It said no to me.
After 10 tries and the spiking of my blood pressure and frustration levels I found out that there was no petrol…
After grudgingly pouring in the petrol, I started mowing. To those who havn’t found the joys of lawn moving it consists of pushing strenuously at this 180kg beast of a machine against the huge resistance of the earth and the grass.
Usually the earth won (curse my non-flat backyard *throwing fist*). And so my lawn mower stops. To coax my reluctant lawn mower back into life, I had to go through this huge involved ritual which consists of cleaning studiously the grass off the damn thing, pushing the obese lawn mower onto flat ground and pulling fruitlessly at the starter string.
It seems to help… abit…
After awhile I settled down and just thought about my predicament. I have to be nice to mum because she provides me with free food and rent. I also cannot change her unreasonable anger. So… I do not have any options… you can’t choose mums eh?
After deciding that I had to mow the lawn I tried to think of what a Buddhist would do. I read somewhere that happiness is a function of the mind so you have to train yourself to be happy. So I tried that.
I viewed mowing the lawn as a kind of suffering. (Which is quite self indulgent as this suffering in the grand scheme of things is very transient - it is nothing compared to others who are really suffering). Life is full of suffering. So the best thing you can do is to accept this suffering and to find ways to reduce the suffering (like… cutting the grass more regularly so it is easier to cut the next time around).
Strangely enough after thinking like this (and endorphins rushing through my body because of my wildly contorted muscles) I reached a feeling of contentment. A zen like feeling where I found the cause of my suffering and I accepted it calmly and without judgment.
Interesting...
2 comments:
"happiness is a function of the mind so you have to train yourself to be happy. So I tried that."
I suspect that the concept of personal happiness can work very well as an individual, but may / may not work in a societal level.
Life is full of suffering, but there is no way we can define, measure and reduce suffering beyond our own (income per capita, PPP, mortality and morbidity rate?), because different people have different values of what it means to be suffering.
If happiness is the function of the mind, how can we judge other people's experience as happiness or suffering since it is subjective?
If the labels of "suffering" and "happiness" is just a term to describe a state of being, then we have no right to label other people's experience as suffering.
For example, I can't say that the hungry beggar suffer more than I do, because with that, I am imposing my standards on how he should be like.
The US has no rights to say that Chinese citizens are suffering under the socialist regime.
And thus, I have no rights to force the beggar not to beg, nor the US has the rights to overthrow the chinese government.
What do you think?
I think Suffering and happiness are different concepts.
Suffering is objective. Suffering arises when your expectations are not aligned to reality. Suffering is when you do not have the basic needs (body homeostasis).
What you can change is how you deal with that suffering. So a poor person is said to be suffering (lacking material goods) but could also be happy (how the beggar views his situation).
So in response to "
For example, I can't say that the hungry beggar suffer more than I do, because with that, I am imposing my standards on how he should be like."
Objectively, the beggar is far worse off materially than me. Because I do not have to worry about food/clothing/shelter. So I would consider the beggar to suffer more in that sense. But being a well off person, I may have lots of materialistic desires which may or may not be realized which brings its own suffering that the beggar may not.
The buddhist as I understand would try to reduce suffering if possible and if suffering is inevitable like the passing away of a loved one. Calmly accept the situation.
So, materially speaking, I would consider the beggar to have more suffering than me and I would think I have a duty (via advocating free-market policies) to improve their lot.
@ The US has no rights to say that Chinese citizens are suffering under the socialist regime.
It really depends on the definition of suffering. Some US ppl might consider free speech and the rule of law as fundamental basic needs. So in that sense, people living in socialist countries are "suffering".
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