"Bump in the road"

Hi.

Today we’ll be talking a little about ”the bumps in our lives”.

Doctor Glas, Hjalmar söderberg

We want to be loved; failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised.

At all costs we want to stir up some sort of feeling in others.

Our soul abhors a vacuum.

At all costs it longs for contact.

In buddhism our main goal is somewhat the opposite of this, we want to have as little “Dukkha” as possible.

I have spoken of Dukkha before, saying:

"Samsara is when you have the knuckles of your hand put together.

Nirvana is when your palms of your hand is put together.

Dukkha is when you move your hands.

Dukkha is more related towards “the indifference, incompability of things" than "suffering”."

And this is actually what söderberg is talking about, when he puts forth this classical quote in his novel, from an different perspective.

I talked to a friend of mine the other day, who was having trouble about being “dissed” by some of his “friends”, who did not want to have anything with him to do, basically.

I also have some friends who are having troubles with their parent’s growing old and others just having their life being “hard on them”.

It’ s hard sometimes.

I’m not saying it isn’t but I’m also not saying it shouldn’t be.

It’s all in the practice.

Steve Hagen puts it this way in "Buddhism is not what you think":
"According to the Buddhadharma (the teaching of the awakened), our effort is to live fully and compassionately in this world of muddy water without churning it up all the more.

To do this , we only need to realize that whatever comes our way is already of the whole and cannot be done away with. "

Dogen puts it like this in Shobogenzo Genjokoan:

“And though it is like this, it is simply that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds, while hated, flourish.”

Try not to cling to the feeling, even though it’s hard, just live with it.

It is what it is, and maybe not what you think it is.

May the force be with you

Fugen