How to become Spiritually Awakened

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The advent of old age can be painfully unbearable for the vain,

especially for famously beautiful actors, dancers or film stars who

were once the cynosure of admiring and eager eyes. Looking back with

nostalgia to their early years, they regret that they are no longer

in the limelight. Some of them, alas, have even chosen to commit

suicide instead of accepting the fact that their bodies and faces are

no longer smooth and charming but rather wrinkled. They have

needlessly suffered and paid dearly for their vanity. Nevertheless,

inner peace and joy would surely have been theirs had they only

ceased to pride themselves on their outward appearance, which in turn

would have been the natural consequence of understanding the great

and fundamental law of impermanence (Anicca). That all constituted

things are in a state of perpetual flux or continual change is a

cardinal feature in Buddhism.

 

There are two main reasons for modern man's moral and spiritual

degeneracy: first, the growing popularity of the materialist view of

life, according to which there is no spiritual world whatsoever since

the only reality is physical matter; second, the hedonistic attitude

that pleasure is the highest good which alone has ultimate value. In

a sense our so-called civilisation has been nothing more than a

desperate search for different degrees and forms of pleasure. So

great is the emphasis on pleasure that, needless to say, people have

become very attached to their bodies. One unfortunate consequence is

that they seldom, if ever, ask themselves the following questions: Am

I this body? Why am I attached to it? Is there nothing other than

this physical organism with its never-ending, ever-changing chain of

thoughts and emotions?

 

In the Apadana one can find a victorious declaration attributed to

Ambapali:

 

By treading the Buddha's path

 

I've found the indestructible state.

 

A real daughter of him am I.

 

I remember my past lives,

 

Pure is the superhuman eye,

 

Being thoroughly cleansed within,

 

There is no more becoming.

 

- Swami Yatiswarananda