for unknown reasons, i was acutely sensitized to life, destruction and death this morning as i walked to my workplace. i started the journey looking out for a baby sparrow that supposedly dropped out if it's nest and couldn't find its way home. i guessed i felt a little guilty to have left it to fend for itself yesterday. anyway, i didn't manage to find it and wished that it is safe somewhere. hopefully, it is still alive. i walked on, still feeling a little unsettled.
as i continued my journey, i saw rubbish - tissue paper, bottles, and many many more - all over the place. these were supposedly discarded by construction workers, pedestrians, etc. and i also witnessed huge amount of cut grass strewn all along the walking path. what a dirty sight, i thought. i also chanced upon snails and slugs that were trampled upon as they attempted to cross the walking path. lots of them for that matter. for a short moment, flashes of what siddhartha gautama saw when he ventured out of his palace appeared. my imagination no doubt, but they reminded me of destruction and death. and i reflected on it. but instead of seeing them as they were, i was reminded of impermanence. all things orderly will become disorderly sometime. and all things alive will meet their end at some point of time. let's not be too caught up with desires, i thought as i walked. and just as these thoughts crossed my mind, i saw buds sprouting from the ground, branches of wayside trees bending down, heavy with fruits. new life. new beginnings. nice, but very contrasting. they reinforced my thoughts about impermanence. of the cycles of life.
i arrived at my morning breakfast cafeteria in no time. and i realized i had gone into a semi-state of meditation as i walked.
it was a good walk, it was a very mindful walk.
it was a good start to my day.
happy thursday.
fear not death, for it is for the mortal body alone, and as for the soul, it is eternal...
ReplyDeletemany claim life is an ocean of samsara, and that we are born into this world while carrying our past karmas...
but funny isn't it, i mean, if we were to carry our past karmas, as in the effects of our negative actions from our past births into this current life, why are we first of all born without remembering our past births etc ?
doesn't that sound like, errr, God says,forget about your past, and live a beautiful life....
i don't know, but i firmly believe humans are the sole cause for their own misery...
best part, they always put the blame on God...
pity Him...i seriously pity Him....
nice sharing zerachial.
ReplyDeletelet me use two comment space to share my thoughts on what you shared.
first, karma and samsara
i frame these concepts karma and samsara slightly differently. karma is nothing but cause and effect. and samsara is a cycle. and if i frame life and death, not from the life cycle of a human lifespan but that of an event, then it would simply mean, for everything that happen, there is a start and there is an end.
e.g. there is a start to happiness and an end to it, and the end of happiness could possibly mean the start of sadness, and of course, sadness by itself, has a lifespan. and the end of sadness could mark the start of happiness... this is what i call birth and death of "happiness" and "sadness" and the cycle of birth and death goes on many many many times in our lifetime.
here, we see samsara being played out. as to why there is happiness or sadness, then we look at cause and effect (karma), as a simple example, if you do something that make you happy, then happiness is the effect and what you do is the cause.
in our lifetime, we do experience many many cycles of cause and effect (of happiness, sadness, etc) and thus through all these we (must) learn. and if we learn and we cultivate ourselves, we move towards enlightenment.
from this angle, it is not surprising to read of people saying buddha attained enlightenment only after millions of rebirths. it makes total sense if we do not see rebirth as being physically born, although it can also be applied.
e.g. the reason why we are born physically in this world is because our parents came together (cause) and we are the product (effect). and during the pregnancy, our mum probably took pains to take care of her health (cause) and hence we were born healthy (effect), etc etc... thus we can be said to be a product of our past karma's (cause and effect).
that is how i would frame these two concepts.
and i do so becos i recognise that in ancient times, symbolism is used in many many ways and not in as direct as what we do today. language is not so developed and many concepts are interpreted through stories and many a times with characters familiar to human beings as the objects of the stories. this sets the tone for my next comment on "gods"
in this comment, i want to reflect on the concept of "god".
ReplyDeletethere are many ways to interpret this term "god" and one possibly can see different religions framing them slightly differently. it depends on when the religion was created as the concept of god had changed many times since human first roamed the earth. so, gods were used to describe things that are not understood in the early years such as lightning, thunder, fire, sun, moon, etc.
in europe, middle east, god became more conceptual subsequently to represent concepts of good, bad, right, wrong in latter years. there was a time where there were many gods but closer to the turn of the millennia, god became an object to bring people together, thus god became a figure that was created in the likes of a human being and was to be feared. and there was only one god.
in asia, there was not one god. the concept of god was more complex. there were different layers and hierarchies of these beings. and so we have devas, boddhisatvas, buddhas, etc... but if i were to look at how these evolve and how these concepts were created and came to represent, i suspect that the concepts of these beings were created to represent something complex that words at that time cannot describe sufficiently. thus, gods (devas) came to be used to represent jealousy, gods (happiness), etc. i.e., these are all states of minds.
