The Diary
of
Anne Ku

29 March 2001 Thursday

Reaction from Father:

The buddhist monks are warned against over a hundred sins and their nuns over 200, including not to sleep in a gorgeous large bed. The average man or woman, however, should observe only 5 commandments:

1. no killing of live creatures;
2. no stealing or robbing;
3. no outside-marriage affair;
4. no lie (to tell a lie for one's own interest); and
5. no liquor (inc opium, other exciting doses).

See if they are harsher than the ten commandments.

Buddhists say whether you can still be a human being in your next life depends on whether you can observe the above five, or as many as you can when you have real difficulty to observe them all.

There are also ten good things to do for all people, including don't be greedy of material things, don't slander others, don't hate others who offend you, and believing in cause and effect in everything.

SEVEN CARDINAL SINS

My dinner date wasn't Catholic, as he confessed, but he pointed out that I was guilty of several cardinal sins.

I told him how I felt when I heard someone else describe his progress in music. Why couldn't it be me? I didn't want to participate in the ensemble tomorrow, because I didn't want to be part of someone else's show. Perhaps my ego was too good for its own good. ENVY and PRIDE.

I must learn to stop wanting so much - and stop pigging out just because the food is plentiful, good, and free. Wasting food on the table is less bad than wasting food in my stomach. But how do I stop myself from wanting more than what I have? GLUTTONY and GREED.

If WRATH is anger, then I am prey to this in times of frustration, when nothing works, and Murphy's Law comes into play. But intense anger, as wrath is officially defined, is hardly my mild temperament.

SLOTH - the aversion to work. The long time I've spent studying had made work a four lettered word. I'm sure if I overwork or get sick of it, I will disdain it. But my goal is to make play and work indistinguishable.

LUST is passion. Surely, that cannot possibly be a cardinal sin. Without passion, what's the point of living?

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Envy

Gluttony

Greed

Lust

Pride

Sloth

Wrath