Return to reality: Love and hate
Return to reality: Love and hate
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Luis -
Dharma Poetry
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Oct 7, 2018
Luis 
Dharma Poetry 
Oct 7, 2018 
Luis is a young man in his early twenties who first came to the Abbey as a child with his mother many years ago. This is part of a series of writings he is working on as he searches for the meaning of love.
Two feelings,
Seemingly independent of one another,
Love bringing joy,
Hate bringing sorrow
Being ignorant of both denies humanity,
Unwilling to accept the joys of life,
Unwilling to accept the sorrows of life,
A terrible prison of the greatest cruelty
Pain is brought upon others when either is ignored,
Ignoring love causing beings to live in intense illusory torture,
Ignoring sorrow causing beings to live in intense illusory pleasure,
Sins of the highest caliber that spawn from the ignorant root of all evil
When both feelings are acknowledged,
A being is brought back from illusion into reality,
A being ashamed for all the pain he has caused,
A being who wishes to never return to either of the sole false paradises of heaven or hell,
A being who wishes to live humbly as a human being on Earth
Featured photo by Brian Auer.
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
