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February 2019

LESSONS: Lesson 4 – The Causes of Suffering

We are inseparable from the Truth and yet we seem to be fumbling around in something unreal and not true. We seem to get caught in our ignorance (stupidity), in scattered distractions and in our self-interest. Each one of these traps keeps us from knowing that we, you and me, are the Dharma – the Truth. Do you know what keeps you trapped? Fashi Lao Yue offers some help.

Detachment and McCormack’s “Selling Heaven” by Ming Zhen Shakya

What is true is Real. The Real World is defined as that which is unconditional, universal, immutable, and eternal. Eternal is to be outside of time; and this can occur only in the “ego-absent” immediate moment. Our dear Ming Zhen is worth reading again and again – since we tend towards block-headedness – a follow-up post comes next on the Noble Truth of Suffering.

Lesson 3 – Part B  The Realization of Suffering is the Beginning of Wisdom

The basics of practice are protections – protecting ourselves from doing harm to ourselves and protections for others by not doing harm to them. Many of us see ourselves as OLD HANDS at this business of spiritual work – but in reality all that has happened is we have gotten comfortable and secure in the world of material stuff – maybe even smug? We forget what choices we follow – in this essay, we are asked to re-examine our choices – and our sincerity. It, hopefully, challenges us to return to the Dharma with awareness and our full attention.

I Always Want It to Be Different

DON’T OVERLOOK THE BASICS.
IN LESSONS, Lesson 3, PART A we return to the foundations – to realize them in our lives, not just memorize them. Fashi Lao Yue gives us examples of what we do and examples of those who have realized the truth in the first Noble truth. There is suffering – it’s really true…what do we do about it?