With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The rain clouds are hanging over us this morning here in the desert and I see it is 66 degrees. I have my running shorts on and am about to go out for a run/walk with the dogs before going to Zen Center for morning zazen.
Going out before the sun rises is a delicious thing. In this way we get to experience the arrival of a new day. Such things are always attended by fresh scents, clean air, and refreshed lines of thought.
I have been considering this whole notion in our culture that we should somehow place our focus on enjoying our lives. While it is a good thing, I am sure, to enjoy our life, we should not want to place that enjoyment in front of other things. What other things?
Well, the suffering of others, the need to take care of our loved ones, the demands of our planet to name a few of the bigger examples. Some things are much larger than we are and when we place our attention on those things it seems our own pleasures diminish in value. On the other hand, to place our attention on increasing the value of our pleasure, we seem to diminish the value of those around us. Those around us become in-service to our pleasure. Not such good inverse relationship.
The Bodhisattva Way charges us to consider the world first and ourselves second. Yet, as we come to realize through our practice, there is no "world" and "us" difference. So, it is important to use our wonderful minds to attain perspective on such things. Today we call this 'balance.' In another age and with a different slant on it, it would be called 'practice realization.'
Be well.
"I have been considering this whole notion in our culture that we should somehow place our focus on enjoying our lives. While it is a good thing, I am sure, to enjoy our life, we should not want to place that enjoyment in front of other things."
ReplyDeleteharvey-san, it should be possible to enjoy our lives fully. this seems especially true if we gain enjoyment from the happiness of others.
we could choose to never eat in restaurants or never go out to movies. we could take that money saved and donate it to some good cause. we could always do more. but we have to consider our own happiness and our own lives along with the lives and happiness of others. That doesn’t seem to be a problem if we remember we are each other.