The Yin-Yang is an ancient Chinese symbol of balance, of Harmony, of the Union of the Pairs of Opposites.

     Lao Tsu, in the Tao Te Ching, wrote: “Under Heaven, all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness; all can know good as good only because there is evil. Therefore, having and not-having arise together; difficult and easy complement each other; long and short contrast each other; high and low rest upon each other.”

 

BLACK-WHITE

The Yin-Yang is an ancient Chinese symbol of balance, of Harmony, of the Union of the Pairs of Opposites.

     Lao Tsu, in the Tao Te Ching, wrote: "Under Heaven, all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness; all can know good as good only because there is evil. Therefore, having and not-having arise together; difficult and easy complement each other; long and short contrast each other; high and low rest upon each other."

     We can know white only because we know black, and when we know both black and white, wrong and right, . . . then we might see beyond them.

     An old English proverb says the same thing: "Every cloud has a silver lining, and can cheer us up and encourage us when everything seems bleak.

     Of course, to benefit from such handed-down wisdom requires application of it on our part; merely to repeat it, parrot-fashion, will have little effect.

     And successful application of it could cause even a blind person to say: "Oh, yes! I see!"

In the black,

there is some white;

In the wrong,

there is some right;

In the dark,

there is some light;

In the blind,

There is some sight.

 

BONUS

There must be, somewhere in the mind, a cut-out switch to prevent over-load and burn-out, otherwise the pains and problems of life would soon drive us insane.

     This cushioning mechanism, however, is sometimes over-protective, and, while helping us overcome sorrow and hardship, and enable us to carry on, it also lets us forget too easily, and so learn little from it all.

     This causes us to treat life lightly, and expect it to be always there. Daily, we see on TV the road fatalities, the mass-death of people in earthquakes, mine-disasters, floods, industrial accidents, plane-crashes, ethnic rioting, bloody revolutions, wars and so on, and gradually, we become inured to it all; it loses its ability to shock or disturb us. It might be happening to others, but we don’t imagine it could happen to us; somehow, we feel exempt from all that.

      And so, we are often caught unawares.

Life,

day-by-day,

is a bonus,

not a right,

and should not be taken for granted.

 

CHAIN

Society consists of individuals; no-one lives alone, by and for himself, independent of the rest, but is connected, by threads seen and unseen, to all the other parts. Between the parts, however, are differences in as many areas as we can think of: physically, mentally, economically, culturally, racially, and so on.

     Throughout history, attempts have been made to create ‘classless societies’, in which everyone would be equal, but it wasn’t long before some people became ‘more equal’ than others, and then they were back where they started, or worse!

     Equality is an idea, not a fact; Nature knows nothing of it, but brings forth things in variety and difference; in fact, everything— from largest to smallest—is unique. To talk of ‘equality of the sexes’, for example, is a logical absurdity; male and female are different and complement each other; they can never be equal. There are rich because there are poor, and vice-versa; there is good because there is bad, high because there is low, this because of that, you because of me, etc. And if we are to overcome the problems facing us, we must first see how things depend upon other things.

     When Jesus was criticized for fraternizing with ‘publicans and sinners’, he responded: "Those who are healthy need not a physician, but those who are sick’. We cannot turn our backs on the problems of society, saying that it’s not our business; we are society, whether we like it or not, and if society’s boat sinks, we will sink with it!

 A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

 

CHEAT

    How strange: the harsh words of, and injuries done to us by others, we store up and reflect upon, like treasures, instead of letting them go and thinking of better things. The harmful acts of others are useful to us, and worth recalling, only insofar as we might learn something from them that might help us to avoid doing the same things to others. If we brood on them, with resentment, nothing good will come of it, and we will only make ourselves feel worse; what is the use of such self-inflicted suffering?

     In the Dharmapada, verses 3 and 4, we find:

     "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me". In those who harbor such thoughts, hatred is never appeased.

     "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me". In those who harbor not such thoughts, hatred is appeased.

Tell yourself this:

It is better to be cheated than to cheat.

 

CONTENTS

     If the external aspects of Religion are not as they might once have been, don’t get upset, but consider it to be natural; whatever has a beginning grows, flourishes for a while, then decays and dies. Why should Religion be an exception?

     Instead of complaining so much about the representatives of Religion or its state of decay, try to discover the purpose of Religion, and how it might still be of use to you. What is on the outside is not always indicative of what is on the inside.

The Container

is not the Contents;

Buddhism is not

Buddha-Dharma,

and Buddha-Dharma

is not Dharma,

but only an indicator.

Look deeper!

 

DO GOOD

These days, in our temples and churches, it is quite common for people to try to ‘buy’ merit, not aware that merit cannot be bought or sold, but must be earned in other ways.

     Once, while Jesus was with his disciples in the Temple, they observed rich people donating large sums of money; they also saw a poor widow donate two small coins, and Jesus said: "I tell you truly, this widow, although poor, has given more than all the others, for they all gave out of their surplus, while she gave all she had."

