“This pithy utterance of the Buddha—
that it is in just this fathom long carcass that one makes known the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world
—may well be the most profound proposition in the history of human thought.”
– Bhikkhu Bodhi
By resting more fully in our own world of experience (right now, not by traveling), it is possible to see how the world of experience is composed, how it comes to be, and how it can fall away completely.
Meditation practice is about full liberation from the causes of dukkha, not simply about a superficial kind of psychological well-being. In short, the texts encourage practice for liberation so that we don’t get reborn, so that we bring an end to the world.Above are excerpts from Entering the Path
Discussion
Do I want to bring an end to the world?
What does it mean to bring an end to the world?
The world I want to end is the world I am creating in thought. I want to learn to listen to and trust this “fathom-long body”, which is embedded in the world, and like other living things, knows its own way. This means that when I stop, when my mind and ego stop, the embedded body will appreciate being alive and organically (enactively) act in the best interests of itself, its species, it’s home (the environment on which it depends for living). It will not harm anyone or any thing, taking only what it needs for the moment.
The immediate result is contentment in simply being alive. Free and available to love and care.
There is a place for thinking and planning, but it is less important than we think (and less important than thinking). Let us, let me, put thinking in service of the embedded and unavoidably interconnected body instead of the other way around.
* With the cessation of attachment to views, doubt does not arise.
* With the cessation of attachment to volitional action (kamma), pleasant and unpleasant results do not arise, skillful and unskillful actions do not arise.
* With the cessation of attachment to the five aggregates, suffering does not arise.
* With the cessation of grasping the six senses, the world does not arise.Also excerpted from Entering the Path