...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.
Vaclav SmilRead
Nirvana means to extinguish the burning fires of the Three Poisons: greed, anger, and ignorance. This can be accomplished by letting go of dissatisfaction.
Interpretation
Nirvana represents liberation from negative states of mind, achieved by overcoming greed, anger, and ignorance.
In this quote, Shinjo Ito explains that nirvana, in the context of Buddhist philosophy, is the state of enlightenment achieved by extinguishing the inner flames of greed, anger, and ignorance, which are seen as the root causes of suffering. To attain this state, one must learn to let go of feelings of dissatisfaction that fuel these negative emotions, ultimately leading to a sense of peace and liberation.
In practice
In a meditation retreat to help participants focus on overcoming negative emotions.
...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.
The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of the mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.
I am ashamed every day, and more ashamed the next. But I will spend the rest of my life in this living space writing these notes, this journal, recording my acts and reflections, finding some honor, some worth at the bottom of things. I want ten thousand pages that will stop the world.
We don't even know what our desire is. We ask other people to tell us our desires. We would like our desires to come from our deepest selves, our personal depths - but if it did, it would not be desire. Desire is always for something we feel we lack.
War used to be something you could stand on the nearby hill and watch. Now we have total war; everybody's in it. We have total economics as well. Everything affects everybody. The Malaysian currency shakes, and people around the world are seriously affected.
News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertising.
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