Thursday, 1 December 2011

Day 22

Change Dependent on Causes and Conditions

My good friend and teacher Angela once said, "We are not really meditating here, but practising to meditate." We are on a path toward an end, so we should not expect that sitting on the cushion will mean the end of suffering, or of conceptual thought. This may be our goal, but it takes a long time to actualize; it can not be done in a few weeks or even a few years. Still, this doesn't mean it can not be done. The Dalai Lama encourages us, saying in a discussion about identifying the nature of suffering (see reference in the previous blog post), that it is the nature of conditioned things to change, dependent on causes and conditions. Our minds are changing anyway; let's turn them in the right direction, without attachment to immediate and drastic goals.

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