Be Like India (Link #649)

What this episode covers

Speaker: Joey Waxman. Joey refers to two recent Link talks to trace the causes that recently led him to experience a sense of heaviness about samsara. One talk, given at Losar by Dungse Jampal Norbu, explored the importance of cultivating disillusionment with samsara. The other, given last week by Jennifer Shippee, expressed appreciation for the capacity of Indian culture to accommodate and embrace all experiences without rejecting anything. Disillusionment requires us to develop a sense of sadness or "kyoshe", which is associated with renunciation, by recognizing the suffering of samsara. This disillusionment might give rise to a sense of heaviness. However, as Jennifer's talk suggests, we can see India's capacity to accept all experience as a metaphor for the nature of mind: when purified of self-importance and ignorance, it, too, is capable of embracing all experience without suffering. If we realize that all beings have Buddha nature, and therefore the capacity to be enlightened, we can maintain cheerfulness as we cultivate disillusionment.

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