An extract from the book of Sumana Samanera - Pabbaja. It explains very well that it is just a matter of timing and maturity of wisdom in the search for true happiness that human will come to the point of realizing the greatest love of all is to end the cessation of sufferings once and for all which, however, can only be attained individually. "For years a man may have devoted himself to the care of wife and child, prizing nothing higher than his family’s welfare. Then war comes to his country. The course of events stirs him profoundly; he is affected by new ideas, another view of things gains strength within him. “Sweet it is to die for the fatherland!” The feeling overpowers him: “What care I for wife, what care I for child!” Of his own free will he goes forth to meet the foes of the fatherland. The duty to his country now seems to him higher than the duty to his wife and children. Another man has in former days, with full conviction, solemnly vowed faithfully to stand by his country even to death. Later on, in consequence of higher comprehension he gains a higher standpoint, a wider outlook; envisages politics as a citizen of the world, thinks in universal terms: “This Frenchman is a fellow human being, is a fellow sufferer. This Russian is a fellow human being, is a fellow sufferer. Life is a sacred thing; frightful, barbaric is this wholesale killing, called war—the visible aggravation of suffering.” No longer can he slay his fellow-men. In case of a call to arms he willingly allows himself to be shot by his own countrymen. The duty “Thou shalt not kill!” stands higher in his eyes than any duty towards his fatherland. Yet another, as pastor, for many a year enjoyed a secure living with his family. By degrees his views undergo a change. He finds himself unable any longer to give his assent to dogmas, to the doctrines of Revelation, of Grace, or of Forgiveness of Sins, or Vicarious Atonement; he can no longer believe in that deplorable and absurd doctrine of “eternal damnation for the deeds of a brief spell of thirty years.” A higher knowledge has come to fruition within him. Clear and evident to him has become the universally ruling law, the unchangeable, equable relation of cause and effect, the unfailingly just recompensations of right or wrong action (kamma). He burdens his mind neither with thoughts about the unfathomable, nor with useless discussions: he understands suffering and the cessation of suffering.—the saviour in man. As an honourable man how can he go on preaching as before? He will follow his altered convictions, give up his position as pastor—come what may! Whoso acts according to his deepest understanding is always straight and candid, ever acts in accordance with truth—at least relatively so: for a man’s truth is his degree of understanding. “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not then be false to any man: Be true to the highest within you!” To a man now, who has clearly perceived the pitiable condition of all beings that share a common existence, what higher, holier, or more urgent task can there be than to become perfectly kind, perfectly good or holy and thereby to get himself cured of this being born, growing old and dying, of this sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair? Hence if he has truly recognised the significance and value of asceticism for the fulfilment of this highest duty, and experienced the impossibility of its perfect realisation in household life, there follows the going forth into homelessness (pabbajjā) as necessarily as the fall of the drop that is full. “No man can serve two masters”—fully well. The man who devotedly strives for the fulfilment of the Doctrine experiences intensely the unsatisfactoriness of divided allegiance. Hence after a time, he gives it up, for the blessing of himself as well as of his family; an inward law of development that is beyond dispute. Only a mother knows the pangs of childbirth, and only a mother knows the succeeding joys of motherhood. Only he who has left home knows the relief of relinquishing accustomed bonds; only he who has left home, knows the happiness of being free: an inward experience—indisputable! “The joys of the family life and the joys of the homeless life—these are two different joys: and the nobler of the two is the joy the homeless life.”
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:13:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015