Noone can prosper in a social vacuum

Meditation

Meditation for Beginners

 

Noone can prosper in a social vacuum

 

Even though the Lord Buddha taught that…:

“Atta hi attano natho”

(One should be a refuge unto oneself)1

 

one must rely on help and support from one’s family members

 

…he regarded the people around us as an important factor contributing to one’s prosperity or deterioration. Working alone, one cannot be successful. The Lord Buddha said that for a person to be prosperous, one must rely on help and support from one’s family members, friends, colleagues and others in society. Even the Lord Buddha himself relied on his aunt. When his mother passed away seven days after he was born, his aunt took the responsibility for bringing him up in his mother’s place. When he grew up, he developed his skills and knowledge only by the efforts of his teacher, Visavamitta Brahmin. Leaving his palace behind to search for the truth of life, he learned preliminary meditation technique from two spiritual teachers Alara and Udaka until he achieved fundamental spiritual knowledge.

 

 

Working alone, one cannot be successful.

 

Later, when he achieved fundamental spiritual knowledge. Later, when he decided to train himself by self-mortification believing that it was the path to enlihtment, he was supported and served by his five devotees. Even on his enlightment day, it was only by sujata’s gift of milk-rice that he could have the energy to continue meditating until he gained the ultimate knowledge and became the Lord Buddha. Even after becoming the Lord Buddha, he still relied on food, clothes, shelter and medicine given by devotees for the rest of his life. Therefore, it goes without saying that if someone as great as the Buddha still needs a helping hand, who are we to think to ‘go it alone’? Thus, we must know the best way to associate with people as well as having a good relationship with the people around us.

 

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