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| Life is no walk in the park. |
Using your Buddhist practice to find happiness is not a walk in the park.
Confronting your fears and facing those inner doubts has to be the hardest thing any one can do.
In Nichiren Buddhism, we call it doing your "Human Revolution"
What I love about my Buddhist practice, or at least, MY, interpertation of it, is that, THE WORK, that has to be done is down to me.
If I really want those changes, if I really want to find that happiness I must seek it, find it, collect it.
The happiness most people seek seems illusive, it seems like a destination that you arrive at after a lot of hard work.
But I do not agree.
The kind of solid happiness most of us seek comes from a solid foundation of self. To be in a place in your life where you feel so secure and strong that nothing can shake you.
This to me is happiness. Life without fear.
Growing up a very insecure and fearful person, I found my self feeling deeply unhappy, lost, empty and alone through out my twenties, there are many reasons for this.
After I began to understand the SIMPLE principles of a Buddhist practice, I realised that the constant; "I need to do this, I should do that, it would be great if I could find a book or a course that could help me feel better about my self"
I was looking for something outside of my self to fix, what I thought were missing parts.
What I have come to realise is that the missing part is my opinions or beliefs about who or what I am, and what I am capable of.
We are all imperfect, and when we realise that its OK to be imperfect, we can relax and enjoy the little time we have on this planet.
I realised today just how many demands I make on my self on a daily basis;
At all times, I must be funny, I must be thin, I must be interesting, I must be tall, I must be creative, I must I must I must....
All these demands, daily... most of the time I wear my self out.... this leads to anxiety which makes life rather tedious sometimes.
We can only look in the mirror and begin to see the imperfection and realise that that is who we are...all we are right now is a collection of all our positive and negative qualities.
The sooner we can let go and have FAITH in our selves as people and our lives, we can become happy.
When I use the word FAITH, that FAITH is me. That FAITH that I am building and developing, is in MYSELF and my potential as human being.
Not something external, a person or a thing. But the deep and solid FAITH that no matter what life throws at me, I can handle it, I will survive it.
We are such complex creatures and our minds are a rabbit warren of ideas, beliefs, perspectives and fears.
Buddhist practice for me is a tool to help you develop a strong sense of self.
We just have to see past the dogma and look deeply in to our own eyes and ask
"Who am I?" and "What do I want from this life?"
Simple questions, but nearly always difficult and elusive answers.
Namaste
Robbie x
