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Doug, I am always so grateful when you highlight one of the Buddhist women disciples. It really does my heart good. And it’s a particularly auspicious video to have watched as I walk out my door to attend a retreat at IMS. Thank you so much for including women in these teachings. For the most part, we have been erased, so keeping these particular tales alive is a gift and a treasure.
Of course, mindless performance of any ritual - be it Brahmanical or Buddhist, religious or secular, bathing or youtubing - is of little value. Clearly, the Buddha was right. Yet, I grew up in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain where the Buddha spent most of his (post-enlightenment) lifetime. The tropical climate here is very hot and humid for most months of the year, and bathing in a flowing body of water will be a great relief to almost anybody. Obviously, such ablutions cannot rid one of "bad karma" but if you take "karma" literally, as Indians often do, i.e., as one's daily work or occupation, then the sweat and smell from work will be nice to wash off twice on any sultry day.
So tremendous auspicious to bring me to sudden watch this great dhamma story of bikkhuni from your updated Dhamma talk.i could not explain in my English secound language how it's so thoughtful wisdom . May i pay highly respected to Dr.Dough Dhamma with great,sir.From your Thai student.🙏🌧️🌅🌱🌎🌌💕💞💞💗
Even after over 2500 years this Brahmin vs Buddhist conflict is still going full force . History can be mind blowing and not that in far distance ! Buddhist teachings are again gaining popularity in India and can come back with a bang
And we will be glad to crush them in debate again like we did thousands of years ago. Have you where talk to them or have any debate. know that Ambedkar
@@FromPlanetZX no offense but u lost bro. Country is run by Ambedkar's principles. And there's a reason Adi Shankaracharya is called a hidden Buddhist. He took more from them than of defeating
@@pacewalk7396 That's what happened to lazy people who only go with surface level info or the most famous narrative. To discredit Shankara's Advaita Philosophy (clearly just written there in plain site in the UPANISHAD), Hindu theistic saint's called him crypto buddhists. Meanwhile, Buddhist called him 'born enemy of Buddhism" and even wrote their own fancy literature that a nalanda buddhist scholar Dharamkirti has defeated Adi Shankara and in shame Adi shankara decided to kill himself and then reborn again and accepted buddhism and later came up with Advaita. Are you fucking kidding me? Shankara just put nail in the coffin of already dead buddism philosphy. which Mimanshak teacher Kumarail bhatt has uprooted. Country run by Ambedkar's principle. are you comedy me? As far Ambedkar, listen to his speech given on Friday, 25th November, 1949, to whom from drafting committee he wished the credited must go to. Sir B. N. Rao (Constitutional Advisor to Constituent Assembly) and Mr. S. N. Mukherjee (Chief Draftsmen).
As a Hindu, I'd like to point out that the ritual of bathing, if done mindlessly, is indeed ineffective. The point of the ritual, bathing while usually reciting some mantras, is to remind you of your connection to the divine. When you mindfully and intentionally perform rituals or recite mantras, you remember God, and by doing so, create a mindset which motivates ethical behavior. This is why it is very important to do the ritual bath first thing in the morning, because there is a Hindu belief that whatever thoughts and intentions you cultivate at the beginning of the day will carry through the rest of the day.
Thank you for sharing this information. It is true, in my experience, that my morning mood carries throughout the day. We have an expression here in the U.S. that if someone is grumpy he must have gotten out of bed on the wrong side.
Which scripture ? Please tell me the name of the scripture ? How can Hindu read mantra when only bharamins were allowed to study ? Even 21st century dalits aren't allowed to become pandit ? Imagine 2000 yrs ago no constitution & law there.
@@ranveerkissoondoyal why Buddha used only pali language if Sanskrit was there ? Even Buddha time there wasn't writing system so his disciples wrote it later. Now tell me how possible upanishad was written earlier in Sanskrit ? You know Sanskrit was developed around 6th century , only earliest evidences of Sanskrit.
Since first learning of it, I've always been fascinated by Buddhism. However I have also been "resisting" it and in particular it's "escapist" views on existence. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Hermann Hesse held similar views to mine as expressed in "Siddhartha." Would you care post a video about this? Regards to you
Not just in buddhism within vedic religion they're many teachers who said just by going on to pilgrimages, bathing is not gonna help unless one changes his inner character. so painting one side view is never correct, today Mhayana and theravada buddhism filled with such useless rituals in fact few Buddhist nuns in Thai land committed suicide as they believed in buddhism only man can achieve enlightenment so as to born again as man. in fact these kind of teachings about inner cleanness is first found in Upanishads not in buddhism.