     In those days, there was no such thing as Social Security for the aged and disabled, and life was hard; people had to pay their way, and the necessities of life were sold and bought then as now. Religion was a thing of commerce in those days, too, and the priests exhorted people to make offerings to the Temple and accumulate merit thereby. Now, this widow surely knew that her coins were of little value in the market; did she think they would have more value in the Temple? Jesus said nothing about the motive behind her offering. If she’d had only—let us say— $20 to her name, and had offered half, or even a quarter of it, it would have been a real sacrifice for her; but to offer something that was of no use anyway, would have been no sacrifice at all!

     When we give something, it should be of value to us, and not something that we don’t need or want any longer.

Do good, not for

what you might get

as a result, but

because you have the

opportunity

and capacity, and

because

you love life.

 

DO THE WORK

We dream of doing ‘great’ deeds in the future, but often fail to see the many ‘small’ things that could be done in the present; thus, life slips by, and the opportunities to do ‘great’ deeds might never come our way, or if they do, we might not be able to use them because we did not prepare ourselves by doing what was within our capacity when it was, but which we perhaps thought was unworthy of our attention or beneath our dignity.

     In the Tao Te Ching (chapter 63), we find: "In the Universe, great acts are made up of small deeds." And Jesus is reported to have said—in Luke 16:10—"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much."

     Some of us look down upon certain kinds of work, but the lowliest form of work can be ennobled if we know how to do it, for it is we who designate things as ‘great’, ‘small’, ‘important’, ‘unimportant’, and so on, is it not? If we take care of ‘small’ things, we shall probably be able to deal with ‘great’ things, too. But if we are careless with small things, we probably shall be no more careful with great things!

"Do the work

that’s needed—

Though it’s dull at whiles—

Helping when you

meet them,

Lame dogs over stiles."

 

Ella Wheeler Willcox: THE LAW.

 

EASY PROMISES

     How lightly we give our word and make promises, oblivious of the fact that the future is not ours to see! If promises are made at all, they should be made conditionally, with an ‘if’ or ‘providing that’, for we cannot possibly compute or imagine all the things that might happen between now and then that could prevent us keeping the promise; moreover, we must be sure of our capacity and intention to do what we say we will do.

     Though we do, and must, make plans for the future, the uncertainty and changefulness of life means that they can only be tentative, and we should therefore sit loosely in the saddle, aware of the dangers and pains of attachment and inflexibility. We can live neither in the future nor in the past, no matter how hard we try; the only time we can live is NOW. J. of N. said: "Take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow can take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil [or problems] thereof". Good advice, yes, but it must be understood clearly, for if everyone followed it literally, we would soon be in trouble; nobody would plant crops of any kind, build houses, or do work that had no immediate fruit. The NOW grows out of everything that went before it; we must know the nature of what we are doing, and also the possible consequences thereof. "We are the results of what we were; we will be the results of what we are", said the Buddha.

"Easy promises make for little trust".

Tao Te Ching.

 

GODS & GHOSTS

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, Isis, Ra, Osiris, Wotan, Thor, and Freya are just some of the gods of the ancient world; people used to worship and pray to them then as people worship and pray to their gods today. Were they any less real? What happened to them? Did they die off and cease to exist with their worshippers? Were they pensioned-off to other planets? Or were they, perhaps, mental creations of their worshippers, fulfilling a psychological need? If so, then they had no objective existence at all.

     One religion claims that God said: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness" (Genesis 1:26, of the Bible); but maybe it was the other way around: that man has created God in his image. This is known as anthropomorphism, that is, ‘with human form’. People endowed the supernatural—or what they thought of as such, because they didn’t understand the forces or laws of Nature—with human attributes, such as form, and emotions such as love, hate, anger, jealousy, favoritism, etc., and then proceeded to worship it. They attempted to put a limit on the Limitless, but only succeeded in limiting themselves thereby. So now they are stuck with a human-like God of their own making, necessitating further fantastic mental gymnastics in order to make facts fit the concept.

How wonderful—

even with our advanced technology,

we cannot create such a thing as an ant or a blade of grass,

but gods and ghosts we mass-produce!

 

HUNTING

The Buddha taught people to consider others as themselves, and themselves as others, meaning not only human beings, but all living things. If we understood ourselves better—our likes and dislikes, hopes, fears, and other feelings—we would understand others better, too, and would know how to behave in our relationships with them, without needing to be told. We do not like to suffer, do we? Well, neither do others; they are just like us in this respect.

     What we need to do is to listen to ourselves, and feel our pain, instead of depending so much upon others to teach us; deep inside us, we already know.

Hunting and fishing is sport to some,

but death to the animals and fish.

