How many times did we think that we loved someone and at the same time that we did love them yes but if we could only change that aspect of them or a behaviour or even more profound elements of their personality? What was it that we actually loved then? Simply an idea which we wanted to give ourselves as a gift and on which we then put a specific person'a face and life. It was really about us then and not about them. Is love really just about us? I want this. I want that. I need this. I need that. I do not like this and I do not like that. Me. Me. Me. And the more we have the more we want. Could there possibly be something better than getting after wanting?
But then we want again. After we have a lover we want another. Maybe we want designer clothes and a fast car. Then maybe it is time to want a better home and a more attractive body. We want to feel attractive and wanted. We become the wanting wanted. So that's it. What then? Where do we stop? Can we stop? Is it healthy to stop? How can we survive such a society without aligning with it? There we go again...I and them. I am me and they are them. The separation. The barricade. The divide. The border. The excuse. That line we pass only to go over there and get what we want and then retire into our ego. Bye Bye. See you when I want more....We even create religions based on wanting and getting. The more you pray the more you will get. Set some goals and keep on praying until you achieve them.
Does this really make us free and happy? Does happiness depend on our ego and desires? Or does happiness depend on not depending? Food for thought. A splendid thought of freedom. The thing is that we are that same society that we want to use at our own earliest convenience because every action of ours creates a cause which will generate an effect in the exact instant when the appropriate external cause will match our internal one. That world of people used and abused by us at any cost for our own personal agenda is our karma too. It is what we sow. It is us. It is what we are part of and responsible for. But if we are free from dependance and everytime we think, speak or do or want something we do it for the benefit of the universe at large things will definitely change that very moment. We will rediscover the Buddha that all is.
Ego is a great obstacle to overcome, and according to Buddhism it is one of the main causes of suffering. As the Lotus Sutra says, we lives in a burning house, playing with our toys again and again. We don't even realize that our life could be different. There is a phrase in the sutra that always shocks me everytime I read it: "they will always dwell in the hells, roaming there as if in pleasure gardens". It's time to wake up and to go out from the burning house.
ReplyDeleteTo chant the daimoku it's an excellent mean to overcome the ego. When you chant you becomes one with the Buddha, and in time you loose your identity becoming just the Namu Myohorengekyo you chant. A little advice: it's good to recall the daimoku in your mind everytime you feel your ego is attacking you. Confucius said: "10 thoughts, 1 word". We could say: "3 daimoku, 1 word".
Namu Myohorengekyo!