How can we begin to answer these questions about life and death?
A good answer, the right answer,
should be based on evidence.
It is not a question of faith or belief, but of looking deeply.
To meditate is to look deeply
and see the things that others cannot see,
including the wrong views that lie at the base of our suffering.
When we can break free from these wrong views,
we can master the art of living happily in peace and freedom.
~
The first wrong view we need to liberate ourselves from
is the idea that we are a separate self
cut off from the rest of the world.
We have a tendency to think we have a separate self
that is born at one moment and must die at another,
and that is permanent during the time we are alive.
As long as we have this wrong view,
we will suffer;
we will create suffering for those around us,
and we will cause harm to other species and to our precious planet.
~
The second wrong view that many of us hold is
the view that we are only this body,
and that when we die we cease to exist.
This wrong view blinds us to all the ways in which
we are interconnected with the world around us
and the ways in which we continue after death.
~
The third wrong view that many of us have
is the idea that what we are looking for —
whether it be happiness, heaven, or love —
can be found only outside us in a distant future.
~
We may spend our lives chasing after and waiting for these things,
not realizing that they can be found within us,
right in the present moment.
———————————————————————-
“Zenfully Quool Quotes”…
Currently featuring “The Art of Living”
By Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
My aim is to present
a deeper, higher, wider, non-theological perspective
into common sense Spirituality
that most of us folks raised in the ‘west’ never get introduced to,
to fulfill life’s most intriguing questions…