Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Tension Between Self and Other,and#8221; by Kavyasiddhi is from the accessible talk, and#8220;Learning the Metta Bhavanaand#8221; given on a retreat open to people of all levels of meditation experience. Here she shares a personal account working with the tension arising between focusing on oneand#8217;s self and focusing on the needs of others.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Tension Between Self and Other
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. There's an interesting tension, and it's just a fact. So sometimes people say, "Yeah, well that's just looking after your own sex." When really sitting there, you're not trying them. Why aren't you running a soup kitchen? The fact is that when you look at your own soup kitchens, you have to be in decent mental states. And I think it's better that I am clear about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And then I can communicate it and then I can go out. And it's true that, you know, this one four-day retreat is for, you know, twenty-nine minutes. It's limited. It's a drop in the ocean. But then all of you are women who are, you know, you're connected. So if we can manage to spread that sense of connection, and if we can manage to believe that what we do makes a difference, what we think makes a difference. And that's the real challenge about Buddhism, I think, is that it says, "What do you think you're living with reality, or living against it? Are you going to move towards other people? Are you going to think, 'It's a bit hard, and I can't quite be bothered, and I've got a headache.' I'm moving away from it all. So it's a challenge in a very small, personal way, sitting in that bedroom thinking, 'Come back to the breath, try again, persist, be patient.' But those little, small changes can make me act in a different way. And if I act in a different way, somebody else might act in a different way. I'm telling you what you know. But that's really my practice in the Master's world. Now that's me learning it. And there's lots more I could say about the Buddhist vision and about freedom, about liberation, and we will probably cover it. If not in these few days then, you know, in the future. But it's just when I want to say at the moment that we're looking at what Messar is, that on a basic level it can just be exceptions that you find things difficult and having sympathy for that. And why do it? We're doing it to try and live with how things are, not against things. And that that's the Buddhist vision. That is the Buddhist vision. That everything is just a flow, a constant flow, things come together, things fall apart. Because of that flow, nothing is independent, nothing is truly separate. It kind of looks like it. But from a perspective of enlightenment, which I'm indicating non-helpfully for a verbal record, is somewhere behind me, we can see the connections. And also to look at the implications in the world, look at the implications in your world, in your mind, and then extend around. So thank you very much. I suggest we have... [applause] We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donnie. And thank you. [music fades out] [music fades out]