[Buddha-l] <no subject>

[Robert Leverant]

From: "Franz Metcalf" <franz at mind2mind.net>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 6:51 PM
Subject: [Buddha-l] Re: {Buddha-l] Being in Love ... "& its only end is
loss"


> Robert et al.,
>
> Thank you Robert Leverant for the moving and terrible words of the
> Buddha Judah Halevi or Emanuel of Rome. There's no hiding from his
> wisdom. And yet, I cannot help myself. Aware of this I intuit why
> others cry out, as Martin Luther may have done, "Hier stehe ich, ich
> kann nichts anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen!"
>
> Let me in turn add the words of another Buddha, Kohelet the Preacher,
> also known as Ecclesiastes, as found in the Tanakh.
Franz

Franz, 

Thanks for the teaching of  Kohelet the Preacher. I like the contemporary,
aka Buddhist view, translation. Incidentally, many of the Tibetan teachers
that I've studied  with say that once we grasp the truth of impermanence,
then we take our work and life seriously and don't fall into the nihilistic
void expressed in Ecclesiastes.

Here's a Doha that suggests an alternative way to the nihilistic void voiced
by Kohelet the Preacher.

Robert

FREE AND EASY

A Vajra Song
 
by

Ven. Lama Gendun Rinpoche
 
Happiness cannot be found
through great effort and willpower
but is already present, in relaxation
         and letting go.
 
Don't strain yourself;
there is nothing to do.
Whatever arises in the mind
has no real importance at all,
because it has no reality whatsoever.
Don't become attached to it;
don't identify with it
         and pass judgment upon it.
 
Let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves --
without changing or manipulating anything --
and everything vanishes and reappears, magically,
         without end.
 
Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a rainbow which you pursue
         without ever catching.
 
Although it does not exist,
It has always been there
         and accompanies you every instant.
 
Don't believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences.
They are like rainbows in the sky.
 
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this grasping,
space is there -- open, inviting, and comfortable.
 
Don't search any further.
Don't go into the tangled jungle
looking for the great elephant
who's already quietly at home.
 
Nothing to do,
Nothing to force.
Nothing to want --
         and everything happens by itself.