M. Ram Mohan (Vedanta Vani, Chinmaya Mission, WQ edit)
Hard is it to be born as human.
Hard is the life of the mortals.
Hard is it to get the opportunity
of hearing the sublime truth (Dharma).
Hard indeed is the arising of a
Buddha.
(Dhammapada 182)
It is not possible in a short article to express all the
beauty of the teachings of the Buddha in detail.
The Buddha is the only teacher to say: I do not care to know various theories talked about God. I think there is not much use found by discussing subtle points about the soul. Only doing good and living well will take one to freedom and make one realize the higher truth.
The Blessed One taught that meditation is not a
kriya to practice only in the morning and evening an hour or two retired in a room. It is a life that should be in practice all the day long -- walking, talking,
sleeping, and throughout the breadth of existing time. This leads to nirvana -- which is beyond all duality, all pain and pleasure, all realms of birth and death.
It is through a lack of understanding and a failure to comprehend fully the Four Noble Truths and Dependent Origination that we have passed for so long in this round of rebirth. Now we have understood completely that craving is the root-cause of all our tensions and sorrows. We were spiritually blind all these days. Now by the blessings of the Enlightened One, the Bhagawan, we not only have understood but have also destroyed our cravings, wants, desires, and attachments.
We are assured that there will be no more recurring of the present state. To give oneself over is the secret of
Sadhana. The whole principle of this
yoga is to give oneself entirely to the higher, the supreme, the
brahmacarya alone -- to nothing else.
The knots of the heart are cut asunder, all doubts become destroyed, and all one's deeds (one's karma or "bondage-producing
seeds of action") become eliminated when the supreme truth is realized.
Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found.
The deed is, but no doer of the deed is there.
Nirvana is, but not the one who enters it.
The Path is, but no traveler on it is seen.
(Visuddhi Magga XVI)
May there be peace in heaven and peace in space!
May there be peace on earth and peace in water!
May there by peace in
plants and peace in trees!
May there be peace in all divinities and in Brahman!
May there he peace of all!
May that peace come to ME!
(Yajur Veda 26.17)
