In the spiritual life, or one might say in the living of philosophy, one is encouraged to reflect upon oneself. ‘Know thyself’ is a foundation of the Western philosophical tradition. One might think that in Buddhism too, looking inward and examining the nature of your inner life would be central. But what can I actually say about myself? What can I know with certainty? It’s very difficult to know oneself because one is in the flow of being it. Can one really stand back from one’s being, one’s doing, if one is still doing it? Perhaps not so easily.
I would say that I am a generally honest person, though not in every respect. Truthful, but not absolutely always. Faithful, yes, but not always again. This is how it is. We are human. We are beings with complex lives.
Many times there are conflicts in our mind. Honesty and prudence may often conflict. One may be frugal; I am quite frugal, but not extremely so. But then there are times when it is better to be profuse, to be lavish. The spirit of generosity - this is something that one can put on a high altar and worship - and yet there are times when it’s better to hold back.
This matter of moderation, of not taking anything to an extreme, is a virtue in itself. I am against hubris. Humans are not Gods. We want to be masters of the universe, masters of our lives, masters of the right principle. It’s a conceit. Life is not like that. Everything has its exceptions and of course everything comes to an end. Whatever we set our heart upon is not going to last forever. We might make an experiment with our life, it’s a good thing to do. We commit ourselves, we fall in love with something. But love always brings its disappointments. There is always some degree of broken heartedness. The real test is: what do you do after that? The test is not: do you have a formula which will avoid you ever suffering a broken heart. The test is: what will you do after that disappointment has occurred? Will you become bitter? Estranged? Negative? And wary? Or will you rise to a new aliveness, a new appreciation, an appreciation of the multidimensional nature of life where nothing is wholly of one aspect, where everything is multifaceted? And can you appreciate the beauty of that?
To me this is the test. Life is not opposed to death. Life and death are essentially the same. Dogen said if you can appreciate that life and death are the same what is there then to be frightened of? The things that we take as opposites are often just two sides of the same coin. A full and complete acceptance of human life, just as it is, is a rare thing. As Pureland Buddhists, this is what we worship because this is the character of Amida Buddha. Amida Buddha is the great acceptance. We can have faith in that and that faith can give us the joy and ease that the Buddha speaks of.
Thank you very much
Namo Amida Bu
Dharmavidya
David
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