‘They’ smack you when you are born … and it gets continually worse … until we ‘die before we die’ are ‘born again’ or find Nirvana. Same thing really … 🔆
This quote of Osho summarises pretty well where my spiritual wandering took me five years ago…
“The West went to the other extreme - they devoted their whole energy to material advancement, forgetting completely that material advancement in itself is meaningless. It leads you nowhere; it leads you only into deep frustration, finally, into a meaningless life where you can see clearly that you wasted your whole life collecting rubbish, junk. And it does not give you peace, it does not give you silence. It has not been able to make you aware of truth. And now death is approaching and your hands are empty. Your whole life has been just a desert.”
It occurred even before reading this to me that the things that I had gathered in my life, an outline of 45 years of living in books, dvd’s, clothes and computer equipment, were all just so much rubbish which I had to look after, and which I had to have space to house. It gave the occasional moment of pleasure to remember and hold the dvd of a great film or book, but most of the time these things spent their days sitting in a cupboard. After eight years of Buddhism, Osho lectures, and varied spiritual reading it was not that I was letting go of it, but that it was dropping away from me.
It was a moment of detachment, a shift in perspective where the warm somewhat-romanticised feelings I had for ‘things’ almost totally fell away. Some of my behaviour changes, before then I was a completist collector of boxed sets of certain dvds and books, that behaviour has entirely gone, I no longer collect things. I used to collect fridge magnets on all my holidays, don’t do that anymore.
It launched a new period of minimalist living for me. I got rid of a lot of things, and much of what I couldn’t get rid of I stored in boxes in the garage. Now I keep just a few things nearby — my Mac, the desk it sits on, a dresser for a few clothes, my bed. I really don’t need anything more. On my dresser sits my Buddha statue. I don’t need a house now, a room is enough.
Today I hardly ever think of the content of the boxes or any of the places I used to live in. I certainly don’t miss them.
Gil Fronsdale gave a good talk on the war last month.
Or the audio version
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/19955
Yes, I know they are. .I think I’ll just let u have this one. Thanks for answering my initial question.
A student of the 4NT & the 8FP might say that a path of indulgence in suffering's causes is clearly the most difficult path.
Only within this one fleeting nano second, is a less difficult path actually possible.
Thich Nhat Hanh was an advocate for peace and social justice
From his poem “Condemnation” (about the Vietnam war)
Whoever is listening, be my witness:
I cannot accept this war.
I never could I never will.
I must say this a thousand times before I am killed.
I am like the bird who dies for the sake of its mate,
dripping blood from its broken beak and crying out:
“Beware! Turn around and face your real enemies
— ambition, violence hatred and greed.”
Respect that is limited to holy people, just points out how little respect we have for everyone else.
As long as teachers allow students to simply swap gross attachments for more refined versions of the same, suffering for both teachers & students, will be inevitable.
@marcitko said:
I was encouraged, humbled, and enjoyed watching this video yesterday:
Edit: oops, this was supposed to go in the Israel-Palestine thread. But I guess it fits in nicely here too.
Very moving and insightful @marcitko, planting seeds of peace thank you...