The Bone Storage Hall (story)

Once Upon a Time...

In ancient Buddhist traditions, a spirit temple is a mausoleum containing the bones of countless sentient beings who have died.

It is a tall building with the Japanese characters ("霊廟", reibyō) for "mausoleum" above the doorway.

When the door of the mausoleum is open, it is like the Pure Land of Bliss inside.

Inside the mausoleum is a long dark hallway. High above me, the ceiling glistens with a soft glow when the door is closed.

On my left are twenty-four rooms with open access to the hall, and on the right, the same — a total of forty-eight rooms. Inside each room are shelves filled with drawers. Some rooms contain a lot of drawers; others contain very few drawers.

On each shelf are drawers containing the bones of the dead. Firmly affixed to the front of each drawer is the given name and Japanese Buddhist name of the deceased. Inside each drawer is an urn containing the deceased's bones.

A bright glow from Room Eighteen attracts my curiosity. Inside the room, I recite the Nembutsu ten times until the bright glow becomes a brilliant light that slowly dissipates. Softly I hear a sweet melodious voice sing:

"namo amitābhāya tathāgatāya tadyathā
amṛtabhave amṛtasaṃbhave
amṛtavikrānte amṛtavikrāntagāmini
gagana kīrtīchare svāhā."

"The Primal Vow is fulfilled," I thought myself. "That glow which turned into brilliant light is Amida Buddha."

Having seen this miracle, I felt humbled so I bowed and exited the room.

As I walk down the hallway, a sign appears on the wall in the distance. On it appears the Chinese characters:

堂
納
骨

Not only is this spirit temple a mausoleum, it also is a bone storage hall where the bones of dead sentient beings are stored.

Then I turn around, and slowly walk back to the door of the mausoleum.

When I open it, the brilliant light of the setting sun almost blinds me. After I close the mausoleum door, the sun has painted the sky with a rapidly fading red glow.


As I wander home in the rapidly fading dusk, my path takes me due east where the moon shines brightly in the sky.

My thoughts return to my visit to the mausoleum and the shelves within its rooms filled with drawers containing the bones of the deceased collected after cremation. While walking the path alongside the pond near my home, I reflect on death and the brevity of human life.

When I was a Child

When I was a child, my first exposure of death happened when my grandmother died. As I grew older, my first contemplation on nonexistence left me anxious and afraid of death. Once, when I had caught the flu as a child, my own life had almost been taken from me. So my mother bought medicine from the local pharmacy. The next day, my fever broke.

From that moment on, my fear of death became worse. As a result of that fear, the stress caused the allergic reaction of hay fever to arise.

Then one day, at the Buddhist temple near my parents' home, I requested the Three Pure Land Sutras central to the Jodo Shinshu faith to read at my leisure. As I read about the Pure Land of Bliss being described, it seemed a wonderful place.

Once I grasped the concept of the Pure Land as the afterlife, my belief in it increased as my faith in Amida's Primal Vow grew.

Reflections

In a pond near my home, I gaze on the moon's reflection in it while seated comfortably in a wicker chair.

As it glistens in the water, my thoughts turn inwards in meditation, visualizing the Buddha Amida with eyes closed. From time to time, my eyes open as I gaze on the moon's image reflected on the still surface of the pond. Then I look up at the moon.

At some point during meditation, my inner vision of the Buddha merges with the sight of the bright moon in the sky. It is as though the light of the moon is the light of Buddha Amida.

My meditation is over. So I rise to stretch my legs and raise my arms as if to embrace the moon.

In an instant I feel solemn as I stand before the glistening Boundless light of Buddha Amida, assuring me that Amitabha is nearby.

Thus assured, all fear of death fades from my mind. It is replaced by a greater appreciation of life.

---

King Emma or Yama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama_%28Buddhism_and_Chinese_mythology%29
Buddhist funeral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_%28Buddhism%29
Pure Land Buddhism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Land_Buddhism
Pure Land Rebirth Dharani: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Land_Buddhism#Pure_Land_Rebirth_Dh.C4.81ra.E1.B9.87.C4.AB

The 55th Step

How to be positive: use patience and love rather than complaining about how crappy life is for you.

Nobody cares but you, for that's an affliction called delusion, the ignorant craving for attention in a roomful of strangers. It's egocentricity to the core.

The world does not revolve around you or I or the other sentient beings out there in this world.

