Thursday, October 16, 2008

Simple and Effective

In learning Buddhist principles, sometimes the most amazing realizations come out of the simplest passages...Here is one I learned today....

Buddhism teaches us that happiness is the absence of sufferering, yet so much of our suffering is caused DIRECTLY by our own thoughts - 'I want, yet I cannot have, so I am left wanting'. We all have desires, it's just that it is not in our power to make all those desires appear magically before us. So, the sooner we learn to "re-position" the desire in our thought process the easier it is to achieve a happier life (without suffering for the lack of something) and truly live in the moment.

Ready? Here you go...

This is SO easy! Instead of thinking, or saying, "I want _________", try this; "My preference would be ________ ". Try it, right now, with anything that you have been wanting.

Here's what happened in my thought process: My desires have been many of late; I want my friends to stop suffering, I want the next few months to go by quickly and peacefully; I want compliments; I want more money,...etcetera...etcetera...etcetera...

THEN, when I replace the "I want" with "My preference would be", it made so much more sense and created such peace of mind..."My preference would be that my friends not suffer, "My preference would be that the next few months go by quickly and peacefully, My preference would be to have more money"... What followed was the instinctive continuation to any of these statements, which is "But" or "And". Which, serves to helps us realize the alternatives to the wants that we are do not have.

"My preference would be that my friends not suffer AND here is what I can do to help"

"My pference would be for the next couple of months to go by quickly and peacefully; BUT I can't hurry up time (acceptance) AND it is up to me to make sure peace is achieved (positive action)".

"My preference would be to have more money, BUT I don't, so how am I going to make the best of what I do have?" or the other BUT, which is even more powerful - "BUT I have more blessings than many and I know I will make it through this tough time."

It is not an easy thing to change our way of thinking and this is where daily meditation (which I have yet to achieve) comes in. Meditation reinforces the positive in our lives, addresses the negatives, and embraces the moment. What could be better?