“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
Socrates
We all think, and thinking in itself is problematic, this is for one simple reason, we are too busy with our own point of view - our own perspective. We are all thinking inside the box of self, too busy to notice we are wrong, or the flaws in our thinking, and we rarely think outside of this box of self. We can make the box bigger by widening our perspective, considering other perspectives, or tidy up the thinking, but we may only have more and more thoughts at the end of the day. We busy ourselves with every conceivable thing, Spirituality, Politics, Science... in an attempt to justify what we are doing, to give ourselves a perception of purpose.
The four things we all need is Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Medicine, looking through this short list we may notice that something to do isn't there, even though these do give us something to do. However, we don't need something to do as this can cause us to want to do more, so we end up needing to do things, taking responsibility for things, and not focusing on the practice. If we only had to do the practice the same needs, wants, and responsibility could arise, but the motivation to practice to be free is more important than the duty to practice, or do things, for something to do.
A Life full of things is just as barren as a life full of nothing, these are the two extremes we should avoid, the something and the nothing. Even the good or virtuous things like charity and human rights can be things used to fill a life, and distract a peaceful existence of no-thing.
The life of a contemplative too can be used for gain, and people have been doing this for a long time, putting the outward appearance of a contemplative on, acting a certain way yet not doing the practice, so at times their lack of practice shows through when one extreme gives way to the other or they project which extreme they want the other to have.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one, the other, both, or neither.
The four things we all need is Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Medicine, looking through this short list we may notice that something to do isn't there, even though these do give us something to do. However, we don't need something to do as this can cause us to want to do more, so we end up needing to do things, taking responsibility for things, and not focusing on the practice. If we only had to do the practice the same needs, wants, and responsibility could arise, but the motivation to practice to be free is more important than the duty to practice, or do things, for something to do.
A Life full of things is just as barren as a life full of nothing, these are the two extremes we should avoid, the something and the nothing. Even the good or virtuous things like charity and human rights can be things used to fill a life, and distract a peaceful existence of no-thing.
The life of a contemplative too can be used for gain, and people have been doing this for a long time, putting the outward appearance of a contemplative on, acting a certain way yet not doing the practice, so at times their lack of practice shows through when one extreme gives way to the other or they project which extreme they want the other to have.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one, the other, both, or neither.
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