This teaching is for those who want to go beyond the limited mind perception of 'good and bad', 'right and wrong', 'meaningfulness and meaninglessness', who are interested in transcending worldly life existence of the function of an impermanent and selfless physical body and the mind perception of names and forms that is subject to the suffering of ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness, birth, hunger, thirst, ungratified desires, separation from people and things that one loves, coming in contact with people and things that one dislikes and disagrees with, impermanent changes, decay, old age, illness and death, but somehow, the mind is still being determined by the qualities of names and forms, and be disturbed by the situation in the world that is not the way that the mind would like it to be.
Those who have already gone beyond 'goodness' and 'badness', 'meaningfulness' and meaninglessness', being peaceful as they are, being undisturbed or undetermined by all the qualities of names and forms, they don't need this teaching.
Those who are aware of the truth of impermanence and selflessness, but they are not interested in silencing the modification of the mind to transcend the mind perception of a worldly life existence of restless ceaseless births and deaths, instead, they just want to enjoy life to the maximum. That's their freedom.
Those who are not interested in transcending the worldly life existence of a body and mind that is subject to suffering, who believe in positive thinking/mind power to change the world to be a better place, who attached onto the presence of 'goodness' or 'meaningfulness' and the absence of 'badness' or 'meaninglessness', to feel good, content, happy and meaningful in life, they don't need to take up this teaching and practice. Be happy.
The teaching and practice of yoga to eliminate ignorance and egoism is beyond the desire of craving and aversion towards names and forms. There's neither clinging onto pleasant/desirable worldly life experiences nor aversion towards unpleasant/undesirable worldly life experiences. But merely seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness of the body and mind as it is, and making use of this worldly life existence as the precious platform to transcend the mind perception of a worldly life existence of an impermanent selfless body and mind that is subject to the suffering of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness.
One can develop great tolerance and forbearance to endure suffering when suffering arise, repeatedly, without aversion, but one doesn't have to endure any suffering at all. Suffering doesn't exist upon the annihilation of the cause of suffering - The modification of the mind under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities.
There is hidden attachment that bind the mind to worldly life existence that is unaware by the mind that attached onto 'goodness' and 'righteousness' that give rise to the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' towards the 'achievement' of "I am living a good and meaningful life doing the good and the right things. Life is good and meaningful."
Just as the impure mind easily falls in love with or attached onto the objects of names and forms that appear to be good, pleasant, attractive, beautiful, lovable, enjoyable, fun, or cute. The mind naturally attached onto the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' deriving from "I am doing the good and the right thing" achieving what the mind perceives as 'goodness' and 'righteousness'.
There's nothing wrong with appreciating 'goodness' and it's very good to feel 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' due to the presence of 'goodness' and the absence of 'badness'. Just that the mind could unwittingly attached onto the presence of 'goodness' that give rise to the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness', where the mind will be disturbed/disappointed/dissatisfied when the presence of goodness is disturbed/interrupted/unavailable.
Many people like to engage in community works because the minds can easily find the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' working or serving in a particular community, to be able to contribute to the community and seeing others getting the help/assistance that they need to achieve a similar goal. This is very good especially for those who suffer depression.
Within a particular community, even though everyone is not perfect and there might be conflicts of different opinions and personal desires of want and doesn't want, but all are following the similar values, thinking and belief, and are doing their best to work their way towards the same goal under the same vision of that particular community. For example, a Buddhist engaging in selfless service/karma yoga to serve the others in the Buddhist community, or a Muslim engaging in serving the others in the Muslim community, or a Christian engaging in serving the others in the Christian community, or someone engaging in serving a particular community in need of shelter, food, love and care.
It's even better, as what most people would hope for, if regardless of all the different religious/cultural/spiritual/social/national/political thinking and belief, everyone has one similar universal goal of achieving the similar 'good and meaningful life', where everyone works together to maintain peace and harmony in the diverse world of different groups of communities with different thinking and belief, values and way of life, while respecting each other for being different from one another without interference/intrusion towards others who are different from 'I' or 'my thinking and belief' and 'my community of a particular values, thinking and belief'. That would be so nice, a world without fear, discrimination, prejudice, hatred, unrest, animosity, invasion, intrusion, clashes, violence, wars, killings, and etc.