for example, boddhisatva avalokestavira (kuan imm) is a manifestation of compassion. and thus, we say in everyone of us, there are our kuan imm nature when we show compassion to people. same can be said when we show extreme compassionate and help to people who are sick/ dying (di zhang pu sa nature), etc.
so to cut the long story short, the concept of god as originated from europe/ middle east is not the same as the concept of god that originate in south asia/ central asia. putting the two together confuses one at its best, and can be the source of a lot of disrespectful jeers at other religion resulting in tensions at its worst.
my thoughts.
wow, seriously never expect you to reply elaborately,thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts, yes, i do agree with you, but if i share my point of view regarding how religion evolved throughout time,and how power greed humans made amendments to the ancient texts to control the society, it might bore you to death,hahaha...
ReplyDeletebut i seriously wish to share, since i guess you are also into spiritualism...
ok, i shall start on the next comment box...warning : what you are about to read will make your head go spinning, hahaha...
p/s my next comment is purely based on what i had gained through years of reading, and practise in real life, so i don't wish to offend you, i really hope it won't sound offensive, you know, written communication can seriously cause distortion,hahaha
ok, basically, i believe every teachings and religion in this world started from one monotheistic believe system, same goes to languages around the world that evolved from proto indo european language as claimed by many linguistic researchers....
ReplyDeletebased on pre vedic teachings which flourished throughout the Himalayan region around 15000 BC or i think much older, the original vedic literature claims that the entire cosmos is the creator, who is called as “purusha”, or the eternal one, this guy is said to be an epitome of unconditional love, and there is no negativity within him, and hence, this teaching later was “reintroduced” by lord, king, or whatever people may call him, to me, Krishna, the famous guy who introduced bhagavad gita around 10000 BC, before 2010, everyone thought this fella was a mere mythological figure, but things changed after archaeological evidence was found under ocean near the holy town of Dwarka in India which is a very revered holy site for Krishna devotees, and these under ocean findings point out that Krishna and his ancient kingdom of Dwarka did exist, and so, the famous kurukshektra battle did happen, and Mahabharata wasn’t really an epic, but rather a recorded historical text which was filled with mind boggling symbolism...
Sanskrit, believe me, it’s a crazy language.....
ok, so what this Krishna guy did ( i happen to worship this guy, and yeah, call me crazy, but for me God is like my best friend, that’s my relationship with him,hahaha ) he evolved the ancient idea of purusha, and turned it into “paramathma and jivanathma” concept....in short, paramathma refers to the super soul, or eternal soul ( Sanskrit – param : endless,never ending...athma: soul ) and jivan athma is the soul that resides within every living being....
so what this blue coloured alien guy a.k.a Krishna said was :
1) every living being is part of the supreme soul
2) we bear the fruits of our actions
3) the supreme soul is an epitome of positivity, no anger, no hatred, God is unconditional love, compassion etc
4) God is time, so everything that happens around us is connected, for example let’s say, like i started a blog, then came across your blog, commenting now, it’s already “preplanned”. or things like if you see there are cases of miracles happening, for example, like a plane crash, everyone dies, but one will survive, something to do with time....
5) there is no hell....yep...pre vedic times, no hell mentioned at all...just heaven...
6) hell is rather our state of being in this world...eg, rich always worried about losing wealth, or the poor constantly thinking about becoming rich....humans la, you know, never ending expectations....
so many things la this crazy Krishna said....
ok, why i said blue coloured alien guy, like seriously, if you happen to read about the Kurushektra battle that happened like sooo epic long ago, things mentioned in that war, eg, an arrow with a thousand missiles, blasting with the light of a thousand sun, flying warships...yeah, you get me, these were definitely not humans...i think these aliens were smart, they see humans are funny creatures, always fighting each other, so they came and injected their other world theories into our ancestors mind....just my thought, hahaha
ReplyDeletealright...so, i know, you are getting bored to death, but lemme continue..pleaseeeee.....
so, you mentioned about european version of God...ok, this pre vedic “purusha” idea, somehow managed to evolve itself through time, and it was spread throughout the world...name it, Abrahamic religion, both Christianity and Islam does share the same root with Judaism...and the old testament from the bible does share a lot of similarities with the Jewish book of Torah...so Yahweh, Allah, God...everything also same...
in case you don’t know what happened in Malaysia few months earlier, a famous old Malay author, he was captured by the Islamic authorities because he boldly claimed that Islam is rather an evolved teaching that came from pre vedic Indian civilization....
you know religious bigots...they will always argue their have the best God....
believe me, sometimes i don’t even tell these stuffs to my Indian friends, because what i know, maybe just about 1% of the Indian population knows about the pre vedic “purusha” stuff....
