Lesson 8
#1. Socially-driven, pre-conditioned ideas that a person has to give up in order to have faith in nirvana are probably as numerous as humans who have been conditioned by their respective cultures. In our western culture, we may have to give up the idea of "proof." Does nirvana exist, and if so, where is it and how do you get there. How do we recognize it when we see it? If we drop the need for proof, and a description of how do we recognize it when we see it, we may then move to "faith" that there is such a thing as nirvana. Faith and the concepts of probability and uncertainty go hand-in-hand We can't really prove there love exists by western reductionism, either, but we have faith it exists because of what we've heard from others and what we, ourselves have experienced. Faith, then, is being sure without really knowing all the facts.
#1. Socially-driven, pre-conditioned ideas that a person has to give up in order to have faith in nirvana are probably as numerous as humans who have been conditioned by their respective cultures. In our western culture, we may have to give up the idea of "proof." Does nirvana exist, and if so, where is it and how do you get there. How do we recognize it when we see it? If we drop the need for proof, and a description of how do we recognize it when we see it, we may then move to "faith" that there is such a thing as nirvana. Faith and the concepts of probability and uncertainty go hand-in-hand We can't really prove there love exists by western reductionism, either, but we have faith it exists because of what we've heard from others and what we, ourselves have experienced. Faith, then, is being sure without really knowing all the facts.
#2. Another image that could be compared metaphorically to enlightenment is a sunrise.
#3. Poem:
Enlightenment: A Sunrise
A sunrise begins in the dark of night,
as does enlightenment.
The sky turns a golden pink,
beyond a horizon of hills and trees.
A gray cloud melts into the morning light,
as earlier did the stars.
A globe of gold spills its light
into the valley and villages.
A day has dawned,
and the world is illumined.
Nancy Anderson
aka "Lotus"
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