What if Nazis ask us if Anne Frank is in our attic? What if the truth is terribly embarrassing or could harm a relationship of ours? This raises some serious and difficult ethical questions, however. ![]() It seems pretty straightforward, then, that according to the Buddha we should never lie. And in his words to Rahula, he made it clear he believed that there is an essential connection between truthfulness and personal integrity. The Buddha made “not lying” one of the fundamental training practices of his path of self-transformation (it is the fourth precept out of five). Related: Five Precepts of Buddhism Explained The woman and her baby were safe, and this paritta is still chanted to safeguard expectant mothers in Theravadan countries today. By this truth may you be well, and so may the child in your womb.” The story goes that he once came upon a woman having a dangerous labor and said to her, “Sister, since being born in the noble birth, I am not aware that I have intentionally deprived a being of life. They would practice something called an “act of truth,” a type of protective blessing that involved chanting something incontrovertibly true, and then saying, “by the power of this truth, may there be such-and-such.” Probably the most dramatic example of this comes from the story of Angulimala, the mass murderer who was converted by the Buddha and became an enlightened monk. The early Buddhists thought that truth was so important, so powerful, that they sometimes invoked the truth like magic. ![]() Thus, Rahula, you should train yourself, ‘I will not tell a deliberate lie, even in jest.’”Įven in jest? This austere, worshipful attachment to truth was characteristic of the Buddha. ![]() “In the same way, Rahula,” the Buddha continued, “when anyone feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, they will not do. (The monk he was lecturing, by the way, was said to be his son, Rahula.) “One who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie,” the Buddha told a monk after dramatically pouring out the contents of a dish, “has as much of a contemplative in them as this empty bowl” (MN 61, The Instructions to Rahula at Mango Stone ).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |