WHAT IS TIME?

I have said that from Gotama's point of view,there is dissatisfaction in things and there is a cause to these things:ignorance and craving.
Ignorance here is quite simply that we do not know what reality really is,only what we deem it to be.
Craving is wanting things to be other than what they are. We become attached to ideas, places, people,events and this causes pain.
Indeed when confronted with anything we can have three responses.
We like it-which may lead to attachment of it(craving)
We don't like it-which may lead to pushing it away(aversion)
The third point is that we may have no response(be neutral,indifferent)
Although with these things there is the level of degree,reflection should show us that these responses clearly do operate in regard to things we are presented with.
1. The first Noble T...That suffering or dissatisfaction exists
2. The second Noble T...There is a cause to dissatisfaction i.e. not seeing things as they really are(ignorance)
3.The third Noble T...there is an exit from dissatisfaction by beginning to change viewpoint.

Nirvana,enlightenment are ponderous ideas. We should stay with curiosity and our ability to reflect on things. We cannot escape life. It is not intended that we do so.
In my next blog-the fourth Noble Truth- I will hint(I can only hint)at the methodology the Buddha advises we use to move away from ignorance of the way of things;we mould a reality view by the idea of a finite,separate self.

Be courageous on your path my friends. It is largely intuitive. Different for each of us but inherently we are all the same;we are One. Keep well.

No sleep to come to eyeline tonight
Only tears that fill together
Doleful wind that continues without respite
At my window moaning, soft, low,tonight

Now breaks a sadder voice and weeps
Tears heavy with the sound
On the pane the teardrops glisten and steep
In the utter distress this sorrow keeps

Why come you then wind to moan
At my glass known but to me?
Tell me did you lose too a love you'd known
Who loved you tenderly?

From the Welsh of John Morris Jones

The second Noble Truth points to the dissatisfaction that is in all things, not as a nod to pessimism but as a reflection on the instability of things.
It is a human need to analyse ,to make sense of what has happened to us. Thus causation is a key factor in the way we determine and experience our story, our personal history. We may think that if understand how something has happened, we may be able to change the outcome in a future setting.
What is good is to be enjoyed as it lasts. The second Noble Truth may seem like a cloud that blocks understanding for we don’t see things as they clearly are. We are a victim of our own viewpoint.
What then is the second truth?
Well it is that we are to believe our dissatisfaction to be the whole story. Yet this is only because our human failings place us at the centre of things. This second truth asks us to entertain the idea that we are not separate from ongoing change but are part of its ebb and flow and are connected to every other part of the Universe in that ebb and flow…
We are dissatisfied with the seeming flux of things. Our ego-based view would buy us into the myth of solidity and security. Thus we buy into discrimination-and set up what is called, by classical Buddhist terms, the two notions of aversion and attachment. More of this later.

The second Noble Truth is that there is a cause to dissatisfaction. Nothing lasts permanently but only within differing times of duration. To cling to the idea of fixity produces pain…

Be content on your journey all my friends! To realise we are all one is both privilege and a great adventure.