BALANCED OPINIONS: full moon – Thursday 10th July 2025
Dwell not on the faults and shortcomings of others, instead, seek clarity about your own.
DHAMMAPADA v. 50
It is understandable that we have opinions about the way others behave. To do so is part of the natural functioning of our discriminative intelligence. In this verse the Buddha is not saying we ought to dismiss our capacity for assessing that which is wholesome and that which is not. Rather, he is highlighting the risk of losing balance. To be consistently caught in a habit of criticising others for their faults, is to have lost perspective. The primary focus of attention needs to be on recognizing one’s own limitations. If you can be genuinely honest about your own motivations there is a better chance your actions of body and speech will contribute to inner and outer harmony.
INHERENTLY SECURE: full moon - 21st June, 2024
“When those who are wise dwell in contemplation on the transient nature of the body-mind, and of all conditioned existence, they experience joy and delight seeing through to the inherently secure.”
DHAMMAPADA v. 194
This verse describes how seeing into the changing nature of things can cause joy to arise. Why then is it that for some of us when we encounter change we feel threatened? One reason might be because we have been holding to something too tightly. It is helpful to consider that feeling threatened is not necessarily a sign of something going wrong. If it is, then obviously we should take appropriate action. However, it could also be something is going right. It could be a sign pointing to where, when and how we are clinging. Since it is in the nature of things to be constantly changing, when we hold to them tightly, we generate stress. If we are interested in awakening to the ‘inherently secure’, then instead of seeing feelings of being threatened as an enemy, perhaps we can see them as an ally.