and as for Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara, yes, i know well, because i meditate upon Him, and i even chant nilakantha dharani or the maha karuna dharani, i think the Chinese Mahayana Buddhism tradition calls it the Great Compassionate Mantra...hmmmm, or is that the heart sutra...ok, told you, Sanskrit is very confusing....
and talking about symbolism, yes, Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara, the thousand armed Boddhisattva of compassion, indeed He dwells within all of us, teaches us to love each other more, to do good things
i found out that the Tibetan Buddhist monks, tried to unify the idea of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu into a single form of deity...why i say so, because chanting the nilakantha dharani, the most important sutra that praise Him, the Sanskrit terms like Mahakala, Nilakantha, Krishna, Narasimha, Chakradhari, Gadhadhari, all these terms are rather names attributed to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu, so somehow yep, indeed, it’s symbolism, but it’s also a way of saying that the energy of creation is within every living beings....
And as for Mother Guan Yin, i believe when the teachings of Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara was spread throughout mainland China, when the folks there refused the idea of a guy being super compassionate, they transformed Him into a motherly figure, and hence Mother Guan Yin’s worship became a widespread....
but no idea, i also read that Mother Guan Yin has some similarities with Matsu....o gosh, too many things in my head...i told you, your head will start to spin....
so ya.....
i think i will put an end to this,
if not you might start to become like me and think too much...
feel free to reply...bwhahaahhaha
Namo Amitabha....
o wait...i forgot to mention about the pure land teachings of Amitabha....
ok never mind, perhaps in another comment...hahaha...
take care :)
good sharing zerachial,
ReplyDeleteno, you do not bore me. it's good to read/ revisit some of the stuff i have read before. and i do not think i want to further elaborate or share my views at specific/ micro-levels or with respect to specific religions (now that i know you are familiar with them). theologists do that and have tried to beat the concept to death. but common to all, they have tried to better understand religion and understand how and why it came about.
my own reflections of religion and the evolution of it is that it is an effort on the part of human beings to:
at an individual-level
- better know and connect with themselves (inner-self)
- explain the meaning and purpose of his/ her life
- improve quality of existence and escape sufferings for self
at a society/ community-level
- minimise chaos and increase survivorship by organising themselves (e.g. rules, moral values, roles, relationship)
- rallying themselves
- improve quality of existence and escape sufferings for community
at the macro-level
- better understand what they do not know (extra-self), e.g. life, nature
- better understand how and why things exist and why they are organised this way
and human beings, regardless of geographical origins, have developed all sorts of avenues to capture these thoughts (e.g. language, picture, symbols, etc) and to hardwire them into rituals and practices. these are subjected to influences by differences in expressions, cultures, etc and thus interpreted differently across different communities. the challenge of passing these thoughts gets difficult given factors such as evolving culture, people using it for their own agenda, etc and of cos, not mentioning, the maturing of science that challenges the knowledge.
projecting into the future, when we go into the knowledge age, religion will increasingly become difficult to sustain if it continue to focus on what is deemed illogical in our physical world. but given that unequal access to knowledge amongst the human race, religion at varying stage of evolution will always be a part of the human society. whatever the case may be, i do not think we will see human being achieving a level of knowledge that can explain everything. and as long as this is so, the concept of god will continue to remain relevant. at a very personal level, when faced with danger, i will always foresee myself asking for divine to give me strength/ help. and as long as i do that, the divine will always exist.
my thoughts.
a quick one - religion and the concept of god is a function of man cos man is the only species on earth that has learned to externalise their communications through the creation of language.
ReplyDeletein short - religion and god is a derivative of man's desire for answers/ or knowledge.
no animals do that.
seriously, you really have the patients to read what i posted ? o my Buddha, i salute that...
ReplyDeletei like the way you think, and yes, religion does have issues with the advancement of science, but then, i still guess there is a balance,i mean, for example Chinese traditional herbal medications, or Ayurvedic texts have saved many lives when science couldn't, like errr, cancer etc, i have come across few people who manage to cure themselves without depending on modern medication...and as for me, i prefer not to rely on modern medication, because some doctors really turned me into a lab rat last time, and the drug side effects were terrible....
sometimes it's kinda frustrating not to have someone to share my thoughts when so many things are going on my brains...and thanks a lot for spending your time to read my long essay like comments, i am kinda new to this blog thing, actually i started to blog long back, posted only poems and stuffs, thought of bloggging back since it's helping me to cope with some issues i am facing now....
by the way, back to your second comment, yeap, true that...seeking for Truth created all...just like me, life's a teacher with never ending lesson...
sometimes i just look at the sky, and think to myself, my goodness, after all, we are just a tiny speck in this vast universe....
i ponder what is out there...many mysteries...
well science/ physics would have provided us with your question about what is out there, but beyond that, perhaps it is good to simply say - ahhhh, heaven and gods.
ReplyDeleteand with this sentence, we have gone back to attribute unknowns to the concept of god and religion.
haha...