Our Buddhist tradition unfolds a dharma about the Two Truths — the truth of life in samsara, a realm of desire and aversion, and the truth of liberation from samsara. In samsara we are all thinking, feeling, reacting, human beings guided by whether we like or dislike something and thoroughly identified with it all. We are caught by ancient, inherited and self-created karma, under the delusion that we are separate from the all of life. That’s one truth, the relative truth. This includes all the details of our daily round that challenge us, make us happy, make us unhappy, and are experienced as, Me in here and the world out there.
This separated self cannot avoid difficulties, no matter how much we try to dodge them or how wise or skillful we are. We are affected by others’ issues and others are affected by ours. We work in our practice to wake up to the ways in which we get caught up in this tangle, developing insight and patience through practicing with it.
The other truth, the truth of liberation, nirvana, is a possibility for the ending of suffering and the causes of suffering. This is a very complex statement and comprises our entire practice. What do I do that creates suffering? What can I do so that I don’t create suffering? And how do I reckon with the unavoidability of the First Noble truth, the truth of suffering? Since samsara doesn’t occur separately, continuous practice consists of getting a deep look into this “I” and all the things that condition “I” to act and react from karmic patterns in each moment.
This is a long and deep practice that eventually will confront us with any pain that we may have tried to avoid feeling, since of old, and possibly transforming it through understanding and insight, opening and relaxing into the practice of the Eightfold Path. We all have stories about our pain and where it comes from, as though it comes from somewhere else, anywhere else but right here each moment. We can begin to own the source as within our own hearts.
Everything works together to help us wake up. Our joys and our sorrows are dharma teachers. These things, all things, and mind, are not separate.
The other truth, the truth of liberation, nirvana, is a possibility for the ending of suffering and the causes of suffering. This is a very complex statement and comprises our entire practice. What do I do that creates suffering? What can I do so that I don’t create suffering? And how do I reckon with the unavoidability of the First Noble truth, the truth of suffering? Since samsara doesn’t occur separately, continuous practice consists of getting a deep look into this “I” and all the things that condition “I” to act and react from karmic patterns in each moment.
This is a long and deep practice that eventually will confront us with any pain that we may have tried to avoid feeling, since of old, and possibly transforming it through understanding and insight, opening and relaxing into the practice of the Eightfold Path. We all have stories about our pain and where it comes from, as though it comes from somewhere else, anywhere else but right here each moment. We can begin to own the source as within our own hearts.
Everything works together to help us wake up. Our joys and our sorrows are dharma teachers. These things, all things, and mind, are not separate.
Mushin