I am like Surprised smile wow! that makes so much more sense, thank you so much for the in depth detailed explanation. I am more grateful then you can possibly know. I am glad you decided to respond.
Peace, Love & Happy Living be yours
Ryan
To: Triplegem@yahoogroups.com
From: hasituppada@...
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:30:11 +0000
Subject: [Triplegem] Re: how to
Ryan
I was hesitating to answer, as Clinging has a two fold meaning in Buddhist teaching. One has to have a basic knowledge of Buddhism to understand the implication of it.
The question you pose is how to free yourself of clinging to God , among many other complementary questions you suggest ?
I will try to answer the main question, as shortly as possible to do "justice" to the profound teachings of the Buddha.
The Buddha explained the "no-self" in his teaching by propounding the theory of Dependent Origination. It explains that every thing is the result of a condition. Therefore there is no creator. In his theory of Dependent origination there are 12 steps. Clinging is the eighth step. The Craving is the attachment or desire one has to a thing, a concept or a person. The Clinging is the more intense craving or attachment , or desire for a thing, a concept, or a person.
To follow from the eighth step Clinging, that you say you have a "problem" with, the next step is becoming ( resulting from kamma) conditioned by Clinging, then conditioned by becoming results birth, resulting from birth as a condition results old age , suffering, misery and death.
Going back words,
if the death, old age,misery and lamentation, are to be stopped, the condition of birth has to be stopped.
If birth is to be stopped the condition of becoming ( accumulation of birth resulting kamma) has to be stopped.
If becoming is to be stopped the condition of clinging has to be stopped.
If Clinging is to be stopped the condition of craving has to be stopped.
If craving is to be stopped, the condition feeling has to be stopped.
If feeling is to be stopped, the condition of six sense faculties have to be stopped.
If the sense faculties are to be stopped the condition of `mind -body has to be stopped.
If mind-body has to be stopped, the condition of conscience has to be stopped.
If the conscience is to be stopped the condition of mental formations have to be stopped.
If mental formations are to be stopped ignorance has to be stopped.
Cessation of Ignorance is the enlightenment through wisdom- the knowing of suffering, the cause of suffering , the way to end suffering and cessation of suffering. This is also to realise impermanence of all conditional phenomena, suffering or unsatisfactoriness, and no-self.
Hence clinging results from intense attachment. Intense attachment is the false belief in a self , I, Me, Myself. All our problems stem from this belief in a self., as all we do is to please this self. According to Buddhist teachings there is no belief in a "self".
Because of this false belief in a "self", we get attached to things , concepts or persons. When this attachment is intensified, it becomes a clinging desire to possess the thing, intensely believe in a concept, or possess and enjoy being with the person desired.
It could be desire or attachment, or even aversion, anger and hatred, through the delusion of satisfying the "person" the self- I, Me, Myself.
It is the belief in this self that makes one go the rounds of births and deaths the Buddhists call the Samsara.
How can a person or self satisfy desires, attachments, or aversions ? How does one get attached to things, concepts and persons ?
An entity we call a person is made up of the mind, and matter. Matter is the form with eyes, ears, nose, tongue , body. The form by itself is inert, it cannot do any thing on its own. Therefore there is the mind to see with the eyes, hear with the ears, smell with the nose , taste with the tongue, feel with the body, and think with the mind. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are the sense faculties that cannot do any thing on their own.
Therefore, the form satisfies with its sense faculties, the demands of the mind. The eyes cannot see if there is no mind or consciousness, ear cannot hear, nose cannot smell, tongue cannot taste, body cannot feel or mind cannot think.
The mind gets attached to what it sees, what it hears, what it smells, what it feels, and what it thinks. It is in being able to see that a person is not the body, but a " mind body" combination that one could train ones mind to understand that what we desire, get attached to, what we have aversion towards , and the delusion of a self is mind made concepts, which are impermanent constantly changing, unsatisfactory and without a self. If we have no correct understanding of this reality, we get caught in our false beliefs.
That is why we believe in a God, and cling to the idea of the God, because we do not understand that it is a belief that got inculcated in to the mind.
And believing that I am a person "a self", seek this concept of God we have been told that can save us. When we have a lurking danger, or serious illness we want to save ourselves bycling to the idea of God. It is a false belief or concept, based on a false belief of an existing self.
The Buddhist teaching though one calls it a philosophy is not a " half way" knowledge. You either accept it wholly and follow it not to understand the Buddhist teachings as part of ones knowledge, but realise to see whether the Buddhist teachings have a way out of false concepts, and see reality. That is how one can get rid of Clinging to a concept of God according to the teachings of the Buddha.
With metta,
Charles
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--- In Triplegem@yahoogroups.com, Ryan Brawn
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> hello group,
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> Ok forgive me because I am very new to this whole thing. But Once you see the clinging, attachment and how it leads to suffering how do you stop! I mean for instance. I find that sometimes at night I start clinging and hoping for a God. A God to be there and a heaven. I get super nerovous, and have bad anxiety. I also have a massive fear of death. Which I would say between these two things I am clearly clinging to a God and mostly to life. To God because I want there to be a life after this one! Anyway what I am getting at here is this, among many other things I have started to see what I am clinging to, the only question I have is how do you stop clinging. Maybe It is just this knowledge, maybe thats all I need, maybe this is enough just for me to know.? I don't know but I am just not sure. Is the eightfold path the steps to take to free yourself from each attachment, or is it more broad you follow these to free yourself from all things. I guess what I am getting at here is I get the whole thing I am just not sure how to apply what I am learning. One person I was listening to was saying what you want in your life is what you focus on, so if you want peace focus on peace, love focus on love, but if you want peace love and letting go is this what you focus on? but what if you want full enlightement? Everything buddah teaches where do you start and how (My biggest question is how do you APPLY IT?)
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> Thanks for your patience with me,
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> Happy Living to you all
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> Ryan
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