Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Whether the goal is arahantship or Buddhahood, it’s pretty clear that most of us have a ways to go before we get there. Okay, I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case for the rest of you but it certainly is for me. And, since it is so, our only makes sense to take the long view.

What do I mean by the long view? To me it has nothing to do with letting things slide out taking it easy. Rather, it has to do with allowing the vicisitudes of life to come and go, understanding that they are the ripening of past kamma and not wasting a single moment of this precious life cultivating the kilesas.

I read some interesting posts last night on puredhamma.net in which the author was discussing the difference between bhava and jati. The way he explained it was that the human bhava can lay for thousands of years with hundreds of births (jati) which is why we so often hear stories of past human births. However the same can take place in the niraya where one is reborn again and again in the same apaya bhava for eons. What this line of thinking does for me is reinforce the sense of urgency and samvega to practice well and without pause.

In other words, I cannot let fear and worry about short term conditions over which I have no control hijack the mind. Doing so is surrendering to Mara before I’ve taken the first step.