NTTVblog

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Actions vs. Words

Actions speak louder than words. All slogans without substantial agendas that lead to specific and fruitful results are empty words used only to please the ears of the fool, and to manipulate the masses.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Pratice the Way -- Applications in Daily Life

Liberation implies looking upon the world as void, and eradicating any view about "self." Those who view the world that way, and who have a no-self stance are free from Death.

The Buddha

…[Trong Kinh Pali (Sn 5.15), ] Đức Phật trả lời chàng thanh niên Mogharaja, dạy rằng hãy nhìn thế giới như là rỗng rang, bứng gốc rễ cái nhìn về “tự ngã” và đó là giải thoát.
“Mogharaja: … người tu nên nhìn thế giới như thế nào, để sẽ không bị Thần Chết nhìn thấy?
“Đức Phật: Luôn luôn tỉnh giác nhìn thế giới như là rỗng rang, Mogharaja; bứng gốc cái nhìn về tự-ngã, như thế ngươi sẽ có thể vượt qua cái chết. Nhìn thế giới như thế, người tu sẽ không bị Thần Chết nhìn thấy.”

ỨNG DỤNG TRONG ĐỜI THƯỜNG

Chúng ta có thể ứng dụng cách nào trong đời thường, trong khi các pháp này diệu dụng mãnh liệt như thế? Trong nhóm Kinh Qua Bờ Bên Kia, ngay khi nghe Đức Phật nói xong, 15 chàng thanh niên đạo sĩ tức khắc đắc quả A La Hán, trong khi chàng thứ 16 đắc quả Bất Lai. Nếu chúng ta lập tức vô sở trụ được, hay nếu lập tức nhìn được thế giới như là rỗng rang vô tướng, là xong, sẽ không còn gì để viết, để nói, để bàn nữa.
Chúng ta đang đứng trên dòng nước lũ của sinh tử, của tham sân si… và trong thế giới phải cạnh tranh để sinh tồn, không thể nào tránh được các phiền não trong thế gian.
Trong khi chư tôn đức tăng ni phải học rất nhiều – như học về Tứ Diệu Đế, Bát Chánh Đạo, và thiên kinh vạn quyển – người cư sĩ chúng ta không có nhiều thì giờ, do vậy nên học những pháp ngắn gọn, có thể ứng dụng hiện tiền… sao cho đi đúng hướng và có sự an lạc tức khắc. Nghĩa là, một phút tu, là một phút an lạc. Và trong khi làm việc, giao tiếp ngoài đời… chúng ta tất sẽ gặp những hoàn cảnh bất như ý, nên tu làm sao có thể giữ tâm an trong mọi hoàn cảnh.
Mặc khác, nếu đã từng trải qua thời gian tu với các pháp, chúng ta đều có thể ứng dụng chung với nhóm kinh trong Phẩm Con Đường Đến Bờ Bên Kia.
Nếu bạn đang tu pháp chánh niệm về cái “bây giờ và ở đây,” vẫn nên giữ pháp tu đó, xem pháp tu chỉ như cây gậy đi đường, nhưng đồng thời cần tỉnh giác rằng chớ nên dính mắc vào ngay cả cái “bây giờ và ở đây”, cần vô sở trụ mới thực sự giải thoát… Đi đứng nằm ngồi đều giữ nên tâm như thế.
