Monthly Archives: January 2025

Difficult Times…

For so many of us, this is a difficult time. I find the Buddha’s teaching on living in the present moment to be so helpful. My own hopes and fears get me into trouble and create great suffering for me, and consequently others. Living in the story of how it should have been, and now, how it’s going to be, creates heartbreak.

How it actually is right now is the answer to suffering and heartbreak. When I launch myself off into the future, I ask myself. “What’s true in this very moment?” And I calm down. I remember where I am and what I value. I remember that we are all connected. Not just some of us, but all of us are connected. When I remember our inter-beingness I can focus my heart on loving-kindness and compassion for us all.

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “Do not maintain anger or hatred… Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break.” Instead of anger and hatred, I am deliberately, intentionally maintaining an open heart to all beings, and watching my speech so that I don’t cause greater division.

Buddha said, “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal law.”

Love is the answer.

There is so much suffering in our world today…

As I look at and read the news, I feel so over whelmed and impotent. I ask, “what can I do?” What comes to mind this morning is the Dharma taught by the ancient teacher, Shantideva. He said that we can send our loving thoughts, our aspirations offering help and safety, compassion and courage to all beings.

In The Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, he wrote:

May I be a guard for all those who are protector-less,
A guide for those who journey on the road,
For those who wish to cross the water,
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall,
And a lamp for those who long for light;
For those who need a resting place, a bed;
For all who need a servant, may I be their slave.

For all those ailing in the world,
Until their every sickness has been healed,
May I myself become for them
The doctor, nurse, the medicine itself.

THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH

Stephen Batchelor wrote in ‘Buddhism Without Beliefs,’ “Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. In the face of a changing world, such craving seeks consolation in something permanent and reliable, in a self that is in control of things, in a God who is in charge of destiny. In yearning for anguish to be assuaged in such ways, we reinforce what creates anguish in the first place; the craving for life other than it is.”

Buddha identified craving as the cause of suffering. The Pali word for craving is tanha, which is a state of incessant, never-ending, unquenchable thirst. We continually look for something outside ourselves to make us happy, secure and content. We attach to people, places and things, ideas, concepts and opinions about ourselves and the world.

Change, impermanence, is one of the most difficult things for us to handle and accept… even though everything changes all the time.

ALL the time.

ALL the time. Faster than we can ever see it. It is the absolute constant of life. Life and we are always changing. Batchelor goes on to say, “Our attachment and our identification with what we want cause us to suffer deeply. The objects are not the problem – our attachment and identification are. The objects are not the problem – our attachment and identification are. When we expect to have and be the same or better forever we suffer.”