"O Ananda, Be ye lamps unto yourselves. Rely on yourselves, and do not rely on external help. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Seek salvation alone in the truth. Look not for assistance to any one besides yourselves.
"Those who, either now or after I am dead, shall be lamps unto themselves, relying upon themselves only and not relying upon any external help, but holding fast to the truth as their lamp, and seeking their salvation in the truth alone, and shall not look for assistance to any one besides themselves, it is they, Ananda, among my bhikkhus (monks), who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be anxious to learn."
In order to reach true happiness we must become lamps unto ourselves. This is the same principle that Jesus was teaching when he went around telling people that those who drank from his presence were drinking from a well that would never run dry, and that they could have this as well.
Stopping believing that everything happens for a reason is essential. What this really is is a kind of flattened way of thinking. It's manifest destiny, the thinking that led Columbus to kill all those people and take their land. It's what made people think the universe revolved around the earth. It's ego. It's It assumes that you know everything, or at least something. The way to get over a mistake is to realize that there are no mistakes, because nothing is really supposed to happen one way or another. But when it comes to love it's just so much harder to accept that.
It's like when Jesse and Celine in "Before Sunset" talk about how they'll just end up hating each other probably, but at the end of the day you just know that's not true. I think that's what's great about those movies, they really make you feel that some magical things like destiny, love, even love at first sight are possible. Even though it sets it in a very skeptical and pessimistic universe. I wanna write like that. But anyway. The dark ages won't be over until the majority of people realize that there is no special rhyme or reason to the events that happen in life. Everything has a cause, but the cause precedes the effect. It is not pre-destined (unless it is formulated by a conscious mind).
The way to have the well that never runs dry is to kill the ego and die to your past self and be reborn in every moment of your life. Never cling to any opinion or idea that you have, always be willing to throw it in the garbage when new information comes along and even then never think that you know anything for sure. But it's good to have principles. Pillars, gems of wisdom that you can hold onto in life (unless they prove themselves to be false). They're like theories, but rock-solid ones. It's good to build a house on rock and not sand. Iron rods. The golden rule is a good one. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Everyone's equal, pretty much ends up being the gist of it.
For me, the reasoning behind that is that none of us chose to be here. In Mormonism, everyone fought in a war in heaven before we were born and so when we were born, we basically have earned our lot in life based on how valiant we were in the war. But in reality, everyone was dragged into this world kicking and screaming against our will. So we all kinda have the same right to be here, and at the same time we never asked to be here. So I definitely think that everyone should have the right to live in total abundance (in the same class level), because that's what the earth provides for.
“Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times, that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils. Poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.….While poverty exists there is no true freedom. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Make poverty history. Then we can all stand with our heads held high.” -Nelson Mandela.
So Republicans, let's stop talking about "work ethic" because honestly, to me that is code for master race talk. It's the same exact thing, because you're talking about the survival of the fittest. That's not what Jesus talked about. He said that since we have left the garden of eden, we have evolved past the animals, it's our responsibility to think on a higher level. We are not subject to the laws of the jungle anymore, or at least we don't have to be.
In closing, my friend just got back from living in Africa and confirmed for me that this is a real thing:
No comments:
Post a Comment