 

IMAGE

Throughout this book, apart from my own thoughts, I have quoted words of several great Masters, and now, although I do not consider him one, I want to mention John Lennon, from whose words, if not from his example, I got something. If nothing else, he was a spokesman for his generation, and wisdom can be found in some of his songs. In Strawberry Fields Forever, for example, he sang: "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see". Yes, it seems easier to live when we are ignorant and feel no sense of responsibility, to just let ourselves be carried along by the stream, not knowing, and maybe not caring much, where it is taking us. But when our eyes are open, and we become aware of how we share this Earth with countless others, a sense of responsibility dawns, and we can no longer live negligently or carelessly; living then becomes harder than previously, because we now have a sense of direction in life.

     I am not such a starry-eyed idealist as to think that the conditions in his utopian song, Imagine, can ever become realities, but I do think that, individually, we can work towards some of them, pulling down artificial barriers that have been erected in our minds by others since before we could think and reason for ourselves; it is possible to overcome the false information that we were impregnated with as children; we can discover what is true!

IMAGINE

Imagine there’s no Heaven—
It’s easy if you try—
No Hell below us—
Above us only sky;
Imagine all the people
Living for today ...

Imagine there’s no country—
It isn’t hard to do—

Nothing to kill or die for—
And no religion, too;
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace ...

Imagine no possessions—
I wonder if you can?
No need for greed or hunger—
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world ...

You may say that I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one;
I hope someday you’ll join us,
And the World will be as One.

John Lennon.

 

JIG-SAW

     Most religions claim exclusive possession of Spiritual Truth, some doing so covertly, while others openly and shamelessly, obviously unaware of the preposterous nature of their claims. Imagining that Truth can be possessed is rather like a person standing on a river-bank thinking he might catch the river in a fishing-net!

     Truth flows. We cannot catch or possess it; nor can it be transmitted from one to another, but must be experienced by the individual, each for himself. At most, it can be intimated, hinted at, referred to obliquely by analogy. And, since no religion has the monopoly of Truth, there is no good reason why we should confine our inquiries to one specific religion, for by doing so, we narrow ourselves and become prisoners of our own prejudice. If there is Truth, it must be something omnipresent and in everything; as such, it is ordinary, and not ‘special’ or ‘holy’.

     The Way is long and the search is hard; we need all the help we can get. If, as we fare along, we stumble upon a crumb of Truth, it would be foolish to disregard it merely because it might not be of our favorite color or labeled in our own language. A diamond is a diamond no matter where it is found.

Life is like a jig-saw puzzle,

of which no-one has all the pieces.

Slowly, and from many sources,

we manage to get an idea of the picture.

 

LCD

     Anyone who follows a religion naturally thinks his religion is the best, otherwise he wouldn’t follow it but would turn to another. But how many people have really investigated and understood their religion—instead of merely inheriting it from others—so that they are able to compare it with other religions, and can therefore say they have chosen their religion intelligently? Very, very few, it can be safely said. Most people have no basis for thinking and saying that their religion is the best; they just make unqualified statements and build castles in the clouds. Thus, it is not surprising that, even today, religion is largely a thing of dogma and superstition.

     If religion is not to become an anachronism, it must be firmly based on fact, and, since it concerns our relationships with others, we must see beyond the differences between us and focus on the obvious similarities, things about which we cannot disagree. If we do not, or will not, then religious conflicts will always be with us—often about things no less stupid than the war described in the story of Gulliver’s Travels between those who opened boiled-eggs at the big end—the ‘Big-Endians’—and those who opened them at the small end—the ‘Little-Endians’!

All living things are united by the Lowest Common Denominators of

Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death.

Is there not,

therefore, a firm foundation for cooperation and peace?

 

LEARN   

  We often hear people saying of some famous monk or spiritual leader: "Lama So-and-So / Guru This-and-That is my Teacher!" Ask them what they have learned from these teachers, however, and there is sometimes an embarrassed silence.

     People flock from far and wide to see a monk who is reputed to have psychic powers—not in order to learn something from him, but just to see something extraordinary and be entertained. Thus, they are easily misled by the numerous cheats and charlatans masquerading as ‘Living Buddhas’ or ‘Enlightened Ones’.

     A person might have someone enlightened as his teacher, but that is no guarantee that he will learn anything. In the Dharmapada, verses 64/65, we find the Buddha’s words about this: "Though a fool throughout his life associates with a wise man, he no more understands the Dharma than a spoon tastes the flavor of soup. Though an intelligent person associates with a wise man for only a moment, he quickly understands the Dharma, as the tongue tastes the flavor of soup".

     The Buddha had no teacher to show Him the way to Enlightenment, but discovered it Himself. This is not to say that we should abandon teachers and depend solely upon ourselves, but that, instead of always waiting for a teacher to teach us everything, we should strive to learn for ourselves, and in this way, make ourselves ready to receive instructions and help.

It is better to learn than to be taught.

 

LIFE IS FRAGILE 

     If life really belonged to us, we could say: "I’m not going to grow old, get sick, or die". Well, we can say that; it’s easy, but it happens to us anyway. And we cannot even count on growing old; no-one knows his span of days.

     Once, while working on a tall stool, I stepped backwards to get down, but missed my footing and fell, unable to control my fall. The back of my head struck with a loud crack on the floor, and I lay there, thinking I was dead. But then I opened my eyes and …… wonderful! I was still alive!

