According to Buddhism, you can't have any attachments if you want to reach enlightenment. Does that mean that if you're happily married with a loving wife and kids and a great job that you can kiss enlightenment goodbye?
Surely someone in that situation would be happier and healthier than someone in solitude with no 'attachments'?
2006-10-16 01:44:48 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
are you sure I'm misinterpreting it?
some interesting answers so far, but some of them conflict each other
2006-10-16 02:02:08 · update #1
Not at all. The idea central to Zen is found in the awareness of the "suchness of the such" in the "nowness of the now."
The Buddha said all life is sorrow, and Zen teaches that we must engage in a "joyous participation in the sorrow of life." The whole idea is to embrace life for what it is. Like William Blake said; it is to see the heaven in the wildflower and the earth in the grain of sand.
If you are given joy -- BE in that moment. If you are given suffering -- BE in that as well. This is the suchness of the such -- right here and right now. Someone once told me that all babies are born Zen Masters, because they embrace life for what it is. They don't place artificial values on things and will be just as entranced by a simple toy as by a diamond necklace.
It's we grown-ups who learn to place artificial values on things, and the whole idea of Zen is to "un-learn" so that you may apprehend things as they are in their true nature and embrace them on that level. This is the suchness of the such.
Marriage in no way impedes this. It is a state of awareness you cultivate over time. Just BE -- RIGHT NOW!!!
2006-10-16 01:55:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
sure there are conflicting answers, just like asking christians to answer something, not everyone is going to answer the same way...
sure you can be happily married with kids and a job & a car and be enlightened... you just can't be attached to what happens if you lose your great house or your job or what if your spouse leaves you, or your child dies of a terrible disease.... certainly difficult to do, but that's what Buddha taught.
Suffering is caused by our not wanting life to change (impermanence --- we don't like it).
When we let go and understand that life is full of impermanence - we lose our attachments-- it doesn't mean we can't love a husband or wife or have a family or drive a nice car, it just means we don't get flipped out & all upset if the nice car gets totalled in a wreck, we move on, get a new one.
did that make sense?
2006-10-16 09:31:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you get married and have children attachment is inevitable! What it's telling you is that this attachment is the cause of suffering aswell. When you love a person and then he/she dies you suffer not knowing what is to happen to you without them. Enlightenment is the knowledge of this and the fact that death is inevitable and a wise man neither gets too elated or too depressed with worldly achievements. Health is related to the physical body and enlightenment is concerned with the soul. A yogi could starve for days in deep meditation without feeling hunger for he is detached from the body's needs!
2006-10-16 08:58:54 · answer #3 · answered by Rajan S 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Enlightenment does not necessarily mean healthier and happier - these are both "attachments".
However you do not need to be Buddha to be Buddhist, being happy and healthy is enough for most Buddhists.
2006-10-16 08:56:12 · answer #4 · answered by Aspphire 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One finds that no matter how sincere one's intention to be attentive and aware, the mind rebels against such instructions and races off to indulge in all manner of distractions, memories and fantasies...The comforting illusion of personal coherence and continuity is ripped away to expose only fragmentary islands of consciousness separated by yawning gulfs of awareness...The first step in this practice of mindful awareness is radical self-acceptance.
Such self-acceptance, however, does not operate in an ethical vaccuum, where no moral assessment is made of one's emotional states. The training in mindful awareness is part of a Buddhist path with values and goals. Emotional states are evaluated according to whether they increase or decrease the potential for suffering. If an emotion, such as hatred or envy, is judged to be destructive then it is simply recognized as such. It is neither expressed through violent thoughts, words or deeds, nor is it suppressed or denied as incompatible with a "spiritual" life. In seeing it for what it is - a transient emotional state - one mindfully observes it follow its own nature: to arise, abide for a whie, and then pass away.
2006-10-16 10:31:00 · answer #5 · answered by sista! 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This does not mean you cannot love and cherish your family. To be without attachment means that you are not dependent upon them for your peace of mind. The same with 'things'. You can enjoy them but not be devastated if you lost them. It's a fine line. Meditate on this and the subtleties will reveal themselves to you.
2006-10-16 09:02:57 · answer #6 · answered by a_delphic_oracle 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
You can have attachments to truth, love and compassion because they exist eternally but you can't have attachments to material desires, like a big house or a new car without creating karma. Buddha never taught that we should desire nothingness, he taught to desire truth and wisdom and loving your family as well as the rest of humanity is in keeping with his philosophy.
2006-10-16 08:49:11 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
you know sir buddha born in india
2006-10-16 08:49:14 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
you are misinterpreting the meaning of it.
2006-10-16 08:53:50 · answer #9 · answered by ~maryjane~ 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