(Follow this link to see the December 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)
There is a traditional teaching in Buddhism about what are called the “Eight Worldly Conditions.” These conditions are gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame and pleasure and pain. (These conditions are mentioned in the Dutiyalokadhammasutta one of the sections from a collection of Buddhist sutras called the Aṅguttara Nikāya.)
The sutra opens with the Buddha saying “Bhikkhus, these eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around these eight worldly conditions;” it is said that these conditions will always be present in our lives. They will always be present and they will always be impermanent and therefore unreliable. Although we can appreciate gaining good things, they will inevitably and eventually pass away. Although we try to preserve what we have, what we have we will eventually lose.
We can tend to think that we should grasp after the positive and push away the negative: we like and want to pursue praise, and we do not like and want to avoid blame or criticism. But the Dharma suggests that this will be Continue reading →