The Buddha said, “Life is dukkha.”
Most Americans and English speaking peoples translate this into suffering.
But dukkha, a word that originates from Pali, one form of Sanskrit, means so much more.
It its most essential form dukkha address three aspects of the challenges humans face in our efforts to survive and thrive
The pain and suffering of life.
The inevitability of change demanding adaptation and evolution.
The cause-and-effect, interrelatedness and interdependence of all things living.
Angst, evolution, and the non-dual nature of life.
No one escapes.
And yet so much of the media of our culture, fed through the virtual reality that exists within the various screens we visit, watch and interact through lead us to believe, better yet, deliver us the illusion that we are free.
Worse yet, the advertisements that sustain these various screens, television, computer, iPad, iPod, you name it, lead us to believe that if we purchase this, or sign up for that, we will achieve liberation.
As with the varied definitions of dukkha all feeding into a meaning the English language with its deconstructive nature cannot hold, we all too often lack the inner stability to grasp the “this-and-that” reality of life versus the more easily digested “this-or-that” mirage that beckons our trust and belief.
I recently read a Tweet stating, “The only way to be free is to limit yourself.” http://twitter.com/#!/ChristieBuckner
Seeking escape in favor of the ability to do what we want, when we want, and how ever we desire leads to an exaggeration of pain and suffering that sets of a chain reaction of cause-and-effect consequences ultimately touching all we whom we know, and effecting the outcome of each goal we set out to achieve.
Relationships comfort and support us.
They sustain and feed us.
Without them we as humans die, both mentally and physically.
The relationships that connect us with family and family provide boundaries protecting us.
They also give us limits.
Honoring those whom we love and who love us demands we show commitment, loyalty and respect to not only family and friends, but the relationships binding us to them and vice versus.
The love we hold for others and demonstrate in thought word and deep provides a road map, a code or set of limits by which to live, and travel throughout this world both within ourselves and alongside others.
It allows us to maintain a sense of integrity so that we will not end up alone, and ultimately dying inside.
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What are the limits by which you live?
To whom or what do you hold greatest loyalty–internal desires or the well-being of others?
How would you like to be remembered after death?