But the reality is not necessarily the way that the mind would like it to be. For those who don't know yoga/dharma, this is depressing and negative. For those who know yoga/dharma, this is not depressing or negative. It's just the truth of the world of impure minds functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism.
The different communities of different thinking and belief, values and way of life, goal and vision that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism will most likely being protective/defensive towards their own community out of survival instinct, discriminating/condemning/bullying/attacking others who are not from one's community, and treating the other communities that are different from oneself as potential enemies that might generate threats to one's community. There is always unrest, distrust, offensiveness, animosity, tension and fear towards the others might offend/intrude/invade/conquer oneself. This is truly unnecessary, but that's the way it is in this world due to ignorance and egoism.
It's not difficult to attain the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' while serving in a particular community that has the similar goal and vision, thinking and belief, even though everyone is not perfect. But when come to the reality of a world of diversity, of different communities with different thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad, having different ways of cultural/religious/social/spiritual practice, different values and ways of life with different goals and visions that give rise to different meanings of 'good and meaningful life', where most of the minds are not free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, there will be many challenges and difficulties and frustration.
The mind would feel disappointed, tired, frustrated and depressed about the situation in the world that is under the deep influence of ignorance and egoism, that is not in the control/desire of 'I' about how 'I' would like it to be, no matter how good 'I' am, how much good actions/sacrifices 'I' have done, how positive/optimism is my mind, or how much 'I' want to help to bring peace and harmony into the world.
The mind will be in great disappointment, tiredness, frustration and depression, if one has 'wishful thinking' or expectation towards all beings in the world should put aside all the differences and work together towards living in peace and harmony among all the different communities.
If the mind can be free from attachment and 'wishful thinking' or expectation, and goes beyond that 'disappointed, tired, frustrated and depressed' reaction in the mind, and starts to see the truth of the nature of the impure minds and understand that this is the nature of the beings in the world under the influence of ignorance and egoism, it will let go the 'wishful thinking' of hoping everyone will be free from selfishness to work together to make the world a peaceful harmony place that is free from fear, discrimination, hatred, prejudice, unjust, corruption, violence, bullying, oppression, invasion, intrusion, killings, wars and all sorts of human religious/cultural/racial/national/social/political tension, clashes and conflicts.
When the mind is free from ignorance and egoistic attachment, there's no difference between 'good life' and 'not good life', or 'meaningfulness' and 'meaninglessness'. Life is just what it is. It's neither good nor not good, neither meaningful nor meaningless. This mind will be free from disappointment, tiredness, frustration and depression towards the reality of a world of diversity under the influence of ignorance and egoism that is not necessarily the way that it would like it to be based on certain thinking and belief about what is 'good and bad', 'right and wrong' and 'meaningful and meaningless'.
Once the mind is free from the attachment towards a particular thinking and belief about 'goodness or badness' and 'righteousness or wrongfulness', this mind can serve the world of different diversities, without attachment towards a particular thinking and belief, without discrimination/interference towards the different thinking and beliefs, without being disturbed by the reality that is not necessary pleasant or nice. There's neither contentment nor discontentment, neither meaningfulness nor meaninglessness. The world is just what it is. Minds are just what they are, mostly behaving under the influence of ignorance and egoism restlessly.
Even those who are highly educated are not necessary free from ignorance and egoism that generate discrimination, prejudice, hatred, violence, or intrusion towards others who are different from them whom they disagree with and dislike, as they attached onto their own thinking and belief about what is 'goodness and badness' or 'righteousness and wrongfulness' to judge and condemn everyone and everything. And that's their freedom. But they have no peace due to the egoistic reactions and impurities in their minds towards names and forms that they dislike and disagree with.
One can be doing lots of selfless service/karma yoga to serve others in a community under one similar thinking and belief (not too challenging), or serve others in the world of different communities under different thinking and belief (extremely challenging), but one is undetermined or undisturbed by one's action and the fruit of action.
Not even attached onto, "Even if I can bring joy/goodness/happiness/meaningfulness/awareness to just one person, and change this person's life, it's already good enough." Let it go.
