A Fistful of Sand

Mahavairochana The Dhammapada tells us that. All beings seek happiness and fear pain and death. This seems obvious on the face of it, but we act as if it weren’t true. We look for happiness in things that will ultimately cause us pain. It’s not because we are lack intelligence (maybe) but because we want instant results and shy away from the hard work of looking at what we are doing. Of course, what we are doing depends mainly on what we are thinking. Our standard mode of thinking is called “not seeing” in Sanskrit, avidya, which we normally translate as “ignorance.” To say that we are ignorant doesn’t mean we are stupid, it just means that we are ignoring something that we need to be paying attention to if we want to live happier and more fulfilling lives.  There are twelve things we usually ignore. They are obvious if we understand the Arya Sacca . Usually, translated as “the Four Noble Truths”, another poor translation, it also means something closer to “The Truth of the Noble O...