Venerable Ajahn Chah : Think and really look closely! The Buddha said that things of the world spin the world around. Following the world, the mind is entangled in the world, it defiles itself whether coming or going, never remaining content. Worldly people are those who are always looking for something - who can never find enough. Worldly knowledge is really ignorance; it isnt knowledge with clear understanding, therefore there is never an end to it. It revolves around the worldly goals of accumulating things, gaining status, seeking praise and pleasure; its a mass of delusion which has us stuck fast. This is the way of the world. The Buddha said that if one follows it around there is no reaching an end. People dont realize! They say that they will get things done in the world. Its always their hope to complete everything. Just like a new government minister who is eager to get started with his new administration. He thinks that he has all the answers, so he carts away everything of the old administration saying, Look out! Ill do it all myself. Thats all they do, cart things in and cart things out, never getting anything done. They try, but never reach any real completion. You can never do something which will please everyone - one person likes a little, another likes a lot; one like short and one likes long; some like salty and some like spicy. To get everyone together and in agreement just cannot be done. All of us want to accomplish something in our lives, but the world, with all of its complexities, makes it almost impossible to bring about any real completion. Even the Buddha, born with all the opportunities of a noble prince, found no completion in the worldly life. As wisdom matures and we begin to understand in accordance with the truth, we will no longer be dragged up and down. Usually, if we have a pleasant mood, we behave one way; and if we have an unpleasant mood, we are another way. We like something and we are up; we dislike something and we are down. In this way we are still in conflict with enemies. When these things no longer oppose us, they become stabilized and balance out. There are no longer ups and downs or highs and lows. We understand these things of the world and know that thats just the way it is. Its just worldly dhamma. (Lokadhamma: the eight worldly conditions are gain and loss, honor and dishonor, happiness and misery, praise and blame.) ajahnchah.org/book/Two_Faces_Reality1.php
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:01:44 +0000
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