My variation of Buddha's version:
1. There is suffering. Suffering should be understood, suffering has been understood.
2. There is an origin to suffering, which is attachment to desire. Desire should be released, desire has been released.
3. There is a cessation to suffering. The cessation of suffering should be realized, cessation of suffering has been realized.
4. There is a path out of suffering. This path should be developed, this path has been developed.
Gautama also describes an 8-fold path leading out of suffering. It is reassuring, like the biblical stories, for he describes a process of self-improvement, which actually does happen naturally.
I feel rather strongly that the "happens naturally" part has been over-looked by our American culture. We are firmly educated to believe that any part of the natural world that we do not understand and control -- well, get yer pistols, cuz by God -- we soon will.
That notion is really just an old fever of the Rennaissance, becase our modern scientists have irrefutably, mathmatically proven that simply observing a phenomenon affects and changes the phenomenon! What can you conclude about anything when looking at it changes its state?? It's like a relationship, and the world is a fractal -- the closer OR further away you get, the more detail you will see . . . infinitely.
So, what I'm saying is that we desire to believe we can apply a formula to our pain, or put in effect a mantra, and BANG everything will start heading the right direction. And that attitude is just all-wrong, it's an attachment to the idea that WE ARE GOD. God is God, we are people. There is nothing to be done about it. Nothing can be done.
Our efforts can only, should only, be spent in developing the right techniques to get along in this world: Relating to our fellow humans with the right attitude, using our intellect to develop strategies for health and longetivity that is in proportion with the expense it costs our people and our world.
If this work is done patiently and properly, enlightenment happens like fruit naturally appears on the tree. It is that easy! Simple! And the bounty is that delicious!
I grow very sad in trying to comprehend the global awareness we have accomplished. There could be nothing more astounding than the events of our very average lives -- and yet, with all of us operating on a full awareness of every niche, every underground movement, every shocking front-page scandal. . .each horror. . .what could our boring old lives possibly have in store for us that could snap us away from the screen?
2. There is an origin to suffering, which is attachment to desire. Desire should be released, desire has been released.
3. There is a cessation to suffering. The cessation of suffering should be realized, cessation of suffering has been realized.
4. There is a path out of suffering. This path should be developed, this path has been developed.
Gautama also describes an 8-fold path leading out of suffering. It is reassuring, like the biblical stories, for he describes a process of self-improvement, which actually does happen naturally.
I feel rather strongly that the "happens naturally" part has been over-looked by our American culture. We are firmly educated to believe that any part of the natural world that we do not understand and control -- well, get yer pistols, cuz by God -- we soon will.
That notion is really just an old fever of the Rennaissance, becase our modern scientists have irrefutably, mathmatically proven that simply observing a phenomenon affects and changes the phenomenon! What can you conclude about anything when looking at it changes its state?? It's like a relationship, and the world is a fractal -- the closer OR further away you get, the more detail you will see . . . infinitely.
So, what I'm saying is that we desire to believe we can apply a formula to our pain, or put in effect a mantra, and BANG everything will start heading the right direction. And that attitude is just all-wrong, it's an attachment to the idea that WE ARE GOD. God is God, we are people. There is nothing to be done about it. Nothing can be done.
Our efforts can only, should only, be spent in developing the right techniques to get along in this world: Relating to our fellow humans with the right attitude, using our intellect to develop strategies for health and longetivity that is in proportion with the expense it costs our people and our world.
If this work is done patiently and properly, enlightenment happens like fruit naturally appears on the tree. It is that easy! Simple! And the bounty is that delicious!
I grow very sad in trying to comprehend the global awareness we have accomplished. There could be nothing more astounding than the events of our very average lives -- and yet, with all of us operating on a full awareness of every niche, every underground movement, every shocking front-page scandal. . .each horror. . .what could our boring old lives possibly have in store for us that could snap us away from the screen?
posted by Just Greg at Wednesday, January 18, 2006
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