“Zenfully Quool Quotes”
Currently featuring “The Art of Living”
By Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
When you look at your closest relationship,
you may feel you can no longer recognize
the person you once fell in love with—
they seem to have disappeared
or turned into someone completely different.
Everything has changed.
Difficulties and misunderstandings have arisen.
Perhaps neither of you has been skillful enough
in your way of thinking,
in your way of speaking and behaving,
and you have neglected your relationship.
Through your thoughts or unskillful words and actions,
you’ve unintentionally hurt each other so often
that you no longer look at or talk to each other in a loving way.
You’ve made each other suffer too much.
It may seem that the love you once shared has gone.
But just as the acorn is still there in the oak tree,
the love of yesterday is still present today.
It is always possible to revive your relationship
and rediscover the person you once loved.
Looking with the eyes of ‘signlessness’,
you will see the person you once fell in love with is still there.”
“The truth is that suffering and happiness; ’inter-are’ ;
There cannot be one without the other.
It is thanks to overcoming difficult moments in our relationships
that we can deepen our love.
And the good news is
that suffering and happiness are both impermanent.
That is why the Buddha continued to practice
even after he had attained enlightenment;
he continued to make good use of suffering to create happiness.
It is possible for us all to make good use of suffering to create happiness,
just as a gardener makes good use of compost to make flowers.
Our suffering is impermanent,
and that is why we can transform it.
And because happiness is impermanent,
that is why we have to nourish it.
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Zenfully Quool Quotes Quommentary
by rog
Thich outlines how most relationships… friends or lovers…
Dissolve into uninspiring monotony…
and often fail completely.
Without the training of mindful Loving kindness
and the earnest pursuit into ‘self’ inquiry…
Most people will live their entire lives mis-believing they are their egos.
When we allow this to happen…
Our ego becomes the most important aspect of
who we mis-believe ourselves to be…
Every spoken word or even physical expression
becomes analyzed in a paranoid sort of way
to look for the slightest reason to feel attacked.
More often than not,
we misinterpret someone’s communication or body language
and start the retaliation process.
Someone with an earnest spiritual practice such as
the Buddha’s Noble Eight-Fold Path
or
has gone through extensive psychological training
to be a fully aware conscious being…
will always be considering a few key considerations…
such as:
Are my thoughts coming from mindful loving kindness?
Or
Am I thinking about making myself look good or better than the others?
Is my speech coming from mindful loving kindness?
Or
Am I speaking in a way that that makes me sound good
or better than the others?
Is my actions coming from mindful loving kindness?
Or
Am I acting in a way that is making me look good or better than the others?
In western psychology,
the metric to determine someone’s human growth level
is how well they can take the view of others into their perspective.
The more perspectives one can integrate into their overall perspective,
the more evolved that person is.
These are very simple aspects of the human condition
and could easily be learned if all schools taught this.
Not only would personal relationships be transformed…
The whole world would be transformed
into a unity of mindful loving kindness.
This would create the bases of transcending from a human condition
that is locked into the disparities from a life challenged with deficiencies…
To a life of abundance.
It’s so simple….
Yet,
So far away from the ego-based societies we endure.
Sadly,
most organized theological religions do not preach or teach unity…
They are hell driven to point out the perceived evil and differences of humanity
in order to distance themselves from a man made up evil, and thus
perpetuating the pain and suffering of the human condition.
