You know the saying about taking the rough with the smooth? Well life generally consists of a mixture of good times and bad times, happiness and sadness, health as well as sickness. In general, it is the ratio of these opposites that makes us feel that life is going well, or going badly.
Buddhism teaches us that human life is endowed simultaneously with both good and evil. The human mind is interpreted as partaking of ten different conditions, or states, the Ten Worlds, including, at one end of the scale, hell, which is filled with suffering; hunger, dominated by greed; and animality, characterized by fear of the strong and contempt for the weak.
At the other end are the worlds of Bodhisattva and Buddhahood – states of mind in which people strive to help others by eliminating suffering and imparting happiness. Buddhism further teaches us that it is the nature of life for good and evil to be essentially inseparable.
As we have seen previously, all ten worlds contain, and are contained within the other worlds. This explains how we can be flying high one second and down in the dumps the next, generally at the whim of some external cause.
By realising that the worlds are so interconnected, we can learn to exercise more control over our changing life-states, or mood swings as they are commonly known. The result of greater self-awareness, brought about by the self-improvement that our practice brings, is that we can maintain a more stable, happier state of mind, and isn’t that the whole point?
With my current struggle with The Dark Passenger continuing, this quotation from Daisaku Ikeda hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head …
When I sit down to write my blog, I try to relate the circumstances surrounding a particular lesson I have learned that day. Quite often the post has been rattling around in my head and it is my job to just put it into some kind of format for general consumption.
I’ve sometimes wondered exactly who reads my blog each day. Not that it’s hugely important in the great scheme of things, because I write it, partly as a log of my progress, partly as a diary and partly as a way of sharing my observations and the lessons I learn along the way.
The path to enlightenment involves a lot of learning, much of it about yourself.
Sometimes I surprise myself, or rather something, that in all truth should be blindingly obvious, suddenly permeates my grey matter and comes as a bit of a shock. I’ve been writing my blog for nearly two years now, and over thirty thousand people have visited it in that time, but it struck me today that the whole purpose behind it, and my practice, is to help myself, and others, to reach a state of enlightenment.
I don’t know what it was that woke me early today, maybe it was the rocking of the boat, or maybe the sun shining in through the cabin window. Whatever it was, I dressed quietly and left the others sleeping soundly.
When we work hard at something, be it a task, a goal or personal trait that we wish to change or improve, we get satisfaction when we see results. Making the causes to see effects is not a one off action. Generally we need to keep the pressure on until the goal is met.
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but there is no answer to that question here.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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