Good evening!
We still have lingering heat, but not like the heat of mid-summer. Clearly the daytime is decreasing rapidly. We can observe the impermanence of the seasons, but scarcely of our own.
Only when we face the impermanence of ourselves – death, life threatening situations, etc. – can we suddenly know the truth of impermanence and selflessness. Only then can we truly see and solve our individual, social, and ecological problems.
At first, the Buddha was reluctant to come out into the world to tell the truth he realized because of laya, a layer of karma or consciousness. He needed more people to realize this fundamental solution of our samsara suffering and ultimate saving of the world from destruction.
All the problems we have are due not only to deception by other forces, but also to our own deep-seated delusion – the separate self. Me-ism is the source of all our sufferings. That’s why we cannot solve our problems in ordinary ways – political, economic, etc.
When we sit solid and serene, we can cease this laya, and we have the chance to become buddhas. Only then can we radically solve problems and sufferings – individual, social, and ecological – resulting from me-ism, materialism, militarism, mammonism.
8/19/11