     We don’t have to try to die; it happens to us naturally, and sometimes suddenly and without warning.

Life is fragile,

and trembles in the balance,

like a dewdrop on a lotus-leaf.

 

LIFE IS PRECIOUS  

   Although the life expectancy in most countries today is now longer than it ever was before, there is no place on Earth where people do not die.

     In the U.S.A., some wealthy people try to beat death by having themselves deep-frozen immediately they die, in the hope that, sometime in the future, when/if a cure for the disease that killed them is found, they might be revived and live again.

     Attachment to life is so strong that it brings people to such measures. But it is nothing new; in fact, it has gone on throughout recorded history, and the best example of it is in the pyramids of Egypt, built as tombs by Pharoahs in the hope of immortality. Although we are still unsure of the methods of their construction, it is generally supposed they were built using slave-labor, involving tremendous suffering and loss of life. The suffering has gone now, while the pyramids remain. We can see the desiccated mummies of the Pharoahs; is that their immortality?

     To them, the end—even if was a dubious end, lacking substantiation, as with most systems of belief—was all-important; they disregarded the means. What did it matter if thousands suffered and died in the construction, as long as the end was achieved? From this, it is clear that, though they have left us wonderful monuments, the ancient Egyptians did not have much of a system of ethics, and no concept at all of human rights. Yet life to a slave was as dear as it was to a Pharoah.

Life is a precious commodity that diminishes day-by-day.

Take care to spend it wisely.

 

LOOK-SEE

To look for something, first we must know what we are looking for, for if we don’t know, how shall we be able to recognize it if and when we find it? We talk of searching for Truth, God, Peace, Happiness, etc., but do we know what these things are? It is rather like a person who goes to the beach to search for pearls, but never having seen a pearl, he goes with the idea that a pearl is something red and cubical. So, while peering in the rock-pools, opening shells, overturning stones, and so on, maybe he sees a small, round, white object gleaming there in the sand, but he thinks: "That’s not a pearl; the pearl I am looking for is red and cubical". So he passes on and continues searching. And he might indeed come across a red and cubical object, but it will not be a pearl.

     Looking is active, something we do, while seeing is passive and receptive, something that happens. We look with the accumulations of the past, that is, with our conditioning, and this prevents us from seeing. And yet it is necessary to search, for if we do not search, how shall we be able to stop searching, and SEE?

We look,

but we do not see.

We see

when we do not look.

 

    

LOVE

As long as we are alive we shall have likes and dislikes, and frequently, will not be able to explain them. Our preferences often get out of control and carry us away, and are then capable of causing a lot of trouble.

     If, however, we are aware of our feelings, of their limitations, and of their capacity to cause trouble, we can be more in control of them, and though we might still dislike certain people and things, it will be possible to go beyond our preferences, and this is a liberation, of course. We can love people we don’t like, because:

Love doesn’t choose,

but embraces all equally, impartially.

It has nor subject,

and no object, no center, and no circumference.

 

MAKE OF IT

Most religions claim to have the answers to the problems of life and to know its purpose, but often, their concepts differ and sometimes contradict and conflict with each other. What can we do about this?

     Must we, like people through the ages have done, and as many people still do, polarize ourselves by adopting a partisan view? Why should we accept anything pertaining to our lives, when we have the freedom and opportunity to investigate things critically? Having come this far, why should we be content with half-measures? Let’s put the sacred cows out to pasture, and pull the skeletons out of the closets, to make room for cleaner and better things.

     Life does not infuse our bodies for long; we should therefore use it while we can, and not waste it. Others might tell us their purpose in life, but can anyone tell us the purpose of life, so that we will understand it clearly and accept it immediately as self-evident and true? So far, no-one has succeeded in doing so. And why not? Well …..

Life in this world is what we make of it;

it has no meaning other than what we give it.

 

MEANS

It’s too hot!", "It’s too cold!"; "I’m busy", "Not free". Our capacity for creating excuses is unlimited. We often put things off until tomorrow, instead of doing them while they are fresh in mind and when it would be easier to do them. The old proverb: "A stitch in time saves nine’, is still true; for those who might not understand its meaning, it means, literally, that a small tear in a garment might be easily mended when first noticed, but if postponed, it might get worse, until it requires much work to repair it.

     Letter-writing is another example: Upon receiving a letter from a friend, many people put off replying until later, but other things come to mind, and the reply is forgotten. Later—often much later—it again comes to mind to answer the letter, but it entails apologizing and making excuses, which are often untrue and insincere. If, however, we cultivated a habit—and it is a habit, just like leaving things ‘until later’ is a habit—of replying promptly to letters, we would find it much easier than we think it is, and it need not require much time, either.

     Many of us complain about how hectic life is, and of how little time they have. Again, it is a matter of knowing how to budget and manage one’s time. Instead of allowing others to dictate to us how to live our lives, should we not decide for ourselves what, within reason, we want to do? It is not, as many people say, that "Time is Money". Time is more important than money. Time is Life!

