Here is a link to Annette Nibley's site. It contains many deep insights into how we are conditioned to see ourselves and how perhaps we should see ourselves. You may wish to click on the Writings, where the Essays outline the basic idea that we are not separate from each other or anything else and the Dialogues describe some discussions with her students trying to understand their true nature.
Some may find this sort of thinking rather challenging, but I believe she is describing the ultimate truth about ourselves.
http://www.whatneverchanges.com/index.html
Love
Bruv
4 comments:
Hi Bruv,
Everything OK at the moment?
Tried calling in a few times since the 27th but lights are out by 9pm ligths are on but no answer -other than Sophie's enhtusiastic welcome.
I'll leave my Skype on if you want to give me a shout or alternativley just drop me a note on OutTheBack and I'll see it immedeately via email.
Love
Jon
I just read, "its about freedom from fear" on this blog which is under writings - and I chose that as I do at certain times really fear life. I do not fear death, but if I have problems in life I take them very seriously and I cannot get away from the fact that this is my life ' not an imaginary' life as is suggested in the text. What I do, has an effect on those around me and vise versa - what are your thoughts on this text. I may not be reading it on all the planes it is supposed to be read on but what I summise from it is that we are imaginary and therefore we can do what we like, go about our lives, take risks, without fear? I have also read Fear the Fear and do it anyway - but that had a different pre-text - i.e. you can do anything if you really want to. This I feel is different to being imaginary.
Your thoughts please?
Swan xx
Dear Swan,
I was interested to read what you said about fearing life, as we all do this.
Are you fearing that things may turn out worse than you would want, or that you may lose something good that you value? If so, then you are living out the first two Buddhist Noble Truths.
The first Noble truth is that the nature of our human life is that it will always be unsatisfactory and cause suffering to some degree. Not a very uplifting thought but it is true and the second Noble Truth tells us why. It says that the reason we suffer is because we are always wanting; whether we want to avoid bad situations or cling on to good ones. It is our human nature to want only good things to happen. But life is not like this. It has its ups and downs. So far so gloomy!
However the Third and Fourth Noble Truths tell us there is a way out of this. Whoopee!
In summary, they say true happiness is achievable, not by showering yourself with goodies but by understanding ourselves more and learning to accept life as it actually is, realising that a lot of our suffering is caused by our own wrong thinking. As the great philosopher Michael Barrymore, yes him off the telly, once said after going through hell, It is not what happens to you in life but how you deal with it.
If we accept that when good things come along, we can enjoy them while they are here but do not expect them to last forever. And when bad things happen, we notice too that they do not last forever and that we learn much more from them as people than from the good things. Just think what you have learnt from the bad things that have happened to you. You found out who your friends really were, you found the comfort of strangers, you found out you were truly loved and you learned lessons that would never have usually come your way.
So if we can learn to accept life in all its forms, not clinging to good or rejecting bad, we can achieve true happiness.
How much do you truly see life as it is and how much do you 'live inside your head' creating imaginary hopes and fears about life. This is partly what Annette means by an imaginary life.
As they say in the best business schools, life is full of opportunities not threats!
Lots of luv
The Bruv
xx
PS Where is our dear Fuchsy and our dear Ciariad. We havent heard from them for a while. They must be off gallivanting!
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