While only through learning and practicing Dharma one can live at peace with our mental suffering, we can also appreciate at the same time, that various ritualistic practices do instill mindfulness (of water washing over body) and while being short of the Dharma, it does benefit one's mind and body. However to perform rituals while ignoring Dharma would be ignorance and unskillfulness.
She is right and wrong at the same time. Her point is valid that the essence of water may not wash Karmic fruits. But chanting mantras with the ritual bathing in water implores GOD to bestow his grace. Likewise knowledge given to a bad person only strengthens their corrupt nature. Knowledge can’t change the nature of that individual. Nature is only changed by one’s own will power and discipline.
@@DougsDharma A good example is Ravana from Ramayana. Ravana was a Hindu Brahmin. Although GOD bestowed a high-born life for him, his nature was evil. As he gained the knowledge of the entire universe and heavens, he became demonic in nature. Abducting Sita was the pinnacle of his evil. So all the knowledge he gained could not help him from his basic evil nature.
According to caste in India, lower caste as a slave cannot learn or hear Veda or Brahminism. Punnika did criticize a critique of the Brahmin's Bathing for Karma. Her knowledge could notice the Brahmin's ignorance.
@@parmmohan4603 King Ravana did abduct Sita but he didnot abuse sexually. His desire for her and his pride went before a fall for Ravana. However, King David desired for Bathsheba and performed sex acts.If you say David was evil, Jews and Christians would not agree with you.
@@wint7031 Yes I do realize this. But to quote Jesus “if a man looks at a woman, he has lusted in his heart.” Ravana’s prerogative was to break her will and submit her.
I don't think there is a necessity for both Jaina and Buddhist have link because both religion was rational reaction to brahminism at that time... Even charvaka could have come with that same opinion from different viewpoint... I do believe bathing has some benefits like calming of mind which is in a way reducing karma but later stages could have misunderstood as washing away bad karma...which rightly so rejected.
Buddha’s ProphecyIn the far future, a group of people would trade Lord Buddha’s teachings formoney. They would write books about them and sell them for living. They wouldcompose poems about them and preach them for something incomparable in value inreturn. This event would occur toward the end of Buddhism.
Hello Doug! I have seen in various passages that in English translations a man without understanding is often called as 'fool' by enlightened one, whereas in Indian languages, the translation of the pali word used by Buddha is not 'fool' but 'unskillful' or in some places word used which means 'innocently ignorant'. Also, if you think of it, enlightened one calling someone as fool doesn't look skillful of a person who is enlightened. What do you think let me know? or guide me to the video if you have already talked about this in one of your videos. loads of metta to you. 👐
The Pāli compound is "moghapurisa". "Mogha" in the dictionary translates to: "empty, vain, useless, stupid, foolish". It is a pretty strong term. I think some later translators have decided to tone it down a bit.
@@DougsDharma So Buddha did used strong words such as fool? To me that doesn't show that enlightened one was free of anger or free of spiritual ego(you are fool, and I'm not) . What do you think?
It could be that he was angry and egoistic, it could also be that he was being stern out of compassion, believing that only strong words would get through.
My take to Punikka's admonition to the Brahmin is that bathing in the water should not be interpreted as a literal washing away of one's karma, both good or bad. It's a SYMBOLIC gesture that serves a spiritual/psychological purpose. So it depends on the INTENT, and obviously the intent isn't to wash away all karma, but merely the negative. It's not a practice unique to Hinduism. Christian Baptists also go through the ritual of being baptised in the water as a symbol of washing away old sins and accepting Jesus Christ into one's heart as their lord and savior. And haven't ourselves experienced that feeling at least once in our lives, perhaps many more, of wanting to take a shower to "wash away" a negative experience? So for sure, it's a psychological cleansing, and if repeated every day, first thing in the morning as is customary with Hindus, it must have the right intent to set the believer on the right path through their day. There's also the benefit of actual physical cleansing and well being after taking a bath. So no need to judge from an outside perspective....
Thank you for the video Doug. A question I have been wondering about...from my understanding, when Queen Mahaprajapati Gautami had the desire to devote herself to the spiritual life, and wanted to join the Sangha (when at such time there was no such thing as a bhikshuni), she came to the Buddha, along with 500 other women, and asked to join. The Buddha denied them. After Mahaprajapati and the women showed courage and determination (by cutting their hair, taking alms bowls and set off on foot), it was Ananda who made multiple pleas to the Buddha, to allow women to join the Sangha. Eventually the Buddha relented. My question is what was the reason why the Buddha was so reluctant to allow women to enter the order? Surely the Buddha would have known the great benefit the bhikshunis would bring to the Sangha?
I discuss a bit about this in my video on women in Buddhism: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-864ksDOZwXk.html . It's not clear how much of that story is historically accurate, since it appears to have been altered or edited at some time, probably by male monastics. That said, there likely would have been some cultural difficulties with allowing women.
