When We Remain with our Suffering Totally, then out of that Suffering Comes Passion

Art by Daniel Bogni

The Stoic concept of Apatheia refers to a state of mind in which one is not disturbed by the passions.

In Order to Handle the World Crisis, We Must Find a Common Ground

Yellow Flowers by Krupa Shah 

“You, Bedouin of Libya who saved our lives, though you will dwell forever in my memory yet I shall never be able to recapture your features. You are Humanity and your face comes into my mind simply as man incarnate. You, our beloved fellowman, did not know who we might be, and yet you recognized us without fail. And I, in my turn, shall recognize you in the faces of all mankind. You came towards me in an aureole of charity and magnanimity bearing the gift of water. All my friends and all my enemies marched towards me in your person. It did not seem to me that you were rescuing me: rather did it seem that you were forgiving me. And I felt I had no enemy left in all the world.” 

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

Passive listening presence is not itself a thought-process. The presence is always something new and spontaneous

To be the thought present in passive listening, is to see it completely with the heart and the mind, to observe it neutral as in a mirror, without saying yes and no, and feel it deeply and incisively, without seeking to achieve anything with it.

And this presence is not itself such a thought-process. The presence is always something new, young and spontaneous.

The thought is the eternal recurrence of the same, and therefore never new.

The passive listening presence and the active evaluating thinking are two completely different things, and they can never meet.

But the habitual in our surroundings dulls us, so we shrug our shoulders and say: ”What is the use of it? That is the way of life”.

Thereby we spoil our sensitivity, so that we never act, when we are facing hideousness, exploitation, cruelty and suffering. Also our admiration and deep joy over all beauty are destroyed.

In this way, our life of feelings slowly and imperceptibly withers away.

The nature of the mind is not the mind, but precisely the nature of the mind

The nature of the mind isn´t completely related to the mind.

It is not the mind, but precisely the nature of the mind.

It is in reality all thing´s nature, and that to realize the nature of the mind is the same as realizing all thing´s nature.

And to meditate is to bring the mind home to this nature, to become enlightened, and released from suffering.

The being of Man includes both the state of the mind and the conduct of life

In the unreal existence, the actions of Man come to rest on ignorance; that is to say: prejudices, inclinations and demands.

And it results in absence, and therefore suffering.

In this way, the human existence becomes a friction, a conflict, and herein there is no reason.

The being of Man includes both the state of the mind and the conduct of life, logos and bios.

But the Ego is formed by an interaction between the activities of the mind (demands, prejudices, inclinations) – and the hindrances, which the challenges of life create, and therewith you have the unreality.

The sickness philosophers are healing are human problems - problems common to all mankind

In a certain sense the philosopher is a healer.

Many philosophers make as a doctor a diagnosis and suggest a treatment. So did Buddha, and so did Kierkegaard.

But what they were treating were the human problems, therefore problems common to all mankind.

The sickness unto death, which for instance Kierkegaard´s script The Sickness Unto Death has as subject, is the despair.

The despair is here presented as a sickness in the self, and the condition for healing is to become yourself.

In the same way in Buddhist philosophy, where the sickness is the suffering common to all mankind, and the treatment is meditation, and the recovery is enlightenment.

To realize the nature of the mind is the same as realizing all thing´s nature

The nature of the mind isn´t completely related to the mind.

It is not the mind, but precisely the nature of the mind.

It is in reality all thing´s nature, and that to realize the nature of the mind is the same as realizing all thing´s nature.

And to meditate is to bring the mind home to this nature, to become enlightened, and released from suffering.

The Ego is formed by an interaction between the activities of the mind (evaluations) – and the challenges of life

In the unreal existence the actions of Man come to rest on ignorance; that is to say: prejudices, inclinations and demands.

And it results in absence, and therefore suffering.

In this way the human existence becomes a friction, a conflict, and herein there is no reason.

The being of Man includes both the state of the mind and the conduct of life, logos and bios. But the Ego is formed by an interaction between the activities of the mind (demands, prejudices, inclinations) – and the hindrances, which the challenges of life create, and therewith you have the unreality.