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Khyenrab

Breaking a vow

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Tashi Delek,

 

is this explanation below accurate?

 

From explanation of Bodhisattva vows at: this site

 

"If you break the vows 9. Wrong View, or 18. Giving up Bodhichitta; you break completely your bodhichitta ordination, without requiring below four conditions to be present.

 

However, in breaking any of the other sixteen root vows, four factors must be present for you to completely break your bodhichitta vows. The four conditions are not unique to the bodhichitta vows. No precept is totally broken, nor is any non-virtue complete unless the four factors are present. These four factors also contribute to the heaviness of a negative karma. Karma becomes increasingly heavy, as more of the factors are present, and is most heavy when all four are present.

The four factors are:

1. Not thinking of the action as faulty.

2. Not intending to abstain from the action in future, or retaining the continuous desire to break the precept.

3. Rejoicing in the action, or enjoying having broken the vow.

4. Not having any regret about the action.

 

Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and so on are not complete negative karmas if the four factors are not present. If you were to break any of the root vows other than the 9th and 18th and then had sincere regret, or otherwise reversed the four factors, your bodhichitta ordination would not be completely broken."

 

Thank you very much :)

Khyenrab

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Tashi Delek,

 

"If you break the vows 9. Wrong View, or 18. Giving up Bodhichitta; you break completely your bodhichitta ordination, without requiring below four conditions to be present.

However, in breaking any of the other sixteen root vows, four factors must be present

 

Partly.

It is true that the two mentioned vows do not require the four conditions to be broken. Yet, by breaking those two vows, or one of them, you do not break all the others, though, of course, damaging the whole ordination in motivation.

 

All the best, Gelong T. Shenphen

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Tashi Delek,

please, regarding the Bodhisattva Vows:

what would be the undertaking remedial measures to counterbalance our transgression regarding the second of the Secondary Vows - Following out our desirous minds?

And, another question, if going to bed at three, would waking up at ten be staying in bed late (and spoiling our efforts in training in far reaching joyful perseverance)?

Thank you,

the very best wishes,

Pamo

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Tashi Delek,

what would be the undertaking remedial measures to counterbalance our transgression regarding the second of the Secondary Vows - Following out our desirous minds?

Read about the "Four Opponnents", here

 

And, another question, if going to bed at three, would waking up at ten be staying in bed late (and spoiling our efforts in training in far reaching joyful perseverance)?

It's still only 7 hours of sleep, which seems reasonnable ;)

 

All the best, Gelong T. Shenphen

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Tashi Delek Dear Rinpoche,

aha, so choosing the antidote doesn't depend on the specific paramita that one is transgressing, training it?

Thank you,

the very best wishes,

Pamo

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Tashi Delek,

 

so choosing the antidote doesn't depend on the specific paramita that one is transgressing, training it?

 

It does. In the fourth opponents, some "remedial" are more appropriate for some transgression. In the case of desire, meditation on Impermanence and Emptiness seems quite appropriate.

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about genyen vows

 

I would really like to know...when do you break a vow in case of stealing:

and is vow broken if you break it in mind but not in action

and what if you do something with unproper motivation, take it, but then give it back after 10 minutes...is the vow broken in that case?

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Tashi Delek,

 

I would really like to know...when do you break a vow in case of stealing:

and is vow broken if you break it in mind but not in action and what if you do something with unproper motivation, take it, but then give it back after 10 minutes...is the vow broken in that case?

 

1) a vow is not broken in mind. You need a proper 'object' and action.

 

2) if you succeed to take an object which doesn't belong to you, without the permission of its owner, and generate the thought like: "now it's mine", it's stealing.

 

In the case of the genyen vows, stealing is mainly meant about object offered to the Three Jewels. Small stealing will not destroy your vows... but create negative karma surely!

 

All the best, Gelong T. Shenphen

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when you offer food to the buddhas, what to do with it then. Like when you fill 7 bowls with water, flower, food, insence...what is the best thing to do with water and what with other offered objects.

 

Does eating food offered to the buddhas break the vow?

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Hi Billytiss,

 

You know I wondered about the same thing once, but then I told myself: "Hey, why go and eat out of somebody else's plate" :wink:

 

Sorry but I cannot go deeper than that on this inquiry ...

 

Kind regards,

 

frédéric

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Guest lodreu

Tashi Delek,

 

I remember one answer of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for a similar question, and he said that it was depending on what you were offering.

If you put some food on the altar, and that you were actually offering the food, it wasn't proper to eat it afterwards. But if you were offering the essence of the object it was possible to eat it afterwards. I guess it also depends on the type of food, some are anyway better to offer to spirits and animals afterwards.

 

For what is in the offering bowls, such as water, you can collect it and use it for flowers, plants, in any case to bring it in a clean place. I think to collect it untill you have the opportunity to bring it in some natural place, if you leave in a city, is fine. The rest you can offer to animals and spirits, by placing on a high place. A tree, on a roof, or a big stone if you leave in the nature.

 

Best regards,

Lodreu.

