Easing into the Dharma

[Guest guest]

>20 Things which are hard for humans

>

>Forwarded from the DharmaDirect list:

>======================================

>

>The Buddha said:

>

>"There are twenty difficult things which are hard for human beings:

>

>1. It is hard to practice charity when one is poor.

 

Hi Greg,

thanks for posting these :-)

I wonder why the poor are often

the most charitable with time and love

and what little they have.

Perhaps the best thing is voluntary impoverishment (steady people . . .)

which would increase ones generosity . . .

 

>2. It is hard to study the Way when occupying a position of great

>authority.

 

Funnily enough those who are involved in the harder

Way often have more to study.

In Sufism and the Buddhist tradition of the MahaSiddhis,

in the Hindu Path of the Householder and in the

path of Freemasonry (for example) great authority

may be the very bridge that enables the Way . . .

 

>3. It is hard to surrender life at the approach of inevitable death.

 

You know Greg, some Buddhism has this tendency towards

negative despondency.

For example Sufism would say

'Die before you die'

'Live your life with remembrance of Death'

(Death meaning annihilation of self

amongst other things)

Christianity would say, 'those who are

born again, will find eternal life . . . '

Is it easier to surrender to life at the approach of inevitable death

than to approach life as some inevitable hardship?

I would suggest that it is easier to concentrate

on what is easy, so I will leave the other

hardships . . . :-)

 

Taking it easy . . . .

Lobster