Adverse circumstances

There is nothing extraordinary about practicing the Dharma, when things are going well for you. The true test comes when we perceive the circumstances, experiences and events around us as being negative, difficult or painful. Such adverse circumstances not only test our resolve, challenge our courage, and measure our endurance; they more importantly provide us with an irrefutable benchmark of our conviction in the Dharma.

“I have given them the Word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world,” the Palestinian Dharma teacher, Jesus the Nazarene, tells his disciples, “They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” (cf: John 17. 14, 16)

Similarly, in the Samyutta Nikaya, the Enlightened One tells his disciples, “Just as a dark blue or white lotus, born in the water, comes to full growth in the water, rises to the surface, and stands unspotted by the water, so too does the Buddha, having come to full growth in the world, passing beyond the world, abides unspotted by the world.” (cf: Samyutta Nikaya, 22.94)

It is to be expected that difficult circumstances will arise. They are a part of life. The Dharma practice enables us to notice these adverse circumstances and our response to them without judgment. We learn to cultivate a peace of mind which does not seek to separate ourselves from the world, but learns to let go of the need to control and manipulate that same world for hopes of some kind of transient happiness; because we recognise our happiness comes not from doing or having, but from simply being.

Namasté!

- dharmacharya gurudas śunyatananda
http://dharmadudeunplugged.com

 

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