He would certainly have understood the Parable of the Good Samaritan. That's all about priorities such as someone needing urgent medical attention but every "Passed by on the other side" and didn't off any help because they'd ritually bathed and were wearing ritually pure clothes. The Samaritan, a foreigner, didn't let this worry him and helped the man in need.
I'm not sure about that. Depending on the denomination of Christianity, baptism has a purpose. For a lot of Protestant denominations, baptism is an initiation ritual, where you are making public demonstration that you are joining the Body of Christ. I'm sure many Buddhist sects have similar initiation rituals. For Catholics and Orthodox, the ritual has an additional meaning, that the sacraments (like baptism) are "powers" that were transmitted by Christ to the apostles and which the apostles have transmitted to their disciples (bishops and priests) down the centuries, and the sacrament of baptism has the "power" to break "original sin". I guess "original sin" could be seen as "bad karma", and the entire point of Christianity is that the "power" of Christ eliminates bad karma for free (the "power" of grace). The Buddhist idea of eliminating bad karma through ethical action could be seen as "justification through works" in a Christian sense, and our sinful nature means always acting ethically is impossible since we are always fighting our subconscious evil inclination. This is why the ritual of baptism is so important to Christianity. Personally, I believe in Mr. Data. It is the effort of ethical action that yields its own rewards, it doesn't matter that it is impossible to be perfectly ethical.
@@dukebanerjee4710 I can see where your coming from in a Christian perspective. However I think you have missed the point. Buddha was making the point that water rituals don’t do anything and are a waist of effort. Since the concept of sin is a ridiculous idea created by Christian apologists and writers that was created to cause submission and more suffering, I think Buddha would have strongly warned against this way of thinking.☸️😊🤔
@@lelandstronks319 Well yeah, the Buddha argued against eternalism, so he would have seen Christianity as wrong view to begin with. But, the water ritual is in a Hindu context as something that is continually done, every day, and the Bhikkuni criticized the Brahmin, telling him that he was wasting the effort on the ritual, and it would be wiser to spend the effort on developing ethical behavior. But that's not what is going on with baptism. It is done once as an initiation ritual. And depending on the particular Christian belief, it either is symbolic or has some power from beyond. But there still is an effect, which is "sealing the deal" in joining a community. Whether initiation rituals are wasted efforts is another thing, but Buddhism does have initiation rituals too!
@@DougsDharma i understand. I think thats a very wise decision. However im very curious about secular buddhist perspective of the attainments. Do you know of any secular buddhists who do speak about their attainments?
I'm sure there are some, I'm just not exactly sure who considers themselves "secular" and who does not. Also one has to consider the problems of determining precisely what counts as having attained some state. There is disagreement!
@@DougsDharma r sound later added in Pali language but in ashokan pillars are not practise. Pali language have evolve many years. In Gupta period r sound have come to pratice.
No, Ashoka's inscription is not written in Pali but in Prakrit language. In different Variants of Prakrit the word Brahman is called Baman, Bahman, Babhan, Brahman. original Pali has 'R' sound, there is no later addition, but there no ksha, Sha, in it.
Not sure if Punika is right here because in many traditions like Christianity baptism which is washing with water purifies the sins and also prepares one on the path. Now having said all that not sure if water purifies karma Punika has been very philosophical here. She also said that the frogs and turtles etc are purified by water, well the creatures of water don't need to be purified and water is just a symbol it actually doesn't purify nor non purify anything. The Brahman ritual here seems non-reasnobale however if you believe that water washes away your sins then it is reasonable to say that. In actual practice, it comes to the belief of what you purify. If you believe that water purifies you then it is so and if you don't then it is not so. Now that is Brahman tradition. But if you true Buddhist and have a deep understanding there is nothing to purify. As Buddha said self is an illusion. There is walking to be done but there is no walker. There is sitting to be done but there no sitter. The self is just an illusion, it is empty as the sky. Karma is also an illusion the only karma that exist if you make it. Great compassion comes form understanding deeply the Heart Sutra. Early Buddhists had great philosophical understanding but no experience. They reasoned their way out but didn't have the experience.
@@DougsDharma Not Buddha himself I'm talking about his disciples. The early Buddhists didn't understand the deep teaching and the teaching of emptiness that came later.
Depend on each person's knowledge level, Buddha did teach his disciples sometime He used impermanence, emptiness, no-self..etc. He who experiential understand of emptiness (no-self) is better than the one who reasonably knowledge of emptiness (no-self). Accordig to Nagajuna, emptiness means Dependent orgination.@@TreeGreenOak
The Buddha discusses karma as having both good and bad results, depending on the character of our intention. So it's not a western notion, it's in the suttas.
