Awareness is the process of cittas experiencing objects. For a citta to arise it must have an object (aaramma.na).
The object may be a color, sound, smell, taste, something tangible, or
a mental object. These are the six external objects. Strictly speaking
a mental object can be an internal phenomenon, such as a feeling, a
thought, or an idea, but as forming the objective sphere of experience
they are all classed as external. Corresponding to these external
objects there are six internal sense faculties, called “doors” since
they are the portals through which the objects enter the field of
cognition. These are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Each of
the five physical sense faculties can receive only its appropriate
object; the mind door, however, can receive both its own proper mental
objects as well as the objects of the five physical senses. When a door
receives its object, there arises a corresponding state of
consciousness, such as eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, etc. The
union of the object, the door or sense faculty, and the consciousness
is called “contact” (phassa). There can be no awareness without
contact. For contact to occur all three components must be present —
object, door, and consciousness. If one is missing there will be no
contact. The process of the arising of consciousness and the subsequent
train of events is analyzed in detail in the Abhidhamma. A study of
this analysis will show that only “bare phenomena” are taking place and
that there is no “self” involved in this process. This is the no-self
characteristic of existence.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in
faith, are addicted to damaging seed and plant life such as these — plants
propagated from roots, stems, joints, buddings, and seeds — he abstains from
damaging seed and plant life such as these. This, too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in faith,
are addicted to consuming stored-up goods such as these — stored-up food,
stored-up drinks, stored-up clothing, stored-up vehicles, stored-up bedding,
stored-up scents, and stored-up meat — he abstains from consuming stored-up
goods such as these. This, too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off
food given in faith, are addicted to watching shows such as these — dancing,
singing, instrumental music, plays, ballad recitations, hand-clapping, cymbals
and drums, magic lantern scenes, acrobatic and conjuring tricks, elephant
fights, horse fights, buffalo fights, bull fights, goat fights, ram fights,
cock fights, quail fights; fighting with staves, boxing, wrestling, war-games,
roll calls, battle arrays, and regimental reviews — he abstains from watching
shows such as these. This, too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in
faith, are addicted to heedless and idle games such as these — eight-row chess,
ten-row chess, chess in the air, hopscotch, spillikins, dice, stick games,
hand-pictures, ball-games, blowing through toy pipes, playing with toy plows,
turning somersaults, playing with toy windmills, toy measures, toy chariots,
toy bows, guessing letters drawn in the air, guessing thoughts, mimicking
deformities — he abstains from heedless and idle games such as these. This,
too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off
food given in faith, are addicted to high and luxurious furnishings such as
these — over-sized couches, couches adorned with carved animals, long-haired
coverlets, multi-colored patchwork coverlets, white woolen coverlets, woolen
coverlets embroidered with flowers or animal figures, stuffed quilts, coverlets
with fringe, silk coverlets embroidered with gems; large woolen carpets;
elephant, horse, and chariot rugs, antelope-hide rugs, deer-hide rugs; couches
with awnings, couches with red cushions for the head and feet — he abstains
from using high and luxurious furnishings such as these. This, too, is part of
his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off
food given in faith, are addicted to scents, cosmetics, and means of
beautification such as these — rubbing powders into the body, massaging with
oils, bathing in perfumed water, kneading the limbs, using mirrors, ointments,
garlands, scents, creams, face-powders, mascara, bracelets, head-bands,
decorated walking sticks, ornamented water-bottles, swords, fancy sunshades,
decorated sandals, turbans, gems, yak-tail whisks, long-fringed white robes —
he abstains from using scents, cosmetics, and means of beautification such as
these. This, too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off
food given in faith, are addicted to talking about lowly topics such as these —
talking about kings, robbers, ministers of state; armies, alarms, and battles;
food and drink; clothing, furniture, garlands, and scents; relatives; vehicles;
villages, towns, cities, the countryside; women and heroes; the gossip of the
street and the well; tales of the dead; tales of diversity [philosophical
discussions of the past and future], the creation of the world and of the sea,
and talk of whether things exist or not — he abstains from talking about lowly
topics such as these. This, too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in
faith, are addicted to debates such as these — ‘You understand this
doctrine and discipline? I’m the one who understands this doctrine and
discipline. How could you understand this doctrine and discipline? You’re
practicing wrongly. I’m practicing rightly. I’m being consistent. You’re not.
What should be said first you said last. What should be said last you said
first. What you took so long to think out has been refuted. Your doctrine has
been overthrown. You’re defeated. Go and try to salvage your doctrine;
extricate yourself if you can!’ — he abstains from debates such as these. This,
too, is part of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in
faith, are addicted to running messages and errands for people such as these —
kings, ministers of state, noble warriors, priests, householders, or youths
[who say], ‘Go here, go there, take this there, fetch that here’ — he abstains
from running messages and errands for people such as these. This, too, is part
of his virtue.
“Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in
faith, engage in scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, and pursuing gain
with gain, he abstains from forms of scheming and persuading [improper ways of
trying to gain material support from donors] such as these. This, too, is part
of his virtue.
Who in the world
is a man constrained by conscience,
who awakens to censure
like a fine stallion to the whip?
Those restrained by conscience
are rare —
those who go through life
always mindful.
Having reached the end
of suffering & stress,
they go through what is uneven
evenly;
go through what is out-of-tune
in tune.
“My passion to set a record drove me to take up non-stop cycling for more than 86 hours,” Pandey told IANS on telephone.
“I kept on riding the bicycle for 30 hours even though one of the pedals of the cycle was broken,” he said.
A US cyclist has got his name registered with the Guinness Book of Records for cycling non-stop for 85 hours.
The Non-Olympic Association of Uttar Pradesh has recorded the feat
of Pandey for getting his name registered with the Guinness Book of
Records.
-
Lucknow, Dec 1 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh is all set to
introduce e-stamping for registering properties, a government official
said Monday.The new system will come into force soon after parliament
passes the Uttar Pradesh Stamps Act 2008, Desh Deepak Verma, principal
secretary (taxation, stamps and registration), told IANS.
“There is no flaw in the act and there is only a procedural delay.
We are hopeful that it will come into effect this fiscal,” Verma said.
According to him, the authorities first mooted the idea of
implementing e-stamping system three years ago when the multi-billion
Telgi stamp paper scam was unearthed by the Maharashtra police.
He added that the new system would help the authorities stop
fraudulent practices, and a secured and reliable duty collection
mechanism would also be in place.
“This will also help in building up a central data repository, facilitating easy verifications,” Verma said.
Under the new system, the applicant will have to deposit the stamp fee at any bank or the agency roped in by the authorities.
The Stock Holding Corp of India Ltd is likely to the implementing agency.
“In the first phase, it will be implemented in 108 tehsils
(sub-district) of the state and will subsequently be extended to the
other tehsils,” Verma added.
At present, the system is in use in Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Tata Chemicals to set up ‘customised fertiliser’ plantLesson 8
Of the Pali term “Attha“ (-Sanskrit ‘artha’)
- which has more than one meaning according to Buddhism, the word as
signifying success is used at two separate levels, i.e. ‘attha’ meaning
success, and ‘uttamattha’ meaning the highest success. The latter
concerns man’s mental and spiritual development resulting in the realization of
supramundane knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, in the conquest of Self and
attainment to spiritual perfection or Arahanthood.
Generally speaking, the word ‘attha’ as success, relates to
the various aspects of man’s socio-economic development - such as the economy,
politics, education, health, law and morality of a society. It refers to social
progress due to the harmonious unification of all the above factors,
contributing to the prosperity and peaceful co-existence of a people.
Except in the case of legal administration of the Sangha, no single
discourse of the Buddha deals fully on any one of the above factors of social
progress. Yet reading through the numerous discourses (or Suttas) it is
possible to develop a fully consistent and complete view-point of the Buddha’s
stand on each of the above topics drawn from the various discourses of the
Buddha. A socio-economic system based on Buddhist principles and practices
could easily be formulated to suit today’s modern progressive society.
In recent times many books have been written on the subject of
economics and economic theory, all of them either from the Capitalist or
Socialist point of view. Neither of these systems pays attention to, nor
considers the inner development of man as an important factor in the growth of
society. Hence there has been a rapid deterioration in human values and
standards of behaviour in all classes of society. Science and technology have
taken gigantic strides forward to send man to the moon, and it will not be long
before he visits other planets. But fears are expressed that if the present
trend towards moral degeneration continues, before long it would be impossible
to differentiate human action from that of the animal. This fear is not
baseless. It would be a great tragedy indeed were man to turn beast even in one
of the many bestial aspects of behaviour belonging to the lower animals. Thus
what the world requires today is a socially stable economic system which yields
the highest place to man’s moral development and cultivation of human values.
The Buddha lived in a society entangled and confused by sixty-two
divergent views and one hundred and eight types of craving. There were hundreds
who went about in search of an escape from this entanglement of views. Once the
Buddha was asked the question: (Jata sutta)
Kautilya’s Arthasastra and Brhaspati’s Arthasastra -
two famous ancient treatises on economics - were both written after the
Buddha’s lifetime. They held one common feature, and that, - under title of Arthasastra
both writers had written on politics and economics, leaving out the most important
factor, of ethics and the moral development of man himself.