"Our habits try to deceive us over and over again, but if we remain aware of it, we will eventually be able to ignore them altogether. its like having an old person come around, and tell us the same old lies time after time. When we realise what he is up to, we wont believe him any longer. but it takes a long time before we realise it, because deception is always there."
Old Liar – Ajahn Chah
We can think we can have spiritual life our way, and to a large extent we can but a spiritual life isn't how we want it to be, but how it is, being disciplined in truth.
If we run around pointing out what we do and do not like or running to and from what we do and do not like, we aren't living the spiritual life towards enlightenment, but living the worldly life.
The spiritual life isn't about the running to or away from things which please or displease us, but about being disciplined in our actions towards things, about finding a balance to life and cultivating things like discernment, and the opportunity for insight by cultivating a calm and tranquil mind.
The worldly life is a life where we try to make things our way, we try to dictate how things are, or should be, we run around telling the world that it is wrong, that it is bad and that it must be the way we want it. Social activists may improve conditions, for others, may make us think about issues which need to be thought about at times, but they are always put in a way which isn't necessarily for the best.
If we choose to live the spiritual path or the worldly path, we should live that path. Sure the spiritual path in the world or removed from the world has stress, but it is how we deal with this stress which shows which path we are on, if we move with the flow of things and work from where we are to where we would like to be, or if we dictate that the way things are is wrong and fight to have it our way, blaming others for our own short comings.
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.
If we run around pointing out what we do and do not like or running to and from what we do and do not like, we aren't living the spiritual life towards enlightenment, but living the worldly life.
The spiritual life isn't about the running to or away from things which please or displease us, but about being disciplined in our actions towards things, about finding a balance to life and cultivating things like discernment, and the opportunity for insight by cultivating a calm and tranquil mind.
The worldly life is a life where we try to make things our way, we try to dictate how things are, or should be, we run around telling the world that it is wrong, that it is bad and that it must be the way we want it. Social activists may improve conditions, for others, may make us think about issues which need to be thought about at times, but they are always put in a way which isn't necessarily for the best.
If we choose to live the spiritual path or the worldly path, we should live that path. Sure the spiritual path in the world or removed from the world has stress, but it is how we deal with this stress which shows which path we are on, if we move with the flow of things and work from where we are to where we would like to be, or if we dictate that the way things are is wrong and fight to have it our way, blaming others for our own short comings.
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.
RSS Feed