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Tashi Delek,

 

I must ask, would it be wrong to spill the water that has been offered symbolically (visualizing the 8 offerings) to the Three Jewels (before making a new offering) *in the wash basin*, making a short prayer such as: "May this water that has been blessed by the Buddhas an Bodhisattvas touch as many sentient beings as possible and may it purify them, bring them awakening..."?

 

Thank you,

Khyenrab

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Tashi Delek,

 

I am wondering how to remove a tick (sheep-louse, in Slovene: "klop"), without killing it.

If using alcohol (to loosen the bite), I imagine that you don't only cause it to fall asleep a little bit, but also kill it?

Is the (branch) vow broken, if you didn't intend to kill it (you were hoping that it would not die before removing it, and didn't even expect it to die) but in fact it did die? If yes, what to do?

 

Thank you very much,

Khyenrab

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Tashi Delek,

 

I have the same problem with ants. I don't want them to go into the food

and don't want to kill them either. Is there anything to just turn them away?

 

Thank you and all the best. :D

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I have the same problem with ants. I don't want them to go into the food

and don't want to kill them either. Is there anything to just turn them away?D

 

Hello everybody,

 

We had the same problem some weeks ago: ants everywhere in the kitchen!

 

We put cinnamon in powder (it acts like a repellent) where they are passing and close all food in pots or boxes and not even a crumb in the sink, on the table etc...

 

Finally, they give up.

 

But I passed a treaty with them, I let them a place in the cupboard, where some of them are passing, all day long...; at night they are like humans, they sleep... :)

 

for the ticks sorry, I don't know!

 

 

Best Regards,

 

ani Chönyi

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You have to be very careful to remove ticks; but most of the time they do come out manually. Desinfect well the wound after.

 

May the head remain inside, take it off with a 'peg' (like to remove eyebrows). And desinfect well also.

 

Thank you.

Gigu

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Is the (branch) vow broken, if you didn't intend to kill it (you were hoping that it would not die before removing it, and didn't even expect it to die) but in fact it did die? If yes, what to do?

 

Root vow is broken by killing a human being.

 

Ticks can bring deadly sickness. You have to protect your dog. Have the best intention, Bodhicitta motivation, recite mantras, and do gently. Yet, if the tick dies, you have tried your best, and your intention wasn't to kill it.

 

Same in cases of worms which can develop into human and animal bodies. Worms bring sickness, and even some of them can kill their host.

 

In cases of such choice, we have to support the life of higher type of rebirth ie. most chances to develop Dharma connection and reach Enlightenment.

 

All the best, Gelong T. Shenphen

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Tashi Delek!

 

Just a small practical advice how to remove a tick and not kill it: with two fingers, gently hold the hind part of the tick as low as you can (don't use pincers as you will smash the tick with them) and turn it clockwise 3-4 times or more, while pulling very gently. This way, it will let go by itself and come out alive.

It's the best method for the dog too, as the head won't stay in the skin and cause infections.

 

All the best.

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Tashi Delek!

 

I have yet another problem: leaf lice (uši) on the sage bush (salvia; with leaves you can either prepare tea, good for flu, or use them for a spaghetti sauce). The lice are yet even more tender than ticks, just to touch them with a finger or any other instrument you kill them; but they wont go off the fresh delicious sage leaves by themselves. And there are so many of them... :cry:

 

 

I have tried the next strategy: to cut the leaves (without killing lice) and then to wait them to leave by themselves and find other plants. Some left indeed, I saw them, but alas, many of them remained on the already cut-off leaves. So, eventually, they died. And - as I was the one to cut the leaves, they died because of my action. Thus, I also broke my genjen vow - for killing I do not know how many lice. :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

My questions:

- does anybody know how to get rid of lice on plants, just to stop them going onto the plant?

- I presume I have to do purification practices... ?

 

All the best,

kuenzang

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Thus, I also broke my genjen vow - for killing I do not know how many lice.

 

Above, Rinpoche wrote that to brake the "no killing vow" one would need to kill a human being.

Of course, killing animals is a negative karma, but your Genyen vow remain.

 

does anybody know how to get rid of lice on plants, just to stop them going onto the plant?

 

To avoid killing lices, you have to avoid them to come at first on the sage bush. This can be obtained by spreading sulfur powder on the bush from the first leaves it makes after the winter; and regularly.

Surlfur powder is easily removed by washing the leaves before to use them or dry them. Therefore, I think there is no worry about toxicity (may be a chemist could confirm my saying here). This is what we do.

 

Thank you,

Gigu

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Tashi delek!

 

I knew that killing lice did not mean breaking a vow, but just negative karma. Thus, I hastily and unprecisely expressed myself. However, the saying that the negative karma, left unpurified, multiplies itself if not purified, made me think a lot. (Have I really had to kill those lice in order to know this? And: how many other, unnoticed small deeds produce indefinite amounts of negative karma? :( Yet, there are also deeds that produce positive karma, so the situation is not that desperate. :D

 

Thank you both, Gigu and Jigme, for the sulfor-advice. :D Yet I wondered whether there was also some kind of ecological "pesticide", that is pesticide made of plants.

 

All the best.

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