Sunday, December 29, 2013

Happiness and Suffering

I haven't wrote anything in a while.  Well, not on here.  So I thought I would share my thoughts with you guys on a quote I came across.  If you guys don't know, I am a practicing Buddhist.  No, it's not my religion, my religion is something else.  But it doesn't matter what your religion is, anyone can practice Buddhism.

So here are my thoughts on this quote.


"The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral. Those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from the razor’s edge. How pitiful are they who cling strongly to concrete reality. Turn your attention within, my heart, friends."  -Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche


Photo by FWStupidio on DeviantArt
Link here: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Reflection-of-Buddhism-124754138


Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche (1932-1999) was a Tibetan lama.

  • Illusory: causing illusion; deceptive; misleading.  
  • Ephemeral: lasting a very short time.

What I believe his words to mean...

Everything is so illusionary that one cannot distinguish between reality and illusion.  Is there any clear demarcation as to what is happiness and what is suffering?  One that considered happiness a minute ago, might turn into suffering.  Nothing is absolute, it's all relative.

Some could say that suffering isn't happiness.  No one in there right mind would think that they are one of the same.  But they can be.

If you drop a bouncy ball, doesn't the ball bounce back after it hits the surface? (duh)  But if I told you, to put as much force behind the bounce, what will happen to the ball?  It cracks, possibly break -- Happiness leading to suffering.  When people suffer they just have to make light of it, by realizing that they are on the downward motion, just like the ball.  You are the ball.  And just like the ball, if you make light of it, soon you will bounce back.  If you put too much force, you will crack, possibly break and be stuck.  Its just simple Yin and Yang.

Suffering as happiness means, we mistaken things that set us up to crave more and eventually changes into the suffering of dissatisfaction for happiness.  So we eventually seek out the things that bring pleasure to our lives, which comes in the illusion of happiness.  Because pleasure and happiness aren't the same.  So we become pleasure junkies, hankering after happiness in things that always change into suffering.  Hence Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche saying, "they who lick the honey from the razor’s edge."

But concrete reality is our own dream in which we "know" all the names for things that surrounds us.  And you are not pitiful if you decided to cling strongly to your concrete reality.  But the majority keep forgetting that our concrete reality is based upon our senses and concepts, and they are subject to change.  They are temporary, therefore ephemeral -- Existing one moment and disappearing the next.  Basically all the things we see or hear is inside us, not outside of us, and depends on our perception of our concrete reality.

Our perception depends on the clarity inside.  To turn our attention inward, is to acknowledge the source of everything that makes up our world by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.  To be attentive, is to be silent.  To be silent, is to live with the world and in the world, but not to be of the world.

So, try to remember to turn your attention within your heart -- Listen.  Because that is how you will be able to distinguish between happiness, pleasure, and suffering.  What is real and what is Illusory.

(^-^)v
Nell-e


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