SUFFERING CEASES WHEN WE LET GO OF OUR ATTACHMENTS
Master Jun Hong Lu: We should let go of the idea that we are entitled to happiness. Many people think they deserve happiness, when what they should do is to relinquish the notion of entitlement to happiness and success. Only then will they find their life less cumbersome.
The Buddha says, “The binds of life come only because we ask for it. In fact, some pain that we suffer is self-inflicted. There is no such thing as being born under a bad sign. The problem lies in our obsession that we refuse to let go of”. You must have faith in your own strength. Since you are the one who binds yourself, you are the one capable of breaking free of the chain that binds you.
Misery in life stems from our excessive clinginess to what we have. We manage to raise our children against all odds, thinking that our children will be filial to us in return. We expect our kindness will always be reciprocated. We also believe in everlasting love and that our loved ones will be with us in perpetuity.
We practically bank our desires and hopes in a world that is constantly changing. Had we known earlier that people change and everything in this world, including our material possessions, are ever changing, we wouldn’t have subject ourselves to so much heartache and tears.
Gaining and losing is nothing but a normality. As a Buddhist practitioner, it is when we understand the law of cause and effect that we are able to rise above it.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Public Talk, Hong Kong, China, 20 June 2015
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