Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
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to perpetuate themselves; beliefs in things like creator gods<br />
are "positive" precisely because they allow you to avoid<br />
taking the time to examine issues like creation. Belief in<br />
entities like a soul are "positive" because they allow you to<br />
avoid having to understand the complex workings of reality.<br />
Once you have the "answers", you are free to spend your<br />
time on other things like how to further shorten the distance<br />
between reality and desire, like a mouse on an ever<br />
shrinking wheel.<br />
<strong>In</strong> the end, most of our advancements as a species can be<br />
seen to be nothing more than shortcut-taking in order to<br />
avoid the need to understand reality. It's a completely<br />
senseless state of being and yet it is one that has come to<br />
define our existence as human beings. We seek out pleasure<br />
for the purpose of becoming better able to seek out<br />
pleasure; we chase away displeasure for the purpose of<br />
becoming better able to chase away displeasure. <strong>In</strong> the end,<br />
we haven't the slightest bit of understanding about the<br />
nature of either, except that the one is to be desired and the<br />
other is to be avoided. Even that "understanding" is based<br />
primarily on what allows us to continue our development of<br />
habitual shortcut-taking - displeasure slows us down,<br />
pleasure speeds us up. There is no rationality to our<br />
preference beyond this, nor is there any foreseeable benefit<br />
to come from it. We are not just like mice running around in<br />
a wheel, we are like mice winding up our own mouse traps<br />
until they snap on our necks. <strong>In</strong>stead of moving closer and<br />
closer to satisfaction and peace, we move faster and faster<br />
away from them in our quest for pleasure and against<br />
displeasure - less and less satisfied with what we have until<br />
death puts an end to the cycle for us.<br />
I don't think it is at all a good thing to take shortcuts. Our<br />
propensity towards "whatever works" has rendered the<br />
system broken in a very fundamental way, as we never truly<br />
understand anything of what we experience - preferring<br />
rather to put it to use to obtain more of it, and quicker. We<br />
are like children who see a rainbow and immediately run to<br />
find an imaginary pot of gold at its end; instead of<br />
appreciating reality because it is real, we prefer illusion<br />
because it is more.<br />
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