There's no disappointment, tiredness, frustration or depression, if the world is still full of fear, discrimination, hatred, prejudice, unjust, corruption, violence, bullying, oppression, killings, wars and all sorts of human religious/cultural/racial/national/social/political tension, clashes and conflicts everywhere, even though one has done a lot to serve others in the world, to bring awareness, peace and harmony into the world.
Those who have already gone beyond 'goodness' and 'badness', 'meaningfulness' and meaninglessness', being peaceful as they are, being undisturbed or undetermined by all the qualities of names and forms, they don't need this teaching.
Those who are aware of the truth of impermanence and selflessness, but they are not interested in silencing the modification of the mind to transcend the mind perception of a worldly life existence of restless ceaseless births and deaths, instead, they just want to enjoy life to the maximum. That's their freedom.
Those who are not interested in transcending the worldly life existence of a body and mind that is subject to suffering, who believe in positive thinking/mind power to change the world to be a better place, who attached onto the presence of 'goodness' or 'meaningfulness' and the absence of 'badness' or 'meaninglessness', to feel good, content, happy and meaningful in life, they don't need to take up this teaching and practice. Be happy.
The teaching and practice of yoga to eliminate ignorance and egoism is beyond the desire of craving and aversion towards names and forms. There's neither clinging onto pleasant/desirable worldly life experiences nor aversion towards unpleasant/undesirable worldly life experiences. But merely seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness of the body and mind as it is, and making use of this worldly life existence as the precious platform to transcend the mind perception of a worldly life existence of an impermanent selfless body and mind that is subject to the suffering of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness.
One can develop great tolerance and forbearance to endure suffering when suffering arise, repeatedly, without aversion, but one doesn't have to endure any suffering at all. Suffering doesn't exist upon the annihilation of the cause of suffering - The modification of the mind under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities.
There is hidden attachment that bind the mind to worldly life existence that is unaware by the mind that attached onto 'goodness' and 'righteousness' that give rise to the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' towards the 'achievement' of "I am living a good and meaningful life doing the good and the right things. Life is good and meaningful."
Just as the impure mind easily falls in love with or attached onto the objects of names and forms that appear to be good, pleasant, attractive, beautiful, lovable, enjoyable, fun, or cute. The mind naturally attached onto the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' deriving from "I am doing the good and the right thing" achieving what the mind perceives as 'goodness' and 'righteousness'.
There's nothing wrong with appreciating 'goodness' and it's very good to feel 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' due to the presence of 'goodness' and the absence of 'badness'. Just that the mind could unwittingly attached onto the presence of 'goodness' that give rise to the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness', where the mind will be disturbed/disappointed/dissatisfied when the presence of goodness is disturbed/interrupted/unavailable.
Many people like to engage in community works because the minds can easily find the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' working or serving in a particular community, to be able to contribute to the community and seeing others getting the help/assistance that they need to achieve a similar goal. This is very good especially for those who suffer depression.
Within a particular community, even though everyone is not perfect and there might be conflicts of different opinions and personal desires of want and doesn't want, but all are following the similar values, thinking and belief, and are doing their best to work their way towards the same goal under the same vision of that particular community. For example, a Buddhist engaging in selfless service/karma yoga to serve the others in the Buddhist community, or a Muslim engaging in serving the others in the Muslim community, or a Christian engaging in serving the others in the Christian community, or someone engaging in serving a particular community in need of shelter, food, love and care.
It's even better, as what most people would hope for, if regardless of all the different religious/cultural/spiritual/social/national/political thinking and belief, everyone has one similar universal goal of achieving the similar 'good and meaningful life', where everyone works together to maintain peace and harmony in the diverse world of different groups of communities with different thinking and belief, values and way of life, while respecting each other for being different from one another without interference/intrusion towards others who are different from 'I' or 'my thinking and belief' and 'my community of a particular values, thinking and belief'. That would be so nice, a world without fear, discrimination, prejudice, hatred, unrest, animosity, invasion, intrusion, clashes, violence, wars, killings, and etc.
But the reality is not necessarily the way that the mind would like it to be. For those who don't know yoga/dharma, this is depressing and negative. For those who know yoga/dharma, this is not depressing or negative. It's just the truth of the world of impure minds functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism.
