Suffering
It's Easter
Listening to the Johannes Passion
The powerful beginning is a foreboding of the crucifixion.
Mythology is so important.
Christianity has meant a lot, even if its just ideas.
Before resurrection it must be suffering
Buddha suffered too when he saw the handicapped, the sick and the old people.
And when he tried too hard with fastening and mediation.
Both Jesus and Buddha meant that there is a way from suffering.
Follow me, they say.
But suffering seems to always be there.
Why?
Perhaps because everything is impermanent.
And deep inside we know it, even though commercials often stops when everything is perfect.... And often we want to believe in a perfect world, at least for ourselves.
Even religions, as Buddhism, want the perfect luck. they have "commercialism" about Nirvana and so on.
Mindfulness can for sure make it easier for us, but it cannot take away the suffering, but its a tool to handle it.
But we also need companionship.
I meet a Buddhist monk int the Plum village tradition today. He lived in a monastery with 16 other monks, in a good and healthy climate.
He was a great teacher, very intelligent and kind.
And I think he has made a clever choice; to live with other kind people who share the same tradition and values must be good, though of course no heaven.
So he might not come to Nirvana, but to companionship, and that maybe good enough.
Often marriage seem not to be that happy. The Hollywood films often ends just before the marriage. Many people feel alone even if they live in relation. A Buddhist would say that sexual desires has fooled us
Divorce increases in the developed world;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_demography
Maybe there are other ways to live together.
Maybe its possible to find a middle way there too, to use the desires in a skillful way...
It seems impossible to totally get rid of them.
We nowadays have more time to look at our suffering, just 100 years ago most of us must work the day long fort food and shelter.
I have a free day for my self today and can think about these things. That would be a luxury in the past.
I have axess to a lot of information on the net, maybe too much....
But that is a luxury too.
As Yuval Harari points out, in the long run the world is going to more and more internationalism, is getting smaller and smaller. We now know that people on the other side of the earth are quit like us we know that mankind was born in Africa and then spread out - so we are all related
An in these days we are everywhere. spread out like no other animal.
I have hope in mankind.
We are going to a world with less and less violence, it will be a safer place for women and children.
Democracy will come to all countries and population will decrease.
But it will take time...
An when population has decreased enough we can start to take care of nature in a serious way,
In many ways suffering is not longer necessary even today.
Already most of us can die without so much pain as in the past. We have painkillers and so on.
Buddha saw a sick man and was terrified, bit in our days the man may have been cured.
In some countries they even help death to not let the suffering to be so long.
Harari also points out that imperialism with all its cruelty also have had its good sides, as planting new ideas as democracy.
But he also means that the future is uncertain, the same does the "Future of Life institute", with for instance Stephen Hawking and here Max Tegmark. Technology may help us, or destroy us;
Technology develops faster than humanism.
But again, meditation and mindfulness from an early age may help us to develop faster. To not identify with anger, jealousy and all the desires that pops up s.... o make some space around the thoughts...
And if we are skilled enough; to take care of the suffering that we all share... handle it like a small and crying child.
Listening to the Johannes Passion
The powerful beginning is a foreboding of the crucifixion.
Mythology is so important.
Christianity has meant a lot, even if its just ideas.
Before resurrection it must be suffering
Buddha suffered too when he saw the handicapped, the sick and the old people.
And when he tried too hard with fastening and mediation.
Both Jesus and Buddha meant that there is a way from suffering.
Follow me, they say.
But suffering seems to always be there.
Why?
Perhaps because everything is impermanent.
And deep inside we know it, even though commercials often stops when everything is perfect.... And often we want to believe in a perfect world, at least for ourselves.
Even religions, as Buddhism, want the perfect luck. they have "commercialism" about Nirvana and so on.
Mindfulness can for sure make it easier for us, but it cannot take away the suffering, but its a tool to handle it.
But we also need companionship.
I meet a Buddhist monk int the Plum village tradition today. He lived in a monastery with 16 other monks, in a good and healthy climate.
He was a great teacher, very intelligent and kind.
And I think he has made a clever choice; to live with other kind people who share the same tradition and values must be good, though of course no heaven.
So he might not come to Nirvana, but to companionship, and that maybe good enough.
Often marriage seem not to be that happy. The Hollywood films often ends just before the marriage. Many people feel alone even if they live in relation. A Buddhist would say that sexual desires has fooled us
Divorce increases in the developed world;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_demography
Maybe there are other ways to live together.
Maybe its possible to find a middle way there too, to use the desires in a skillful way...
It seems impossible to totally get rid of them.
We nowadays have more time to look at our suffering, just 100 years ago most of us must work the day long fort food and shelter.
I have a free day for my self today and can think about these things. That would be a luxury in the past.
I have axess to a lot of information on the net, maybe too much....
But that is a luxury too.
As Yuval Harari points out, in the long run the world is going to more and more internationalism, is getting smaller and smaller. We now know that people on the other side of the earth are quit like us we know that mankind was born in Africa and then spread out - so we are all related
An in these days we are everywhere. spread out like no other animal.
I have hope in mankind.
We are going to a world with less and less violence, it will be a safer place for women and children.
Democracy will come to all countries and population will decrease.
But it will take time...
An when population has decreased enough we can start to take care of nature in a serious way,
In many ways suffering is not longer necessary even today.
Already most of us can die without so much pain as in the past. We have painkillers and so on.
Buddha saw a sick man and was terrified, bit in our days the man may have been cured.
In some countries they even help death to not let the suffering to be so long.
Harari also points out that imperialism with all its cruelty also have had its good sides, as planting new ideas as democracy.
But he also means that the future is uncertain, the same does the "Future of Life institute", with for instance Stephen Hawking and here Max Tegmark. Technology may help us, or destroy us;
Technology develops faster than humanism.
But again, meditation and mindfulness from an early age may help us to develop faster. To not identify with anger, jealousy and all the desires that pops up s.... o make some space around the thoughts...
And if we are skilled enough; to take care of the suffering that we all share... handle it like a small and crying child.
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