Buddhist Thought of the Day

I struggle but I know some people who really suffer and these are words they would do well to work to understand. My suffering is usually manidested in procrastination but sometimes depression. I sometimes feel that there are too many important decisions to be made and I can't to it. Other times I feel like there are too many important decisions to be made and I shouldn't be the one to make them. I have some coworkers and family members who have far more severe issues and they blame everybody else for the problems they have.
If my mother had done this, if my father had been this, if my boss didn't do this.
I so wish some of these people would get the clue that they have something to do with it. Especially when they find themselves in similar situations time and time again.
Happiness and suffering come from your own mind, not from outside. Your own mind is the cause of happiness; your own mind is the cause of suffering. To obtain happiness and pacify suffering, you have to work within your own mind.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, "The Door To Satisfaction"

Comments

Ray said…
Great post. This is something I've been contemplating quite a bit lately. Personally speaking, I've gained some clarity in having lost my own path for a while and then finding it. I see things previously invisible to me, such as others thinking they're frustrated by outside forces when it's really inside them--just as you've described here.
10:19 AM, November 11, 2007
bmitd67 said…
Thanks. I spent most of my 20s wandering; not totally lost but definitely w/o direction. I thought Zen meant whatever happens happens and there is nothing I could do to change so why worry about it. I now believe that I have to work to make whatever the situation is the best it can be and at that point, with honest reflection, I can let things roll on by. As I said in the post, it ain't easy but I know that I must put forth my best effort regardless.
4:18 PM, November 11, 2007
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