Originally posted by Rephidim:
Sorry, I dont understand....
What is wrong with doing nothing?
If you look at someone going to die, and you do nothing to save
him, that is equivalent to cruelty.
Buddha says that everything is a cycle of life and death and
everything is futile because emotions and relationships only cause
needless pain and suffering.
Emotions and relationships often bring alot of sufferings.
However, they are not the main cause of suffering (including those
negative emotions). The main cause is ignorance (i.e identification
to the notion of a separate self/ego), causing the mind to grasp,
seek, and give rise to aversion. Obviously such a mind is never
still.
Therefore, your emotions of sadness and regret are futile and
needless suffering onto you because the animals will die one
day.
The ordinary emotion of sadness is different from Compassion and
Love. Compassion is something very noble -- it is feeling NOT for
oneself, or one's ego, but for Others. It is inherently not a
self-serving attachment, but encompasses all other beings. So don't
confuse sadness and regret with Compassion. Compassion is
selfless.
Next, compassion is not attachment to the other person, as if it is
a 'romantic' relationship. A compassionate person may feel a little
sad for others -- but one does not become identified and attached
to that other particular person and developes strong passionate
attachment such that strong negative emotions arise. As such,
compassion is different from the mundane kind and superficial
'love' of ordinary people -- Compassion is Unconditioned love for
all beings equally. Compassion does not discriminate and does not
attach.
Death happens to some creatures so that others may live and
these that live will one day die also that others may live. So,
death and life is transient.
Yes. So?
Everything is nothing and nothing is everything.
This is very vague. Explain what you mean by that.
By doing nothing, you did everything you can.
Sorry for being direct, but that's bullshit, really. If someone
is drowning in front of you, and you know how to swim, will you say
that by doing nothing you did everything you can? If you do think
so, you're just sick in the mind.
Therefore, we do right not doing anything to cause needless
suffering to ourselves. If you save that animals, you will only
prolong their suffering and your own.
Its best to let nature take its course like Buddha has taught.
If you see someone drowning into the sea, do you excuse yourself
by not saving that drowning and saying 'let nature take its course,
that person is supposed to drown'?
All the talk about nature and not nature is bullshit. It is nature
that you save that person. In fact, it would be unnatural if you
don't, yet have the ability to.
Your concept of doing something to "save" those creatures has
been influenced by the monotheist religions that preach a loving
God and the value of life more than death.
I'm afraid to say you show no understanding at all about what
Buddha views the preciousness of life. Did Buddha ever said
something like, Life is equal to death? On the other hand the
Buddha always emphasize so much on the preciousness of the human
life, because of this rare opportunity to practise the Dharma and
attain Enlightenment.
The Buddha also taught so much about compassion and metta/loving
kindness for all beings alike, and taught that we should help other
sentient beings on what we can help. And then there is also the
Bodhisattva path that teaches practitioners not to enter into
Nirvana but to come back to Samsara life after life to help SAVE
other Sentient Beings, guide them to enlightenment and
liberation.
You said monotheist religions preaches a loving God and the value
of life. But most Monotheist religions are the ones that engage in
lots of religious violence throughout history. Also, I've never
seen monotheist religions advocate animal rights, or appreciate an
animal's value of life.
On the other hand, Buddhism is the one that is strongly advocating
non-violence towards all beings whether humans or non-human, as
well as vegetarianism especially in Mahayana Buddhism.
Also, Buddhism is the only religion that has no religious wars in
history. All other religions, especially monotheist religions have
many religious wars. Old testament and many scriptures contains
lots of teachings about the wrath of God, and the violence that God
inflicted upon people. I shall not dwell on this topic.
But basically, Monotheistic God and Compassion are two different
things.
These values have inflitrated our society and education so much
that you have diviated from the original Dharma teachings. Life is
not greater than death, Buddha teaches, life is death and death is
life, all is nothing and nothing is all.
You have taken a nihilistic misinterpretation of the words of
Buddha.
Buddha never taught that there is no life after death. Life does
not simply end at death. There is rebirth.
The Buddha taught a whole lot about love and compassion, and if you
weren't aware about that, you probably didn't read the
scriptures.
BTW, what religion are you from? Or free thinker?