What is life? That is today's query. Eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, we are busy beavers feeding our bellies and seeking shelter from the perceived cruelties of Nature. Hunger, disease, pain, Buddha described the harshness of life as dukkha. Suffering. Who wants to suffer? Is life all about suffering? Is life all about the pursuit of happiness, running in the opposite direction of suffering? This was Buddha's first lesson, namely that life is suffering.
Buddha's teaching of the the Turning of the First Wheel continued: Life is suffering, but there is a cause to this suffering. And that there is a way out of this suffering. The Buddha's prescription to aid us, is meditation and a moral code. So too, Jesus is telling me the same thing. We scramble and search for a way out, but there is none. Sorry folks, but life is suffering ... if one is bound as a victim to Earthy cause and affect. A fall on one's nose hurts. It's supposed to hurt because we have nerves that let the brain know the body has fallen. Snow is cold. Hunger is uncomfortable. Anger flushes the skin and can literally blind us with rage. All the workings of the body. Yet we have a mind and reason, too! Wisdom can allow us to see life through the eyes of God.
Though the world around us be destroyed, as Jesus describes, we don't have to be carried away to rune. If our faith is strong, we can be aware of another reality, a True Reality separate from the itchy, scratchy, painful, uncomfortable life of material suffering, or the lusty, luxurious, intoxicating, recreating, comfortable life of material pleasure. They do exist. However, if we are bound by their distractions we will suffer daily until our end.
A way out? Know that we are eternally with God, bound only to Him and let the universe turn as it should. We are not attached to the rising and falling of the sun, but rather simply welcome it. We are not attached to the cold rains, but rather welcome them too, as part of God's wondrous creation on Earth. And when we are not attached to the workings of cause and affect, we are free. When we can always stand with two feet on the ground, we are not lost in Self-servitude, but be present for others. Love God. Love our neighbours. Fully present with open hands. Fully present for God and the Holy Ghost in us.
Jesus says, Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather (Lk 17:37). Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, me thinks: What is of this Earth, shall always be of this Earth. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, that is the way of life on Earth, that is the natural way of all matter on Earth. Give the vultures their due, because this is not Truly who you are. Tied to God, the Holy Ghost is of God and cannot suffer. But distracted, our minds can cloud this Truth with eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building. Lost in material life, we suffer. Standing in the Truth of God, we still may suffer, but it will be tolerable because of Love. Rest there, in Love, and be at peace.
Oremus:
I would like to pray to Saint Martin. He is famous for clothing a poor traveler. Running from discomfort, clinging to comfort, perhaps against 'his better reason' and let go. A fine cloak on a cold, wet day fits the bill. Saint Martin understood that putting a fellow man's needs before his own broke the chains of his clinging to comfort and his aversion to discomfort by allowing him to be God's Love. Do i really need all the material wealth i have busily accumulated to ensure my comfort? Martin knew there were no such assurances, only the reality of a cold, naked beggar on a road. And the reality that he could choose to do something about it. We remember him for giving, for putting other's before his own need. May we too, be able to free ourselves from the clinging needs we think as an accepted truth and reach out for that greater Truth that is Love. Amen.
Deo gratias.
Buddha's teaching of the the Turning of the First Wheel continued: Life is suffering, but there is a cause to this suffering. And that there is a way out of this suffering. The Buddha's prescription to aid us, is meditation and a moral code. So too, Jesus is telling me the same thing. We scramble and search for a way out, but there is none. Sorry folks, but life is suffering ... if one is bound as a victim to Earthy cause and affect. A fall on one's nose hurts. It's supposed to hurt because we have nerves that let the brain know the body has fallen. Snow is cold. Hunger is uncomfortable. Anger flushes the skin and can literally blind us with rage. All the workings of the body. Yet we have a mind and reason, too! Wisdom can allow us to see life through the eyes of God.
Though the world around us be destroyed, as Jesus describes, we don't have to be carried away to rune. If our faith is strong, we can be aware of another reality, a True Reality separate from the itchy, scratchy, painful, uncomfortable life of material suffering, or the lusty, luxurious, intoxicating, recreating, comfortable life of material pleasure. They do exist. However, if we are bound by their distractions we will suffer daily until our end.
A way out? Know that we are eternally with God, bound only to Him and let the universe turn as it should. We are not attached to the rising and falling of the sun, but rather simply welcome it. We are not attached to the cold rains, but rather welcome them too, as part of God's wondrous creation on Earth. And when we are not attached to the workings of cause and affect, we are free. When we can always stand with two feet on the ground, we are not lost in Self-servitude, but be present for others. Love God. Love our neighbours. Fully present with open hands. Fully present for God and the Holy Ghost in us.
Jesus says, Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather (Lk 17:37). Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, me thinks: What is of this Earth, shall always be of this Earth. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, that is the way of life on Earth, that is the natural way of all matter on Earth. Give the vultures their due, because this is not Truly who you are. Tied to God, the Holy Ghost is of God and cannot suffer. But distracted, our minds can cloud this Truth with eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building. Lost in material life, we suffer. Standing in the Truth of God, we still may suffer, but it will be tolerable because of Love. Rest there, in Love, and be at peace.
Oremus:
I would like to pray to Saint Martin. He is famous for clothing a poor traveler. Running from discomfort, clinging to comfort, perhaps against 'his better reason' and let go. A fine cloak on a cold, wet day fits the bill. Saint Martin understood that putting a fellow man's needs before his own broke the chains of his clinging to comfort and his aversion to discomfort by allowing him to be God's Love. Do i really need all the material wealth i have busily accumulated to ensure my comfort? Martin knew there were no such assurances, only the reality of a cold, naked beggar on a road. And the reality that he could choose to do something about it. We remember him for giving, for putting other's before his own need. May we too, be able to free ourselves from the clinging needs we think as an accepted truth and reach out for that greater Truth that is Love. Amen.
Deo gratias.
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