"Those who want

to do something

find a means;

those who don’t want to do anything

find an excuse".

Arabic proverb

 

MEDITATION

Not knowing that the mind is a mechanical thing that follows the law of Cause-and-Effect—each thought arising from the previous one in chain-like succession, coming and going like the bubbles in a glass of Coke—many meditators struggle with their thoughts and become exhausted therefrom, thinking that a mind free of thought is the object of meditation.

Though the mind might become still and free of thought, it is not within our capacity to make it so, because we are the thinker. If we were to sit down and say to ourselves: "Now I’m going to stop thinking", that would be just another thought, would it not? By no act of will can we stop our thoughts coming and going. We shouldn’t be upset by this, however, shouldn’t despair, as it is natural, and this is what we can learn from it, so that the conflict with our thoughts may cease. Thought, like everything else, is Impermanent.

In meditation,

let your thoughts

come and go,

like birds that fly

through the sky,

leaving no trace …

 

MIND

Everything that Man has made began as an idea in someone’s mind. The world is made up of ideas, many of them wrong and silly, and it is from such ideas that most of our suffering flows.

     If we treat only the symptoms but leave untouched the underlying causes of suffering, our efforts will, at most, have palliative effects. The causes must be discovered and dealt with, so that the symptoms can no longer arise.

     Our problems originate mainly in the mind, through wrong or incomplete understanding. It is not because we are sinful or evil that we perform bad or antisocial deeds, but more because we are blind and stupid and do not see our place in life, do not understand how much we depend upon others in so many ways.

     Not long ago, on a bus, I heard two mindless twits talking loudly and denigratingly about Japanese people, and I wondered if they had ever stopped to think about who had made their watches, TV’s, cars, videos, cassette-players, and so on. We cannot do without other people, and could not count how many people work for us every day so that we can live as we do. If we understood this, it would certainly modify and improve the way we think about others.

     Just as darkness can be overcome only by light, so Ignorance can only be overcome by Knowledge. If we know the causes of suffering, it is possible to do something about it.

 The Mind …

has no walls,

no door,

no ceiling,

no floor,

except those which,

in our ignorance,

we create.

 

MISFORTUNE

Who can live without losing something at one time or another? Everything we have will one day be lost. Who can go through life without getting sick with this or that? It is a constant struggle to remain healthy.

     We feed and clothe our bodies, house and transport them conveniently and comfortably, but alas, they are ungrateful and unreliable, and let us down. To expect too much from life is to invite disappointment.

     While we should take care of what we’ve got, we should also fortify ourselves with knowledge and understanding of the nature of life: how it changes, comes and goes; we cannot possess it, and it is therefore, not really ours at all.

"Accept misfortune as the bodily condition.

Why?

Because without a body,

how could there be misfortune?

 

NEW LAND

     It is a mistake to say, as some of us do at times: "My life is so boring; nothing interesting ever happens to me!" It probably means that we are functioning like robots, on automatic pilot, or going around with our eyes closed. Our lives are full to the brim with miracles! How can we say that life is boring?

     One of the major causes of boredom is that we have been over-stimulated by television and movies for so long that our senses have almost been burned-out thereby, and it takes an ever-stronger dose to interest us. The world-wide phenomenon of drug-use is just another form of this. And so we become spaced-out in fantasyland, and sometimes unable to relate to the ‘real’ world.

     If we wake up with the idea that the day ahead is going to be ‘just another day’, our minds will be already programmed, leaving no room for the unexpected; it is the wrong way to begin the day.

     It is not as we think, that life is boring, but that we are bored. Life is always new, and never repeats itself. Just get your feet on the ground, become aware of yourself as the living miracle you are, and of the wonderful world you live in, and your boredom will soon disappear.

Today is like a new land

where no-one’s been before,

full of things to learn about,

enjoy, discover, explore.

 

 NO LIMITS

     There is tremendous suffering in the world, but since nothing comes from nothing—that is, everything has causes—it cannot be accidental.

     Most of our suffering is man-made—either by others or by ourselves—and so is avoidable. It is not because we are inherently bad or sinful (as some religions claim), that we cause suffering to others, and ultimately to ourselves, but because we lack understanding of how we live in dependence upon others, and how we cannot live otherwise. And why do we not understand this? Largely because we are not educated properly; and, lacking such understanding, we are like a man who sits astride the bough of a tree and begins to saw through it between himself and the trunk: when the bough falls, he also falls with it. Could he be called ‘sinful’, or merely ‘stupid’?

     It is not surprising that there is so much suffering when there is so much of its cause. Where there are causes, there will be effects; to prevent the effects, the causes must be avoided. Knowing the causes is the first step of doing this. Those who have ever removed weeds from a garden will know that to prevent them from growing back again, the roots must be pulled up; merely to cut them off above ground would leave them to spring up again within the next few days; such is the resilience of weeds.

 

Two things,

said the Buddha

have no limits:

Space,

And

Human stupidity.

