‘The bright and shining mind is never absent but is colored by the thoughts and emotions people put on it”                                                             

                                                                                                                                 Shayamuni Buddha from the Anguttara Nikaya

And the thoughts and emotions we cling to are what the Buddha refers to as attachment.  We become so attached to our thoughts about the world, that for us these thoughts and states become the real world.

Yes, but aren’t our thoughts real?

 Yes they are really thoughts.

Perhaps we cling to our thoughts to avoid what we see as the real world.  The world of disease, loss, old age and death. The world in which everything is impermanent.

But we have a choice. The road the Buddha took.  Instead of thinking about the world of impermanence and suffering we can embrace it, become one with it.  This is practice and the road to liberation.

What would it be like to completely accept everything that comes with life and death, completely?

It would be to cross over to the other shore.

This shore.

Creative Commons License photo credit: A Chilling Soul