that we get internal harmony and peace.We are aware that without any guiding principle we go astray from our path of life.sometimes we loose hope and get confused.We become victim of internal turmoil.Here i am giving five percepts(five training) which was given by Buddha.The five percepts are condensed form of Buddhist ethical practise.Although there are total ten percepts.The
Buddhist master Thich Nath Hanh has formulated The Five Mindfulness Trainings,which are an adaptation of the first five Buddhist precepts. By virtue of their sensible phrasing and their relevance to modern
lifestyle, these “trainings” provide a valuable foundation of ethics for all of humanity.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings
-First Training-
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
-Second Training-
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people,animals, plants, and minerals. I am committed to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
-Third Training-
Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivate
responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.
-Fourth Training-
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self- confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticise or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however
small.

-Fifth Training-
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practising mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I am committed to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs,
magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practising a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society.


with regards

work load

Due to heavy work load ....next blog will be little late............. anyway, if anyone has any interesting subject ...... please inform me.. i will be glad to give my opinion.... ..
cheers.....!

Arrange marriage

बस, दुशवार हैं किसी काम का आसाँ होना
आदमी को भी मएस्सर नहीं हैं इन्सान होना
-Mirza
I know a young lady. In fact,we know each other for last five years.I don't know what she thinks about me ,but i have profound affinity and deep love for her. I met her once also.Today she called me.I asked her two questions. "Do you think that you will be happy with me"? Her answer was 'yes'."If your father don't agree then do you have courage to oppose him"?Her answer was clear 'No'. However, I know her father will never agree.Also, she is not matured enough to take it seriously.I asked this just sake of curiosity.We have a simple platonic friendship.
I think her answers were confusing ,in fact in many ways contradictory too.Her answers raised many questions in my mind. We are young and educated people. But we can't decide what's good and bad for us. We can choose Prime Minister of the nation ,but we can't choose life partner for us.Society(parents) decides with whom we should form family,generally society(parents) considers caste , creed, money, social status ,physical beauty while taking its decision and disregards human values totally.
We live in a very confused society. It gives a constitution,but when we follow the constitution society says,young man you have gone too far.If Rajiv Gandhi marry someone so called 'outsider'
it accepts ,even ready to give future of nation in her hands.However, it does not apply same yardstick to a common man's son.
Few months back, my elder cousin got married. He is a judicial magistrate in lower court. My uncle is a very experienced lawyer. I know that huge sum of money was paid as dowry to my brother.Isn't it amazing a judge is taking dowry? Dowry is so prevalent in our society ,if everybody get punished of this heinous act,almost entire population of this nation will be in jail!

My fellow young man and woman ,look, what type of society we got from our parents. They have given us a rotten, degraded society to live in.They will not allow us to be creative and constructive. They will never allow us bring Olympic gold medals or win noble prize. They live their life in lowest possible potential with their rigid attitude.Friends,they are not our owner,they are just medium through which we came to this world. We are ready to give them their due for this,but not at cost of our dignity.
Socrates,the great Greek philosopher believed that the ability to distinguish between right and wrong lies in the people's reason and not in society.So ,friends apply your reasons so that something fundamental changes in our society,So that future generations feel proud that they have a beautiful society to live in.A Society which provides fullest support to their creative potential.A society which respects its own law. A society which respects human value.A society which works for welfare of whole humanity.
Let us start from one of fundamental unit of our society i,e family.Generally, in India arrange marriage is norm. No one see any flaw in this system. But in my view this system is the origin of many ills in our society.It is the origin of corruption, female foeticide,domestic violence ,dowry ,death related to dowry, caste-ism.Moreover,it hampers our capability of taking responsibility.It makes us believe in fate,where there is no meaning of 'choice and decision'.
Arrange marriage is basic character of rural agricultural society. In earlier times it was not possible for young men and women to get contact with people out side of their village. Sometimes they get the chance but for few moments like village fair,pilgrimage . That was not enough to develop any type of friendship or prospective relationship.Then only possibility remains that their marriage get arranged.And we 'manufactured' whole set of values and culture around this. And our society is still carrying those 'manufactured' values and culture!. Last century witnessed fundamental change in technology and economy.Now, we,young man and woman work in same office ,we study together , we share our problems. We are enjoying relative freedom.We are producing wealth for the nation. Our life style changed fundamentally.We are now part of global village of six billion people not small village of two or three hundred people.Then,this system of arranged marriage is thrust upon us,just because of we don't have courage to oppose our parents' wish due to our emotional bond with them. It might be the case that our parents may not be educated enough to digest change.Whatever be the case, we should oppose this unfair system.
Arrange marriage is "un-natural" too. Nature has made inbuilt mechanism in our genes that whenever we choose our mate,there is maximum possible difference in our gene and our mate.This way nature makes our gene pool strong and disease resistant. Arrange marriage directly interferes with this natural process.Thus according to nature's mechanism we must choose our partner without any influence of other persons.
Arrange marriage devalues us from homosapiens to other animals.Basic premise of arranged marriage is that if put any man and woman together,they will live together just because their sexual requirement. Think carefully, we are now animals like dogs,donkey; certainly not homosapiens.
Arrange marriage goes against law also. According to Indian Penal code,any young lady of eighteen or more years old and any young man of twenty one or more years old can marry. There is no clause or section attached that it needs society or parents consent.
Now, friends,first time in the history, we are in position that we can change our destiny and destiny of future generations.
THROW AWAY THIS OUTDATED SYSTEM.

I will take another issue next time........ please comment ........
Note- Last time i got comments that i wrote in very abstruse English. This time i tried my best to keep things simple...................
Keep smiling............................................................................................................................................

Buddha

Believe nothing
merely because you have been told it
or,
because it is traditional
or,
because you yourself have imagined it
Don't believe what your teacher tells you
merely out of respect for the teacher

But whatever after due examination
and analysis you find to be conducive
to the good,the benefit

the welfare of all beings
that doctrine believe and cling to
and take it as your guide.

political view

I always get disappointed when i ask someone to put forth his/her political view on any topic. People ,specifically youth always shrug and say "i don't have any idea ". This is a pathetic situation.
Today i read an article on this topic. The message of the article was thought provoking. The writer of the article says,"The vital link between the intellectual awareness of unresolved issues and resolution not to leave them unresolved is missing.The man in the street is no longer convinced that public issues will,or even ought to,yield to concerted popular action.They have become remote,unintelligible,and intractable.If the experts cannot deal with them,how can he?
"This abdication of political will on the part of electorate is duplicated by the abdication of political leadership on the part of the representatives of the people.They justify that abdication by citing the political apathy of the electorate."

This lack of interest in public issues leads of necessity to the contraction of the public sphere.It results in the cessation of genuine political activity by the citizen.

Loss of privacy.

Some people oppose the concept of social networking sites...like Facebook ,Orkut etc. These sites kill individual's privacy. Each time I hear about our "loss of privacy" it makes me perplexed. I think people seem often to confuse privacy with anonymity, which we invented only a few generations ago.Earlier, even today, most people lived in small towns or villages , which provide limited privacy and no anonymity. The rise of big cities gave us anonymity,which lets some of us do things we would probably not have done in the villages,where there was not much crime because no one was unknown.The social control was waiting to be replaced, so now our villagers are electronic.

08-10-2007

हर दावा -ऐ-एर्तिका को माना मैंने
हर गोशा -ऐ-कायनात को छाना मैंने
सब कुछ जान चुका तो ऐ हरीफे दमसाज़
कुछ नही जनता ,ऐ जाना मैंने !