How do I know? I've walked farther of this journey called life with each step being a year: I have taken 54 steps, but stopped counting after the 12th.

Every step after the last seven steps have been steps leading to the joy found actually practicing Buddhism rather than remaining uncommitted.

One of the things about Buddhists is that they are honest, sometimes to the point that most people run away from the truth they say.

The truth is, this world is a world of birth, life and death. When we make death a taboo, this world becomes an endless cycle of birth and death.

When a Buddhist faces the King Death in the afterlife, knowing what to say to him, that shows that our training has freed us from fear.

She who goes through life ignorant of the tools that Buddhism could offer her to develop fearlessness and relieve her suffering truly is a sentient being.

For sentience means having a mind that suffers the delusion called permanence, or as the monotheists call it "the soul."

Buddhism helps the courageous to face their fears about birth, death and life by giving them tools to make the journey less unsettling than it is now.

Two of these tools are samatha and vipassana, that is, the meditation of the calm mind and the meditation to develop insight of the mind.

The Truth of Non-self (poem)

The self is empty of existence,
though all sentient beings claim
otherwise, even to the point of
threatening the truth talker
with imprisonment and abuse.

Yet she who talks the truth
bases her words on the Bodhi Mind
and its effect on her mind,
the sixth consciousness,
through the samadhi of truth.

Why would she who sees the truth
keep silent about Emptiness,
when it opens her eyes to
nonexistence of the self?
Only a fool agrees with the world.

This is the truth of non-self,
that the self is nonexistent.
He who denies this to be true,
is but a sentient being, lost
in this world of birth-life-death.

Samsara and the Buddha Worlds

In this article the six realms of samsara and the Buddha worlds will be defined. Once this is done, I will describe the six realms and what quality of the mind each realm represents. Then the Buddha world will be described, using Sukhavati (the Pure Land of Bliss) as the example. This will be followed by the references used in this article.

The Six Realms of Samsara

Samsara is represented by the Buddhist Wheel of Life, which depicts the traditional view of samsaric existence. It is the third layer found on the picture of the Buddhist Wheel of Life.

In Samsara — this world of birth-life-death — there are six realms of existence. They are divided into the three higher realms and the three lower realms. The higher realms consist of the god realm, the demi-god realm and the human realm. The lower realms consists of the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm.

From a psychological aspect, in Tibetan Buddhism, the six classes of beings who dwell in the six realms and the qualities of the mind they represent are:

hell beings — anger

hungry ghosts, or pretas — miserliness

animals — stupidity

human beings — desire

demi-gods, or asuras — jealousy, and

gods — pride.

In the Abhidharma literature, the six realms are also know in Buddhism as the Desire Realm, which is the first of the Three Realms (Trailokya).

Above the Desire Realm is the Form Realm, where the Seventeen Heavens are. They are only populated by gods

Above the Form Realm is the Formless Realm, where gods without any form dwell in four types of perception spheres.

Within context of this article, the Form Realm and the Formless Realm will not be described.


Buddha World

In contrast to the six realms, the Buddha worlds (Pure Lands) are where the various Buddhas and their Pure Lands exist.

Each of the Buddhas lives for an almost infinite number of years.

Sakyamuni Buddha does not have a Buddha World and may appear to the residents of a particular Buddha world i.e. in the Pure Land of Bliss.

However, the Buddha worlds are not found in the three realms of the Abhidharma. They exist outside of Samsara.

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References:

Six Realms of Samsara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra#Third_layer:_the_six_realms_of_samsara
Six classes of beings: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Six_realms
Three Realms: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Three_realms
Three Worlds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail%C3%B5kya
Form Realm: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Form_realm
Formless Realm: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Formless_realm
Wheel of Life: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Wheel_of_Life
Abhidharma: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Abhidharma
Abhidharma is the third collection of the Buddha's teachings, which holds the special knowledge of Buddhism, and teaches the Higher Training of Wisdom.
Tripitaka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripitaka
Three pitakas: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Three_pitakas

Craving for sensation

The one who beholds that which has become as become
Passes beyond that becoming
And is released from craving for sensation.
In that which really is, he understands becoming.
Free from longing for birth or death,
He finds the true meaning of the end of becoming.

-Itivuttaka Sutta

"The one who beholds" is the disciple sitting in insight meditation whose mind is single-mindedly focused on attaining nirvana.

