Hi there! This weekend, we had the good fortune to receive a talk by brother chiang wee. In his talk, he raised a recent experience where he was awarded a recognition and questions whether it is important or not in the development of our persona. In the case of an award ceremony, most of us would have many fleeting emotions, ranging from happy to excited. However, there is a lingering 'want' to hold back this feeling, the specific moment which you never want to end.
This particular type of feeling is due to the ego within us. We want good things which concern ourselves to be announced to the world because it provides us with a warm, fuzzy feeling within - but it doesn't last forever. Many of these things only happen for a while before fading away. Afterwards, there is the backlash of feelings where you feel sad when the moment of euphoria is over. The buddha realized that and managed to identify it as the 3 poisons - which has a huge adverse impact on how we place our 'definition of success and comfort' to be. As a result, much of this definition falls under mundane categories such as wealth and employment status - where the focus is on the superficial rather than something which one truly feels comfortable in. Ultimately, it is not wrong to aim towards a better future, but it should not come at the compromise of our personal beliefs and morals.
So is there a way out of this sensation of emptiness? Being a participant in doing dana(good), sila (avoid evil) and bhavana (purifying mind) goes a long way in doing so. There are many different characteristics in regard to this, however a few things in which we can look into include samatha mediation and developing a bond with spiritual friends (kalyana mitra).
In summary, material things can always be contented with, but on the other hand spiritual things should not be held in complacency. The importance of constantly striving towards this goal cannot be understated. One such analogy includes pushing a barrel up a hill. In the push of the barrel, if one were to stop pushing halfway through, the barrel would start to fall and all the effort would be gone. It takes time and effort to constantly push it till you reach the top.
And that's it for this week. Thank you for following this week's summary of brother chiang wee's talk!
