The question of how to be free from the dissatisfaction and suffering of human life is a big topic in Buddhism. Many Buddhist texts explore suffering, and suffering was the subject of the historical Buddha's first teaching. In the Four Noble Truths, Buddha explained the nature of suffering, the cause of suffering, and the end of suffering, and then taught a way to be free from suffering called the Eightfold Noble Path.
Buddha said that to follow this path and experience liberation from suffering, first we have to see in the proper way and then we have to think in the proper way. Then he explained how we can liberate ourselves through the activities of speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, having a calm mind based on meditation, and concentrating the human life force. Buddha put seeing and thinking first, because to live in peace and harmony we have to see and think about life in the proper way.
When you see in the proper way, what do you see? You see the true nature of time. In Japanese we say mujo. Mu is "nothing" and jo is "permanence," so mujo means "no permanence" or "impermanence." Seeing impermanence is not to face a kind of nihilism that leads to despair; it is to become yourself, as you really are, with joyful open eyes. Thinking in the proper way is not to understand life through your intellect; it is to contemplate deeply how to live every day based on wisdom. When you see the true nature of time and understand how impermanence works in your life, you can use time to cultivate your life and to keep up with the tempo of life without feeling despair. That is the basis of a complete way of human life.
---Dainin Katagiri Roshi---
No comments:
Post a Comment