Why do we continue to deceive ourselves?

[samayakeeper]

All of know that we will die one day, it's just that the day of reckoning is always pushed behind our mind. We are always so busy trying to make ourselves "happy" living out our desires that the thought never crosses our mind. In some culture, it's taboo to speak of it. We refused to face the truth that one day everything will end in this life. And we continue to spend our time enjoying and be 'happy'. Some of us think that we will be calm and collected when death comes a-knocking. Will we?

I am scared stiff at the thought of death but much more where I will go.

[hope rainbow]

SK,

I came across somebody recently who insisted on his conviction (that he said he founded on logic) that there could not be anything after death, that death was the end, and that his thinking was based on science and not "beliefs", and that he was not afraid of his death AT ALL.

Well, I say this:

1. to think that there is nothing after death is nothing short of a BELIEF,
2. because it is not based on facts (what facts?),
3. and not based on logic neither (what logic?),
4. and I conclude this: to come to such CONVICTION with BIAS "evidence" demonstrates clearly that this person is definitely scared of his own death and had to come up with a made-up belief to resolve (temporarily) that anxiety.
5. I call this deception.

[WisdomBeing]

it's just real simple for me... we continue to deceive ourselves because we just don't really believe in karma. It's because karma has a time delay. If we touch something hot and we get burnt immediately, we won't touch it again. However because we do an action now and we don't know when the effect will come in future, we live in the deception that the effect may not happen. That's why we drink, we smoke, we eat junk food and do all sorts of stupid things that we KNOW for sure will result in our health deteriorating. Yet we still do it. So why is it so difficult to think why people don't care what will happen in our after life!

why do we continue to deceive ourselves? because we're stupid. that's why.

[Positive Change]

it's just real simple for me... we continue to deceive ourselves because we just don't really believe in karma. It's because karma has a time delay. If we touch something hot and we get burnt immediately, we won't touch it again. However because we do an action now and we don't know when the effect will come in future, we live in the deception that the effect may not happen. That's why we drink, we smoke, we eat junk food and do all sorts of stupid things that we KNOW for sure will result in our health deteriorating. Yet we still do it. So why is it so difficult to think why people don't care what will happen in our after life!

why do we continue to deceive ourselves? because we're stupid. that's why.

Thank you Wisdom Being... This is absolutely right! And to make it worse, we may even try to deceive ourselves into thinking that because we do not remember our previous lives, that we will not remember our future one hence there is real no need to worry about karma as it wont happen to "us" so to speak. "It will be me but then again it wont be me because I wont know any better... like I am now...". Hence the cycle of suffering keeps on happening as we continue to collect karma in this samsaric existence!

[vajrastorm]

Yes, we know, intellectually, that everything is impermanent and that death is certain, though we are uncertain about when death will come. Yet we continue to deceive ourselves that death will not happen to us tomorrow or soon. We continue to grasp at all the things we desire and at relationships we are strongly attached to, believing(in our deluded minds)that they are there for us and forever.

However, there are moments of realizations, especially when we hear a powerful teaching on Death and Impermanence. We also panic that death can also happen to us anytime when a close friend or relative of ours falls sick and dies at a relatively young age, or dies suddenly in an accident. But these realizations only last for a while. Then the distractions of this life will pull us away and we will again be caught up in the affairs of this life and all thoughts and fears of death and Impermanence will fade from our memory.

I think  the only way for us to make this realization remain firm and stable in our minds is what has been urged and advised by a great Master - do a daily meditation on Death. Like that, we are being made to focus on Death and Impermanence as a reality as opposed to the lack of essence and impermanence of all the objects of our daily mundane pursuits and grasping.

[hope rainbow]

Yes, we know, intellectually, that everything is impermanent and that death is certain, though we are uncertain about when death will come. Yet we continue to deceive ourselves that death will not happen to us tomorrow or soon. We continue to grasp at all the things we desire and at relationships we are strongly attached to, believing(in our deluded minds)that they are there for us and forever.

However, there are moments of realizations, especially when we hear a powerful teaching on Death and Impermanence. We also panic that death can also happen to us anytime when a close friend or relative of ours falls sick and dies at a relatively young age, or dies suddenly in an accident. But these realizations only last for a while. Then the distractions of this life will pull us away and we will again be caught up in the affairs of this life and all thoughts and fears of death and Impermanence will fade from our memory.

I think  the only way for us to make this realization remain firm and stable in our minds is what has been urged and advised by a great Master - do a daily meditation on Death. Like that, we are being made to focus on Death and Impermanence as a reality as opposed to the lack of essence and impermanence of all the objects of our daily mundane pursuits and grasping.

Dear Vajrastorm,
What to say to people that do a meditation on death but  end up their meditation with the following conclusion:
"death is around the corner, therefore I must make lots of money fast, enjoy parties and sex partners, make lots of friends, try all the food, travel, go on holiday, listen to music, go to concerts, go to the cinema, enjoy cars, make a family quick-quick, sail on the seven seas, climb the Everest, fly a plane, etc... Life is too short, let's enjoy now... "

[diamond girl]

it's just real simple for me... we continue to deceive ourselves because we just don't really believe in karma. It's because karma has a time delay. If we touch something hot and we get burnt immediately, we won't touch it again. However because we do an action now and we don't know when the effect will come in future, we live in the deception that the effect may not happen. That's why we drink, we smoke, we eat junk food and do all sorts of stupid things that we KNOW for sure will result in our health deteriorating. Yet we still do it. So why is it so difficult to think why people don't care what will happen in our after life!

why do we continue to deceive ourselves? because we're stupid. that's why.

