Hi Everybody,
Back from the beautiful blue and gold of the Mediterranean to a somewhat more autumnal England. Had a great time I must say. But back to work. This passage follows on directly from the previous one about the central message of Shakyamuni expressed in the Lotus Sutra. This accumulated wisdom about learning how to create for oneself a better and a happier life no matter what challenges or problems we all encounter every day of our lives, continues to be about the present and not about the past. It continues to demonstate its direct immediacy and relevance despite the vast changes mankind has lived through in every area of our lives; immense immeasurable changes.
But those are of course external changes, whereas our inner humanity remains unchanged. We still find ourselves blocked and limited by all kinds of disabling doubts and fears. Fears of so many things; fear of inadequacy, fear of rejection, fear of failure and of loss and much else. We still find ourselves knocked down and disabled by problems and difficulties that sometimes seem so overwhelming that we don't know where to turn. We still find it difficult to acknowledge let alone to draw on our inner resources of courage and hope and and optimism to make the very most of our lives.
Indeed some of Buddhism's central teachings about how to recognise and draw upon our inner resources and so overcome many of the negative impulses and responses that we experience, have been taken up and used on a regular basis by some of today's leading psychologists in helping people cope with severe and persistent depression and sadness.
So Buddhism continues to touch and change people's inner lives, in the West now as well as in the east, in increasing numbers. If we ask the question why that is, there are of course many threads to the answer. But undoubtedly one of them will be that there is something immensely powerful, immensely empowering about this central idea that comes from Shakyamuni and Nichiren, about learning how to take hold of our lives in a rational way and moving them towards the positive end of the spectrum. We all want to know how to do that. And that really brings us back to this question of faith in Buddhism? What does it mean? In some ways it is the most important question of all. And that's where we go next time.
Hope to see you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
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