FULL MOON – Seeking Contentment


Published Wednesday, 06 May 2020

To harm living beings
who, like us, seek contentment,
is to bring harm to ourselves.

Dhammapada v.131

It is reasonably obvious what living harmlessly means if we are referring to the way we relate to other living beings, but what does it mean if we turn our attention inwards? What does living harmlessly mean when we are referring to all those ‘living beings’ who occupy our inner worlds; how are we relating to them? If we feel obstructed by a bad mood or, even more painfully, thoroughly overwhelmed by intense negative emotions, can we meet these ‘beings’, truly receive them as they are, and in so doing release them? Or do we judge them and fight with them and in so doing compound the pain? All beings long to be free, including those unattractive, unwelcome beings that we have kept imprisoned for so long.

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