Buddhism and Personal Life

Question from Mason Oliver, United States : Hello,
A Bhante at the Sri Lankan Temple near me asked if I would attend the Vesak program this Saturday. The program includes a Dhammacara initiation. This Saturday is also my girlfriend's three year old's birthday party. Both are very important to me.
How important is it to actually become initiated as a dhammacara? My heart tells me the right thing to do is to not flake out on Pamela's 3rd b-day. Also I think it would sort of disappoint the girlfriend.
At the same time there is a part of me that wants to be a part this initiation.

Please get back to me as soon as you can, tomorrow is Saturday and I really need some advice. Thank you and may you be well.

Metta,
Mason Oliver

Answer: Dear Mason,

Thank you for your question. I am guessing the Sri Lankan Temple in question would be from the Theravadin tradition? I regret to inform you that I am not familiar with a 'Dhammacara' initiation. In fact, you may have mistaken it for taking the eight precepts or even a Samanera (Novice Bhikku) or Anagarika (Lay Attendant) initiation.

As an onlooker it's easy to answer your question and tell you what's the 'right' thing to do. Either way, I believe the answer to your question is in the question. Quote "My heart tells me the right thing to do is to not flake out on Pamela's 3rd b-day" therefore you should most certainly follow your heart. There will be many more opportunities to attend initiation ceremonies and a Vesak day in the future.

I make the brave assumption that you are not a renunciate and still living your life as a lay person, therefore you would be well advised not to sacrifice your personal life for Buddhist ceremony in this situation, unless of course you can involve the child and girlfriend or on the other side of the spectrum you are aspiring towards ordination and renunciation.

Vesak day is sometimes referred to as Buddha's Birthday, how better to spend this time with a beautiful 3 year old child on their birthday? Your decision will also say a great deal about where your priorities lie, so be careful and observe yourself carefully during this period.

Yours in Dhamma
JC Ball
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Indras Net - A Discourse of Enlightenment

In an age where reasoning prevails all knowledge of communication and construction of common values we as the individual look increasingly to sources of information for validations in consensus of that which we practice and of the levels of interaction between our social awareness and personal being.

Assessments of image, acquired of taste and opinion inherited from ideals are accents of a lifestyle which concomitantly is a themed recognition of that which controls the self as capable of governing mankind. In saying this where doesn't one rule out the self if the individual is present and in a similitude with an equally cohesive host. What is important is measured from our understanding of how we derive a dependent origin. There is a model for this underlying problem and it is Indra's net, "Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image." Alan Watts illustrates definitively the constant of a process which is concerned with identification of oneness from a collective view yet also highlights the premise of enjoining in clarity as an elucidation of achievement.

Enlightenment and dependent origination are the key foundation concepts within Buddhist perspective and is it not in breaking through or essentially out of formulae to achieve you may mould a form based on the working of a mechanism, motivation will yield a likeness which resembles truth to any meaning for purpose, but merely represent productivity ultimately.

Through filtered systems of interaction which have developed consequently upon enlightenment from generations of predecessors before us its not without prejudice or devolution we are witness; amid any social structure one can be a whole yet it cannot be many, alone.

It is a precision of result which exhibits through direct application of an entity to completeness and can be admired with even an indirect awareness in the omniscient such is a dew drop a jewel reconstructed by itself a facet of prominence, an exclamation of a concept manifold yet exclusive.

If we place our being within this 'age' as we have so questioned to measure a prosperity, hereditary supercedence may elapse at the outstretching consummate oneness of Indra's net, to unfold the very being that is ourselves as a pure conception. Shifting a network of reliance also determines a structure illicit to necessity which in accordance with an enlightened concept bears fundamental resonance and in such belies rhetoric and image, it is the essence of realization.

Nicola Chen

Check here for more in depth discussion on Indra's Net by Brad Bryant

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Indra's Net - A Phenomena

Indra to ancient sages signifies as much a 'destroyer of worlds' as exclaimed by Oppenheimer¹ video left ,a ruler capable in representing the natural conditions manifest in the environment as an entropy is of manipulating a structure of growth, in that they both decree the metaphysical innately.

Indra's net presents a metaphorical view of power which is beheld in a bonding of many instances of a intrinsic singularity. The form that projects it's likeness through en exponent of itself inherently so as to bring constant to an initiate value and giving rise through a multitude of sameness covalent opportunities to produce an equally transitive force to being.

Through understanding this nature of dualism can we begin to explore potential without confounding origin. If we look at the structure of an atom, it is but a primacy of direct force and admittance of any subsidiary factors are latent to destruction which would represent suffering or imbalanced attachments which in the Buddhist firmament constitute the direct opposition to the self.
What is within the instance of introspection presents an ability to advance perception of a code that resembles purely a distinction of being in existence.

Alternatively if matter is displaced through a means wholly accountable to its source it is as equally surmountable to any subjective resource which it may encompass; in terms of cause and effect a primordial aspect may not ever be realized as it negotiates an unchanged elemental formulae from one series to another. From a habitual controlling over essence arises the problem of stagnation and also addictive tendency with danger of a prominent focus becoming one of illusion. Buddhism magnifies a resonant adeptness at upholding truth as an entreaty of provision in a sense of guiding from the utmost honorable substance.

Aesthetic qualities are a substantiate within the realm of Indra's net and it is the proverbial loophole which is left untied for in it is what is highlighted is an organism which can resist the nature of its own charge. Any objectionable condition may be consumed in concept and subsequently any object ultimately achievable as it a succeeds a universal aim as the primary one.

The pivot of Buddhism rests within the convergence of the self from anti stasis to virility and fruition and today's world has within it placed but few milestones of the oneness from which it emanated and which it increasingly seeks out through the individual as an attribute of nature. It is as such within this decree that the implication of resistance conveys from nought but totality, it is in this depth that a darkened seed may flourish and at this we may ask would it be such a shame if the perfected dew drop were to fall upon it.

Nicola Chen

Check here for more in depth discussion on Indra's Net by Brad Bryant

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