 

OPPORTUNITIES

     Buddhism is sometimes accused of being pessimistic because it speaks so much about suffering, but it shrugs off such criticism with a smile, and asks: "What do you say?"

     Around 1880, Sir Edwin Arnold wrote an account of the Buddha’s life in poem-form, entitled, The Light of Asia. Here is a verse from it:

Ask of the sick, the mourners, ask of him

Who tottereth on his staff, lone and forlorn:

"Liketh thee life?"—these say the babe is wise

That weepeth, being born.

     Who can say there is more happiness and enjoyment in life than pain and sorrow—or even as much? We have only to look around us, at the overflowing hospitals, Homes for the Aged, Asylums for the insane, deformed, mentally-retarded, at the unspeakable horrors of war, and man’s inhumanity to man, etc., to realize that Hell is not a myth.

     In spite of the suffering that always accompanies life, however, human beings—unlike other animals, which live by instinct—have developed and made progress. Indeed, had it not been for the suffering to impel and motivate us, coupled with our ability to criticize, visualize, imagine and assess, we might still be living in caves!

Life is suffering,

it is true,

but it also

provides us with

opportunities to learn.

 

PLAY

Between the apathetic and defeatist view of Fatalism— whereby people believe everything is determined before it happens, and that nothing we can do will make any difference—and the equally-erroneous view that everything happens by Accident or Chance, lies one based upon the Law of Cause-and-Effect. The present has arisen out of past causes, and the future arises from a combination of both past and present causes, although when it arises, of course, it will not be the future, but the present.

     The present is open, and the future not fixed; we are in the process of creating it. The Greenhouse Effect is largely the result of human activity; the rest of Nature cannot be blamed for that. Likewise, the good things of our civilization have been brought about by people; they did not just happen by themselves.

     So, though there are reasons to be proud of being human, we must also accept responsibility for our personal and collective mistakes; there is nothing and no-one else to blame.

Life is like a play

in which we are all actors;

but the script is written as we act,

not before,

and nobody knows what will happen next.

 

QUESTION

     Often, when we ask a question, we already have an answer in mind, partly formed, at least. And so, if the answer from outside does not concur with our preconceptions, we are reluctant to accept it; the mind is very good at rationalization, at finding reasons to dismiss something as ‘incorrect’, ‘unsuitable’, or as ‘not feeling right’. This is not to say, of course, that answers from others are always better than our own; to suppose that would mean being prejudiced in the other direction, would it not?

     Many of us ask questions just for the sake of it, without real interest or desire to learn, and pay no attention to the answers. Needless to say, this is a waste of time.

     If we would spend more time quietly thinking things over instead of just scratching the surface, more time in trying to formulate and express our questions clearly instead of just blurting them out, we would learn much more. The answers are not always outside of ourselves.

If you know how to ask

your question,

you will find the answer therein.

 

RADIO

     There are times when all of us feel sad, bored, lost, lonely or depressed. What happens then? Well, think back awhile: they passed, didn’t they? They passed, because the basic Law of Life is Change; nothing lasts, but changes into something else, and, while it must be admitted that things sometimes change for the worse, at other times, they get better; but nothing remains the same—just like the patterns in a kaleidoscope.

     Now, this is very simple but very effective philosophy to keep in mind. When you next feel sad, bored, depressed, lonely, etc., tell yourself: "It will pass", and sure enough, it does, though not always as fast as we would like, of course. Often, it passes so softly and subtly that we don’t realize, until later, that it’s gone, because it has changed into something pleasant. When this happens, however, we must tell ourselves the same thing: "It will pass", so that we are not too disappointed when it does.

     But, if you don’t want to wait for things to change at their own pace, do something about it, instead of being sad about being sad.

The Mind is like a radio,

with many stations;

if you do not like to listen to one

station, change to another;

it is within your capacity.

 

REFUGEES

     Among other things, the 20^th century will be known as the bloodiest century of them all so far, and there is no end in sight to the carnage and warfare that bedevil us. How come we have learned so little from our suffering and pain? In some ways, we are very intelligent; we are creative and imaginative, but in others we are very stupid and wasteful, and can destroy, very quickly, what it has taken us so long to build up.

     It will also be known as the century of the Refugee. We have witnessed the phenomenon of the international refugee on an unprecedented scale, as people fled their homes and countries in search of peace, freedom and happiness, which they felt were unattainable where they lived. The consequent intermingling of people of diverse races, cultures and religions, coupled with the ease of travel today, has caused the World to shrink considerably; we are no longer shut off from each other by national boundaries, and hopefully, we are moving towards the time when people will consider themselves as members of the human race, instead of the many categories that they insist on dividing themselves up into.

     The global Environmental Crisis we are involved in recognizes no frontiers, checkpoints or passports, and concerns everyone. Slowly, we are coming to realize that the Earth, and everything on it, is endangered. Whether we shall be able to halt, or even to slow down the destructive and destabilizing processes we have started, only time will tell, but we can never hope to succeed without cooperating on a world-wide scale.

