so i have been reluctant to move on to the fourth of the "Four Reminders" that i planned to spend time contemplating. i edited Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's poetic version of the fourth reminder to this: "saṃsāra is unendurable, unbearably intense; all beings suffer."
karma was a stern lesson. but saṃsāra is harder somehow. saṃsāra is the suffering created when we run in the hamster wheel: the pain of always reaching, never obtaining (or not for long), the pain of always fleeing, never escaping (or not for long).
it's hard to accept that all that striving just ends in creating pain. the shiny apple dangles just beyond our fingertips... surely if we run faster... the wolf is at our heels... maybe we can escape.
but pleasure ends and death comes. just as pleasure comes again and birth comes. this has remarkably little to do with our striving. and the striving causes pain not just to ourselves but to everyone else.
i am acutely conscious of this right now. that the striving, the reaching, the desperation creates collateral damage. those we love are hurt as much as we are.
maybe that's why i didn't want to consider this one. (ya think?)
but always, the balm to my soul: "would that the emotions of sentient beings could just calm down, and they could experience comfort and ease." just calm down. just relax. just stop this endless struggle!
it's so simple really. heh.
2 comments:
lovely balm at the end. you are so brave and so wise.
if my throat ever recovers from this freaking cold, i will call you. right now i sound like a hoarse horse who hurts when she speaks!
love
miri
Turn within.
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