I often ponder the meaning of life. The pondering has been with me since the beginning-less time of my existence. Is there a goal at the end of my journey?
Or perhaps the path is the goal?
In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma plays a pivotal role in how one’s life unfolds. Karma is the meritorious or unmeritorious action we have committed thus far in our being. One might liken it to the Newtonian law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
The search for the meaning of life has led to many different belief systems, volitions like debauchery, or simply numbing oneself to all feeling and emotion.
Indeed, there is a vast vocabulary to define one’s personal beliefs and approach to understanding life’s meaning: theist, non-theist, hedonist, nihilist, atomist, externalist, on and on.
When I was in my late teens, I was on the threshold of embracing a new religion, Christianity, and letting go of the religion I was born into, Buddhism (which until then I had been practicing as a social obligation).
I felt connected to Christianity. It gave me hope and prospects of A BETTER ME. I found meaning of life at that young age of 19 with my new religion. I was adamant to become the best devotee of Jesus Christ.
Many Suns and Moons later, I am here, yet again pondering the meaning of life. After spending most of my twenties as a Jesus devotee, five years or so in-between as a Hindu yogi, I finally retraced my steps back to buddha nature.
As often quoted in Buddhism, once we begin to acknowledge that goodness which exists within us, we go beyond our doubts and adopt the attitude that we are worthy people, that we are not totally wretched. This mindset of basic goodness is like the sun, ever-present behind the clouds of our doubts. We see through our doubts, and momentarily realize life’s meaningfulness and profundity.
The buddha nature, or tathatagarbha in Sanskrit, can be experienced through the practice of meditation. In meditation you are touching the experience of being in the now-ness and then you let go.
Follow your out-breath and at the end of the out-breath, let go. The next in-breath is automatic.
Touch and Go.
As Rumi says, “We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.”
xx