Back in the early seventies, Sheldon B. Kopp wrote a book called, “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!” You could perhaps stop reading at the book’s cover to uncover one of the most important shifts one can make to eliminate gobs of unnecessary suffering. The premise here is that if you’ve made someone, outside of yourself, more pivotal than you in your quest to realize fulfillment — well then, they should be eliminated because they are an impostor. Our Buddhahood, if you will, is within and any validation that we seek from the external world, is an illusion.
Are you defined by who you are in the eyes of others and is this because you perceive them as having something you don’t? We whither from this perspective of lack and we can find freedom in exploring who we are without our tenuous connection to outside influence or, in many cases, affluence.
So if all we seek is already within us, how can we start to bring this truth forth? Well, perhaps a good starting place would be to un-deify those whom we’ve over-bloated to buddha proportions and re-relate to them as they truly are — flawed folks struggling to find meaning just like us.
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#1 by Loretta Joan Gooding on March 23, 2010 - 9:19 pm
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Whatever is in you heart determines what you say…if we intentionally fill our hearts with love and respect…it overflows into our speech.
#2 by Dawn Kotzer on March 24, 2010 - 8:13 am
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“flawed folks struggling to find meaning just like us.”
man, that thought turns the landscape into a playing filed of pure compassion, doesn’t it? I enjoyed your post.
#3 by Beverly Belling on March 24, 2010 - 8:18 am
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Love this, David! “We all have stuff & we all want s’mores” is one of my favorite mantras.
)
#4 by David Sonatore on March 24, 2010 - 11:36 am
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Especially, Loretta, if you’re on good terms with the editor in our speaking brains…
#5 by David Sonatore on March 24, 2010 - 11:40 am
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A LEVEL playing field at that Dawn!
#6 by David Sonatore on March 24, 2010 - 11:42 am
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And oh how that marshmallow can be so sticky Beverly!