Nếu bạn đang tu Thiền Lâm Tế, nên ghi nhận là hoàn toàn không có gì mâu thuẫn cả, vì “vô sở trụ” là câu thứ tư trong Tứ Liệu Giản. Câu đầu, "Có khi đoạt nhân không đoạt cảnh" là khi gặp cảnh, luôn luôn phòng hộ tâm mình. Câu thứ nhì, "Có khi đoạt cảnh không đoạt nhân" là khi gặp cảnh, hãy nhìn tất cả cảnh như thế là như thế thôi (như thị tướng, như thị tánh, như thị thể...) không có tâm nào khác để phan duyên. Câu thứ ba, "Có khi nhân cảnh đều đoạt" là khi gặp cảnh, thấy tâm và cảnh đều tự đặt trong chỗ như thị lặng lẽ. Câu thứ tư, "Có khi nhân cảnh đều không đoạt" là khi gặp cảnh, hoàn toàn vô sở trụ, không có gì để nắm giữ cả, tâm và cảnh đều rỗng rang, không có gì dính mắc. Tự nghiệm hoài trong tâm, bạn sẽ thấy cả 4 câu đều ứng dụng hay vô cùng tận.
Nếu bạn đang tụng Kinh Pháp Hoa, hãy nhớ rằng Kinh Pháp Hoa hay vô cùng tận. Kinh này dạy khai thị ngộ nhập tri kiến Phật. Lục Tổ Huệ Năng dạy ngài Pháp Đạt, “…nói tri kiến Phật là ở nơi tự tâm của ngươi, chẳng phải Phật bên ngoài. Bởi vì tất cả chúng sanh tự che khuất ánh sáng của tự tánh, tham ái cảnh trần, phan duyên bên ngoài, nhiễu loạn bên trong, cam chịu trần lao hành hạ, làm nhọc Đức Thế Tôn từ chánh định ra, khổ tâm khuyên dạy bằng đủ mọi cách, khiến ngừng nghỉ các duyên, chớ nên hướng ngoại tìm cầu.” (trích Kinh Pháp Bảo Đàn, bản dịch của HT Duy Lực, phẩm Cơ Duyên). Cũng là một nghĩa với vô sở trụ.
Nếu bạn chưa tu gì hết, hãy tìm học theo pháp Văn Tư Tu (Nghe và học, Suy nghĩ nghĩa lý, Tu tập), theo các đề tài: tin sâu nhân quả, quy y, thọ giới, tập niệm hơi thở, tập lý luận theo lý nhân duyên (tức nhiên sẽ tin rằng không có gì là tự ngã), vô thường… Khi bạn quy y và thọ giới, là đã theo một vị thầy rồi, nhưng sau đó nên tìm đọc, tìm nghe từ nhiều vị thầy khác. Không nên phân biệt tông phái, hãy nhớ rằng Phật giáo Sơ thời không có chuyện tông phái, và lúc đó lời Đức Phật dạy rất ngắn gọn.
Trong xã hội, không phải nghề nào cũng hợp với chánh mạng. Khi bạn thọ giới, sẽ được vị thầy giải thích. Nhưng dễ sanh tâm phan duyên nhất là ở nghệ thuật sân khấu, nơi nhan sắc và âm thanh dễ làm lay động lòng người. Nếu bạn nhìn cảnh sân khấu trước mắt, hay đang nghe ca sĩ hát, hãy tự suy nghĩ rằng Đức Phật đã dạy là không nên sinh tâm trụ vào tất cả những gì mình thấy, nghe, ngửi, nếm, cảm xúc nơi thân, và ý thức… Suy nghĩ như thế, chính lúc đó, bạn thực sự là người vẫn còn đứng trong dòng nước lũ, nhưng đang vững chắc bước dần sang bờ bên kia.
Ngắn gọn, Đức Phật dạy rằng hãy luôn luôn tỉnh giác, hãy nhìn thế giới là rỗng rang không thực tướng, và hãy ưng vô sở trụ. Cốt tủy là như thế. Bây giờ, bạn hãy lắng nghe dịu dàng từng hơi thở của bạn, tuổi thọ chúng ta đang ngắn dần từng hơi thở đó. Bạn hãy lắng nghe dịu dàng từng hơi thở xem, hãy cảm nhận vô thường đang ngấm vào ngay nơi hơi thở đó… Ngay khi bạn tu như thế, tức khắc là an lạc.
Source:
ĐỌC TẠNG PALI: ĐỪNG TRỤ BẤT KỲ PHÁP NÀO
Nguyên Giác
http://thuvienhoasen.org/a27063/doc-tang-pali-dung-tru-bat-ky-phap-nao

Nepotism

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives. The term originated with the assignment of nephews to important positions by Catholic popes and bishops. Nepotism can occur in various fields including politics, entertainment, business, sports, and religion.

