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there's a book called "Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the 12 Steps" that suffers from the same problem as most Western philosophers appropriating Eastern philosophies and religions, which is that they attempt to intellectually grasp things without ever trying to practice them. Richard Rohr has never worked the 12 steps for himself ever in his life, which is obvious from the way he writes about them, he merely connects what he's read in the AA Big Book to what he knows of Christ from being a priest and so everything he says falls flat. it's the same with a person who wants to understand a Buddhist worldview without ever practicing Buddhist ethics, or, just generally, practicing what one learns of Buddhism. it's impossible because the understanding and pleasure of understanding are developed in and through the application
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i would say for this reason that it's more important to keep the precepts, to not use drugs, lie, steal, kill, or commit sexual crimes against yourself or others, in some cultures keep vegetarian, than it is to meditate or study sutras to consider yourself buddhist. my hangups with the stealing and vegetarianism are why i don't consider myself buddhist, but even in the attempt to practice the other precepts, i've come to realize that stealing regularly makes me more paranoid and thus affects my mental and spiritual condition. maybe i'll have the same realization with eating meat though unlikely (plus not all buddhists keep vegetarian; that's mostly i think in india, china, and tibet). so idk you at least have to try. it's more important than anything that you try
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@unmind the yama/precept of non stealing refers to taking all things not freely given, as simple as taking a pen from the workplace. the reason is not just karma but that taking them promotes a guilty conscience and fear of being caught like in your case becomes a distraction.
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@unmind ah yes youre right
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@georgia well the guilty conscience and fear is a part of the karma of stealing, at least according to a traditional buddhist view
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@wowaname @georgia guilt isn't really the right word so much as fear of being caught and also being too lazy to leave my neighborhood to steal farther away from where i live
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@georgia @unmind oh im glad i dont feel guilty stealing from corpos
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@wowaname @georgia in my case anyway. i think stealing from corporations is ethically sound and even a good thing to do but it stresses me out which is a karma of stealing in the buddhist sense of cause and effect
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@unmind @wowaname @georgia stealing from corporations can be mostly ethically sound and most often is, but there are certain extreme situations where it can hurt a community via business flight, further shrinking the pool of work available.
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@wowaname @eemmaa @georgia this might be true but i wouldn't know cuz i've been fighting to be put on welfare for like 3 months with no result and now i'm about to be a wage slave again anyway weh
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@eemmaa @georgia @unmind welfare > wageslavery
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@unmind @wowaname @georgia ye, i cant get that shit, have something considered a debilitating disability by the government too. Where i live i gotta be homeless for a couple years to even be considered.
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@unmind @eemmaa @georgia i'd sooner sell drugs than sell my soul again, at least that's more lucrative
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@wowaname @eemmaa @georgia i don't wanna make wages i just wanna be paid to sit around at home > <
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@wowaname @eemmaa @georgia i've tried everything i could to make money without the devil's bargain but it usually turned out really traumatizing, not making enough money, or both
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@unmind @wowaname @eemmaa I'm very grateful for SSDI and food stamps
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@georgia @wowaname @eemmaa i might be able to talk to my case worker i'm meeting on thursday about ssdi. i hope me getting this job doesn't fuck that up for me but at this point i have no choice
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