--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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.
Another thought on this subject, to relate it back to the rap that started this thread: Both desire and aversion are an attempt to turn "What is" into something else. The person who is convinced that there is something that 'prevents' their enlightenment -- whether they consider that something to be ego, or intel- lect, or stress, or whatever -- is attempting to (in Vaj's terms) "patch" the "What is" of the universe and transform it into the "What I'd like it to be" of the professional sufferer. It's the desire/aversion cycle as path -- I "should" come back to the mantra; I "should not" trusts my ego/ self/intellect. The "What is" of life is *all you need* to realize enlightenment. Nothing needs to be achieved, nothing removed. Nothing is an 'obstacle' to enlightenment. The ego is enlightenment, the intellect is enlighten- ment, the 'good' questions of the bhakti are enlight- enment and the 'bad' questions of the cynic are enlightenment. Only enlightenment is. Listening to someone go on and on about the parts of one's self one has to reject or not trust or get "beyond" to realize enlightenment is a lot like watching someone looking for their glasses while wearing their glasses. You'd kinda like to tell them, but at the same time they seem to be so *involved* in searching for the glasses everywhere that you hate to spoil their fun... ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
