Everyone is looking for someone to blame, and therefore aggression and neurosis keep expanding. Instead, pause and look at what’s happening with you. When you hold on so tightly to your view of what they did, you get hooked. Your own self-righteousness causes you to get all worked up and to suffer. So work on cooling that reactivity rather than escalating it. This approach reduces suffering – yours and everyone else’s.
The very poor tell us over and over again that a human being’s greatest misfortune is not to be hungry or unable to read, or even to be without work. The greatest misfortune of all is to know that you count for nothing, to the point where even your suffering is ignored.
All suffering comes from the wish for your own happiness.
Perfect Buddhas are born from the thought to help others.
Therefore, exchange your own happiness for the suffering of others –
There is no greater suffering than to be caught up in the bustle of worldly affairs, there is no greater joy than cultivating the Way with one-pointed mind. The Way is no other than the greatest joy in this world. Abandoning the Way to seek out pleasure is like throwing away food and seeking hunger!
Xinggang
Zhiyuan Xinggang (1597-1657) was a female Linji Zen dharma heir.(meer…)
“Wanneer je je bewust bent van je pijn en lijden, helpt je dat bij het ontwikkelen van je vermogen tot empathie – het vermogen dat je in staat stelt je de gevoelens en het leed van anderen voor te stellen. Hierdoor kun je meer mededogen opbrengen voor anderen. Dus als hulpmiddel om in contact te komen met anderen, kun je lijden ook als nuttig beschouwen.”