Originally posted by yamizi:
It's his forum, he can say whatever he like =)
cycle,
Being 7 year old makes a lot of difference. The exposure, certainly
you would have know would mark great differences.
I've known couples who chose to abort; some don't due to different
reasons. The couples who abort doesn't necessarily feel good. But
at least to my knowledge, another abortion may actually gave
another couple another chance to lead new life.
For me, I'd been asked several times on whether to abort or not
reason being friends know that I'm a buddhist and seek my
opinion.
I always tell them, by buddhistic principle, one should not take
the life of another, especially a human life. I don't go and tell
them kill baby bad kamma, kamma will follow you, etc. 'cos these
people if there are
buddhists, they probably won't even ask me in the first place. And
at this situation of paranoid and anxiety, I don't see any good to add in the kamma follow
you which is a fear factor
to people who probably has little or no idea what kamma is.
However, given in a practical situation, I will in return
ask them, are they prepared mentally and financially for this baby?
Are they willing to accept the new life? Because ultimately in the
end, I am not responsible
in bringing up their child, so I don't go and shove it down people's throat that they have
no right to this or that!
I don't know how cycle know my age but as you'd claimed to be
older, definitely you know better than me that raising a kid,
especially in Singapore is definitely not easy.
There are many children who are born in poor families, but they
also become very rich and successful people in the future, have you
thought of that?
I think human life is one of the most precious gift, and even if
one cannot support the baby there are other options: such as
adoption.
If we can give the baby away for adoption, but instead chose to
abort due to social reasons, then isn't that irresponsible?
I am not shoving it down people's throat, I'm just asking people to
think whether what I said is right or not.
What is the point when a couple is not prepared for the child
and ended up having more
family problem? Juvenile violence, drug paddling, family violence,
etc. Of course in AEN's eyes these may not substantiate any reason
for abortion. For me, it simply lies on the couple's readiness.
Mind you, these people are not buddhists to start with! So is AEN
willing to take up the responsibility of the bad family situation
due to not aborting the child for whatever reason that the couple
is not ready for? Of course AEN will say it's not his
responsibility!
Yeah that's not my responsibility, but it is also irresponsible
if someone asked for my comments and I say, well, since you're not
a Buddhist you can abort. I'm not judging others, I'm not imposing
fear on others, I'm just advising that we should avoid abortion to
the best of our abilities, because most abortion cases are done due
to poor reasons and are completely avoidable just like what Ven S
Dhammika said. In this case, don't you think we should advise them
not to abort?
Of course it depends on case to case basis, I never said we must
not abort no matter what.
AEN here definitely has the good kamma to be borned in a family
that allowed him not only to live comfortably and have the chance
to listen to the good Dhamma.
But this doesn't apply to all.
Why have I choose to response in this thread because I feel what HZ
feels about it too as quoted above.
Yeah, and I won't force Buddhist concepts for non-Buddhists,
nevertheless I will advise on the basis of the preciousness of life
and encourage the alternatives that one can take. I won't anyhow
impose or 'shove' concepts of karma on others. Depending on whether
he can accept it, I might mention my viewpoint and perspective of
karma, and of course if he is a Buddhist, then of course we can
remind him what he already knew.
And I think precepts are guidelines, not commandments. But
having said that again I stress that I don't mean to encourage
people to break them.
AEN, in another current thread on the sexual misconduct, someone
quoted about cannot having sex etc, these are really in the vinaya to the best of my
knowledge. I think it's Theravada's you can go do a research on
that. In fact there are certain day and time one shouldn't have
sex. And Buddha said that male organ can only enter female organ
and female organ can only allow male organ.
Agreed. And I never said the Thunder thing is wrong, it's just
that I'm a little surprised and I do not know the reason for it,
and I said I would like to read further on that, so if someone has
any materials on it please refer it to this forum for us to
read.
This would mean that homosexuality is actually
not allowed in Buddhism! Why don't you make some
comment on why homsexuality is allowed in contemporary Buddhism
then?
Because nobody is asking about homosexuality in that thread,
what. I posted some articles previously.
Cycle, even HHDL had mentioned about these precepts thing in
regards to sexual misconduct, and if my memory didn't fail me, he
had said something like it's difficult to answer too!
That requires wisdom to talk about it and yet not distort
Buddha's teachings. Otherwise better not comment. I have never seen
HHDL going against what Buddha preaches.
Similarly, I didn't say in all cases abortions cannot be made (such
as to save the mother's life). But at the same time I try to align
myself with what the Buddha taught about not killing lives. I don't
have much wisdom, but at least I think I didn't go against
Buddhism's teachings of non-killing in any major way yet on the
points.
Of course it's difficult. Given the current time and situation,
many things have changed. And how Buddhism is going to adapt to be
a more realistic teaching?
Dharma is dharma, you can't change dharma, you can only change
the way you bring the message to the world. The dharma is taught by
the Buddha, we do not teach our own dharma, if we want to talk
about Buddhism we should only talk about what was taught by the
Buddha. We can mention our own personal views, but we should put a
disclaimer that this was not taught by Buddha, it is just my
view.
You cannot change the truth! Not that I am judging people, but
think for yourself, do I have the right to anyhow fit the dharma
with our own concepts? The Dharma is taught by Buddha! Do I have
the right to distort it base on my needs..? In any case you may
choose not to follow the Buddha on certain issues, and that's fine
because we all make choices for ourselves and are responsible for
our own action and thinking.
But can we say that we are 'fitting dharma to our situation', or is
it really just 'we are incapable of following strictly the dharma
because I am not yet a Buddha or a great practitioner' and I don't
have his greatness and wisdom? I'm not saying everyone here is a
great practitioner, and neither am I, I'm just saying we shouldn't
use our own sentient being's concepts to interpret Buddha's
teachings. We should be very careful of this and I'm not saying I
have never made this mistake before, I'm just saying we should be
careful of this point and hopefully help each other, remind each
other, when one of us made this mistake.
Are we simply going to condemn people, buddhists or not who had
abortion?
Buddhists never condemn anyone, we treat all beings as equal, I
have also not condemn anyone, in fact I said those who have
undergone abortion does not mean they are doomed or condemned, but
they should try to clear their karma and dedicate merits to the
deceased.
