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A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine ISSN# 1708-3265
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Breathe WisdomDreaming and Being Content with What Is with Jacqueline Kramer Any Spiritual student has, at one time or another, brushed up against some form of teaching on the absolute. The absolute; that which is unchanging, radiant, cannot be harmed or destroyed, perfect, and immortal. It is called God by some, Bodhicitta or ultimate reality by others. The great teachers and enlightened beings tell us there is only one essence that is at the core of all things and it is perfect. Yet, we wake up in the morning and have a hungry family to feed, our body may ache, we may feel tired, angry or restless. We look at this world filled with incredible cruelty and pain and ask, if life is perfect why is there so much suffering? If I am perfect at my core why do I feel all these painful emotions and physical sensations? These are questions which plague many sincere truth seekers on the path. How can insight into the absolute nature of reality have any relevance to our flesh and blood messy lives? Accepting both the absolute and the relative as true is a paradox and, like contemplation on a Zen koan, the contemplation on absolute and relative reality can lead to deep insight and have practical application in our lives. Just as there is masculine and feminine, day and night, wholesome and unwholesome actions, pain and pleasure, and many, many other apparent dualities, the apparent duality of absolute and relative feels very real to us.
Deeper understanding of the absolute, perfect ultimate truth helps guide us in our everyday activities by setting our present condition into a larger perspective. Yes, our body will die, but we are not our body, so what dies? Everything which comes into being is impermanent, so what is permanent? To rest in what is permanent is bliss, trusting in that which is impermanent leads to sorrow. In absolute reality there is no good or bad, only love. In relative reality there are wholesome and unwholesome actions. Wholesome actions which lead to peace of mind and unwholesome actions which lead to more pain. So we cultivate what is wholesome and loosen our grip on what is unwholesome and, in absolute terminology, we become love. In absolute reality everyone is part of the one, everyone is family and the Universe takes care of us. In relative reality we love our family, we feel identified with our family, we care for our family's needs. If we did not do this the human species would not survive. Many times students armed with half-truths will tell us to not get caught up in the things of the world, that we are not our bodies or our emotions so we needn't feel sad or get angry. Yet, when our child is sick, when we feel tired, when our world seems to be falling down around us, when we realize what humans are doing to the environment, we do feel bad and no amount of intellectualizing will make us feel better. In absolute reality everything is perfect just as it is in this moment. In relative reality we dream and build our dream into the world of form. Most spiritual literature that has come down to us through the ages was written by those who have either left the family life or remained monks, free to live a large portion of their lives contemplating the absolute. Although many of these monks have an enlightened perspective, few know how to translate this perspective for householders. Yet this essential view of the absolute is of supreme importance for householders. We just need to learn how to translate the absolute into our everyday relative realities in a way that is practical. When we are grounded in the absolute we do not become as attached to our everyday thoughts and feelings which leaves us freer and lighter. We love our families but realize they are each separate centres of the absolute and we are not responsible for their karma. We worry and judge less because we realize every single person is radiant, beautiful, and good at their core, regardless of appearance. We dream but are fully contented with our life as it is regardless of appearances. We tend to worry less about aging, death, our careers, what our lives look like on the outside, what could have been or what will be. We rest in the centre of our goodness and open to guidance, trusting unfoldment. Then we are free to act from a place of love and clarity. By acting from our own basic goodness, the absolute perfection at our core, we are led to wise action effortlessly and can enjoy our absolute nature even when we're sad or angry. The absolute perspective informs the relative reality of our lives. The relative reality of our lives opens us more deeply to the realization of the absolute. Not one or the other but both working together like a healthy marriage of two good friends.
To learn more about Jacqueline and the Hearth Foundation please read her interview in the November 2007 issue of Timeless Spirit Magazine.
Jacqueline Kramer is the director of the Hearth Foundation. She has been studying and practicing Theravadin Buddhism for 30 years, is a Religious Science Practitioner and student of the world's wisdom traditions. Her root teacher was Annagarika Dhamma Dinna who taught in the Sri Lankan tradition. She also studied with Ven. Ananda Maitreya, Achan Sobin Namto, Ven. Punnaji Mahathera and Ayya Khema.
Her work with mothering and homemaking came out
of an insight she had one afternoon while out in her back yard. As she looked into the eyes of the neighbour's cow she had an experience of unity and love for the planet and the desire to help protect the planet for her newborn daughter and all other beings. She realized this was her life's purpose. Jacqueline writes a weekly newsletter, books on mothering as a spiritual practice, and has created online lay Buddhist practice classes which she offers, as is the Buddhist tradition, at no cost. She is a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend.
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