Matthew F. Bennett's Blog
June 26, 2016
Deep Ecology
In our inner mandala of innate purity and awareness, we are ultimately free of ignorance, desire and aggression, and have the potential to express this purity through warm-hearted regard for all living beings. We understand the sufferings of others and wholeheartedly wish them to be free of affliction, poverty and the ignorance that perpetuates suffering. It is possible for us to reclaim this deep sense of goodwill towards others, and govern our thoughts and actions in ways that are skillful and beneficial for ourselves and all beings we encounter. When we live in this way, every thought has goodwill as its support and consequently every action is ultimately beneficial and potentially purifying in nature.
To clean up the environment is good. To recycle our trash and live sustainably is important but to cleanse our inner mandala is most important of all. Each family, community and nation is made up of individuals. The inner nature or mentality of those individuals constitutes the quality of life for all concerned. To heal the earth, our societies and people we must first of all individually heal and cleanse ourselves internally. Realizing our innate inner purity in unalloyed awareness we can reclaim the purity of our own spiritual being as well as transform the outer mandala of the world. This is deep ecology, and it all begins within.
To clean up the environment is good. To recycle our trash and live sustainably is important but to cleanse our inner mandala is most important of all. Each family, community and nation is made up of individuals. The inner nature or mentality of those individuals constitutes the quality of life for all concerned. To heal the earth, our societies and people we must first of all individually heal and cleanse ourselves internally. Realizing our innate inner purity in unalloyed awareness we can reclaim the purity of our own spiritual being as well as transform the outer mandala of the world. This is deep ecology, and it all begins within.
The Wisdom of Common Sense
Who and what we are in reality far exceeds our conventional view of ourselves in time and space. We are hallucinating ourselves in many ways that diminish our understanding of the essential purity, radiance and unlimited potentiality that rests beneath the surface of our own misconception. However, our ignorant miscalculations are merely passing storm clouds in the radiant and illuminating sky of our essential being, and to uncover our inconceivable identity is the only true occupation of all sentient beings. Such a sacred endeavor surpasses all dogmatic religious philosophies and intellectual wrangling, for to come face to face with the essential and naked radiance of our own fundamental nature is to solve with one stroke every problem that has ever confronted humanity throughout the ages. When we recognize our essential inner radiance, even briefly, we can call off our search for truth because the wisdom of all eternity is right there within you. You have never lost it. Only misplaced it for a time.
