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Keep the perpetual virginity of our souls

Hot 1798 views. 2016-5-10 12:49

Mr. S, one of my colleagues, is a lay Buddhist. He likes reading as me. I find he’s the only booklover I know around me during my almost 30 years of working experience. He detests smoking. For that reason, he left our smoky office and moved to another one without smokers. I also abhor smoking and often stay away from our office, secluding myself in the deserted computer room which has changed into a printing room. The room is relatively quiet and unpolluted. When his second office turned into a classroom, he joined me in the printing room. Under his influence, I began to read and copy Buddhist scriptures that he lent me. And we often talk about them in a light vein. Yesterday he lent me another work which is a handwritten copy printed. At the first glance, I really despised the handwriting. Its style is called imitation Song－Dynasty－Style typeface when writing on wax paper for hand printing in the past. Its characteristic is both the horizontal strokes and vertical ones are straight and thin. Almost all the characters are square and all write in the same way. The only difference is that some handwritings are perfect, some common and some substandard. Such style of writing is just for printing because of its neatness and easy recognition. It doesn’t belong to calligraphy, nor does it represent a writer’s character or artistic level. But we can see how well the writer copies and whether he’s earnest. For its unchanged style, it is used by people who fear or hate to be known when writing something illegal or offensive. In the novel Red Crag, the underground communists printed their progressive papers with the same style against spying in the KMT ruled areas. The Buddhist sutras copied here is neatly written in piousness. The handwriting is green and clumsy like that of little kids. It’s rare for an adult to be so simple－minded, for a man can be judged somewhat by his handwriting. The writer’s earnestness never abates a little in the whole process of writing. And I didn’t find his signature. Here he did not have the intention to please the readers by graceful writing as the common people always try to do. Instead, he wins people’s respect and love by his devotion to Buddhism and his coldness to fame.

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Reply sunnyv 2016-5-10 13:26: In high school we were required to study religion and I chose Christianity and Buddhism. Since then I had great respect for Buddhism.

Enlightenment is the center of the religion. Enlightenment lay in the “middle way,” not in luxurious indulgence or self-mortification. We also learn about the ‘Four Noble Truths’—1. to live is to suffer 2. suffering is caused by desire (or “attachment”) 3. one can eliminate suffering by eliminating all attachments, and 4) this is achieved by following the noble eightfold path.

The ''eightfold path''consists of having a right 1. view, 2. intention, 3. speech, 4. action, 5. livelihood (being a monk), 6. effort (properly direct energies), 7. mindfulness (meditation), and 8. concentration (focus).

Buddhism can offer us sanctuary from the complicated world we live in today.

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Keep the perpetual virginity of our souls

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