Thursday, January 14, 2010

It is most interesting.

It is most interesting to read this popular Buddhist parable from a non-Buddhist intellectual.

Azli Rahman's "Illuminations":
[When one is bleeding after being shot by an arrow, the first step is not to look for the culprit that shot the arrow and pondering why was it shot but to pull out the arrow from the victim's body and to quickly put a stop to the bleeding. This is what Siddharta Gautama would teach as crisis intervention.]


The full version can be found in my learned
Buddhist friend's blog :

[Parable of the arrow smeared thickly with poison.

It is as if a man had been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and kinsmen were to get a surgeon to heal him, and he were to say, I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know by what man I was wounded, whether he is of the warrior caste, or a brahmin, or of the agricultural, or the lowest caste. Or if he were to say, I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know of what name of family the man is -- or whether he is tall, or short or of middle height ... Before knowing all this, the man would die.

Similarly, it is not on the view that the world is eternal, that it is finite, that body and soul are distinct, or that the Buddha exists after death that a religious life depends. Whether these views or their opposite are held, there is still rebirth, there is old age, there is death, and grief, lamentation, suffering, sorrow, and despair.... I have not spoken to these views because they do not conduce to an absence of passion, to tranquility, and Nirvana.

And what have I explained? Suffering have I explained, the cause of suffering, the destruction of suffering, and the path that leads to the destruction of suffering have I explained. For this is useful.

The most important thing for a Buddhist is to practise The Noble Eightfold Path. Mere speculation will lead a person nowhere.]

9 comments:

A true Malaysian said...

To Buddhist, “Allah” is a no issue simply Buddhism does not believe in creator God, but that does not mean you cannot believe if you believe in God or Allah.

Someone asked me before, if not God who created this world / universe, then who? My answer to him that, why must you think that God is the one who create the world / universe, and not others? So, there is no point in argument of this. Why not learn how to co-exist peaceful in this world, instead of arguing who can use the word “Allah”, and at the end of the day, we ended up in building mistrust, not goodwill. We must as well not to have religions then.

What good to have religions if we cannot co-exist because of different belief?

Yap said...

In this country, they would take his watch, money, necklace etc what valuable he has on him....then let him die.

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What is the point of knowing god when one has no human values and cannot differentiate between right and wrong.

aah-haa said...

Well said PM.
However, I cannot relate Arrow to Allah. The wounded man should also asked: "am I the right target?"

bow said...

Those who have no human value and do not know the difference between right and wrong are without the knowledge of God words , they had been led astray in their daily path and believe in own evil way, it is the common behaviors of the unbelievers.

aah-haa said...

One does not need to believe in a God to know what is right or wrong. Even those who have a God cannot distinguish right and wrong. So, is not right to say "it is the common behaviors of the unbelievers".
What is right and wrong has been a vexing dilemma for philosophers, prophets, teachers, lawyers, sociologists and even gods!

Anonymous said...

WISDOM is what absent in them, sometime, aah-haa.

Yap said...

Human created god and called him almighty and compassionate..but in reality impotent.

aah-haa said...

Human has the propensity to worship anything that is mystical, beyond comprehension or posses some kind of power - stone, rock, animal, cosmic star, sun, lightning, thunder and even abstract stuff like spirits. 'God' is certainly created by human, not the other way round. All the attributes human give to gods are superlatives because these are the qualities human so desires - compassion, just, forgiving, loving, all powerful, ever present, all knowing, etc. Yet, in some scriptures, God was presented as having hatred, vengeful and unforgiving. These go to show that man made gods. Also, there were many gods before in primitive societies and ancient civilizations until some so-called messenger, prophet, messiah, guru 'heard' or 'dream' or got a 'vision' that there is only One God. If so, God is Allah and Allah is God! But Alas, and by God, that is not True. And as human nature and ego would have it - My God is the Only One True God - yours is not. If so, your God is part of my God, blah, blah ...etc.
The belief in Creator God and One God is only 2000 yrs or less. Before that, human believed in many gods. Buddhism predates Christianity and Islam, therefore does not believe in a Creator or One God but it does not deny the existence of the god realm - that is humans who have become god-like.
Many has invoked god or God for help, bring peace, banish sufferings, cruelty, injustice, etc. If there is God or gods with power, all these would have been easily accomplished. But in reality ... impotent!

bow said...

Becoming a follower of a religion isn't means that one will know the different between right or wrong, good or evil, since not every religion believe in the almighty God's words and let alone can fully comprehend the meanings and wisdom in them.

For the word 'A', it is the Arab who has the patent rights to its use instead of religious extremists in the bodohland. hahaha...

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