Paradox ......... Not

Paradox ......... Not !


In "The World" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/03/world.html, I quoted The Buddha saying the world is blind.

In the same entry, I also say that the world can't see suffering.

Yet, in the same breath, in "Pureland Paradise" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/04/pureland-paradise.html, I say that 'a beautiful world can only be seen through the eyes of a happy heart'.

Some people may feel that what I say is ambiguous, paradox, contradicting myself.

Actually, no.

There's no ambiguity, contradiction, paradox at all.

When you're asleep, you can't see.

When you start to wake up that's when you begin to see.

AND, when you finally wake up, what else is there to see?

There's no more need for you to see, cos you would have seen it all, and experienced.

Likewise, people say The Buddha's Teaching is ambiguous, a paradox.

There's no paradox at all.

Take the 1st Truth - There is suffering.

You have to be in the midst of suffering, experiencing suffering, for you, hopefully, to know (and see) there is suffering.

In order to know it, comprehend it completely - what it (i.e. suffering) feels like etc.

Just as I said in "Talk Talk Talk" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/01/talk-talk-talk.html, you have to be in it to know it.

If you're not in it, how can you know 'it' ?

Likewise, to end suffering, you have to suffer first, so that you can know it, what it is like and how to end it.

In other words,

You have to go through suffering to know suffering to end suffering.

Take an example : To untie a knot, you have to know how the knot was being tied in the 1st place.

So, to know un-becoming, you have to become first.

Take another example : Would the ministers sitting in their cushy posh ivory tower offices know what the man in the street feels?

What the cleaning auntie goes through day after day?

Would they, the Ministers, being driven and escorted in big luxurious cars with roads cleared for them know what it feels like to be caught in a jam?

Or to squeeze with others in the MRT?

Or how it feels being pushed and packed like sardines, smelling each others' sweat and body odour in a bus which air-con is not working, or leaking, with cockroaches running about?

Similarly, would someone staying in a landed, or private property know what someone in a rented flat goes through day after day?

The incessant incense burning, noise from upstairs, downstairs, next door and across, with loansharks scrawling on the walls?

People who are not in it but claims to have knowledge about/of it, are just speculating -

Using their own assumption, presumption, interpretation, imagination.

To truly be able to help and serve the masses,

You have to go down to the masses,

To live with them,

To see and experience what they, the people, go through,

Including their suffering.

Like I said in "The Teacher and The Teachings (Part 2) - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/05/teacher-and-teachings-part-2-teachings.html, and

"The Guru and His Bowl" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/07/guru-and-his-bowl.html,

Many people can say alot of wow-wow things, sprout lyrical and impress/fool the ignorant,

But it's all speculation.

(Read "Why Like That" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-like-that.html, and

"How Much is True" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-much-is-true.html)

So, ambiguous? Paradox? Contradictory?

Nah .........

Only The Truth.



*** Read

1) 'Why He Has to Go' - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-he-has-to-go.html

2) 'How Will We Know' - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-will-we-know.html




"The wise one dispels negligence by means of mindfulness;

He ascends the Tower of Wisdom

And being free from sorrow looks at the sorrowing beings.

Just as one on the mountain top looks at those on the plain below,

So also, The Wise One (The Arahant) looks at the ignorant."

- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 28




"The Dhamma tends to arise in places where things are lacking,

In difficult places where we're cornered, at the end of our rope.

It doesn't arise where things are over flowing, where our needs are met.

It doesn't arise in comfortable places because we just get complacent.

(And) This is the way we tend to be."

- Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno




"The real Dhamma can only be realised through practice."

- The Buddha




"People whose understanding is founded upon knowledge gained through memorisation are very preoccupied with their own ideas,

Always assuming they are highly intelligent.

IN TRUTH, they are COMPLETELY DELUDED."

- Venerable Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno




"There is a great gap between written and spoken Dhamma,

AND The Dhamma manifesting within a person's mind."

- Venerable Ajahn Mun




"If one only has knowledge of books, scriptures, sermons and sutras,

Even in hundreds of lives,

One will NEVER know purity, radiance and peacefulness of mind."

- Venerable Ajahn Chah




"Though much he recites the sacred text,

But acts NOT accordingly;

That heedless man is like a cowherd who counts others' kine.

He has NO SHARE in the fruits of the Holy life.

- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 19