Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
The Buddhist perspective differentiates between good states of mind and evil states of mind, good actions and evil actions. If in your mind you are constantly thinking in anger or of partaking in hatred, then this is an evil state of mind. If, however, you are constantly thinking compassionately and of partaking in helping others, then this is a good state of mind. It is the difference between states of misery and states of happiness.
So, yes, ideas have moral value despite the difference between thought and action. It is often contemplated how thoughts or states of mind precede actions. The two are connected.
In terms of speech (a kind of action), hate speech is morally wrong, as it can and usually does lead to harm. I find that many people underestimate the power of words. If you understand the depth of the impact of emotional abuse, you understand this. Words spoken with hatred is an action that is morally wrong.
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Interesting, I had always thought that Buddhism viewed and interpreted ANY action as kharmic, that is Buddhist put little distinction between 'good' or 'bad' while emphasizing the fact that action (of any kind) is a departure from dharma and therefore an unnecessary bump in the road to enlightenment.
What I get from that is action is contrary to dharma, and therefore Buddhist are often caught trying to balance the bad kharma with good kharma in order to rebalance - an erroneous process from what I understand.
BG - I agree that thought and action are connected, and thought can have value, but in a buddhist context, can thought without action have any kharmic impact? In the Theistic paradigms, thoughts can be interpreted by gods and be rewarded or punished accordingly (i.e. evil or good) however for Buddhists, this doesn't hold true as the aim is to achieve
personal enlightenment and gods are on the same path to this aim as humans are.
Of course, I am drawing on the Hinayana or Theravadic exposure that I have had to Buddhism which may differ from some of the non-orthodox methods now prevalent.