There are two related simple prayers that are critical to our efforts to end our suffering. The first is the Acceptance Prayer: "And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. I can find no peace until I accept my life as being exactly the way it is right at this moment." The other is the first part of the Serenity Prayer: "Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change— that things are the way they are at this moment because it's just the way it is.' Without that acceptance, one cannot experience piece because one will always be dissatisfied with the present and thus frustrated, craving what one doesn't have at the moment.
And the reason why so many people, even practicing Buddhists, do not experience that acceptance is because they do not have faith. Faith in what? Faith that they will be ok, regardless what life offers, because they are at home with their true Buddha nature and so at peace—regardless.
This is why the ancient Chinese poem says, "When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought." It is all about faith. It is the fountain from which all the benefits of walking the Buddhist or other spiritual path flows,
And yet because of the nature of the world around us, and our life experiences in that world with our concomitant conditioning, faith that we will be ok regardless is hard to come by, We find it hard if not impossible to believe that we will be ok regardless. Even the suggestion that we accept things as being the way they are at this moment, let lone that it is meant to be, is felt to be threatening to our success and thus our welfare.
And so we suffer. How do we dig ourselves out of this hole? Read my post, "What Is Faith and Why Is It Essential?" Faith comes first from understanding intellectually that the teachings of the Buddha make sense. That requires reading and studying. True faith comes from realizing the truths of that teaching from within; and that requires years of meditation and prayer.
One cannot mouth the words and have faith. One must believe in the truths of those words in your bones. And given the conditioning that comes from our life experiences and the nature of the world round us, that takes a lot of work. Our ego-mind constantly will challenge our belief: how can we believe that all will be ok regardless; that is patently ridiculous?
That is the perspective of the ego-mind, but that is not the truth. That is the challenge we face in walking the path. If you truly want to rid yourself of suffering, you will need the discipline to say "no" to your ego-mind and continue to focus on the truth of the Buddha's teaching.
The teachings are at their core very simple and straight-forward. Accepting those teachings and putting them into practice is anything but simple. It requires great discipline, awareness, and in the beginning, intellectual faith.
And the reason why so many people, even practicing Buddhists, do not experience that acceptance is because they do not have faith. Faith in what? Faith that they will be ok, regardless what life offers, because they are at home with their true Buddha nature and so at peace—regardless.
This is why the ancient Chinese poem says, "When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought." It is all about faith. It is the fountain from which all the benefits of walking the Buddhist or other spiritual path flows,
And yet because of the nature of the world around us, and our life experiences in that world with our concomitant conditioning, faith that we will be ok regardless is hard to come by, We find it hard if not impossible to believe that we will be ok regardless. Even the suggestion that we accept things as being the way they are at this moment, let lone that it is meant to be, is felt to be threatening to our success and thus our welfare.
And so we suffer. How do we dig ourselves out of this hole? Read my post, "What Is Faith and Why Is It Essential?" Faith comes first from understanding intellectually that the teachings of the Buddha make sense. That requires reading and studying. True faith comes from realizing the truths of that teaching from within; and that requires years of meditation and prayer.
One cannot mouth the words and have faith. One must believe in the truths of those words in your bones. And given the conditioning that comes from our life experiences and the nature of the world round us, that takes a lot of work. Our ego-mind constantly will challenge our belief: how can we believe that all will be ok regardless; that is patently ridiculous?
That is the perspective of the ego-mind, but that is not the truth. That is the challenge we face in walking the path. If you truly want to rid yourself of suffering, you will need the discipline to say "no" to your ego-mind and continue to focus on the truth of the Buddha's teaching.
The teachings are at their core very simple and straight-forward. Accepting those teachings and putting them into practice is anything but simple. It requires great discipline, awareness, and in the beginning, intellectual faith.
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