The different communities of different thinking and belief, values and way of life, goal and vision that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism will most likely being protective/defensive towards their own community out of survival instinct, discriminating/condemning/bullying/attacking others who are not from one's community, and treating the other communities that are different from oneself as potential enemies that might generate threats to one's community. There is always unrest, distrust, offensiveness, animosity, tension and fear towards the others might offend/intrude/invade/conquer oneself. This is truly unnecessary, but that's the way it is in this world due to ignorance and egoism.
It's not difficult to attain the sense of 'contentment, joy and meaningfulness' while serving in a particular community that has the similar goal and vision, thinking and belief, even though everyone is not perfect. But when come to the reality of a world of diversity, of different communities with different thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad, having different ways of cultural/religious/social/spiritual practice, different values and ways of life with different goals and visions that give rise to different meanings of 'good and meaningful life', where most of the minds are not free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, there will be many challenges and difficulties and frustration.
The mind would feel disappointed, tired, frustrated and depressed about the situation in the world that is under the deep influence of ignorance and egoism, that is not in the control/desire of 'I' about how 'I' would like it to be, no matter how good 'I' am, how much good actions/sacrifices 'I' have done, how positive/optimism is my mind, or how much 'I' want to help to bring peace and harmony into the world.
The mind will be in great disappointment, tiredness, frustration and depression, if one has 'wishful thinking' or expectation towards all beings in the world should put aside all the differences and work together towards living in peace and harmony among all the different communities.
If the mind can be free from attachment and 'wishful thinking' or expectation, and goes beyond that 'disappointed, tired, frustrated and depressed' reaction in the mind, and starts to see the truth of the nature of the impure minds and understand that this is the nature of the beings in the world under the influence of ignorance and egoism, it will let go the 'wishful thinking' of hoping everyone will be free from selfishness to work together to make the world a peaceful harmony place that is free from fear, discrimination, hatred, prejudice, unjust, corruption, violence, bullying, oppression, invasion, intrusion, killings, wars and all sorts of human religious/cultural/racial/national/social/political tension, clashes and conflicts.
When the mind is free from ignorance and egoistic attachment, there's no difference between 'good life' and 'not good life', or 'meaningfulness' and 'meaninglessness'. Life is just what it is. It's neither good nor not good, neither meaningful nor meaningless. This mind will be free from disappointment, tiredness, frustration and depression towards the reality of a world of diversity under the influence of ignorance and egoism that is not necessarily the way that it would like it to be based on certain thinking and belief about what is 'good and bad', 'right and wrong' and 'meaningful and meaningless'.
Once the mind is free from the attachment towards a particular thinking and belief about 'goodness or badness' and 'righteousness or wrongfulness', this mind can serve the world of different diversities, without attachment towards a particular thinking and belief, without discrimination/interference towards the different thinking and beliefs, without being disturbed by the reality that is not necessary pleasant or nice. There's neither contentment nor discontentment, neither meaningfulness nor meaninglessness. The world is just what it is. Minds are just what they are, mostly behaving under the influence of ignorance and egoism restlessly.
Even those who are highly educated are not necessary free from ignorance and egoism that generate discrimination, prejudice, hatred, violence, or intrusion towards others who are different from them whom they disagree with and dislike, as they attached onto their own thinking and belief about what is 'goodness and badness' or 'righteousness and wrongfulness' to judge and condemn everyone and everything. And that's their freedom. But they have no peace due to the egoistic reactions and impurities in their minds towards names and forms that they dislike and disagree with.
One can be doing lots of selfless service/karma yoga to serve others in a community under one similar thinking and belief (not too challenging), or serve others in the world of different communities under different thinking and belief (extremely challenging), but one is undetermined or undisturbed by one's action and the fruit of action.
Not even attached onto, "Even if I can bring joy/goodness/happiness/meaningfulness/awareness to just one person, and change this person's life, it's already good enough." Let it go.
There's no disappointment, tiredness, frustration or depression, if the world is still full of fear, discrimination, hatred, prejudice, unjust, corruption, violence, bullying, oppression, killings, wars and all sorts of human religious/cultural/racial/national/social/political tension, clashes and conflicts everywhere, even though one has done a lot to serve others in the world, to bring awareness, peace and harmony into the world.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment