We feel jealousy and pain because of our attachment and yet it is the same attachment that brings us joy.
Absolutely. When you take this idea to its extreme, you live a life with little suffering, but you have no joy either, and joy provides us with much more than just a reason to live.
I just had an image of joy as God laughing through the happiness in our lives.
I doubt that a Buddhist would call those things wrong. Certainly they are not. Rather, I think that the call to withdraw from the world into a monastic or semi-monastic life is meant as a temporary practice while one finds a sense of calm and sanity and wisdom.
However, I think one then does a disservice if one does not re-engage life. Life is meant for being lived, not for being denied. Furthermore, if one does acquire any wisdom by way of one's mystic or ascetic practices, that wisdom is squandered if it is not put into practice in the world.
no subject
Absolutely. When you take this idea to its extreme, you live a life with little suffering, but you have no joy either, and joy provides us with much more than just a reason to live.
I just had an image of joy as God laughing through the happiness in our lives.
I doubt that a Buddhist would call those things wrong. Certainly they are not. Rather, I think that the call to withdraw from the world into a monastic or semi-monastic life is meant as a temporary practice while one finds a sense of calm and sanity and wisdom.
However, I think one then does a disservice if one does not re-engage life. Life is meant for being lived, not for being denied. Furthermore, if one does acquire any wisdom by way of one's mystic or ascetic practices, that wisdom is squandered if it is not put into practice in the world.