r/HillsideHermitage

1.	Does keeping a pet dog break the quality of seclusion? I already have one when I wasn‘t come aross Buddhism. So I cannot just abandon him. Leave him to my parent and my wife they will mistreat the dog by not getting  him enough exercise.  I view him as my son, although I already have a child. I know this is an emotional attachment and should be abandoned, but I wouldn't be a lay person if it would be so easy.   
2.	Recursive thoughts about death of myself and others. Especially the death of my dog,  and my relatives, and fear of them rebirth to bad realms. It make me depressed, anxious, but it also motivates me to train harder, like keeping more precepts, more contemplation, more Dhamma study and more sense restraint. Should I stop worring about it, or start contemplating death harder.  
3.	Savior complex? Do we have no choice to “save“ our relatives or pets from suffering? Do they doom to suffer if they have wrong view? How to stop my compulsive empathy to help them if there leaves no option to help. Or should I abandon the view that wrong people can be saved. 

If I were to name a few, it would be relentlessness—relentlessness in questioning all of one’s views, in leaving no stone unturned, and in being willing to begin everything from scratch for as many times necessary to arrive at the actual knowledge of practice. I also remember Bhante Anigha saying that being terrified of dying without having the right view is what can assure you of making the effort necessary to become a Sotāpanna.

Other than that, what character traits would you say are required for becoming one?

If I make a promise with sincere intention to keep it, but later change my mind, does that constitute breaking a precept or creating negative karma?

For example, I promise my partner that I will clean the bathroom today. At the time, I genuinely intend to do it, but later I become tired and decide not to.

Would this be considered breaking a precept or otherwise morally wrong?

Hello! Nanassaka here

2 months ago, I made a post called "Archetypical Nature of Practice". In it, I've said that Nyanamoli was "wrong" because he was "naive with people". I also ridiculed Akincano's approach in saying that it was "absurd". Upon reading some Suttas, I've come to be terrified by the prospect that I will end up in hell for what I said, and that had motivated me to keep stainless celibacy for a few months and to also make a 150$ dollar donation to Hillside Hermitage (although I wish I could donate more) in order to be coming off clean with my bad karma. Of course, the stainless celibacy I've been able to keep has brought me a lot of joy, even when I made a deed like this one. Still, I couldnt stop myself from ruminating on it for the past few months, as the Suttas might be suggesting I may be in a grave situation:

1. 5.1Furthermore, when a fool is resting on a chair or a bed or on the ground, their past bad deeds—misconduct of body, speech, and mind—settle down upon them, rest down upon them, and lay down upon them. 5.2It is like the shadow of a great mountain peak in the evening as it settles down, rests down, and lays down upon the earth. 5.3In the same way, when a fool is resting on a chair or a bed or on the ground, their past bad deeds—misconduct of body, speech, and mind—settle down upon them, rest down upon them, and lay down upon them. 5.4Then that fool thinks, 5.5‘Alas, I haven’t done good and skillful things that keep me safe. 5.6And I have done bad things, violence and sin. 5.7When I depart, I’ll go to the place where people who’ve done such things go.’ 5.8They sorrow and wail and lament, beating their breasts and falling into confusion. 5.9This is the third kind of suffering and sadness that a fool experiences in this very life.

6.1Having done bad things by way of body, speech, and mind, when their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell.

2. “When his mind is thus concentrated, pure and bright, unblemished, free from defects, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, he sees beings passing away and reappearing—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate—and he understands how beings fare according to their kamma, thus:

‘These beings—who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, and mind, who slandered the noble ones, held wrong views, and undertook actions governed by wrong views—with the breakup of the body, after death, have reappeared in the plane of misery, the bad destinations, the lower realms, in hell.

3. There is, of course, the Kokalika Sutta, where Kokalika says that Sariputta and Mogallana have "evil wishes". The Buddha tells him not to repeat that, but he does, and after the 3rd time of saying it, is dragged down to hell. It then ends with this verse:

> A hundred thousand Nirabbudas,

and thirty-six and five Abbuda hells:

the slanderer of Noble Ones goes to hell,

having directed evil speech and mind against them.

And I wanted to ask---am I completely beyond any hope? Am I guaranteed a hell or animal rebirth after this grave deed? Is there anything I can do? In what direction can I invest my efforts from now on? What should I do from here now on? Any advice I could receive would be highly appreciated