| Often we find the answers to the questions that our tradition causes in the traditions of others. |
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| Often it is when we are faced with a life crisis that we concider the meaning of death. It is only when we look into the cold empty eyes of death that we long for eternity. It is the shadow of death that brings us all to our knees. Why do we struggle so hard to cheat death? Death is inevitable and our struggles are irrelevant to death. The first noble truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering that once we enter the realm of life, we also enter the realm of death. It is here that we must realize that life and death, being and non-being are one. We seem to hate conflict, we tend to strive for happiness, we praise that which does not cause us strife. We strive endlessly for order, even when we can find none, we simply struggle, avoiding conflict at all cost. This is why pain and suffering are very lonely processes for us. We even avoid those who suffer or are in need, we tend to blame them or try to convince ourselves that they have some how caused their own suffering. When we suffer we do not understand why people will not assist us in our suffering even though we have not assisted them in their time of suffering. The second nobel truth; is that our fears and desires cause us to suffer. We envy God for we have observed God's creation and seek to master it. We have looked upon God's creative beauty and jealously demanded that creation be devoted to us. We seek to improve that which is already perfect. We in our fear try to control it for our own ends, and destroy it with our desire. This is our current condition. Our problems with the Earth have come from our need to change the Earth. Will we as mortals continue to ignore God's will, must we break that natural laws in order to search for our own laws? The third nobel truth; is that we can learn to live in the mist of suffering with joy. We can not change others, but we can change how we think about our suffering. This does not mean that we will not suffer it simply means that we can transform our suffering into a vehicle for joy. Our suffering can become a medium through which we can learn to understand ourselves and help others to promote happiness. The fourth nobel truth is; that the way out of suffering is to learn the actions that help us to end suffering. We must learn to transform our suffering into joy. I know this is harder to do then to say. Yet we must try to rid ourselves of the fear and desire that has caused us to suffer. We must get rid of the baggage that our ancestors have left for us. We can not know God outside of ourselves until we know God within ourselves. We must get to know the God within ourselves before we can know the God outside ourselves. |
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| Last updated 10 Sep 2001 |
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