It is about becoming aware of oneself.
\nIt takes the direction of going into one’s inner self.
\nIt uses the expedient methods based on desire nothing and expect nothing in return.
\nIt discusses states and approaches concerning the process of self-awareness.
\nIt enables you to become clearer about your inner self through on-line discussions.
\nIt is the supply store on your path of awareness.
\nIt is your companion on this journey of awareness.
\nIt wishes that you will reach the inner home of your deepest soul.<\/p>\n
Q: Why do we have sufferings? Q: If that’s true then the sufferings won’t be felt as such but enjoyments. So there shouldn’t be anyone who likes sufferings. Right? Q: But we also like joy and happiness. Why don’t they come? Q: Why do you think so? Q: All right, please prove that what we like, we actually dislike, and what we dislike is actually what we like. In this whole time there were so many maybes, happy ones, neutral ones and painful ones. And she definitely would end up with the painful ones. Easterners behave this way, as well as the Westerners; Blacks as well as Whites; ancient people as well as modern people. Thinking is a human behavior and we always use thinking to choose the sufferings.<\/p>\n When the one she worried about came home safely all her worries would be gone. She should have been happy because the one she was yearning for was finally home. She should have given him a hug and enjoyed the gratefulness towards his safe return. But instead, her caring turned into anger; they had a big quarrel that spoiled the dinner. At the time when she should have chosen happiness, she chooses pain. That’s why I say people like sufferings, not happiness.<\/p>\n Look at those fireflies at night. They fly to stay alive. They can fly anywhere to enjoy life, but if there is a fire, then towards fire they go. The fireflies die in the fire because they love life. Humans are a lot like the fireflies. Among countless number of choices we choose the worst; among all the emotions, we choose the one most painful to us.<\/p>\n Another example. Someone stands in a place full of feces and poisonous bugs. He cries out loud: My environment is so bad, it stinks, and I am covered with cuts and bruises, I am suffering so much! However, not so far away is a clean place with nice houses, resting benches and flowers. No one is preventing him from going there. It is his own choice to remain where he is. He knows there is pain but he doesn’t want to leave.<\/p>\n Those who are unable to leave pain are like the living dead. In every situation we always have different choices. Somehow people only like to choose the most painful situation, just like how the fireflies like to dive into fire.<\/p>\n There is no point of standing in the wind and crying cold. By all means you can go under the Sun to enjoy the warmth. But somehow almost everyone in this world stands in the wind and cries cold.<\/p>\n Q: Sometimes the hurt I suffer is very concrete. How do I choose otherwise then? Q: Why? Q: Isn’t this self-comforting, self-deceiving? Q: If all are just deceiving, why do we only pick pain but not self-comfort? Is it really true that we like pain?<\/strong> Q: Maybe you can say this about the pain and joy in the dream. But it’s different for the pain and joy in the real world, isn’t it?<\/strong> So you have dreams of the night, dreams of the day, and dreams of a lifetime. They are all dreams. In your dreams there can be no one else but you. Success or failure, it’s all you; suffering or happiness, it’s also all you. They are all manifestations of your mind. All the suffering and failures in your dreams are unreal. The only thing real is that you are stuck in a bad dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is about becoming aware of oneself. It takes the direction of going into one’s inner self. It uses the expedient methods based on desire nothing and expect nothing in return. It discusses states and approaches concerning the process of self-awareness. It enables you to become clearer about your inner self through on-line discussions. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":15,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/95"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/is-zen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA:<\/strong> Because we like them.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> Everyone likes sufferings. Sufferings won’t come if you don’t like them. In this world people have different sufferings, or put in another way, different forms of longing and attachment to sufferings.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> That’s because you don’t like joy nor happiness. Therefore they don’t come.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> I am only stating the fact so you may see it.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> Let’s look at an example. If a lady’s husband was supposed to be home by a certain time but he didn’t, and she had no way to contact him, then she would become worried. Many thoughts came out of the worrying. “Maybe he is taking a rest by the roadside; maybe he went to see a girlfriend; maybe he got into a car accident; maybe he won the lottery…” With time passing by she would become more worried and nervous, and more and more she would focus on the negative: “Maybe he went to see a girlfriend behind my back? Maybe he had an accident?” After waiting even longer, she would select only one scenario: he must have had an accident. Then she would be very scared.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> Let’s say that someone fell and hurt his leg after stepping on a piece of melon peel. After the physical pain subsides he still has many choices. He can be angry and curse others; he can pity himself for the misfortune; he can blame himself for not being careful; or he can be grateful…<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> It’s only because you can walk could you fall. There are so many people in the world that cannot even walk. But you can walk, and fall. Please notice this. To those who cannot walk, falling down is such a great event. For them they will be full of grateful tears if they can just walk one step, even if that step could cost them a bad fall and a big wound. More over, there are so many who don’t even have legs. For them, falling down from walking is unthinkable, even just having a pair of unmovable legs is unthinkable. So for those who have legs and are capable of walking, falling down is just a reminder that you already have so much. How can you not be grateful then? You are still alive, you can still touch this world, and you still have the chance to be enlightened. How can you not be grateful?<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> Yes, that is self-deceiving. But who isn’t doing so? Isn’t choosing suffering also self-deceiving? Why? When facing a situation you can have countless different responses, but you only picked one. It’s neither thorough nor truthful. So that’s also self-deceiving.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> You enter a dream during sleep and in the dream you fight with the enemies, and you lost. After you wake up you realize it’s just your dream. The “you” and the enemies in the dream are only you, just yourself. In the dream you are fighting with yourself. So victory and defeat exist at the same time. Likewise are gaining and losing, love and hate. They all exist at the same time. And since they both exist at the same time nothing is for sure, nothing is for real.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong> You enter the dream during night. In the morning after you wake up everything in the dream is gone, nothing can be brought into the real world. In the real world, you spend all your life working hard. But when you die nothing can be taken with you. It is just like in a dream. In fact, life is a dream.<\/p>\n