::::::::
True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.
Albert Einstein
Image by ah zut via Flickr
We worry about life after death but unfortunately many of us fail to live life successfully before death.
We measure the success of life in the number of years attained or the final value of an estate, but we don't measure the success in life by the number of smiles we gave or the number of people that we helped.
The Buddha is quoted to have said, "All fear violence, all are afraid of death. Seeing the similarity to oneself, one should not use violence or have it used."
Although people have different beliefs and cultures, they want pretty much the same things. They want to prosper and to live life happily. Still people often do their best to make sure others don't prosper or live life in some measure of contentment.
There is a fundamental harmony to life that needs to be honored in our dealings with others. When we violate this harmony then we pay the price, as a person and as a people. Sometimes that means a great deal of misery for us and sometimes that means we pay with our own lives.
Basically all want to live life successfully but the meaning they give success is often very shallow and shameful.
Until people are capable of looking at success in terms of their relationships with the rest of life, they will likely be living a life that the Buddhists call dukkha. Like the potter's wheel that screeches and turns irregular and off balance, living life unsuccessfully or in dukkha means a great deal of pain, anxiety, frustration, depression, and all manner of sorrow.
Successful living is one that is joyful, harmonious, and effortless. We can move toward that level of success by understanding that our lives are defined by our relationship with the rest of life. When we are living a life that promotes healthy living for ourselves and all of our relationships then we are approaching sukha, that is an honorable life running like the potters wheel, smoothly and noiselessly, in balance and in harmony, doing and not-doing what needs to be done.
