Today
people have more material things than ever before yet
are terribly insecure. We seek happiness in beautiful
surroundings, expensive cars, fine clothes and food. We
try to secure our future with life assurance and medical
cover. We hope that our jobs will remain secure, that
our marriages will last and that illness will not strike
our family. But none of these things can bring lasting
happiness. Everything we own and the lifestyle we maintain
are only temporary. They are terribly frail things that
give us no protection from the blows of destiny. They
are all outside of ourselves and subject to decay. They
should not be our refuge.
We may accumulate
wealth, property, fame and knowledge but what will protect
us when death approaches? It may come in many years time
or be in the next few moments. A wise man does not cling
to the external world for he knows that one day he must
leave it. Every day could be his last.
THE TREASURE OF HAPPINESS
Only a few have
realised that consistent happiness can be achieved by
progressing spiritually. The treasure of happiness lies
not outside but within the human heart. It manifests as
compassion and wisdom. Shakyamuni Buddha's story and the
stories of all the Tibetan saints illustrate that it is
this inner journey that is the most important part of
a person's life. The people we read about who pioneered
this path are mainly ordinary men and women from poor
families. They discovered treasures more precious than
anything that the world can offer. Collectively, the people
of Tibet raised the consciousness of their nation and
now stand as an example of spirituality
and courage in the face of adversity. Their strength as
a nation and their ability to endure such hardship and
humiliation comes from the fact that, despite what the
Chinese invaders may inflict, the people and their spiritual
leaders remain focused on the light that shines within.
This alone is stronger than external fate.
ENLIGHTENMENT
Everyone of
us will, in this life or lives to come, also take this
spiritual journey for spiritual evolution is forever heavenwards.
As the Japanese Zen Buddhists say one day even the grass
will be enlightened. But who is it that takes this spiritual
journey?. Who is this person that I call 'I'? What is
a person? What is a self? To truly know the answer to
these questions is the goal of the inner quest. It is
a journey from you to you.
What we perceive
as the 'I' changes from moment to moment. A man at seventy
is not the boy he was at ten yet between the two points
in time there is a continuity of consciousness. Our true
self is the consciousness which is transcends identity
and memory. According to the Tibetan Buddhists when ignorance
and craving are overcome by the Great Awakening of Buddahood
and when Nirvana is attained then the personal consciousness
is realised to have been an illusion. Like time and space
the self is only a
relative and not absolute existence. So just as we cannot
find happiness in the things of the world so too we cannot
find happiness if we cling to any illusion of self.
DELIVERANCE OF THE MIND
Shakyamuni Buddha
emphasised that the objective of human existence is to
attain 'Deliverance of the Mind' which in effect means
the transcendence of the illusionery mundane mind and
realisation of the supramundane mind which is unborn.
To know this unshaped being which is the true identity
is to realise the state of enlightenment. Shakyamuni Buddha
said: 'And therefore, ye disciples, the gain of the Holy
Life is neither alms, nor honour, nor fame, neither the
virtues of the Order, nor the bliss of samadhi, nor clearness
of insight, but the fixed, unalterable Deliverance of
the Mind. This, ye disciples, is the purpose of the Holy
Life; this is its central core; this is the goal.' (Majjhima-Nikaya,
Maha-Saropama Suttra)
