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Quotations on:
Freedom, Choice, Free Will
The Buddha |
Do not accept any of my words on faith,
Believing them just because I said them.
Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns,
And critically examines his product for authenticity.
Only accept what passes the test
By proving useful and beneficial in your life. |
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We must never forget that it is through our actions, words, and thoughts that we have a choice. And if we choose to do so, we can put an end to suffering and the causes of suffering, and help our true potential, our buddha nature, to awaken in us. Until this buddha nature is completely awakened and we are freed from our ignorance and merge with the deathless, enlightened mind, there can be no end to the round of life and death. So, the teachings tell us, if we do not assume the fullest possible responsibility for ourselves now in this life, our suffering will go on not only for a few lives but for thousands of lives.
It is this sobering knowledge that makes Buddhists consider that future lives are more important even than this one, because there are many more that await us in the future. This long-term vision governs how they live. They know if we were to sacrifice the whole of eternity for this life, it would be like spending our entire life savings on one drink, madly ignoring the consequences.
Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life itself reveals again and again the opposite: that letting go is the path to real freedom.
Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our characters can be molded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes. Through weathering changes, we can learn how to develop a gentle but unshakable composure. Our confidence in ourselves grows, and becomes so much greater that goodness and compassion begin naturally to radiate out from us and bring joy to others.
That goodness is what survives death, a fundamental goodness that is in each and every one of us. The whole of our life is a teaching of how to uncover that strong goodness, and a training toward realizing it.
Renunciation has both sadness and joy in it: sadness because
you realize the futility of your old ways, and joy because of the greater vision
that begins to unfold when you are able to let go of them. This is no ordinary
joy. It is a joy that gives birth to a new and profound strength, a confidence,
an abiding inspiration that comes from the realization that you are not condemned
to your habits, that you can indeed emerge from them, that you can change, and
grow more and more free.
We may idealise freedom, but when it comes
to our habits, we are completely enslaved. |
If everything down to the minutest detail,
were preconditioned either by Kamma or by the physical laws of
the universe, there would be no room in the pattern of strict
causality for the functioning of free-will. It would therefore
be impossible for us to free ourselves from the mechanism of cause
and effect; it would be impossible to achieve Nibbana. .the situation
itself is the product of past Kamma, but the individual's reaction
to it is a free play of will and intention.
From Francis Story in 'Dimensions of Buddhist thought'
In fact the word freedom itself is a relative term: freedom from something
[eg. impatience], otherwise there is no freedom. And since it is freedom from
something, one must first create the right situation, which is patience. This
kind of freedom cannot be created by an outsider or some superior authority.
One must develop the ability to know the situation. In other words, one has
to develop a paranomic awareness, an all-pervading awareness, knowing the situation
at that very moment. It is a question of knowing the situation and opening one's
eyes to that very moment of nowness, and this is not particularly a mystical
experience or anything mysterious at all, but just direct, open and clear perception
of what is now without being influenced by the past or any expectation of the
future, but just seeing the very moment of now, then at that moment there is
no barrier at all.
For a barrier could only arise from association with the past or expectation
of the future. So the present moment has no barriers at all. And then he finds
there is a tremendous energy in him, a tremendous strength to practice patience.
He becomes like a warrior. When a warrior goes to [a spiritual; not physical]
war [which he must participate] he does not think of the past or his previous
experience of war, nor does he think of the consequences for the future; he
just sails through it and fights, and that is the right way to be a warrior.
Similarly, when there is a tremendous conflict going on, one has to develop
this energy combined with patience. And this is known as right patience with
the all-seeing eye, patience with clarity.
Chogyam Trungpa Meditation in Action
Last
updated:
April 27, 2009
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