Have you ever hit a bump in the road, and all of a sudden it
hits you that there is a longer road ahead of you and this should not be slowing
you down? Do we realize that there is more
to life than going crazy and hurting people for the great Black Friday sale? In
the Buddhist culture the ultimate goal is to reach Nirvana. It is a state
Buddhists refers to as “Enlightenment.” Nirvana is considered freedom from all worldly
concerns such as greed, hate, and ignorance.
“Nirvana
means pacifying, silencing, or extinguishing the fire of suffering (Nhat Hanh
pg 140).” It is not unusual for things to go wrong in people’s lives, but
instead people get caught up in this tiny problem and forget the bigger
picture. Nirvana is like a goal, everyone wants to reach it. “Nirvana teaches
that we already are what we want to become. We don’t have to run after anything
anymore (Nhat Hanh pg 140).” As mentioned in the opening paragraph, people will go
crazy for Black Friday sales, but let us stop and remember why these sales are even
happening. They are for Christmas! It is not about who gets the most presents, spends the most or saves the most money, but it
is about being with your loved ones, and giving in general. People, let us look
at the bigger picture, the grand scheme of things and remember why we are doing
this to begin with.
Another
example happened the other day I was in the training room listening to some student athletes
talk about their Thanksgiving. This one male kept mentioning that his
grandmother was complaining the whole time that the food was not as good as if
she had cooked it herself. I was thinking, I respect the elderly, but thanksgiving
is ALL about giving thanks for what we have. There are people all over the
world who do not have a lot of things we have; the ability to be with family, eat a
home cooked meal, or even have a place to live. We must sit and think how lucky we
really are and appreciate things more, the big and especially the little
things. Nirvana is all about trying to live a good and respectful life; one where we aren't greedy and and appreciate life.
Be grateful for everything you have, “you don’t know what you have until it’s
gone.”
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