-Dalai Lama XIV
Showing posts with label Buddha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buddha. Show all posts
Thursday's Thoughts - December 6th, 2012
“You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy.”
-Gautama Buddha
-Gautama Buddha
I would like to begin this addition of Thursday's Thoughts with a sincere apology for not contributing to this series as much as it deserves. Unfortunately, as I search for my own Tao I am finding less time to meditate, let alone write my internal feelings on these quotes. Since meditation is as imperative to me as breathing, it is my time invested in writing that experiences the discourse. Please know that Serenity Sought is of paramount importance to me, as are the thousands of daily subscribers that claim my sources of inspiration for their own.
I have chosen the quote above based on the sincere gratitude that I wish to express based on the success of Serenity Sought. The purpose of these quotes was to provide points of meditation to reflect and discern their meaning as it relates to you, and your response has been overwhelming. Having as many people choose my site, or its sister sites across the social networks, as their daily source of inspiration fills me with an immeasurable amount of joy.
There is a reason that Cicero once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues but the parent of all others.” Without truly understanding gratitude, we can not appreciate what is to come next, which is everything. We must understand nothing is owed to us, there is nothing that we have coming to us that we have not already earned. This helps eliminate our sense of injury, and the injury that is associated with it. What is left is the sincerest gratitude for life and everything that comes along with it, especially the darkness that provides us the wisdom to endure.
There are many things in life that you can be thankful for even when being bludgeoned by the dark side of chance. Take joy in your existence, and take care not to forsake even the smallest of things that are easily taken for granted. Do you ever pause to express silent gratitude for the sun rising every day? Do you know how imperative it is that it does? We must make a choice on how we see our life, and dismissing the negative emotions as quickly as they appear is the first step. It can be difficult to see the abundance that life has to offer if you continually feed your sense of injury and ego with negative energy and emotions, and it is imperative to dismiss them, or you will not be receptive to the joys that follow.
Vinegar Tasters
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| 3 Vinegar Tasters by Rafael Desquitado Jr |
An excerpt from The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
We see three men standing around a vat of vinegar. Each has dipped his finger into the vinegar and has tasted it. The expression on each man's face shows his individual reaction. Since the painting is allegorical, we are to understand that these are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representatives of the "Three Teachings" of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life. The three masters are K'ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Buddha, and Lao-tse, author of the oldest existing book of Taoism. The first has a sour look on his face, the second wears a bitter expression, but the third man is smiling.
To Kung Fu-tse (kung FOOdsuh), life seemed rather sour. He believed that the present was out step with the past, and that the government of man on earth was out of harmony with the Way of Heaven, the government of, the universe. Therefore, he emphasized reverence for the Ancestors, as well as for the ancient rituals and ceremonies in which the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, acted as intermediary between limitless heaven and limited earth. Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time. A saying was recorded about K'ung Fu-tse: "If the mat was not straight, the Master would not sit." This ought to give an indication of the extent to which things were carried out under Confucianism.
To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering. The world was seen as a setter of traps, a generator of illusions, a revolving wheel of pain for all creatures. In order to find peace, the Buddhist considered it necessary to transcend "the world of dust" and reach Nirvana, literally a state of "no wind." Although the essentially optimistic attitude of the Chinese altered Buddhism considerably after it was brought in from its native India, the devout Buddhist often saw the way to Nirvana interrupted all the same by the bitter wind of everyday existence.
To Lao-tse (LAOdsuh), the harmony that naturally existed between heaven and earth from the very beginning could be found by anyone at any time, but not by following the rules of the Confucianists. As he stated in his Tao To Ching (DAO DEH JEENG), the "Tao Virtue Book," earth was in essence a reflection of heaven, run by the same laws - not by the laws of men. These laws affected not only the spinning of distant planets, but the activities of the birds in the forest and the fish in the sea. According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance. The more forcing, the more trouble. Whether heavy or fight, wet or dry, fast or slow, everything had its own nature already within it, which could not be violated without causing difficulties. When abstract and arbitrary rules were imposed from the outside, struggle was inevitable. Only then did life become sour.
To Lao-tse, the world was not a setter of traps but a teacher of valuable lessons. Its lessons needed to be learned, just as its laws needed to be followed; then all would go well. Rather than turn away from "the world of dust," Lao-tse advised others to "join the dust of the world." What he saw operating behind everything in heaven and earth he called Tao (DAO), "the Way."
A basic principle of Lao-tse's teaching was that this Way of the Universe could not be adequately described in words, and that it would be insulting both to its unlimited power and to the intelligent human mind to attempt to do so. Still, its nature could be understood, and those who cared the most about it, and the life from which it was inseparable, understood it best.
Thursday's Thoughts - July 26th, 2012
"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
-Gautama Buddha
It is hard to find joy when your soul is filled with hate, and even harder when you are filled with self-righteous angst. How can you embrace the varied aspects of beauty in your life when you are constantly seething with uncontrollable anger?
Of all concepts, this is the Taoist and Zen Buddhist precept that I struggle the most with. In everyday life we are confronted with people who hate a variety of people, for varied reasons. Hate has become these individuals' constant companion, intoxicating their thoughts and views with its malignancy.
It is one matter to favor one thing over another, or even dislike a certain aspect in regards to an individual's character, but hate itself is an all-consuming emotion. It creates tension in one's mind and body and fuels the fires of never-ending self-created stress.
In many ways hate is not unlike a self-imposed cancer. Its malignancy eats away at both the positive and negative aspects of the person wielding it. It absorbs the surrounding thoughts and ideals, twisting them for its own dark purpose.
After a time, a person's self identity becomes inveigled in the emotion of hate in a way that it becomes the person. When this happens the soul is lost, and you are left with nothing but the vessel. Your hate becomes you, and unlike the weapon you anticipated it being, it becomes an unquenchable fire that willingly accepts the sacrifice of your dreams, thoughts, and soul.
-Gautama Buddha
It is hard to find joy when your soul is filled with hate, and even harder when you are filled with self-righteous angst. How can you embrace the varied aspects of beauty in your life when you are constantly seething with uncontrollable anger?
Of all concepts, this is the Taoist and Zen Buddhist precept that I struggle the most with. In everyday life we are confronted with people who hate a variety of people, for varied reasons. Hate has become these individuals' constant companion, intoxicating their thoughts and views with its malignancy.
It is one matter to favor one thing over another, or even dislike a certain aspect in regards to an individual's character, but hate itself is an all-consuming emotion. It creates tension in one's mind and body and fuels the fires of never-ending self-created stress.
In many ways hate is not unlike a self-imposed cancer. Its malignancy eats away at both the positive and negative aspects of the person wielding it. It absorbs the surrounding thoughts and ideals, twisting them for its own dark purpose.
After a time, a person's self identity becomes inveigled in the emotion of hate in a way that it becomes the person. When this happens the soul is lost, and you are left with nothing but the vessel. Your hate becomes you, and unlike the weapon you anticipated it being, it becomes an unquenchable fire that willingly accepts the sacrifice of your dreams, thoughts, and soul.
