We may intellectually understand certain Buddhist teachings - they may make perfect sense to us - so why do we sometimes find it hard to put them into practice? Why do we resolve to meditate more regularly for example, and then find that we haven't left ourselves enough time in the morning?
Usually the answer lies in the fact that we need to bring the whole of ourselves with us on the Path, not just our intellect. Emotion is usually what really moves us. We need to find ways to engage our hearts. The more "mature" aspects of our being need to offer kindly encouragement and awareness to the less acknowledged parts. As Sangharakshita puts it, we need to "find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understanding". There are many ways we can do this, by engaging our imaginations, our love, our longing, our fascination.
For the next two Thursdays at the Dharma and Meditation class we will be exploring together "Perfect Emotion". This Thursday we will be looking at the Tantric Teachings of Padmasambhava, and what his lifestory can tell us about how we can engage our hearts and imaginations.
Usually the answer lies in the fact that we need to bring the whole of ourselves with us on the Path, not just our intellect. Emotion is usually what really moves us. We need to find ways to engage our hearts. The more "mature" aspects of our being need to offer kindly encouragement and awareness to the less acknowledged parts. As Sangharakshita puts it, we need to "find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understanding". There are many ways we can do this, by engaging our imaginations, our love, our longing, our fascination.
For the next two Thursdays at the Dharma and Meditation class we will be exploring together "Perfect Emotion". This Thursday we will be looking at the Tantric Teachings of Padmasambhava, and what his lifestory can tell us about how we can engage our hearts and imaginations.
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