The Bad News Is Good News
In the mahayana, inspiration comes from experiencing the spark of intelligence or enlightenment in us. Discovering that potential is one of the fundamental characteristics of the mahayana. Having looked into our feelings of inadequacy, pain, and confusion, we see them as neither good nor bad but as workable. In our day-to-day life, we find that the search for pleasure, either materialistic or spiritual, in unconvincing. Behind that whole approach is a sense of dissatisfaction and continual struggle.
Recognizing that dissatisfaction and struggle is the discovery of the first noble truth, the truth of suffering, or dukkha. However, that discovery of the universality of pain is the discovery of buddha nature as well. That realization is not stupid or ignorant, but intelligent. So the struggle we go through is an expression of enlightened mind. The bad news is itself good news.
From “A Golden Buddha,” in “Glimpses of Mahayana” one of four short works in Glimpses of the Profound, page 11.
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