"That which has become" is tathata, the state of awakening in mind and in body.

When such a person views the Buddha as awakened, sh/he transcends the single-mindedness of samadhi.

In transcending nirvana, s/he lets go of vainly grasping and loses all "craving for sensation."

Having realized true Dharma as Truth, s/he "understands becoming."

Being liberated "from longing for birth and death", such a person discovers "the true meaning of the end of becoming", nirvana.

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Originally published: November 23, 2005 2351H
Updated: February 26, 2013 0928H

Reference:

See also: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/iti/tb0/index.html#glossary

Samsara: Its Causes the Origin of Suffering

Reflecting on the causes of samsara,
the origin of suffering,
the devotee learns suffering is
the inevitable consequence of karmic actions
which result from negative emotions,
being the six primary types —
Ignorance, Desire, Anger,
Pride, Doubt and Beliefs —
or the nine fetters —
Ignorance, Attachment, Aversion
Pride, Jealousy, Desire,
Anger, Doubt, and Beliefs —
and the fifty-one mental states —
all of them included within the three root poisons —
ignorance, attachment and aversion.

---

References:
Samsara: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Samsara
Six root destructive emotions: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Six_root_destructive_emotions
Three root poisons: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Destructive_emotions

Ssitkim-gut

SSitkim-gut is a shaman ritual for consoling the dead that is performed on Jindo Island in South Korea.

In Asian mythology, ghosts of the dead are despondent at death. This traditional dance is performed to attract their attention, and to console their surviving loved ones.

Also in certain Asian traditions, it is normal to have a relationship with deceased loved ones (family). This is done out of respect for the dead, and may be indicative of ancestor worship.

However, ancestor worship is not done as a superstition but also out of respect for the ages-old cycle of birth, life and death.

For such respect is a sign of a rich, vibrant culture on Jindo Island.

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Jindo Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindo_%28island%29

Birth-Death-Life (poem)

World of life, floating gently
amidst the mire,
awash with falling raindrops,
bathed in warm sunshine --
How brief is life as it is!

Yet life comes and goes,
with death a welcome respite.
Indeed, birth-life-death
is one endless cycle of
change, the enduring constant.

After death, we all return
to the Other Side,
before we are called again
to this world of life
to help others learn of Life.

---

Notes:
"Other Side" implies rebirth in the Pure Land or in the Six Realms of the hells, hungry ghost, animal, human, demigods and gods, as well as the numerous Buddhist heavens.

Deathlessness is Fearlessness

…You can confront the prospect of your own death and try to analyze it and, in so doing, try to minimize some of the inevitable sufferings it causes. Neither way can you actually overcome it. However, as a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process of life… Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In confronting the prospect of death, I shall not analyze it, lest I minimize even a bit of the inevitable sufferings that arise from such a confrontation.

For I cannot overcome or escape death in this life, nor can I escape it. By viewing death as a normal process of life, I no longer worry about it.

For samsara, the natural cycle of birth-life-death, is Nirvana; and Nirvana, the transcendence of birth-life-death, is samsara.

Fear not death, and its hold over you will disappears. Yet treat the deathlessness as empty of fear of death.

Such fearlessness helps us to stop worrying about the prospect of death.

In no way should it inspire anyone to give up on life on impulse.

Think first about examining your life and about the prospect of aspiring to live a well lived life. For you have so much to live for, and all the time in the world to live it well.

This Love Knows No Bounds (a Poem)

Where mere mortals fear to tread,
this sacred Love True
stands high above human lust,
for but a heartbeat,
this Love knows no common bounds.

At birth we suffer;
in life we suffer also;
yet when your time draws
to a close so suddenly,
forget regret and expire.

Nothing lasts, I know this Truth;
Birth is followed by
Life, and Life by Death again!
Yet life is both joy
and pain, no profit, no gain!

What is this True Love
but the heart-mind unfolded,
at peace with the world
and with the Buddha, Dharma,
and the Sangha? It is Love.

When my body becomes dust,
and my mind a memory lost,
where is the soul? What of karma?
In death my past actions move on.
For what is karma but this Love
so precious that knows no bounds?

Namu Amida Butsu!

5 Groups of Existence and the Truth of Suffering

In the Buddha's first discourse, Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma, he asked:
"What now is the Noble Truth of Suffering?

Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; not to get what one desires is suffering; in short the five groups of existence are suffering." — Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya

The Buddha goes on to say:
“What is the suffering upon suffering?
It is that which is painful when arising,
painful when remaining, and pleasant when changing.”

This suffering is blatantly truthful about suffering by being born, dying, the stress due to "sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair", and "not to get what one desires", which implies frustration of "what one desires".

For birth causes pain to one's mother, and giving birth to a child puts her at risk of dying.

Thus birth is suffering.

Decay is suffering because of gradual failure of health, strength, soundness, prosperity, or any kind of

In old age, I may die. Since the grasping of ego leads me to cling to life out of fear of death and imminent non-existence, death is suffering. When death is near, out of the prospect that he loses his life as he is dying, the disciple encounters sorrow.

Sorrow is suffering because of loss of a loved one, which leads to bereavement. Being the opposite of joy, it leads her to sadness and disappointment. When that sadness leads to disappointment, it causes regret. Regret leads to great unhappiness. In this mental state of being sad, she feels grief due to disappointment at not having a loved one, especially the loss of her mother.

At the loss of a loved one, she laments the loss of her parents, her child, or her spouse. When she cries over that loss, she may wail or moan to express her grief. Her loss will lead to the pain of bereavement and lament her loss with wailing and moaning.

Faced with the prospect of losing both his parents, he does not get what he desires, but loses his father and mother to death. At the prospect of their eventual death, he shows grief and despairs losing his life, too.

Hence, the five groups of existence — birth, decay, death, sorrow with lamentation and the pain suffered which causes grief and despair, and the frustration of not getting what I desire.

Thus the First Noble Truth shows that all life is suffering.

Vajra Master Geshe Tashi Tsering says:
"For people like us, who do not have the direct realization of emptiness, although we may understand certain levels of physical and mental experiences as suffering, it is impossible for us to see all the levels of suffering for what they are. Instead we may see some things as desirable when in truth they are suffering."

Suffering consists of misery, unhappiness, and pain. It also is called bitterness and hardship.

Regarding suffering, Ajahn Sucitto adds:
"Just reflect upon your activities and pursuits: notice that they involve a constant effort to change or cope with what is disagreeable, or to stimulate well-being. This striving is universal."

As a result, the feeling of lack or loss or conflict in our lives is suffering.

In a sense the First Noble Truth is also called the First Precious Truth, since life is precious because of the five group of existence that affirm suffering.

Knowing this to be true, in the mind of the disciple arises the Bodhi Mind, of which the determination to achieve Buddhahood and the aspiration to rescue all sentient beings as bodhisattva are the spirit of Enlightenment, the aspiration to achieve it, and the Great Mind set on Enlightenment.

Pure Land Master Tâm writes:
"...When faced with difficult circumstances, pay attention to the mind, and do not cling to appearances and forms, The evil, turbid Saha World has always been full of suffering and tears. Without perseverance and forbearance, it is very difficult to succeed in cultivation."

"Difficult circumstances" refers to the effects of karma, both internal and external, both in this life and perhaps in the past lives.

"Appearances and forms" refers to the appearances of obstacles, both great and small, such as distractions of worldliness — fame, headaches, weather — that prevents the disciple's cultivation.

It also includes the appearance of distractive influences such as natural disasters, thieves, and false friends who try to entice the disciple from cultivating the single-mindedness of samadhi.

"Forms" refers to the forms of suffering, be it bitterness, hardship, misery, pain and unhappiness.

It also refers to the forms of distraction which are the vain grasping of ego, attracted to sensations due to attachment to what you desire, and clinging to destructive habits of action and thought.

"Evil" refers to mental calculations which the West feel shouldn't prevent cultivation, but often leads the disciple to become distracted from Buddha Recitation.

One form of mental calculation is when the disciple decides to practice Buddha Recitation with the intent to impress his fellow disciples. Of course, it is admirable to recite many times to burn off the effects of evil karma, but doing so out of the intent to impress your fellow Buddhist is like washing a cup and drinking from it repeatedly.

What kind of good come from trying to impress others about a thousand recitations when ten will suffice?

With regard to Tibetan Buddhism, life may be filled with suffering arising due to the actions of the Six Root Destructive Emotions — Ignorance, Desire, Anger, Pride, Doubt, and Beliefs — and the Twenty Subsidiary Destructive Emotions &mdash: Rage, Resentment, Spitefulness, Cruelty, Envy, Deception, Pretension, Lack, Disregard, Concealment, Miserliness, Self-satisfaction, Lack, Laziness, Carelessness, Forgetfulness, Inattention, Lethargy, Excitement, and Distraction.

