We should accept attachment as a part of life Barry Magid December 2nd 2017

We should consider what it is exactly we think is the cause of our own unhappiness. And what would or could change in ourselves or in our lives for us to be happy? This, of course, is the question Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have confronted - a cause and an end of suffering. We should check whether our own individual diagnoses are correct and whether our fantasies of a solution are taking us in the direction we want to go or whether they themselves are part of the problem. In this Rohatsu talk Barry explores some of the lessons from the Buddha's enlightenment story. He suggests that much the same way the Buddha came to accept impermanence as part of human perfection, we can bring the same perspective to attachment and the body, things often cast as in conflict to the spiritual.

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Transmission of the Lamp

It is said that the Buddha was the first born of a noble king's family. And that when the prince was nineteen years of age he decided to make some excursions from his home wondering what he would see. In the course of taking walks to the four gates he saw four things - an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and an ascetic, which deeply stirred him.

And he said to himself, "Old age, sickness and death must ultimately be rejected."

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