I’ll posit a (very poorly and drunkenly abridged) story from the Buddha that I actually think of on a somewhat daily basis, in contrast of all the Buddha-bad comments:
A man approaches the Buddha in the city. He says to him, “I hate you Buddha, you are always telling people how to live their lives and what they need to do to be happy, how can you have all the answers?”
The Buddha says, “I will ask you a question. If I give you a gift, would you accept it?”
The man says of course he would not.
The Buddha asks, “If you do not accept my gift, then to whom does my gift belong?”
The man says, “The gift belongs to you, because I did not accept it.”
The Buddha replies, “Then I treat your hatred as a gift. You offer me anger, and I do not accept it; therefore, your hatred and anger belongs only to you, and only you may suffer it’s consequences.”
So when people get angry at me over things that are beyond my control, I reject their anger, let them yell at what they think is the problem, and move on.
Then the Buddha punches me in the face and I am enlightened.
I don’t accept buddhas punch
I don’t accept the IRS’s gift
Reject gifts from a demigod, in this economy???
As heartening and insightful as this story might be, I find it difficult to imagine that someone with this much hate would at the same possess enough composure to state his problem clearly, take part in the Buddha’s spiel about it, and then not punch him in the face at the end.
And I’m not suggesting that this would be a better outcome by any means, rather, that stories like this are sadly sometimes woefully inadequate to deal with the amount of anger and rage that continues to pervade modern society.
You’re missing the point. This is about the Buddha not accepting the hate and thus not being frustrated over it.
No I get that. I’m just saying in a real life situation, the other guy might not give a damn about whether you accept his hate and let you have it anyways.
That doesn’t matter, Buddha DGAF
this wasnt an explaining answer in any way to the guy Buddha is just an ass
I don’t think he asks that question in the original story. Drunk me was just giving him more dialogue.
Why don’t Buddhists vacuum the small spaces of rooms? Because they have no attachments.
A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?
The monk replied, “I have eaten.”
Joshu said, “Then you had better wash your bowl.”
At that moment the monk was enlightened.
The moral of the story: do your fuckin dishes you dirty slob
Metaphysics is a blind man in a dark room trying to find a black cat that isn’t there. Religion is the man shouting “I found it!” So yeah, none of it makes any sense.
In my experience, metaphysics is more like being in a dark room that you are certain is empty, feeling a black cat run across your leg once, and then spending a lifetime trying to make it happen again.