However, Buddha Recitation as mindful practice will help control the Five Ever-Present Mental States — Sensation, Perception, Intention, Contact, and Attention.

Once these five mental states are controlled through cultivation, it is possible to control the Five Object-determining Mental States — Interest, Appreciation, Mindfulness, Concentration, and Intelligence.

Having controlled these five mental states, it is possible to control the Four Variables — sleep (sloth), regret (remorse, contrition), conception (reasoning, investigation, examination),and discernment (analysis).

Having control of these ten mental states and four variables, the disciple is able to use them wisely. Indeed, they become useful mental tools to help cultivate the Pure Mind which wields the Eleven Virtuous States — Faith, Dignity, Propriety, Non-attachment, Nonaggression, Non-delusion, Diligence, Pliancy, Conscientiousness, Evenness/Equanimity, and_Nonviolence.

In using the Eleven mental states to aid in the management of the remaining forty mental states, the disciple would engage in rituals with his Vajra Master that are designed to extinguish evil karma by promoting good karma.

This is the simple explanation of how Tibetan Buddhism works, Yet it is foreign to how Pure Land Buddhist would do things, i.e. Buddha Recitation and meditation.

By cultivating the mind through recitation and meditation, the disciple cultivates the Pure Mind that is essentially the Self Nature True Mind known as Buddha Nature.

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Four Noble Truths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths

Bodhi Mind: p. 330, Buddhism of Wisdom and Faith, Thich Thien Tâm; Sutra Translation Committee of the United States and Canada; reprinted by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation.

Fifty-one Mental States: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Fifty-one_mental_states

Six Root Destructive Emotions: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Six_root_destructive_emotions

Twenty subsidiary destructive states: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Twenty_subsidiary_destructive_emotions

Five Ever-present Mental States: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_ever-present_mental_states
Five Object-determining Mental States: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_object-determining_mental_states

Eleven virtuous states: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Eleven_virtuous_states

A Deistic Critique of Eschatology

Eschatology is useful for the study of how human cultures have envisioned life after death.

When it involves judgment, eschatology violates the principle that only God may judge us.

Thus, depictions of heaven and hell are sacrilege used to control, influence and motivate people who may be led to believe their lives are more worth living when they follow the doctrines of cultures whose religions make strong use of such motifs.

If a person's life is worth more because the fear of hell and the desire for heaven after death motivates her to choose God, then such a person's motivation is based on spiritual ignorance about the purpose of heaven and hell.

However, if the fear of hell and desire for heaven leads her to become one with God, and let Him into her heart, so that she realizes how worthy to God she is from her birth until this moment in time, then her motivation is based on spiritual awareness.

The purpose of heaven and hell is to instruct us about how cultural beliefs about life after death reflect our fears about what we have done in life, and whether that would affect our spiritual life after death.

This forms much of what eschatology is.

How close a person has gotten to God that he knows Him to be in his heart, from birth to death, helps by using eschatology in a manner that respects God's role in life after death.

For eschatology only depicts the spiritual life after death, not the corporeal life before death.

If God created me from birth, and my soul, then the cruelties depicted in the various hells are sacrilege because I cannot see why God would require what he has made to be harmed repeatedly as punishment for not believing in Him.

Why should God harm a piece of Himself?

Likewise, if God should give me a new body and put me in a place where I live forever when originally I was a part of Him, I do not see why I must remain separate from Him when He is always as close to me as my heart.

Would it not just be easier for me to let my soul become one with God through meditation and be done with it?

Thus heaven and hell are merely states of mind created by careful examination of eschatological works of various religions.

They distract us from the spiritual truth that each of us is created by God, that the soul is "God in the heart", and that we return to God at death.

Think of God as the ocean. Each soul, a drop of water. Many drops become a trickle, a stream, a river. And to the ocean all rivers flow. Likewise, all life flows on that endless cycle of birth, living and death.

Are not then heaven and hell metaphors to describe that journey?

Perhaps each drop of water returning to the ocean is heaven. The mind boggles at the possibilities of ascribing different points of life's journey as hell.

In any case, eschatology only works in religions with a strong sense of good versus evil.

Yet it fails to work when the spiritual truth about man's existence and the soul as the creation of God is revealed.

