I often hear; “why do bad things happen to good people?”
But this is a loaded question because we have to assume our minds interpretation of good and bad often which is programmed into us. However Shakespeare who’s wisdom seemed to be that of a zen master or great mystics told us that:
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
If we can observe some truth in this statement then we could also say “why is there suffering, and why even when I or others are kind and honest do I/they still suffer?”
This now becomes more of an spiritual enquiry… “why is there suffering and what causes suffering?”
This is the question the Buddha asked, and the answer he got after years of enquiry became Buddhism in all of its forms.
The parable of the garden of Eden tells us that, we suffer because we have taken a bite from the apple of the tree of earthly life, we have as Shakespeare tells us fallen into the sleep of perceived duality.
Good and evil, sucess and failure, winning and losing, popularity and rejection, the endless cycle of samsara.
The interesting thing is that the true path of mysticism is the opposite of this, the one goal of the Buddhist/Hindu/Islamic/Christian mystic is to break this spell, to free ourselves from the illusion.
Paradoxically what the world labels as bad or desires to fearfully reject, seems to be one of the greatest medicines for this type of absolute awakening and freedom.
And spell of unconsciousness which Shakespeare and many of the other great mystics tells us about , isn’t one that the government, the Illuminate, the media, the Corporations, Capitalism or Communism are casting up on us.
It’s one which you are casting upon yourself, it’s one which you are using to creat all your limitations on a moment to moment basis.
That you’ll only be fulfilled when you get the six figure income, meet your soul mate, shed the pounds and reach your target weight, develop mystical abilities etc.
So we put off our own kingdom of heaven, we give the power of our happiness away, and we try and store it up in earthly ideas of perfection.
Christ tells us that:
“for the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Tao/Holy Spirit.”
Like Lao Tzu and the Buddha he tells us;
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,where moths and vermin destroy,and where thieves break in and steal… But store up your treasures is heaven .. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Off course it may be favourable for many of us to make sure we have food, water, heating on the practice level, and to do what we can to create a comfortable life. But equally to hold the awareness that all of this all transitory ana won’t by itself give us our peace of mind.
Truly we have never left home we just ‘think’ that we have and there in lays the problem.
There is a great love inside of you, there is a soul who is already home, a state of being in which you are one with Tao, with the father, knowing this is true freedom, knowing this leads to true service, knowing this in any moment sets us free.
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