Your Thoughts would be welcome....

[TaraMaiden]

I posted the following text in this thread, as part of a discussion with another member.

 

I would strongly advise people interested, to read the whole thread, and make mention either here or there, (in line with the protocol regarding Off- and On-Topic posts) but I would also welcome comment on the content of the passage below...

 

Buddhism teaches that while we have to be in the midst of life and develop endurance and fortitude, we can live those experiences fully and wholeheartedly, but not let them alter our inner core.

The fundamental reason we got through suffering, is because of excessive clinging, grasping and attachment to everything.

There is NOTHING at all, in this universe, which is impermanent.

This is what we have to come to terms with.

That which we love, that which we are attached, and that which we cling to, will one day end.

as everything and anything must.

When you love something with all your heart, soul and might, and hold onto it for dear life - yet are prepared to acknowledge that at some point you will be obliged by circumstance to yield it up and let it go, then you have true love and know what it is to embrace it purely, and fully.

To grasp, cling and be overly attached to something intangible, ephemeral and impermanent, and wish it was not so, and mourn it to personal detriment - then we create our own suffering.

 

This is what you have done, and that is why I pointed out that your solution to your dilemma is at your very fingertips.

And you don't realise.

 

you believe you need to get somewhere, achieve something, do something, activate something, in order to move on.

All you really need to do, is to Let Go.

 

Contributors in the original thread didn't seem to 'get it' so I'd also welcome discussion on the 'complexities' (for want of a better word) of digesting and maybe even accepting the logic of the above discourse...

 

I repeat: Reading the original thread would contextualise the above.

[Jasper123]

Most people are into Simple lives, that is why Buddhism does not connect with them.

[TaraMaiden]

Thank you for your comment!

 

I thought that too, when I knew nothing about Buddhism.

 

Knowing what I know now, I find it the simplest thing I've ever come across.

 

 

However, it's important to not confuse 'Simple' with 'Easy'.

 

Buddhism is the hardest thing I've ever had to digest, even though it's transparent in its simplicity.....

 

 

It's more accurate to say that people want an 'Easy' Life.

 

Sadly, everything they do, just complicates matters further.

[anythingbut]

@Tara I wholeheartedly understand, and agree with, the above observation.Whilst I don't subscribe to any particular religion, some of the very essences that buddhism has to offer I find to sit very comfortably with my mindset.

 

The problem, for me, is that the majority of people in the world are very attached to their mind; their ego and the inevitable complexities that attachment to the mind-made self brings to our lives unnecessarily.

 

Historically, I have very much been an individual who has been focused on my own ego throughout my life; shaping my identity on past experiences, and focusing all of my attention on the future - past and future, neither of which exist.

 

The only thing that exists is the here and now, and it's taken for a life-changing event to make me realise this.

 

This year, my experiences have humbled me into realising the impermanence of everything. For too long I have been reliant on others to give me a sense of purpose and value in the world; a beautiful girlfriend making me feel like I am better than the next man, an expensive car making me feel superior to the guy next to me at the traffic lights in a Fiat Punto. We're all the same, and the reality is we will all, ultimately, end up in exactly the same state.

 

The reality is, though, that such satisfaction from a tangible, material world, is only temporary - there will always be someone with a better car, a more beautiful girlfriend, a better job etc etc so there can never be any end to one's dissatisfaction when leading such an existence. The only thing that can make me truly happy is myself, and my acceptance that what will be will be - nothing is forever, so we must embrace the now - not the past and the future and the material belongings which we THINK makes us happy.

 

This is still very much a work in progress for me; you can't just go from a state of being absorbed in your own ego to applying a state of higher conscious over night - but this person is right, we are all in control of our own happiness if we are willing to accept reality. So yes, the solution is indeed at our own fingertips.

Edited August 8, 2013 by anythingbut