In the Jungle of the World
and the Tangle of the Senses
we build us huts of mud and heartache
and make (and mend) our fragile fences.
‘This is me! That is mine!’
is the burden of our song.
We cannot see, still less define
that pain and sorrow prove us wrong.
This is not mine, this is not me,
is the beginning of our sanity.
Letting go of what does not concern us
leaves that alone which, meddled with, will burn us.
The Law is mirror-like in its precision
and its simplicity needs no revision;
that Good breeds Good
and Evil has its price;
that Virtue is its own reward.
And so is Vice.
That all things pass away,
from butterflies to stars,
and though the World’s a prison
it’s the Mind that makes the bars.
it’s the Mind that makes the bars.
There is the One, the Source and then there is movement out. It is mind that moves into suffering.
ReplyDeleteEverything outside the Source is suffering; pleasure and pain, happiness and unhappiness, joy and grief – they all belong to the realm of suffering with all its levels and layers.
The degree and the amount of suffering experienced can vary extremely. A trained mind can move carefully through a realm of suffering.
Even the slightest movement (mostly unnoticed by most beings) can cause one to get into a layer from which suffering results, unless one sees that one has to let go and let the layer disappear.
There is no problem with a purified mind, yet what it sees all around is suffering. This is not a negative view of the world. It is just the condition of everything. Being conditioned and not seeing one’s real Source, one’s true home - is dukkha.
The three characteristics of existence seem to boil down to dukkha, because, with a clear sight, these are not what we want.
In this world one often has to go through pain, strong efforts, hard work, loss, difficulties etc. One has to try to go through all that with a clear mind, not a suffering one. The only ‘thing’ which is not dukkha about us is the little spark of perfection (das Fünklein, Meister Eckhart), the link to our Source.
("Es gibt eine Kraft in der Seele, die spaltet das Gröbste ab und wird mit Gott vereint: das ist das Fünklein ... dies Fünklein ist Gott so verwandt, dass es ein einiges Eines ist, ...)
Another quotation from Meister Eckhart:
“There is a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor a created thing can touch.”
TRANSLATION:
Delete'There is a power in the soul that separates what is most crude and that is united with God: that is the little spark ... this little spark is related to God so that it is a unified Oneness ...'
("Es gibt eine Kraft in der Seele, die spaltet das Gröbste ab und wird mit Gott vereint: das ist das Fünklein ... dies Fünklein ist Gott so verwandt, dass es ein einiges Eines ist ...")
I have noticed the suffering of babies and children during this Project. Many 'mothers' today don't know what to do... (T.V., computer games, toys and junk food are used as a substitute...).
ReplyDeleteThis poem from 'Gnomonic Verses' seems to reflect this:
BABIES
Babies do not cry
through choice.
It's just their suffering giving voice;
wishing to share it
with someone like you
who can bear it.
In Latin this someone is called mater.
Nowaday's-English comes much later,
and I cannot find a word to translate her.
Substitute activities are compulsively used by most humans to mask the reality of suffering e.g. watching T.V., playing computer games, eating, reading, shopping, sleeping, pharmaceutical and ‘recreational’ drugs, alcohol… the list is endless.
As humans we are born into the flow of suffering (old age, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair...). The body feels unwell, I want to sleep. Instead I choose to do vipassana meditation, 'bearing' the suffering sensations. By observing their true nature of change (anicca), the illusion of a 'suffering self' has no cause to arise. Experiencing and investigating reality purifies the mind - truth is seen with equanimity.
Awakening from suffering is not possible when there is a reaction to suffering. NOW is all there is for constant awareness of the “arising and passing of all compounded things (sankharas)” to liberate the mind from suffering and reach the goal of Nibbanic peace.