Punna Wong

The realities of life stare at us in our faces.

Whether we chose to live in denial or see reality is up to us.

Truth is truth. It is universal and is unchanged by locality or culture or nation.

Whenever a child is born, he will die one day. That is the truth no matter what we chose to believe in. Or to disbelieve.

Truth is impersonal. It does not favour anyone or forgive or is bent by prayers or offerings. It is inevitable in its outcome and in timeless.

The Buddha insisted that we must see the truths by ourselves and for ourselves. He wants us to rely on the Truths and on OURSELVES.

Whether we believe him or not is immaterial.

Whether we even call ourselves Buddhists or not is also immaterial.

The Buddha would not have become the Buddha if not for him seeing the truths of life.

And he wants us to see the truths for ourselves.

We take refuge in the Truths.

We depend on our own senses and mind to perceive the truth.

We have the confidence in ourselves.

No god that a human being worship or praise will make that human a god.

But one need not worship or praise the Buddha to be enlightened. One only needs to see with open unprejudiced eyes.

Human beings create gods for every need. The chinese have gods of wealth, studies, justice, etc. Man created gods by the thousands, not gods created man.

Believing in the truth and working in harmony with it is wise and logical.

It will be foolish to believe in what is untrue. It will be dangerous to accept what is untrue as truth without question. We must have faith in ourselves and in the truths.

Blind faith in anything external is unrewarding as we will not be any wiser.

So what is obviously true?

Impermanence is one. All things are forever changing. Nothing remains the same for any length of time. If we are attached to the impermanent as a refuge we will be disappointed.

But with impermanence we can effect a change for the better in ourselves because even we are impermanent.

Suffering or dissatisfaction is another. Just look around us. Even the most happy of times will end.

And suffering can arise from our bodies, emotions, attachments, and from nature.

But we can lessen suffering too if we learn to live in harmony with nature.

But the suffering which leads to the end of suffering is worth it.

Nothing wholesome or good can be achieved without effort or stress. But this suffering which leads to a noble outcome is worth the effort.

Pls make sure that your suffering is worth the suffering!

Nonself does not mean that we do not exist but that there is nothing permanent in us. We are always changing in both body and mind.

Aging, sickness and death is not within our control. It is because of Nonself. We do not have any self that is ours to control.

But the positive aspect is that since we are not cast unchangingly in concrete we can change for the better. An uneducated man can take night classes. An ill tempered man can calm himself. If we are unchanging with a permanent self then there is no hope.

Emptiness does NOT mean Nothingness. On the contrary Emptiness is the potential for anything to be anything.

A cup is Empty hence it can be filled with tea.

A gold ring can be melted down. The ring is now Emptied of the ring it used to be but a piece of gold now remains which can be  transformed into other jewellery. 

Look at a table. Is it a table? Yes we call it one but in reality it is a combination of pieces of timber.

So we call it timber then but that too is wrong because that timber is merely parts of what was once a tree!

So we call it parts of a tree then. Again wrong because that tree grew from a seed with sunlight, soil, water etc. The entire universe is in that tree contributing to it.

Hence on the tip of a needle the entire universe exists.

Emptiness is that potential to become. Form is no different from Emptiness. Emptiness no different from form.

From Emptiness arises all forms.

This is profound science. This is reality.

So we must have confidence in ourselves and we can change to be better.

The Buddha does not need us to pray to him or to worship him or to seek his forgiveness. The power to change is with us. He wants us to live a noble life in harmony with the Truths of life, the Dhamma. And he wants us to confirm its truthfulness by ourselves.

#Punnawong