     This Crisis, if it awakens us to the necessity of overlooking the differences between us and cooperating, could have some very positive effects.

Is not this Planet Earth

like a tiny boat,

adrift on the open sea of Space?

Are we not all Refugees?

Where are we going?

 

REJOICE

     If we look closely, we will see that many of our problems arise from Envy; when it is present, we are unable to live at peace with ourselves.

     Without it being mentioned in the curricula, our education systems teach us to be envious, greedy, and selfishly ambitious, which are very destructive, and are the antitheses of peace, contentment and happiness. If we were taught and shown how to cooperate with others for the common good, and discovered joy therein, instead of how to compete with and be better than others, there would be far less tension and strife in the would. It can be done. Why isn’t it?

Instead of envying others,

try rejoicing with them for

their good fortune;

it is much more constructive and productive of happiness.

 

 RIVER

     Many of us have grown used to a high standard of living, and expect it to remain that way, or get better, never dreaming it might deteriorate.

     But conditions seldom accord with our desires, and we complain and blame others for what we perceive to be our misfortunes. Is it reasonable to do so?

     Life does not always go on an incline, from good to better; neither does it always follow a downward curve; nor does it always go on a level plane. Instead, as attested by history, it rises and falls, like the waves of the sea; sometimes we are up on the crests, sometimes down in the troughs, and sometimes in between. Or, to use another simile:

Life is like a river—

Straight, it seldom flows,

But twists and turns

And winds about,

As on and on it goes.

 

SACRIFICE

There is always more than one way of looking at anything, and only our habitual, fixed points-of-view prevent us from seeing them; narrowness of outlook easily leads to prejudice.

     If, while doing something for the community, or helping others in some way, we consider it a sacrifice of our time, labor or money, it indicates that we are doing it with more resentment than with joy.

     What do we have and can we give that we have not first received? This deserves some thought. Life should not be lived as a personal business-investment, but as a means of improving the society we all belong to, and which we call the World, for we can understand ourselves only as part of something much bigger than ourselves. Thus, whatever kind of work we perform, it can be seen as a way of serving others, and not merely as a way of earning a living. We benefit in countless ways from the labors of others, regardless of the fact that we pay for their products and services, do we not? What, then, can we contribute and put back?

"There is no such thing as sacrifice;

there is only opportunity to serve."

Talbot Mundy: OM.

 

SALVATION

     For 45 years He had wandered around, explaining to anyone who could understand and who would listen, what He had found beneath the Bodhi tree on the night of His Enlightenment. Now, here He was, about to pass away in a forest near the town of Kusinagara. News of His impending demise had spread, and His disciples had come from far and wide to see their beloved Master for the last time. Most of them were sad at the thought of losing the mainstay of their lives, but those who had understood deeply what He had indicated, and those who were enlightened themselves thereby, were calm and composed.

     Ananda, His favorite disciple and personal attendant, was greatly distressed that his Master was about to leave him—he, who had still to find enlightenment—but the Buddha consoled him, saying: "Enough, Ananda, do not grieve and weep, for have I not taught you that it is in the nature of things near and dear to us that we should be separated and cut off from them? How could it be that this body of mine, having been born should not die? For a long time, Ananda, you have served me faithfully in thought, word and deed, graciously, pleasantly, with a whole heart, and without measure. Great good have you gathered, Ananda. Now you should put forth energy, and soon, you too, will be one who is free!"

"All

compounded things

are impermanent.

work out your

own salvation

with

diligence."

The last words of the Buddha.

 

SAY-MEAN

Words are like tools: we must know their limits and how to use them. A hammer, for example, is used for driving in nails, but not for cutting wood or writing a letter; a saw is indispensable for cutting wood, but not for driving in nails or rowing a boat. Some people are artists with words, while others are clumsy and unskilled.

     Today, there is a great over-use of swear-words, to the point where they have little shock-value. Some people swear in almost every sentence, which indicates a poor vocabulary. While it might be understandable and excusable, in certain circumstances, to use a strong word, to use them too frequently is like using bombs to kill ants, and when a situation arises where a strong word might be justified, the user has none left, having used them all on trivial matters. It is hard to imagine that when the film, Gone With The Wind was being made, the well-known line, "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn", only with great difficulty escaped the censors, ‘damn’ being considered a strong word in those days, whereas today, except to the very prim, it means almost nothing!

Skillful use of words makes for good communication and clarity of understanding, while poor use leads to misunderstanding, bad feelings, and often to violence.

"If you don’t know

how to say

what you mean,

how shall you

be able to mean

what you say?"

From the film: The Last Emperor.

 

SCIENCE

     There are, as it were, two centers in our being: the Brain, which is the seat of the intellect, thought, or reason, and the Heart, where feeling or emotion come from; this is a way of explaining the difference in nature between Thought and Emotion, Wisdom and Compassion.

