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Everyone wants to be happy and to not experience suffering. Unfortunately, this is not usually how life turns out for us. Not knowing the way things are, we engage in actions that either directly or inadvertently bring us suffering. | Everyone wants to be happy and to not experience suffering. Unfortunately, this is not usually how life turns out for us. Not knowing the way things are, we engage in actions that either directly or inadvertently bring us suffering. | ||
{{PullBcaVerses|6.34}} | {{PullBcaVerses|6.34}} | ||
We may pursue what we think is happiness by chasing power and money. We may even bring physical harm to ourselves in pursuit of our goals, and we are often prepared to win at | We may pursue what we think is happiness by chasing power and money. We may even bring physical harm to ourselves in pursuit of our goals, and we are often prepared to win at others' expense. If this is our own situation, then it is not surprising that we will meet others who will, in the pursuit of their own happiness, deliberately or accidentally bring harm to us. Śāntideva reminds us of the importance of being able to withstand and make light of this harm. He advises us to understand that in these moments the other person is overcome by temporary afflictions and that they are not normally this way. Therefore, he asks, why should we have hard feelings toward them? | ||
{{PullBcaVerses|6.40}} | {{PullBcaVerses|6.40}} | ||
He counsels us to learn to bear any suffering they bring and also relates in the following verses how, from a Buddhist perspective, the causes of the harm we receive now lie in actions that we ourselves performed in the past. In fact, it is our own karma that creates these ripening results, and so we should look inside for the cause and not outside. | He counsels us to learn to bear any suffering they bring and also relates in the following verses how, from a Buddhist perspective, the causes of the harm we receive now lie in actions that we ourselves performed in the past. In fact, it is our own karma that creates these ripening results, and so we should look inside for the cause and not outside. | ||
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