Origins

Main article: Cardinal-nephew

The term comes from Italian word nepotismo,^[1]^[2] which is based on Latin root nepos meaning nephew.^[3] Since the Middle Ages and until the late 17th century, some Catholic popes and bishops, who had taken vows of chastity, and therefore usually had no legitimate offspring of their own, gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often accorded by fathers to son.^[4]
Several popes elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Often, such appointments were a means of continuing a papal "dynasty".^[5] For instance, Pope Callixtus III, head of the Borgia family, made two of his nephews cardinals; one of them, Rodrigo, later used his position as a cardinal as a stepping stone to the papacy, becoming Pope Alexander VI.^[6] Alexander then elevated Alessandro Farnese, his mistress's brother, to cardinal; Farnese would later go on to become Pope Paul III.^[7]
Paul III also engaged in nepotism, appointing, for instance, two nephews, aged 14 and 16, as cardinals. The practice was finally limited when Pope Innocent XII issued the bull Romanum decet Pontificem, in 1692.^[4] The papal bull prohibited popes in all times from bestowing estates, offices, or revenues on any relative, with the exception that one qualified relative (at most) could be made a cardinal.^[8]

Types

Political

Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. The British English expression "Bob's your uncle" is thought to have originated when Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, promoted his nephew, Arthur Balfour, to the esteemed post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, which was widely seen as an act of nepotism.^[9]

Organizational

Nepotism can also occur within organizations, when a person is employed due to their familial ties. It is generally seen as unethical, both on the part of the employer and employee.

In employment

Nepotism at work can mean increased opportunity at a job, attaining the job or being paid more than other similarly situated people.^[10] Arguments are made both for and against employment granted due to a family connection, which is most common in small, family run businesses. On one hand, nepotism can provide stability and continuity. Critics cite studies that demonstrate decreased morale and commitment from non-related employees,^[11] and a generally negative attitude towards superior positions filled through nepotism. An article from Forbes magazine stated "there is no ladder to climb when the top rung is reserved for people with a certain name."^[12] Some businesses forbid nepotism as an ethical matter, considering it too troublesome and disruptive.

In entertainment

Outside of national politics, accusations of "nepotism" are made in instances of prima facie favoritism to relatives, in such cases as:

Peaches Geldof's role as magazine editor in an MTV reality show – produced by a company owned by her father Bob Geldof.^[13]
Tori Spelling's breakout role on Beverly Hills 90210 as a result of her father Aaron Spelling's involvement with the show.^{[citation needed]}
Hollywood's Coppola family includes many distinguished filmmakers and actors. The careers of Sofia Coppola, Nicolas Cage, and Jason Schwartzman have been attributed to aid by director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast his daughter Sofia in The Godfather Part III.^[14]^[15] Cage changed his last name in order to distance himself from such charges.^[16]

Selected examples by country

Australia

Anna Bligh, who won the 2009 Queensland State election, has been accused of nepotism by giving her husband Greg Withers a position as the Office of Climate Change head.^[17]
Shortly after his appointment as the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney in 2001, Peter Jensen was accused, in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview, of nepotism after nominating his brother Phillip Jensen as Dean of Sydney and appointing his wife Christine Jensen to an official position in the Sydney diocese.^[18]

Belgium

Over the past decade, criticism has been growing over the creation of political dynasties in Belgium, in which all of the traditional political parties have been involved. This phenomenon has been explained by the fact that prominent party members control the ranking of candidates on party lists for elections and a candidate's place on a list determines whether or not he or she is elected. Another justification for the phenomenon is the importance of name recognition for collecting votes.^[19]
Claims of nepotism have been made against Bruno Tobback, the son of senator and former minister Louis Tobback, a member of the Flemish socialists, became the Belgian federal government's minister for the pensions and environment at 35 in 2005.^[20] Alexander De Croo, the son of former speaker of the Belgian parliament Herman De Croo, ran for the leadership of his father's party Open VLD at age 33.^[21] Finally there is the example of Maya Detiège, the daughter of former mayor of the city of Antwerp Leona Detiège, who herself is the daughter of the former mayor of Antwerp Frans Detiège.^[19] Among other examples are former minister Freya Vandenbossche and senator Jean Jacques De Gucht, being the daughter and son of respectively former minister Luc Vandenbossche and former minister Karel De Gucht.

Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sen and senior members of Parliament, are also known for their hand in getting family members into government positions. In the 2013 Cambodian parliamentary elections, at least eight candidates standing in the upcoming July election are sons of high-ranking Cambodian People’s Party officials.^[22] All ruling party sons lost, but were appointed into high government positions.

