Insight's on life

by Owen Waters

The Buddha spent many years trying to understand evil and suffering. He eventually concluded that the only real power in the universe is the Creator and that all else is illusion and therefore has little or no power in comparison.

He then went on to counsel people to adopt the middle way in order to avoid being sucked into illusion and bringing suffering upon themselves. He saw attachment to things of the world as the source of suffering, so he advised people to be a part of the world, yet not attached to it.

His words ring as true today as they did 2,500 years ago; and yet, times have changed. Today's level of popular consciousness is far beyond that of the relatively dark times of 2,500 years ago. Today, detachment is still excellent advice, but we can do so much more now to consciously transform the old ways of darkness.

I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.

My wife, daughter, and I moved into our home nine years ago and we spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it looking like it does today. We live on a corner, higher than street level, and the entire side of the yard in encased by a professionally built rock wall. The front of the house though is another story because instead of a wall along the sidewalk the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt as if someone were in a hurry to finish.

We did the best we could with what we had to work with and called this area our ‘rock garden’. Whenever we had left over flowers or plants, Denise or I would stick them out front, just to bring some color to the area.

Move Mountains Out of Your Way

Mountains crumble in the presence of those who know how to wait, watch, and then boldly walk through the passage that appears before them.

Welcome the Freedom that Comes with Being Fearless

As we are coming to see, within each of us dwells a Light -- an awareness capable not only of observing the host of invisible forces that forge life itself, but whose conscious interaction with them changes them as it will. It is through this higher order of ourselves that we are empowered to learn the truth about ourselves. And here the word truth means not just intellectual self-knowledge, but a direct in-dwelling knowing of all that is for our further perfection and all that seems to oppose it. This beautiful understanding, once awakened within us, transforms the way we see life. There is no longer any reason to fear "how" things change because we're beginning to understand the greatest secret on Earth:

The Sure Cure for Negative States

 

The real reason negative states persist is because we resist seeing the following truth: blaming others for the pain we feel is like resenting our pants for being too tight.

 

The Power to Never Feel Powerless Again

Whenever someone hurts us with a pointed remark, what we see isn't whether or not there's truth in their words; all we "see" is our wish they hadn't said anything at all! In such moments we are absorbed by a familiar negative reaction whose one desire is that the unwanted event just go away. This resistance acts within and upon our consciousness as a "blinding" and binding force, so all we can "see" is our own negativity over what we wish wasn't happening!

What is it about these kinds of events that causes us to feel powerless to relieve the source of our pressing stress?

During my many years in Japan I've taken the opportunity to dabble in various Japanese arts. I always come away feeling inspired by the sensitivity and attention to detail that is expressed.

One of my explorations led me to take some lessons in "Ikebana", the Japanese art of flower arranging. During my brief training my teacher told me the following: "In contrast to the massing of blooms typical of flower arrangements in the West, Ikebana is usually characterized by a line of twigs and/or leaves, connected by a sparse arrangement of flowers. The idea being to give the viewer the sense they have come across a scene in nature."