Pain and Suffering
What is the difference between pain and suffering?
Pain is when you hurt, it’s the physical sensation. Suffering is when you hate the pain.
Love and meditiation..
Love is a natural kind of meditation.
And meditation is a supernatural kind of love.
~ Chandra ~
Avoiding what is…
When we use time as a means of acquiring a quality, a virtue or a state of being, we are merely postponing or avoiding what is; and I think it is important to understand this point.
~ J. Krishnamurti ~
Origins..
If the Big Bang was the start of the universe, if that event created all that exists in this vast cosmos and what we have and experience today, what was before that event? What was before that event that caused that Big Bang to occur? Something must have triggered it. Some cause must have lead to the event of the Big Bang and to the creation of the universe, the existence that we have today.
The confusion I have in my head.. is that, everything in this universe exists by definition as a part of this universe. Everything is made up of the same building blocks the same basic principles that constructs the nature of the universe. The universe is the framework from which its parts are formed from. The parts enclosed can not be made up of anything which exists outside or is foreign to the nature of the universe. As a result, because the fabric of this universe is that of space-time, space-time was created due to the Big Bang. The creation of the universe created space and also created time. Without space there can be no time, and without time there can be no space. To get from point A to point B requires time. The confusion is.. if space and time were given birth to by the Big Bang, what then was before the Big Bang?
Does that mean then, that a cause which lead to the effect of the creation of the universe, and with it, space-time that transcends the nature of space-time? Is space-time a subset of something greater? Did time even exist before the Big Bang? If time did not exist before the Big Bang and the creation of the universe how then, did the Big Bang occur?
Life and Belief
In order to live, man must believe in that for which he lives.
~ Huston Smith ~
On long life..
Why do people want to live longer? Would you want to live longer? Would you want to live longer so you can indulge in the finer things that life has to offer, or so you can help others find happiness and help them diffuse their suffering?
Do you want to live longer for you? Or for others?
The intent is important.
On the effects of what you say..
Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
~ Buddha ~
At the end if the day…
At the end of the day, I have to ask myself… was I a better person and did I did I do more of what was needed than yesterday?
Decision 2008
The American election is but over and decided. Junior Senator Barak Obama from Illinois has won and will be the 44th President starting January 2009. He has defeated a much older John McCain.
I’ve been reading peoples blogs, posts and comments surrounding his win over the past couple of hours (and indeed, also received several text messages) and I’m a bit taken aback. Nothing has happened yet other than the fact that he has won, but by the reactions, it is as if a savior has been discovered and already colours are brighter, sounds sweeter and the air more pure. People have fallen in love with the words and the dream “Yes we can”, although the world is still the same world that it was. What remains to be seen is if his word is bond.
Part of me wonders if this is the hope that the country (and the world) needs. The optimism and the silver lining of a big black belly of a rain cloud which is yet growing and looming ever closer. And another part of me wonders if this is the same blind tenacity shown when America herself was leading the charge into Afghanistan and Iraq. Are such strong emotions clouding a picture of the future, that has yet to take shape, into dreams?
Perhaps it was intended as such. Perhaps we are still asleep but are now dreaming sweeter dreams.
I think therefore I am
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
~ Buddha ~