The cup is already broken

[phil]

Hi all

I heard a teacher refer to that: the cup is already broken.
I'm sure we all have one of those cups that we really cherish and love drinking from but we know that someday it's going to get smashed. But that doesn't mean that we don't take care of it and use it with care.
Same thing with the kinds of happiness we get that depend on external conditions, and upon our health and loved ones and our work and so on. We all know that all that is completely unreliable, completely vulnerable to sickness old age and death and will inevitably lead to separation and grief. But we do and act carefully in order to protect them and benefit from them.

I know this is no news to anyone here but I still thought that phrase was a really good one: The cup is already broken.

Phil

P.S thanks to Joseph Goldstein for that... And to tiltbillings for having pointed me towards Joseph Goldstein in a link he provided ( see black lab consciousness in insight mefitation section) I've expressed some snooty doubts about some of the things Goldstein says or doesn't say but he is really good I think.

[phil]

I'm also intetested in the mangala sutta and what it is telling us about the importance of taking care of our family, and developing skills in our careers etc. It's natural for us to get interested in D.O and such deep topics but as householders we have mundane duties that have to be fulfilled before there is fruitful reflection on the deep teachings.
I think that's what it says, but happy to be corrected!

Phil

[bodom]

From Ajahn Chah:

What we call uncertainty, here, is the Buddha. The Buddha is the Dhamma. The Dhamma is the characteristic of uncertainty. Whoever sees the uncertainty of things sees the unchanging reality of things. That’s what the Dhamma is like. And that is the Buddha. If you see the Dhamma you see the Buddha; seeing the Buddha, you see the Dhamma. If you know aniccam, (uncertainty), you will let go of things and not grasp onto them.

You say, ‘Hey, don’t break my glass!’ Can you prevent something that is breakable from breaking? If it doesn’t break now it will break later on. If you don’t break it someone else will. If someone else doesn’t break it, one of the chickens will! The Buddha says to accept this. He penetrated the truth of these things, seeing that this glass is already broken. Whenever you use this glass you should reflect that it’s already broken. Do you understand this? The Buddha’s understanding was like this. He saw the broken glass within the unbroken one. Whenever its time is up it will break. Develop this kind of understanding. Use the glass, look after it, until when, one day, it slips out of your hand. ‘Smash!’ No problem. Why is there no problem? Because you saw its brokenness before it broke!

But usually people say, ‘I love this glass so much, may it never break.’ Later on the dog breaks it. ‘I’ll kill that damn dog!’ You hate the dog for breaking your glass. If one of your children breaks it you’ll hate them too. Why is this? Because you’ve dammed yourself up, the water can’t flow. You’ve made a dam without a spillway. The only thing the dam can do is burst, right? When you make a dam you must make a spillway also. When the water rises up too high, the water can flow off safely. When it’s full to the brim you open your spillway. You have to have a safety valve like this. Impermanence is the safety valve of the Noble Ones. If you have this ‘safety valve’ you will be at peace.

[Crazy cloud]

Hi, like to share one of my personal favorites

"what's done, is finished"

Be well and happy as can be

[Spiny Norman]

I know this is no news to anyone here but I still thought that phrase was a really good one: The cup is already broken.

It reminds me of entropy, where the amount of disorder in a system tends to increase rather than decrease. So by taking care we can perhaps slow down the disorder, but it always catches up with us eventually.