Opening to the Infinite

What I find most difficult to let go of is linearity. The theory of reality that says the universe is a logical, rational system of cause and effect. It's a nice theory. But it just doesn't work. We can walk a spiritual path taking one step after another in what we think is a reasonable method, our sadana, our path.

But then something happens and we find we are not on the path we thought we were on, we are not in the place we thought we were, we are further along or further behind, and we are heartened or disheartened...then it happens, we have a moment when we see it isn't about linear progress, it's about letting go...it's not understandable, it's not logical, our awakening just Is, that Isness may not follow the prescribed path, one foot after another...because at some point we stop walking and stat to fly, and when we fly all bets are off, we are flying! And the nice mechanical, linear, rational path we thought we were on gets blown apart. We find we are somewhere else than we thought we were, or thought we ever could be. I've realized it's not about reason, it's about grace.

Thank you my teachers for showing the way, for helping me see past the fear to letting go of my strength, the intellect...Now, have flown with my own wings...we are the seekers, we are the walkers and we are the path...it was there all the time...now I am at the right altitude to see it...and to see that the path never ends, just as we, ourselves never end.

A concise guide to The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha (based on a dharma talk by HH The Dalai Lama)

1 To live is to struggle. Many translations of this are “life is suffering”. I like the word struggle in place of suffering, I think it gives a clearer picture without the connotations of ‘suffering’. We all struggle, we struggle to attain wealth, success, education, honors, to win wars, to beat out the other guy, these are all ways we struggle, Buddha talked about a world without struggle, a world built on equanimity. We may hear these words but they seem too far away to attain. The four noble truths give us a path to equanimity that we, as human beings, can follow. 

2 Desire is the root of our struggle. We desire things, material things, spiritual things, emotional things…the list is endless. We desire, it seems a part of human nature to desire. Can we learn to live without desire? To stop desiring? 

3 It is possible to stop our struggling! 

4 The way to stop our struggling is to follow the middle path. The middle path that Buddha taught has 8 stepping stones. I think of them as instruction on how to place our feet in order to stay on the path. 

In nutshell the fourth truth says that our actions have meaning and that we can learn to control our human activities by study of our thinking, our doing and our states of being (you may notice the 8 steps fall into these 3 categories quite neatly). 

Right Understanding

Right Thought

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right Concentration

We start by being aware of what we know, then expand that awareness to how we act, and lastly to how we think. When we gain a deeper understanding of the human condition our thinking, actions and states of being align with our true nature. Aligning with our true nature stops the struggle. When we cease our struggle and learn to flow with life our world becomes a better place to live for us andn everyone else.