     Now, a person might be highly intellectual and wise, but without Love and Compassion, he could be cold and uncaring. As St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:1, said: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a sounding-piece of brass or a clashing cymbal". Conversely, a good and kind person, lacking wisdom to guide his goodness and kindness, might be foolish and do a lot of harm, even if unintentionally.

     So, Intellect and Feeling, Wisdom and Compassion, must go together, in mutual support of each other. And although today, in many people’s eyes, Science has superceded and discredited Religion, it is not so; it has challenged Religion, to be sure, and has demonstrably proved some of its fondly held dogmas incorrect and obsolete, but this has been good for Religion in helping it understand the need for a serious stock-taking; it hasn’t invalidated it.

     Science, on the other hand, could benefit by applying the spirit of Religion in various fields, for example: vivisection, its activities affecting the environment, and by refusing to invent, develop and produce things detrimental to human life.

     And, now that our eyes have been opened, we can, and must, strive to amalgamate Science with Religion—as they are not really the opposing magnetic poles that people once took them to be—to produce a Religious Science, or a Scientific Religion. If we do not, then these two great fields of human endeavor must remain antagonists.

"Science

without Religion

is crippled;

Religion

without Science

is blind."

 Albert Einstein.

 

STARS

     Paradoxical as it may seem, the search for happiness is the greatest obstacle to finding it.

     Suppose you could eat your favorite food for every meal, day in and day out, with nothing else: how long would you be satisfied with it? You would probably soon grow sick of it!

     In the same way, if we were happy all the time, we would not be happy, but bored. We can know happiness as happiness only when we have something to compare and contrast it with. Thus, we might experience Nirvana only because we know Samsara; we can know liberation only because of bondage or captivity; one cannot stand alone, by itself.

     Understanding this can help us to deal with the problems and difficulties of life, and transform them from obstacles into stepping-stones.

"The stars

appear

brightest

on the

darkest

night".

Persian proverb.

 

STRONGER

     Throughout history, the idea that "Might is Right" has prevailed, and still largely does. During the hey-day of the British Empire, the term ‘Gun-boat diplomacy’ was coined, from the method of sending in the Navy to bring about the desired results.

     The United Nations has tried to prevent aggression by stronger countries towards weaker, but has had limited success. A full report of what happened in Panama when the Americans invaded that country some years ago has yet to be released, but there is strong evidence that they were not the ‘Knights in shining armor’—the liberators—that they would have us believe, and the U.S. political system seems in great need of a strong dose of reform; far has it strayed from the noble Declaration of Independence of 1776!

     The human-race has known so little peace, so beset has it been with war and strife. Presently, there are almost 40 wars, of varying intensity, raging in different parts of the world. Why are human-beings so stupid? Why do we learn so slowly?

     To become a soldier, trained to kill, requires little intelligence or education, compared with that required for becoming a doctor, who must be gentle and caring, but at the same time firm and strong. To destroy is easy—any fool can do that; but to create, heal, preserve and save requires intelligence and effort, does it not?

He who

saves life

is stronger

than the one

who kills.

 

SUFFERING

     Faced with the condition of the world, and all the crime, suffering and injustice thereof, some of us say: "Well, what can I do? I am nobody, and am not important." We thereby absolve ourselves of any responsibility, and do nothing.

     But is it really true that, because we may not be rich, famous, or influential, we can do nothing? Not really. Whether we intend to do anything or not, we are doing something, merely by living on this planet. Each of us is only one person, to be sure, but the population of the Earth—now about six billion—is composed of such units, is it not?

Come, take stock of yourself; away with weak thoughts! You are important. And how? Well, consider this:

Each and every

one of us

Has the capacity

to increase

or decrease

the suffering

in the world.

 

SUNSHINE

What would life be like if it were always easy? Would there be a reason to try to improve things? Would we not stagnate? H.G. Wells’ classic futuristic novel, The Time Machine, tells of a people known as the ‘Eloi’, who, long, long before, had brought nature under control, and had nothing to do but stretch out their hands to pick and eat. But the ease of life had robbed them of their will-power, made them soft and effeminate and vulnerable to other, more-aggressive life-forms.

     Without hardship to inspire and spur us on, we would not have developed as a species, but would probably still be living in caves, gnawing on raw meat and wearing animal skins. Because of the pains and difficulties of life, and our ability to think and reason, however, we have come this far, and will thereby go hence. Certainly, we are not out of the woods yet, and are still faced with many and great problems, mainly of our own making (and perhaps we always will be, as there seems to be an element of mischief-making in us); but, if we strive, and learn to cooperate for the common good, we shall almost surely find solutions to the problems. However, life must first be accepted for what it is, without pretending it is otherwise.

"All

sunshine

makes

a

desert."

(Arabic proverb).

 

TEST

Retirement from work is something that many people look forward to, while others do not; in any case, it is a milestone, though maybe more of a psychological one than anything else. Upon retirement, some people feel their useful life is over, and they must let themselves sink into decline, like the setting sun, and eventually die.

     The admonition of the Ancients: "Know Thyself", is advice we could all apply to our advantage. Why should