The post titled Aspects of Nirvana is now up on Buddhism for All. Angela from the Buddhism.net team reflected on it, and invites you to do so too.
🌕 Angela’s Reflections:
An enlightened mind has a genuine realization of the true nature of reality, while the unenlightened mind loves to put things into dualistic categories and boxes. It almost seems that if we do not categorize things, we cannot understand them. Is this existence or non-existence? Am I, or am I not? I love Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching using the metaphor of wave and ocean. We cannot deny that there is what seems like, or appears to be a separate wave from the ocean body. However, when we look deeply, we will realize that the wave is none other than the ocean itself.
🌱 Journal Reflection Prompts for You:
- 📝 Reflect deeply on the “wave as ocean” metaphor. Can you see that the wave is both seemingly separate, yet also ocean at the same time? Applying this metaphor to yourself and your mind. How are you like a wave? How are you also ocean?
- 📝 One deep-seated dualistic thinking is “I” versus “others”, or “subject” versus “object”. Look deeply and can you see how “others” arise, only because there is a “you”?
- 📝 When is dualistic thinking (e.g., good/bad, right/wrong, I/you) useful? In which areas of your life would transcending dualistic thinking be beneficial?
- 📝 How is this teaching applicable to your life? Why is it important? Why should you even care?
Featured image, photograph of wave. Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/MUwfuO5RXEo
