Published Monday, 01 June 2015
This body wears out with age;
it becomes a host to disease
- vulnerable, fragile,
a decrepit, disintegrating mass,
which eventually ends in death.Dhammapada v. 148
Honesty is at the heart of all true spiritual practice. You might find the unsubtle honesty of this Dhammapada verse feels a bit blunt, but that doesn't mean to say it is unsuitable. What is unsuitable is wasting our life away with propped-up deluded stories about an imagined reality. If we can learn to wisely and compassionately accept actuality, then the energy which was previously consumed by compulsive story-telling, becomes available for living in daring, open, awareness. Some of the most energy-extravagant stories are those believed by the masses. Hence the Buddha's admonition to not heedlessly go along with views just because they are popular.