Hi Everybody,
New episode, new chapter. And an important one I think. We've encountered the word 'practice' many many times in the text so far, in this chapter we find out what it means. So this is chapter 7, and it's called Buddhism and Practice.
' There is a striking phrase that I encountered many years ago that has stuck like a burr in my mind ever since, and every now and again when the circumstances warrent, it resurfaces and makes its presence felt. The phrase quite simply is,
' We don't see the world as it is. We see it as we are.'
What is remarkabel about it I believe is that it encapsulates in so few words, so profound and bottomless a piece of wisdom, that once heard you might say, it's never forgotten. In this particular form of words it doesn't happen to come from the Buddhist tradition, it comes in fact from the texts that make up the ancient Jewish Talmud, which is the first written compendium of Judaism's oral law. But it expresses an idea that lies aright at the heart of Shakyamuni's teaching, that essentially, we carry our environment around with us.
It reminds us , lest we should forget, that although we might think that what we do each day is to walk through a sort of external reality, to which we respond in various ways, that is very much not the case. It tells us in fact hat it is our own state of mind, our own attitude, how we are inside our heads, that plays so large a part in how we actually experience everything we encounter in our world and in our relationships.
We need to perceive our overwhelming responsibility that is, for shaping and creatingn our own reality and our own environment.
With even a few minutes of reflection we grasp the essential truth of that don't we? We all know full well that we can have intensely grey and gloomy days, and we can have brilliantly bright and sunny days, that have absolutely nothing to do with what's going on outside; they are created almost entirely by our own internal weather. We have all experienced, particularly in the working environment perhaps, the encouraging and uplifting effect of a colleague who seems always to have a bright and optimistic inner life, so that a whole team can be energised by such a spirit, however daunting the task in hand. And we've all experienced the reverse, the way in which the spirit of a whole group can be dragged down by a single colleague who tends to turn up full of negativity and proceeds to tip it out, rather like emptying a suitcase into the office. We have all been there.
But the key thing perhaps that we should take from this piece of ancient wisdom is the hope-filled life strategy it proposes. Because it tells us that we do have the ability to transform our lives. If we could only find a way of developing and sustaining an internal life state that is consistently hopeful and optimistic and resilient, then that will become the dominant perspective from which we will perceive and shape our environment...our reality...our life.
And that essentially is what a Buddhist practice is about.
That may seem a huge and sudden leap to make in the argument, but it's not really. The daily Buddhist practice is precisely about developing a much greater awareness or mindfulness of our internal weather, of where we are in our heads, and its profound effect upon our own perceptions, and upon all those around us. And then beyond that, building the determination to do something positive about it, to steadily shift our whole lives you might say, towards the positive end of the spectrum, nurturing those qualities of hope and optimism and resilience so that they become a consistent part of our daily aproach to life.
We want to become that bright and resourceful and optimistic colleague who everybody wants to have around. '
Well that's it for today. That's the introduction if you like to the substance of the chapter, and we now move on to the detail of the daily practice.
Hope it makes sesne ! And hope to see you next time.
Best wishes,
William
Could I ask a favour. would you mind chanting an hour a day with me for the next 7 days for two people who demand all our compassion. For the young women who was beaten to death for marrying a man of her own choice. And for the young mother sentenced to death in Sudan for marrying a christian man. I would really appreciate it. If you tell your friends we could send a powerful tide of compassion in their direction. thank you
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