So why did I think I would be spending my summer sitting quietly and reading our book for hours and hours?
I do keep The Pocket Dalai Lama with me so I can read a few pages when I'm waiting to pick up Emily. I keep wondering, will I be able to read more and less after she gets a drivers' license? I'm highlighting and putting stickey notes on most pages.
The one quote which jumped out at me is "human nature is basically good, gentle and unaggressive." The Dalai Lama has not worked at a pre-school with 3 & 4 year old boys. Perhaps children are different in Tibet.
"In Buddhism, any thought, feeling or mental state that undermines our peace of mind from within-all negative thoughts and emotions such as anger, pride, lust, greed, envy and so on, are considered to be afflictions."
So how does the Dalai Lama get through the day? He must have people shopping and cooking for him. He doesn't have children or drive on the freeway. I bet he doesn't have a drivers' license. Are there highways in Tibet?
At this point I think I would need to be wrapped up in bubble pack and placed in a dark closet to achieve peace of mind day after day. A few days at the Sonoma Mission Inn might help also.
"Anger is the real destroyer of our good human qualities, an enemy with a weapon cannot destroy these qualities, but anger can. Anger is our real enemy."
Hm-m-m-m. Not be angry. That's something to think about. That's like a day without caffeine.
Maybe I'm just not Buddhist material.
I actually have started to read "The World's Religions" but I also picked up a copy of "The Illustrated World's Religions" so I'm bouncing back and forth. The text is interesting but dense. I'll read some pages, come back in a few days, read the pages again and am surprised to find highlighting on the page , which means I read it but I don't remember it. Very slow progress.
"To be sure India has not made pleasure her highest good, but this is differnt from condemning enjoyment. To the person who wants pleasure, India says in effect: Go after it-there is nothing wrong with it: it is one of the four legitimate ends of life."
After growing up as a Presbyterian/Christian I read this and thought, "WOW" they actually get to talk about pleasure. It's actually encouraged. That's not one of those words Presbyterians toss around a lot.
Emily tells me she read early Christians were rejecting Rome/Roman ideals so "pleasure" was not an activity they supported. They saw what it did to the Romans.
Talking about pleasure, I think I understand Salman Rushdie's style of writing more with just the little bit of reading on Hinduism. It's like a window into the world he is writing about.
"All of us dwell on the brink of the infinite ocean of life's creative power. We carry it within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy."
wishing you all pleasure, Jane
