An interesting read.
Many of us are living our lives merely following what others said. We are so used to convention that we live our life based on what others want us to be.
Read more here and tell me what you think?
If we are constantly following what others say and think, we never live our own lives; we live other people’s lives; our centre of gravity is somewhere else. The Kalama sutta is classic in pointing this out (see below). The Buddha goes along to this town, Kesaputta, and the people there, the Kalamas, seize the opportunity to ask him about something they’ve been grappling with for a long time: ‘Someone comes and tells us how marvellous his teaching is and how second-rate everyone else’s is. And then someone else comes and says the same—“My teaching is great, the best; everyone else just talks rubbish!”’ So the Kalamas are asking the Buddha how to judge who to believe, and he says, ‘Well, you shouldn’t believe anyone. It’s not a question of believing or not believing what anyone says. If you want to know reality, you have to recognise it. You’re ignoring your own experience of what is happening to you. That’s the difficulty.’
The Buddha was not telling people to disregard what others said, but was encouraging them to become aware of what they know deep within themselves. The Buddhist practice is based on this; we are to pay close attention to our experiences, on what we find ourselves, on what we know ourselves. We either know something or we think about it. These two are not the same. We can believe what thought throws up moment-by-moment, and we can believe what others tell us, but what’s the point? We all know what life is; we’re experiencing it. Why do we defer to others’ views all the time, whether they are so-called ‘experts’ or have some authority over us, or not. We all know that life is not static, so why do we think about it as though it were? We cannot know reality through a jumble of thoughts, views and opinions or even views that seem ordered and reasonable, whether they are our own or anyone else’s. We think everything has to make some kind of sense. Life arises whether we want it to or not in the here and now, spontaneously—we hear it, we see it, we feel it, we know it for what it is, beyond thought. Getting to this place of immediacy is what Buddhism is all about; that is the practice and the purpose of the practice.
Here in this moment we know whether we feel good or not, whether we’re suffering or not. Then, if we can see the connection between the way we think and act, and what happens in terms of happiness and suffering, we are in a position to opt for one way of life in preference to another. This is a personal choice—after investigating what we know from our momentary experiences of body and mind.
Of course we should listen to others, but rather than innocently or mindlessly accepting someone else’s methods and views, whoever they are, the Buddha suggests we test things out for ourselves, and in the Kalama sutta he goes into detail about not believing someone just because he or she is your teacher, or because you have read something inspiring, or because you have heard some well known person giving a talk, or even because you have thought something logical or reasonable yourselves. Find out first whether it is true. If you find it is, then follow it, but if you find it only leads to an unhappy state, then don’t follow it. Otherwise, we’re living a second-hand life, a poor life, and a troubled or unfulfilled life. Buddhism is about first-hand living and finding liberation from suffering.
The Kalamas were in the same position that we are in today—a lot of conflicting information—which do you believe? The point is, our stability and happiness is at stake. If we follow what others say and yet do not find our way through suffering, then is it their fault or ours? If we are going to make mistakes it might as well be our own because then at least we know where not to go, and there is a possibility of changing direction. We can take responsibility for our own lives by intelligently investigating it and then acting from what we discover. I love Sir Edwin Arnold’s wonderful epic poem, The Light of Asia, and those haunting words:
I, Buddha, who wept with all my brothers’ tears,
Whose heart was broken by a whole world’s woe,
Laugh and am glad, for there is Liberty!
Ho! you who suffer! know
You suffer from yourselves. None else compels,
None other holds you that you live and die,
And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss
Its spokes of agony . . .
But if we suffer from ourselves, no one else can tread the path for us. That, I think, is central to Buddhism; it’s our own path, our own responsibility.
Source:
http://buddhismnow.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/knowing-for-ourselves/