More Religion V Spirituality

When I was getting sober I was still in full rebellion against the organized Christian religion that was such a cornerstone of my upbringing.  Too many warnings and threats, too much guilt and remorse, too much begging for forgiveness for things that seemed pretty normal to me.  And the long prayers!  There I would be in church, hungover as all get out, queasy stomach, trying to balance myself on a kneeler while the pastor droned on and on about the most mundane crap.  I no longer have this resentment, realizing that I was concentrating fiercely on the things that I didn't like and ignoring the things that should have been palatable, but it took me a long time to get there.    

Here's the Dali Lama . . .                                                                                                                                 "Here are what the Buddhists call the ten nonvirtues, organized into three categories: (1) Physical - killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct.  (2) Verbal - lying, divisive talk, harsh speech, and senseless chatter.  (3) Mental - covetousness, harmful intent, and wrong views."

It amuses me to note that there are ten nonvirtues.  Anybody see a parallel between the ten commandments?  Anybody see the remarkable similarities between the Christian commandments and the Buddhist nonvirtues?  One of my enduring, permanent installed VCR tapes is that the basics of a decent life were figured out eons ago and no one has really come up with anything new in a few centuries.  What did I think?  That a group of people were getting together and trying to figure out a better way to live and they finally decided: "Eh . . . murder?  We can leave that one off.  Don't see what the big deal is."  Other than that these two lists match up pretty closely, the big difference being that the Christians put a lot of pressure on us to prostrate ourselves before The Big Guy, a stance that the rebellious alcoholic hates.

I admit to enjoying the inclusion of "senseless chatter" in the Buddhist lexicon.  A guy in The Program that I respected once told me that he talked when he had something to say.  We have a timer at our morning meeting that very few people pay attention to.  It's three minutes, for God's sake!  I'm proud of the fact that I've never gone over the limit.  Anything past three is senseless chatter.