China

For the past 3,000 years, nepotism has been common in China's clan and extended family based culture. Confucius wrote about the importance of balancing "filial piety with merit". The clan-based feudal system collapsed during Confucius' lifetime, yet nepotism has continued through the modern age.^[23]^[24] For instance, Zhang Hui, was believed to have his career "expedited" through the intervention of his uncle, Li Jianguo, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the National People’s Congress. Hui was made the youngest member and secretary of Jining's Municipal Standing Committee at the age of 32.^[25]

See also: Rajapaksa family

Former President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been accused of nepotism, appointing three brothers to run important ministries and giving out other political positions to relatives, regardless of their merit. During his presidency, the Rajapaksa family held the ministries of finance, defence, ports and aviation, and highways and road development. The president's brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was given the post of Defence Secretary. He also controlled the armed forces, the police and the Coast Guard, and was responsible for immigration and emigration. Rajapaksa appointed his brother Basil Rajapaksa as minister of Economic Development. Together, the Rajapaksa brothers controlled over 70% of Sri Lanka's public budget. Mahinda Rajapaksa's eldest brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, was appointed as the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, and has held many other posts before, while his eldest son, Namal Rajapaksa, is also a member of the parliament and holds undisclosed portfolios.^[40]^[41]
Others include: his nephew, Shashindra Rajapaksa, who is the former Chief minister of Uva; one of his cousins, former Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States, Jaliya Wickramasuriya; and another cousin, Udayanga Weeratunga, who is the former ambassador to Russia. Dozens of nephews, nieces, cousins, and in-laws have also been appointed as heads of banks, boards, and corporations.^[41]

United Kingdom

In February 2010, Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said that more than 200 MPs used Parliamentary allowances to employ their own relatives in a variety of office roles. He suggested that the practice should be banned.^[42]
In 2005, Councillor Ann Reid of York arranged for all nine sets of traffic lights on her daughter Hannah's wedding route through York to be switched to green for the five-car convoy. As a result, the wedding party took only 10 minutes to pass through the city.^[43]
North Yorkshire Police's Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell was disciplined by the IPCC in 2011, but refused to resign, after admitting that he assisted a relative through the first stages of a recruitment process.^[44]
Many Northern Irish politicians employ family members. In 2008, 19 elected politicians of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) directly employed family members and relatives constituted 27 of its 136 staff.^[45]

United States

Around 30 family members or relatives of President Ulysses S. Grant prospered financially in some way from either government appointments or employment.^[46]
John F. Kennedy made his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General.^[47]
In December 2012, a report from the Washington Post indicated various nepotism practices from the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia's Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), including one family with five members working for the MWAA. One of the reasons given by the associate general counsel to defend the alleged nepotism was “if [the employees are] qualified and competed for [the positions] on their own, I don’t see a problem with relatives working in the same organization.”^[48] The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Congress pressured the MWAA to resolve practices of nepotism. Authority employees are no longer allowed to directly or indirectly influence hiring or promotion of relatives, as documented in their ethics policy.^[49]
Nepotism is also practiced in the NBA, as Philadelphia 76ers chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo named his son Bryan Colangelo his general manager without a thorough search for the position.^[50]
On 9 January 2017, then-president-elect Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior adviser to the president, rasing ethical questions about whether this appointment will conflict with a 1967 federal anti-nepotism law.^[51]

Venezuela

Nepotism is known to be practiced by President of the Venezuela National Assembly, Cilia Flores. Nine positions in the National Assembly were filled by Flores' family members, including a mother-in-law, aunt, 3 siblings, a cousin and her mother, and 2 nephews.^[52]^[53]^[54]

Zimbabwe

President Robert Mugabe is reported to be preparing his wife Grace Mugabe to be the next president of Zimbabwe once he steps down.^[55] Vice President Joice Mujuru was previously considered to be the favored successor to Mugabe.^[56]

Types of partiality

Nepotism refers to partiality to family whereas cronyism refers to partiality to an associate or friend. Favoritism, the broadest of the terms, refers to partiality based upon being part of a favored group, rather than job performance.^[57]

^Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism