· One asks with profound sincerity the deepest questions:
Why am I alive?
What is the purpose of life?
What is the meaning of life?
· One senses in oneself the profound need to understand life, its purpose and meaning, and one’s own purpose and meaning.
· One dedicates oneself to this deep need “to understand.”
In the quest for understanding, one summons all one’s
willpower (effort)
concentration (focus)
and meditates on the first questions.
As one becomes more focused and gains in concentration, one has the insight of the syzygy:
Everything has its opposite (up/down; tall/short; great/small; etc.).
All abstractions and concepts each have their opposite.
This includes pleasure and its opposite, pain.
Therefore:
· Insight: (a) It is impossible to escape pain without also renouncing (escaping) pleasure.
· Insight: (b) The concept of pleasure is meaningless without the concept of pain.
Also, the experience of pleasure is impossible without the experience of pain (though they are experienced at different times).
People are deluded and seek pleasure in all its forms because they do not see the intimate connection between pleasure and pain.
· Insight: (c) One realizes that seeking (“going after”) pleasure is profitless, wasted effort, for pleasure is always accompanied by an equal amount of pain.
· Insight: As one contemplates pleasure and pain, one realizes that humanity in general is preoccupied with seeking after pleasure in all its forms:
sex, sensuality, excitation, wealth, immortality, reputation, power.
One recognizes ‘Pleasure’ as the ‘Prince of this World,’ the primary motive guiding people’s lives.
One recognizes ‘the two ways’ of life:
· the way of “pleasure” (the way of the world, the wide way, the low road)
the way of “understanding” (the narrow way, the high road)
One recognizes that these two ways are mutually exclusive.
As an arrow cannot be aimed at two targets, so one cannot chose both pleasure and understanding.
One must choose one or the other.
Because one has recognized that pleasure is profitless and connected with pain (above),
and because one seeks an understanding of the First Questions, one chooses the way of understanding.
This choice simultaneously entails a repudiation / leave-taking of the way of pleasure.
As soon as this profound choice is made, one is certain that “understanding [enlightenment] will be mine.”
One’s life is now founded irrevocably on a new path—the path of understanding.
One has overcome deep-seated doubt, has gained assurance.
One becomes gradually calmer, at peace, and more sure of oneself in the world.
One’s vision clears, and one sees the world more and more as it is.
One sees people going after all manner of pleasure, and justifying all manner of actions in that pursuit.
One examines one’s heart and weeds out the empty, profitless pleasures one formerly cherished.
One gains in understanding of the Buddha and of the Christ, and of all religion.
As insight increases, fear based in ignorance decreases.
As one stores up good karma, and gains in equanimity, one’s happiness increases.
One acts and speaks mindfully, and one’s relations with others and with the world become harmless.
One becomes a saint.
One eventually realizes that—like bread which has become completely leavened from a little yeast—one has arrived at the destination,
one has accomplished what had to be done.
One understands, and sees the way things are. This is liberation.
With untarnished joy, perfect insight, and complete fulfillment, one enters Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven.
First posted March 4, 2007.
©2007 René Salm