The Four Reflections That Change Our Life
Valuing human existence
1. Our human life is precious, because we can communicate at the highest level.
2. We shouldn’t miss the opportunity to realise our ultimate truth.
3. Instead, we become attached to the pleasant and unpleasant.
4. There are consequences to becoming attached to the pleasant and unpleasant.
Taking human life for granted – being attracted to trivia and arguing – we lose sight of how unique this opportunity is to realise enlightenment. We are capable of much more than merely reciting the same old story while thinking that we have something interesting to say when, in fact, we are just repeating whatever others repeat.
Our story starts to change when we truly consider the four reflections about life. When we realise we are suffering, we can then look and find how to end this suffering, by realising that its cause never truly existed. It was all in the mind. This is an individual matter; we do not become realised collectively. We don’t do what songwriters and reactionaries tell us to do, and go around shouting, “Freedom, freedom!” It doesn’t work like that. 😀
If we try to realise our true nature collectively, we give our power and resolve away. In joining a group, we will not understand what we need to understand, and it is for this reason that we retreat into solitude. We can still be among others, but they now become a constant reminder of what we are about – which is remaining in pure awareness.
We are enlightened beings that have become comfortably numb.
We have this precious human birth, and what do we do with it?