Hyperbole in Vasistha's Yoga

One may revolve on the wheel of birth and death for a thousand lifetimes: this will not cease till one has fully mastered the mind and till that mind has come to a state of supreme peace and equanimity. - The Story of Prahlada, Vasistha's Yoga, V:43

This quote is from the last two paragraphs of Verse 43 of Chapter 5 in Vasistha's Yoga, which is the metaphorical Story of Prahlada.

The literal meaning of the above sentence implies the concept of reincarnation. Yet it is hyperbole because it does not mean that a person is fated to "revolve on the wheel of birth and death (Samsara) for a thousand lifetimes".

Rather, it implies that a person may feel like as though she is repeating the same pattern of behavior, and that "this will not cease" until she "has fully mastered the mind" through "contemplating the changeless consciousness which is infinite", ibid.

This mastery of the mind where "the mind has come to a state of supreme peace and equanimity" is achieved by abandoning one's illusions about objective phenomena as clearly stated in the rest of the quote:

...Abandon all illusory appearances of objective phenomena, whether they appear within you or outside you. Contemplate the sole reality of consciousness for the cessation of repeated birth, Taste the pure consciousness (which is, in truth, the essence of all that exists) by resolutely renouncing objectivity of consciousness, (all the concepts and percepts) and contemplating the changeless consciousness which is infinite. You will surely cross this river of world-appearance and rebirth. - ibid.

Hence, the purpose of hyperbole here is to inspire and thus motivate the disciple to apply the physical exercises in yoga to achieve "a state of supreme peace and equanimity".

The Ego Prayer (poem)

If the very nature of Being
is to become "I am",
what a challenge for someone
who foolishly chooses
Ego over selflessness!
For this person would sooner
choose having No-mind
over all the suffering
that Ego has brought to life
on this good earth.
So let this person lose
his hold over all clinging,
if only to let go of Ego.

Compassion: Letting the Head Rule Over the Heart

Once touched by compassion, a person has difficulty reverting to his previous life when passion ruled.

He knows that reason tempers emotions.

Thus, this is the essence of the concept of "mind over matter."

In matters of love, it is prudent to let the head rule the heart.

Otherwise, we end up falling in love, not with the object of our desire, but with a false love, the pale reflection of unconditional love itself.

In doing so, we see life as though "through a mirror darkly."

By letting reason rule over passion, a person who truly knows compassion, having risen above his passions, is truly able to love all people equally, unconditionally. This called equanimity

Let this be the measure of the depth of your compassion, to allow the embrace of unconditional love to touch your heart.

All it takes is love...

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Originally posted: May 18, 2005 1715H
Updated: February 8, 2013 2051H

Panentheism Revisited (poem)

Panentheism Revisited

I. First Truth

When one part of it hurts
The whole universe hurts.

Yet only rarely does humanity
realize the role of suffering
is to shape the human spirit wisely.

Always awake, enlightened, truly whole,
the whole universe is infinite
to this fool, yet is the source of life,
atom by atom, molecule by molecule.

II. True Joy

When one part of it rejoices
The whole universe rejoices.

Then, humanity may only feel joy
as spontaneous, the spark of freedom
to appreciate life as it is.

From the universe came the soul pristine,
the gift to seed in this mortal coil
at birth, only to be returned at death,
to the infinite, pristine and unchanged.

III. Illumination and Enlightenment

When one part of it illuminates
The whole universe is illuminated.

Here and there, wisdom slowly ebbs and flows
with the human tide on this grain of sand,
sometimes seeing the whole universe.

Through love and compassion, the wise support
with kindness their equals, the foolish,
sharing the wealth of the infinite,
securely complemented with prudence.

Panentheism Made Personal

Truly alive is
the whole universe.
When one part of it hurts,
the whole of it hurts
in sympathy.
When another of it rejoices,
the whole of it rejoices,
out of compassion.
When one part hungers,
another part offers itself
in sacrifice.
When the creatures thrive,
those creatures die.
When a goose loses a mate,
it dies of a broken heart.
The whole universe is alive.
While each creature in it
are unaware of the whole,
they are aware of each other.
Thus life is interconnected,
interdependent, as one.
It is as though the love
of the universe is expressed
through the life cycle
of birth, and death.
The living universe is
the infinite consciousness,
the God in all creation.
And each of us has our place
in the whole universe.