THANK YOU Wisdom Being! As I was reading all this I could only come up with one answer - We are STUPID that is why we can continue to deceive ourselves. In all honesty, there are times I tell myself I am stupid. When I actually surrender and embrace what Buddhism teaches me about impermanence and karma, it is so liberating to live!

[Big Uncle]

There are many forms of deception but the deepest and most difficult deception is self-deception. This deep-seated deception is symbolize with a pig in Buddhism. It is fat, healthy and extremely robust against all our feeble attempts to slaughter it with our superficial spiritual practice. Self-deception could be in the form of denial of impermanent nature of our bodies, wealth and so forth for those not in the Dharma. For those in the Dharma, self-deception could be in the form of contentment of our spiritual practice or even disdain of others who do so much less spiritual practice. Almost everything spiritual we do is laced with self-deception and its the direct opponent to wisdom and Dorje Shugden. Hence, continuous propitiation of Dorje Shugden will create tremendous amounts of merits to finally kill that fat pig with that meandering wisdom sword of his.

[Klein]

We innately hold on to the view that:-

1. Everything is permanent

2  We are going to live for a long time.

We may intellectually know that everything is impermanence and death is uncertain but we do not really believe it.

Isn't it strange that most of us continue to deceive ourselves even though we know the truth and set ourselves up for more sufferings?

Why do we find it so difficult to believe the truth of impermanence and the uncertainty of the time of death?

I think most of us are in denial because we'd rather continue operating from our old habits. Changing ourselves require too much effort and we'd rather settle for short term "happiness". It's easier to stay where we are. Our fears and insecurities also play a huge part in this state of denial. There are many times that we need to learn things the hard way before we "wake up" to reality.

That's why we hear about people's lives changing dramatically after they have a near death experience. They realise what's more important in life coz life is really fragile and short.

[ratanasutra]

i have lot of friends that life just simply good, everything went well, smooth and they seldom have problem. They all understand what is karma and how is work, they know there is reincarnation and life after death. Knowing and understand all these doesn't help them to realise about it.  therefore they enjoy and wasting time in their life as there is no realization.

sometime there is death happen with one of member of family but they view it as normal as they are understand cycle of life of birth, age, sick and death.   Hence they continue their life without seeking for spiritual path as they are full of ignorant.

i will say that because of their ignorant and lack of merit that bring them nowhere.

[dorjedakini]

i have lot of friends that life just simply good, everything went well, smooth and they seldom have problem. They all understand what is karma and how is work, they know there is reincarnation and life after death. Knowing and understand all these doesn't help them to realise about it.  therefore they enjoy and wasting time in their life as there is no realization.

sometime there is death happen with one of member of family but they view it as normal as they are understand cycle of life of birth, age, sick and death.   Hence they continue their life without seeking for spiritual path as they are full of ignorant.

i will say that because of their ignorant and lack of merit that bring them nowhere.

We can make offering to our Lama and Shugden, daily in our prayer dedicate the merits to them to practice Dharma. Some of the members we came across which their nature of work or business is killing, their family business is survive on this kind of business, there is no way for them to stop immediately. What they do is to make a lots of offerings, pujas to gain a lot of merits so that they do not need to replying on "killing" to earn a living.

Our effort will not be wasted, my Lama told me that if we tirelessly sharing Dharma and Shugden to people:
First, at the beginning they might not want to follow or believe, but once they heard about it, the seed is planted in their mind stream; Second, we created the cause for the "right" people to meet us and come into Dharma through our sharing;
Third, we created the karma to have the power of speech, in future when we talk about Dharma, our speech can move and change people's mind into Dharma.

[WoselTenzin]

In any aspect of life, in order to succeed in anything, we must do what is expected of us or even more than that.  Otherwise, failure will be our result because we have not put in the effort to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills or experience to succeed.  This applies in our secular as well as spiritual life.  Therefore, attachment to "comfort zone" that provides short term comfort is deceptive because it set us up for future failure and sufferings.

Thank you WT, I agree with what you wrote.
What, though, if my comfort zone is Buddhism and serving my Guru?

Dear hope rainbow, In practising Buddhism and serving our guru, we will contionuously be challenged to practise the qualities of an enlightened mind such as kindness, compassion, generosity, patience, effort, moral discipline, wisdom etc.  As most of us are far from having perfected these qualities, we will be challenged when confronted with daily situations that is not in line with our comfort zone.

If you are fortunate enough to be within close proximity of your Guru, your Guru will continuously challenge you and push your buttons to bring you to the next level and you will be tested to put those qualities into practice. The real meaning of serving our guru is to transform our mind so that we are in a better position to bring benefit to ourselves and others.

My feeling is that if you feel that practising Buddhism and serving your guru is your comfort zone, perhaps you may have misunderstood what it means to practise Buddhism and serve your Guru. .