The way of the saints is to find peace in life by embracing the world as it unfurls and not to succumb to the delights of life. In short it is to know life and not to have false views of denial and clinging, neither to think that we must annihilate ourselves nor perpetuate ourselves.
We cannot end our life for we will merely end up in another rebirth which may be worse than the present. We cannot think that there is no life after that and decide to live up to the nines. That too is false view that there is only one life which can be ended in eternity. This is the teachings of Buddhas.
We cannot think that we can have eternal life in heaven after this one life as man if we just believe in one view or one man or saint, for that is not so. Even being in heaven is not for eternity. We are there for the good we did but not there forever for there is limit to karma and good fate.
Only when there is no more clinging and no more karma, will a being be a saint and no longer has rebirth, be it in heaven, earth or elsewhere. We can do so by balancing the polarities of life, the yin and yang, as depicted by the image of Lord Bo Tien with feet atop elements.
We should neither delight in life nor abhor life but we must be at peace with life. To be right, we must live life but not be the victim of life in anyway. How to live life right is the issue?
For example, we must not kill, but taking vegetables and not meat is no guarantee we do not passively discourage killing. Others can kill animals to feed our needs to be vegetarians.
We must not want and cling. But delighting in food be it vegetables or meat is to want and to cling. We should eat to nourish ourselves and have healthy lifestyle. We should have a balanced diet.
Returning to issue of no clinging even to vegetarian food, we must not cling to food and even fantasize over vegetarian food e.g. how to cook and eat vegetarian pork, duck or even delicacy like Buddha jump over the wall.
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| Buddha Gautama |
We cannot think that we can have eternal life in heaven after this one life as man if we just believe in one view or one man or saint, for that is not so. Even being in heaven is not for eternity. We are there for the good we did but not there forever for there is limit to karma and good fate.
Only when there is no more clinging and no more karma, will a being be a saint and no longer has rebirth, be it in heaven, earth or elsewhere. We can do so by balancing the polarities of life, the yin and yang, as depicted by the image of Lord Bo Tien with feet atop elements.
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| Lord Bo Tien - The doctrine is in the image and the image is the doctrine |
We should neither delight in life nor abhor life but we must be at peace with life. To be right, we must live life but not be the victim of life in anyway. How to live life right is the issue?
For example, we must not kill, but taking vegetables and not meat is no guarantee we do not passively discourage killing. Others can kill animals to feed our needs to be vegetarians.
We must not want and cling. But delighting in food be it vegetables or meat is to want and to cling. We should eat to nourish ourselves and have healthy lifestyle. We should have a balanced diet.
Returning to issue of no clinging even to vegetarian food, we must not cling to food and even fantasize over vegetarian food e.g. how to cook and eat vegetarian pork, duck or even delicacy like Buddha jump over the wall.
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| Ji Gong |
Ji Gong teaches that "what matters is not what goes through the gut or what one does but what is in the heart." He is no less the Living Buddha.
Buddha Gautama went around for alms. He ate whatever food offered be it meat or otherwise. He is still the Lord Buddha. How vegetarianism came to be part of Buddhism is historical.
We must appreciate that when great monks went over to India for scriptures, they imbibed the teachings of the monks and gurus of India. At that time or era, there was no label of who were Buddhists and who were Hindus.
Likewise when they finally returned to China, the teachings were integrated with Chinese beliefs and culture which latter were known as Taoism. The Taoist label is in fact the modern day fad or creation of the globalization.
Buddha Gautama went around for alms. He ate whatever food offered be it meat or otherwise. He is still the Lord Buddha. How vegetarianism came to be part of Buddhism is historical.
We must appreciate that when great monks went over to India for scriptures, they imbibed the teachings of the monks and gurus of India. At that time or era, there was no label of who were Buddhists and who were Hindus.
Likewise when they finally returned to China, the teachings were integrated with Chinese beliefs and culture which latter were known as Taoism. The Taoist label is in fact the modern day fad or creation of the globalization.
