Hello, this is my first post here, however i have been following posts here for a few months without an account and I have an interest in Classical Theravada teachings.
I am a young male with aspirations to ordain in a few years once i get all my debts paid and some money to support myself while living in a monastery. I want to be able to eliminate obstacles to ordaining so that I can be as dedicated as possible to the training when the time is right and I see my attachment to my race and country as one such obstacle.
I find it hard to not get angry or upset when I see hatred towards my race and country and I tend engage in similar behavior back. I realize that the more I engage in such behavior that I could one day end up in physical altercations or even potential wars that may happen in the future.
My question is, what did The Buddha advise people to do so that they didn’t give in to feelings of ill will towards others who display their hatred at you? Will attachment to my race and homeland diminish naturally the further along the path that I progress? Thanks for any replies in advance.
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Any attachment is to be relinquished along the path.
This one is actually easy once you see the emptiness of the concept of race and country.
What’s a country? Can you point to me which one is the country? What’s a race can you point to me what’s the DNA of a race? They are just concepts. The map is not a country, the people in a country changes, even names can change, even the exact land can change, as seen by wars conquering and changing borders. Even the government system changes, just look at China.
It’s all just fictions, stories in our minds, just like money is a story, just like companies are stories, just like the self is a story. They don’t actually exist.
How then can be be attached to mere stories?
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Dear Joseph
welcome to the forum!
All our life we have situations and experiences that we like or dislike - whether highly personal or more abstract such as country and politics.
We take greater or lesser interest in such matters depending on many factors. But as ven. Paññādhammika said it is all empty.
Even self is simply a wrong view.
Nina Van gorkom:
. .monks, gain comes to the unlearned common average folk, who
reflect not thus:“This gain which has come is impermanent, painful
and subject to change.” They know it not as it really is. Loss
come. . . fame. . . obscurity. . . blame. . . praise. . . contentment. . . pain. . . They
reflect not that such are impermanent, painful and subject to change, nor do
they know these conditions as they really are. Gain, loss and so forth take
possession of their minds and hold sway there. they welcome the gain which
has arisen; they rebel against obscurity. They welcome the praise which has
arisen; they rebel against blame. They welcome the contentment which has
arisen; they rebel against pain. Thus given over to compliance and hostility,
they are not freed from birth, old age, death, sorrows, lamentations, pains,
miseries and tribulations. I say such folk are not free from ill.
We then read that for the “ariyan disciple,” who has attained enlightenment, the opposite
is the case. We may wonder what the secret is of the ariyan disciple. He sees things as
they really are and is not enslaved to the worldly conditions.** Could we also become an
ariyan disciple? At this moment we are still “unlearned, common, average folk.” From the
Buddha’s teachings we learn that seeing realities as they are can make us less enslaved
to the worldly conditions. Seeing things as they are, that is true wisdom. Do we see
realities as they are or do we live in dreams and fantasies? In our life there are realities
and there are imaginations or ideas which we form up in our mind. We do not even
know the difference between reality and imagination. However, in order to see things as
they really are we must know the difference between what is real and what is not real.
We may wonder whether the Buddha’s teaching is not a philosophical system which deals
with abstractions. On the contrary, the Buddha’s teaching helps us to know ourselves, to
know our different moments of wholesomeness and unwholesomeness. He taught the way
to eradicate attachment, aversion and ignorance.
Our thinking about reality is conditioned by many ideas we acquired through our education an through the culture in which we are rooted. If we want to understand what the
Buddha taught we should not hold on to our own ideas about reality and we should be
open-minded to his teaching. Then we will notice that his teaching is completely different
from our ideas about reality. The Buddha taught about everything which appears now and
which can be directly experienced. He did not teach abstract ideas.
https://abhidhamma.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Understanding-Reality.pdf
Thanks, i will take some time away from social media sites a political happenings for a while to ease my mind. It is easy for me to get caught up in arguments or even just anger when by myself at what i see happen and I’m tired of being angry. I will reflect on the things said in this thread.
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Welcome to the group. It is nice to know that people lurk around our group before joining. It is good. Welcome!
The Simile of The Saw is always a good one.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.021x.than.html
There are plenty of subjects based on anger.
There is a whole chapter in the dhammapada.
https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/dp17.htm
The main thing to do is to learn loving-kindness and realize that people with anger often feed their own anger. Do anything else but have a mind of anger. You will always lose if you have anger, even if they instigate the anger from you. Anger is never justified.
Here is a timestamp video of a story I told where I had to fight my anger, by doing something wholesome (spoiler: Going to the chanting hall).
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One can assess one’s progress in the path by examining how much one has abandoned. If you’ve given up a lot, you’ve come a long way; vice versa.