--- In [email protected], "Irmeli Mattsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > I still believe that it owes a lot to Buddhism... > > > > > > > > > > That's a stretch. Many translations of the First > > > > > Noble Truth have it as "Life is suffering," but > > > > > that's not related in any way to God, since they > > > > > don't believe in one. > > > > > > > > To say "life is suffering" implies there is something-- > > > > a condition or state--that is *not* suffering. > > > > > > > > If suffering is said to be a lack, there is something-- > > > > a condition or state--in which nothing is lacking. > > > > > > > > What is it? > > > > > > ++ State of mind? > > > > In a way. If (as the Four Noble Truths state) the > > cause of suffering is attachment to desire/aversion, > > then living in a state of mind that is *not* attached > > to achieving the fruits of desire or avoiding the > > things one is averse to is a way beyond suffering. > > > > The "input" to life doesn't change, only one's > > ability to greet it with equanimity. Try to force > > the square peg of that input into the round hole of > > one's desires, and you get suffering. Treat it as > > a square peg and be neither attached nor averse, > > no suffering. > > > > Nothing to "achieve," no "obstacles" to remove from > > the "path" to non-suffering, nowhere to "go." Same > > old same old...just life dealt with as What Is, not > > What You'd Like Life To Be. > > > > Just for fun, compare and contrast this to MMY's > > latest U.N. rap, in which he once again presents his > > S-V theories and suggests that the problems of the > > world can't be solved unless one starts over with > > all-new buildings. In the Buddhist view, this > > approach to resolving suffering can never work > > because it is based upon trying to change the input > > of life to avoid suffering, rather than change the > > inner being's ability to deals with the input with- > > out attachment. > > > > In the Buddhist view, the richest, most successful > > person in the world, living in a perfectly-aligned > > S-V house but still attached to his desires, will > > be lost in suffering. Whereas the poor person who > > lives in a cardboard box, if he is not attached to > > his desires, is beyond suffering. > > > > **** > The basic division between suffering and non-suffering lies in, as > Barry puts it, if you can accept `What is', or if you want to make > life what you want or dream it to be. Paradoxically also accepting > 'what is' much more effectively leads to transformation and true healing. > > The latter way was my way of functioning until age 16. I perceived > many faults and defects in myself and wanted to become like some of my > peers I admired. The efforts I made to change myself lead mainly to > big disappointments and even to worsening of my problems. > > Then at 16 I got the realization that life doesn't expect me to be > like someone, it accepts me as nothing. Life accepts me as no one. > There is an evolutionary impulse deep in life's functioning. All I > need to do is to align with this evolutionary impulse. It meant > `active passivity'. Passivity meant accepting yourself as you are, or > being nothing, and not trying to become something. Active meant being > alert in nothingness and acting when an impulse appeared from deep inside. > > This was a start of a highly interesting and exciting journey of life > consciously appreciating transformation. And I want to emphasise the > word start. I had just got a stable platform. Being established on > that I can keep basic stability and calm in the whirls of true > transformation and even enjoy the journey, just as you can find a > roller coaster ride very enjoyable. > > For a person, who does not rest on this kind of very stable platform, > enlightenment as a dream state means a blissful end station, where all > the whirls of painful creation and destruction have ceased. There the > essential nature of life is a threat, and enlightenment means you > don't need to re-incarnate anymore. > > Felt pain, mental or physical, is an important source of suffering. > Pain that one can accept I don't call suffering. It is just a very > intense sensation. Fear makes pain worse. Embracing resolves it. This > is of course much more easily said than done. I know this myself > thoroughly through my own life experience. I have a hereditary > muscular disease. For a very long time (from childhood on, getting > worse when I became adult) I felt very uncomfortable pain in my hands > and feet. At worst it felt like an awful pain in my bones. I was > afraid of this pain. It made me react physically to it by contraction, > which made the disease progress. The culmination of this process > happened in 92, when intense burning and tingling sensations appeared > in my feet. My feet were like burning, and simultaneously it could > feel like they were in ice and freezing. It was awful. However I > recognized hidden rage in this pain and started to work with it. I > engaged myself also in long psychotherapy to help the rocess. > > Gradually the burning sensation started to diminish and my perception > of it to change. I can still occasionally have intense burning > sensations in my feet, but now I can appreciate this sensation as > blissful. The unpleasant pain in my hands I can also appreciate better > nowadays. The shift of perception has changed the advancing of the > disease to slow healing. My feet are stronger than they were at 92. > And my hands are also better, so I can work again much better with > computer. I still cannot write much by hand, but there is clear > improvement there also. > Because I have accepted what is, I have never felt myself to be > suffering during this journey. > > Irmeli > **** I want as a clarification add that the realization or shift in perception that happened to me at 16, was not an logical intellectual idea that I started to follow. It was a sudden shift, that felt like a second of dizziness in my head while I was walking downstairs. After it I felt different, very calm, even and light. And I started to observe myself to be functioning differently. Earlier I had felt very hurt, when my mother screamed and yelled to me. From now on it had not impact on me. The intellectual understanding and description of my new way of functioning appeared only after I started to observe and analyse my functioning. There was no possibility for me to slip back to the old way of functioning. It just didn't exist anymore, nor did I miss it.
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