"Living on this earth has never been easy. The Buddha famously taught that 'life is suffering,' and that the way out was to get enlightened. That alone was challenging.
But the Buddha lived 2500 years ago... before email, cell phones, airplanes, television, computers, global terrorism, environmental disasters, economic recessions, and the expectation that you be a 'peak performer,' a 'super-mom' or just plain 'super.'
Now it's a whole new story — not only do we suffer, get sick, and die, like other humans throughout history—but we're doing so in a world that's seriously out of whack. We face stresses and demands—despite our amazing comforts and opportunities—that the Buddha never dreamed of, beyond our age-old human condition."
I find the above statement to be a clear and cogent overview of the challenges spiritual people face in today's world. I would at this time like to add a few sentences, and it is likely I will come back to this set of thoughts at a later date.
While it is true that in the United States, life expectancy jumped from 47 to 77 in just over 100 years, we are immersed in a set of environmental bio-chemical and bio-electrical toxins too numerous to list at this juncture. Each one of them individually sets up a road block on whatever spiritual path we choose to follow. Taken together, it is as if we are hiking up a trail strewn with boulders of all shapes, sizes and colors.
With any luck, over the next few weeks, I will have a chance to focus on one boulder at a time, and perhaps offer a few suggestions as to how to dissolve or go around it.
Peace and good health be with you.
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