Especially as from my earliest childhood I was brought up a Christian and, until my mid-twenties, I regularly attended church; now I don’t, but deep down I have faith that there is some greater purpose for us than to be born and ultimately die.
Whether that greater purpose is to be pursued or realised during life or after death, I’m not sure. Islam, Jainism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, or any other philosophy – I’m not sure there’s one expression of any such great purpose. More about this shortly.
Battle Plan. As part of my battle plan to survive what in these pages I’ll call ‘pc21’ (the emerging personal conflict of the twenty-first century – the outcome of governmental intrusion, bureaucratic imposition, naive liberalism, and the wiles of unscrupulous big business), I decided to leave my adopted home, the great ‘nanny state’ Australia, and choose another home for my future; and within the limitations of inter-governmental regulations I’ve chosen Thailand which is where I now spend around five months of each year. In short I am leaving the sinking ship!
Buddha. And in large part it’s this move that alerted me to Buddha, and Buddhism. And my growing conviction is that there could be no better guide, no better plan, for responding to pc21, than the way for living life as proposed by the Buddha.
For more on Buddha read 'Buddha', a 2001 published book by Karen Armstrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment