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This reminds me of a quote by Buddha in Kakacūpama sutta:
Even if low-down bandits were to sever you limb from limb with a two-handed saw, anyone who had a malevolent thought on that account would not be following my instructions. This is often depicted as one of the torments of hell. If that happens, you should train like this: ‘Our minds will not degenerate. We will blurt out no bad words. We will remain full of sympathy, with a heart of love and no secret hate. We will meditate spreading a heart of love to that person. And with them as a basis, we will meditate spreading a heart full of love to everyone in the world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.’ That’s how you should train.
Buddha was very serious about removing Hate, such that even if someone were to physically (or verbally) attack us or even our family members, we will still not generate any hateful feelings. This doesn’t mean tolerating abuse but a necessary means to purify our minds.
A and B are not the same, but they are “connected” via causes (hetu) and results (phala.)
One could ask why A should worry about B’s suffering if they’re not the same. My understanding is that the “momentary perception” of me/mine will still remain. In a way, the same thing happens in a single lifetime too, right? Each citta arises and passes away but the “momentary perception” of self is always there. When a toddler grows into an adult human, it becomes a totally different person but there is a continuity (since it is the same life stream) which is why when a human thinks about their past, there is the perception that it is the same person.
Yash wrote, “I dont know how some humans can be full of such a mindset to cause such a harm to another human”
There used to be a time where whenever I hear about a tragic incident, I would be mentally agitated with anger and sadness. I still remember being utterly traumatized at the age of 8 when a woman poisoned herself to death in front of me. These days when I hear such news like rape case in India, mass shooting in USA, etc., I just say “Well, that’s sad. Let’s move on.” Is there a better way of reacting?
y not wrote, “Another person is another mind; another mind is another world.”
Each mind is deluded with Greed and Hatred. But some are conditioned so badly that they can’t help but act out of those defilements with no consideration of others. If my desires are unbearable and I can’t see any (kammic) consequence, why should I be afraid?
I see, so kamma ripens when the right conditions are there. But the conditioning is not deterministic.
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If someone gets raped (for example), would it be appropriate to see that as a kamma vipaka or simply bad luck for being victimized by someone else’s immoral behavior?
I think it was Ven. Moggallana who was trying to remove microorganisms from the water before drinking, but the Buddha said that it’s impossible to live in this Sansara without harming others.
Do you know where this is mentioned in Tipitaka?
This is likely false as experts argue that this temple was renovated about 100 years ago: Was a Carving of a Modern Bicycle Found Inside an Ancient Temple?
But I remember watching a YouTube video by Praveen Mohan where he showed dinosaur depictions in various temples. For humans to do that, they must have seen dinosaurs.
Are you joking? If humans saw Dinosaurs and put them in temples that would mean those temples have been there for more than 50 millions years and withstood a comet strike which is not possible.
“Praveen Mohan” is a Hindu conspiracy theorist that has been exposed multiple times for spreading misinformation. I did watch a couple of his videos pertaining to “Dinosaurs crafted in temples” and they looked more like camel and rhyno (with leaves around it) than literal dinosaurs. Here’s an Electrical Engineer exposing him, How Many ERRORS Can You Fit in a Video?!
Of course, our primary focus should be on the teachings but there is value in making such investigations too. If humans existed for more than 7 million years, there should be human fossils that date back even further. I’m just being a skeptic because I don’t want to blindly believe in stuff.Thus, it is logical to assume that there have been civilizations that peaked at even higher levels than ours. They can be destroyed by worldwide cataclysms such as a comet impact (we know of one that happened 60 million years ago).
But we have dinosaur fossils which date back to that time with geological dating. If humans existed during that time, would we not expect to find human fossils that are as old?
Thank you, Gad and Dr.Lal! Speaking of Iddhi powers, my understanding is that the javana citta of Brahmas or a human with similar Jhanas can generate significant amount of matter. I believe this is what happens during the (re)formation phase of a chakkavala where uncountable Brahmas generate immense matter via javana citta which involves abhisankhara. Greed and Hate are generally inactive in their minds so is it the raga and moha that involves javana cittas in this case? Also, an arahant/buddha doesn’t have abhisankhara so how do they use iddhi powers?
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Right, so Buddha put them all in the category of “humans” due to their manussa gati. I would assume that Neanderthals had the same type of gati so I wonder how they lived and co-existed with Homo Sapiens 40,000+ years ago.
The above website says, “There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.
The last sentence is questionable but this is a remarkable discovery in my opinion. Even nowadays we see many diversity among humans but it is surprising for me to know that Neanderthals were the ones to become extinct considering they were bigger and stronger. But I guess the changing conditions of the Earth favored the smaller modern humans of today.
Good post, Gad. But how can a deva (Mara) have sex with a human? Aren’t devas’ bodies too thin for that?
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Thank you, Waisaka and Gad. The only thing I will add is that we should not confuse a solar system with a universe. The cosmos is very complex indeed. But since this thread is about Evolution, I was wondering how the discovery of fossils of hominid species could be reconciled with Dhamma.
The Human Family Tree contains the summary of scientific discoveries of hominid fossils and current understanding of their correlations. Modern Humans are considered Homo Sapiens and belong to the Homo group along with 6 other Homo species. There are 3 other branches with groups of Paranthropus, Australopithecus, and Ardipithecus. Scientists believe we evolved from other apes, from Ardipithecus to Homo in the family tree over a span of about 7 million years. This is not consistent with Buddha Dhamma.
P.S. The cranial features of Homo Neanderthalensis (believed to be our closest extinct human relative) are quite similar yet different from that of modern humans:
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“I don’t understand why intelligent scientists keep asking why we have not heard from “aliens.” How do they expect any aliens to get here?”
I think this is based on the assumption that there could be civilizations that are billions of years more advanced than ours. But as per Dhamma, humans have been in this planet for billions of years too but there have been many ups and downs.
I used to wonder why Buddha spoke about the cosmos when his message is entirely based on the mind. My educated guess is that he wanted to provide the bigger picture of the “anicca” nature of the universe. That’s why he talked about the destructions and re-formations of world systems. I am grateful to the work of scientists like Galileo and others that have helped us visualize the unstable nature of the cosmos, thus verifying this aspect of the Dhamma.
