Sometimes You Need To Be Lost To Find The Truth

On the road to enlightenment, sometimes a person must be lost among the mountainous crags of misinformation, egoism, selfish desires, and ignorance.

This lost feeling often awakens the desire to find a path that will lead to Enlightenment.

The Precious Pearl of Enlightenment

If a pearl diver wants his treasure, he must descend down to the bottom of the sea and brave various dangers such as jagged coral and vicious sharks.

In the same fashion, a person must face the perils of worldly evil and negativity if they are to secure the precious pearl of Enlightenment.

The Seeds of Enlightenment Spring From Muck

Just as the pure and fragrant lotus flowers grow out of the mud of a swamp rather than out of the clean loam of an upland field, so from the muck of worldly passions and desires springs pure enlightenment.

Even the mistaken views of the ignorant and the delusions of the superficial world may have the seeds of enlightenment in them.

Good Fortune and Misfortune -- Don't Be Depressed by Failure

People naturally fear misfortune and long for good fortune.

If the distinction is carefully studied, misfortune often turns out to be good fortune and good fortune turns out to be misfortune.

The wise person learns to meet the changing circumstances of life with an equitable spirit, being neither elated by success nor depressed by failure.

Failure is a vibrant sign that you are actively pursuing goals and not just floating down the river of life.

The Nature of Opposite Things

Wherever there is light, there is shadow.

Wherever there is length, there is shortness.

Wherever there is white, there is black.

The self nature of things, is that they cannot exist alone. They must have an opposite.

Good has its opposite in evil. Ignorance has its opposite in Enlightenment.

The Nature of Enlightenment

The need for enlightenment exists only because of the existence of delusion and ignorance.

If there were no delusion and ignorance, there would be no need for Enlightenment, because everyone would already be enlightened.

Therefore be on guard against thinking of Enlightenment as a "thing" to be grasped after. That sort of thinking can be an obstruction to enlightenment.

When the mind that was in darkness becomes enlightened, that old mind and its mindsets pass away.

How to Meet the Circumstances That Life Throws at You

If a person becomes unduly attached to things and ideas, all at once the life of delusion begins.

A person on the path to Enlightenment will not cherish regrets. Neither will that person cherish anticipations. With equitable and peaceful mind, an enlightened person will meet what comes.

Caught in the Current of Desires

If a person is to avoid being caught in the current of their desires, they must learn in the very beginning not to grasp after things, lest they should become habituated to them and become attached to them.

The Two Keys To Survival and Success in Life

There are two keys to success in life, enlightenment and living a happy fulfilled life.

The first is always having a feedback loop. If you are doing something and not getting the results that you want, you create feedback from your negative results, and use that as an input to adjust your efforts. You continuously monitor and adjust until you start getting positive results.

The second tenet is to simply never give. You cannot win if you are not in the game.

These two keys are the most basic to survival and success.

Pride of Personality

Knowing the duality of all things, and remembering the many faces of the nature of everything, one should avoid being caught by the pride of personality.

While it is nice to receiver praise for good deeds, one should not put too much stock in the praise.

It is not a good idea to be entangled by anything, but to maintain clear thinking and serenity.

The Middle Path

The important thing when following the path to Enlightenment, is to avoid being caught and entangled in an extremes.

Always follow the middle path.

Every Day is a Day of Renewal

Every day is a day of renewal. Each day offers a new chance to gain significance to our lives and to build, piece by piece a mosaic masterpiece of a life well lived.

One day can make up for a whole series of negative destructive days, and brighten the horizon of the rest of our life.

Reaching Enlightenment in Life's Journey

Suppose a log is floating in the river. If the log does not become grounded,get stuck on impediments, sink, or is not taken out, or does not decay, it will ultimately reach the sea.

Life is like this log in the current of the river.

If a person does not become attached to self-indulgence, or does not become attached to a life of self-torture, then that person will reach enlightenment on their life's journey.

The Middle Way

All things appear or disappear due to an endless series of causes.

The ignorant person sees life as either existence or non-existence.

Wise persons see beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both.

This is the Middle Way.

The Eight-Fold Right Path of Life

The Eight-fold Right Path of Life consists of:

1) the Right View

2) the Right Thought

3) the Right Speech

4) the Right Behavior

5) the Right Livelihood

6) the Right Effort

7) the Right Mindfulness

8) the Right Concentration.

Two Extremes To Avoid

To those who choose to follow the path to Enlightenment, there are two extremes that should be avoided.

The first extreme to be avoided, is to indulge in all of the desires of the body and mind.

The opposite extreme to avoid is the renunciation of all pleasures and the practice of extreme ascetic discipline, and to torture one's body and mind unreasonably.

Moderation is the key.

Making Progress and Can't See It

Often when we strive for something, we think that in spite of our efforts, we are not making progress.

However, our efforts are like swimming a mile offshore in the ocean.

For the first three-quarters of a mile, we see nothing. It feels like we are just flailing and not moving at all.

When we finally get a glimpse of our goal, it rushes up to faster that we thought possible.

So if you think that you are not making progress, often it is because you cannot see the progress that you are making. One must, after all, persevere.

Life is meant to be lived forward, but only understood backward as the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard so aptly put it.

Fleeting Things and Forever Things

To believe that things created by an incalculable series of causes can last forever is a serious mistake. There is nothing permanent.

To believe that nothing is permanent and all thing completely disappear is also a grave mistake.

It takes a discerning mind to know the difference.

An Alluring Mirage -- Treasures of the World

The world is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage.

The greatest of treasures is a significant life filled with peace and serenity. These are treasures of the mind.

Those are treasures that are within your grasp.

Reach for them.

Even Good Things Can Become Unnecessary Burdens

In the parable in the entry below, we saw the story of the man who needed to cross a river, so he built a raft. The raft proved so useful at the moment, that he continued to carry it around afterwards, creating an unnecessary burden for him.

In our lives, even good things can become unnecessary burdens after a certain stage in our lives.

Unnecessary burdens in our lives should be identified and thrown away, especially if they are bad for us.

The Future is Always Brighter

Our fear of the unknown is always worse than what the future brings to our doorstep.

The fear factor is always a liar.

To seek serenity and clarity of mind, we must rid the fear. Our deepest fears are mirages that are never true.

Therefore controlling your thoughts with meditation and relaxation is essential to mastering fear.

The future is always brighter than we think it will be.

Unnecessary Burdens

A man was on a long journey and came to a river. The side of the river that he was on was very difficult and dangerous to walk. The other side was safer and easier to navigate.

So he built himself a raft out of branches and reeds and safely crossed the river.

He said to himself "This raft has been very useful to me in crossing the river. I will not abandon it, but take it with me."

He voluntarily carried this unnecessary burden.

When we live our lives, we carry a lot of unnecessary burdens, even though they have been helpful to us in the past.

The Greatest Human Virtue

The greatest human virtue is hope.

Hope nurtures us in tough times.

Hope is the power that drives us to achieve great things.

Hope allows us to transcend our animal selves.

Hope is what makes us altruistic.

Hope is a beacon for the future. Those that steer to the future are not victims of the future, and hope is the light that guides the way.

Hope is the life preserver to those who feel that they are drowning. It drives away fear.

Hope is not only a virtue, but a very potent power deep within us.