Duhkha, Baby, Duhkha

"Always remember that certain circumstances are not ours to alter.  We make the most of them and go on.  We can only be examples, never controllers of other people's lives, other people's children, other people's circumstances.  Some would have us believe we contribute to harsh events by doing nothing.  But some of the best work, some of the deepest caring and doing is not physically evident in the beginning.  Help of any kind must be wanted and recognized before it can do any good.  Too much help where it isn't appreciated can make even a good person helpless.  We have to be wise in our giving, and particularly wise in what we withhold, because it may be what we withhold that helps the most." V.H. Gunaratana

Someone mentioned today our proclivity for letting little niggling worries to rent space in our heads.  Whatever it is it's probably not going to happen.  And if it does happen we've got the tools to handle it.

"To the precise extent that we permit these (worries, implied), do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile."  Big Book of A.A.

More from the Buddhists . . .  "Vipassana meditation is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness.  It is an ancient and codified system of training your mind, a set of exercises dedicated to becoming more and more aware of your own life experience.  It is attentive listening, mindful seeing, and careful testing.  We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully, and really pay attention to these experiences.  The object of Vipassana practice is to learn to see the truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of phenomenon."

The Buddhist word for this is duhkha, which means literally "standing unstable."  It is a component and instigator of restless irritation which would be a great name for a hard rock band.  Existence is transient, evanescent, and inconstant.  Life is a river flowing by: the river is always there but the water is here and gone.  Still wet but somewhere else.  "Annika" is the Buddhist word for this here today gone tomorrow concept.  Nothing lasts so hold on loosely.  Eventually, you're going to be a decaying meat sack lying underground so how's that Porsche going to help you then?

Selflessness.  The self is not important.  There is suffering.  Suffering has a cause.  Suffering can cease.  There is a way to throttle the fuck out of suffering.

Three out of four Buddhist noble truths ain't bad.