अनित्यम् जगत


 

Kṛśā Gautamī was the wife of a wealthy man of Shravasti. 

After losing her only child, Kisa Gotami became desperate and asked if anyone could help her. Her sorrow was so great that many thought she had lost her mind.

After some time, an old man told her to see the Shakyamuni. The Shakyamuni told her that he could bring the child back to life if she could find white mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. She desperately went from house to house in search of such a case, but to her disappointment, she could not find a house that had not suffered the death of a family member. Finally, the realization struck her that there is no house free from mortality. Even when grief was real, it was part of the universal law of impermanence. She had to let go.

She became awakened and entered the first stage of enlightenment and eventually became an arhat. 

Clinging to what is gone only deepens suffering. When one accept impermanence, whether of love, trust, or the person themselves, one finally puts the “dead child” down. From despair arises awareness, acceptance, and inner strength.

 Though one should live a hundred years without seeing the Deathless State, yet better indeed, is a single day's life of one who sees the Deathless State.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fall of Icarus

Image
  Icarus's father Daedalus , a very talented Athenian craftsman, built a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur , a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull . Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he believed Daedalus gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne , a clew  (or ball of string) in order to help Theseus escape the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur. Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings for himself and his son, made of metal feathers held to a leather frame by beeswax. Before trying to escape the island, he warned his son to follow his flight path and not fly too close to the sun or the sea. Overcome by giddiness while flying, Icarus disobeyed his father and soared higher into the sky. Without warning, the heat from the sun softened and melted the wax. Icarus could feel melted wax dripping down his arms. The feathers then fell one by one. Icarus kept flapping his "wings...
Read more

अन्ध-गज-न्याय

Image
  A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. In the case of the first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said "This being is like a thick snake". For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk.  The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said, "elephant is a wall". Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear. Whenever anyone takes a partial, unconditional view of the ultimate reality, and denies the possibility of another aspect of that reality, ...
Read more