'He who conquers self...'
The details of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths vary somewhat depending on the source. I recently dug up the source for the version that I found most useful. Why useful? Mostly because it was the most sensible and succinct I’d seen.
Nevertheless, I had a minor problem with how the Third Noble Truth was stated, and long ago changed a word or two. Rereading my original source makes me want to revisit this and ponder why I revised in the first place. Here is the sequence of events:
The original says: “He who conquers self will be free from lust. He no longer craves and the flames of desire find no material to feed upon, thus they are extinguished.” Continue reading ‘He Who Conquers Self’
I’m not sure where to begin when writing about this observation. Like many things in life, there are multi-faceted and multi-layered aspects to the ‘big picture’. Oh well, I’ll just plunge in…
We, like all social species, always have some form of governance. Social species need their ‘alpha male’ (even if that’s the queen bee in a bee hive).
Being a more complicated species than bees, hierarchical governance is multi-layered. Even within our species though, the more ’sophisticated’ the culture/civilization, the more layers. Hunter gather groups have the simplest – no courts, parliaments, congresses, or special interest clubs. Continue reading ‘Democracy as Myth’
I notice two side of enlightenment. One is a sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, as the Japanese call it. I imagine everyone experiences this to one degree or another, at various time throughout life. I’d say it is almost guaranteed; one’s awareness has to fall from their fortress of belief every once in a while.
The other side of enlightenment, as I see it, is sustained knowing. Here impartiality is essential. It might even be the key to sustain knowing in the first place. In any case, without sufficient impartiality, see the “whole” would drive one insane I expect. Impartiality opens the window of awareness wider; the wider the widow the more awe full the view; the more essential impartiality becomes to maintaining sanity. Continue reading ‘So, You Want Enlightenment, Eh?’
Always! if Chapter one is any guide, i.e., Always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations. Desire and attachment, what’s the difference?
I think of desire as the glue of attachment, which makes them pretty synonymous in my book. (Of course beneath it all is the foundation: need and fear.)
Saying attachment is always good is perhaps being facetious. Still, I find non-attachment can be a little hairy when it goes too far. After all, life and attachment go hand in hand (i.e., they correlate: life=attachment, death=detachment). Continue reading ‘When Is Attachment Good?’
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