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16 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

• How to integrate a life of responsible action and taking into account what matters to us most deeply.
and service with a meditative life based on In the same way, we can look at the world around us,
nonattachment where there is a tremendous amount of suffering, war,
poverty, and disease. What does the world need to foster
Useful exercises are presented alongside the teachings to a safe and compassionate existence for all? Human
help readers deepen their understanding of the subjects. suffering and hardship cannot be alleviated just by a
Though written more than 30 years ago, this book is still simple change of government or a new monetary policy,
fresh and relevant for all practitioners of the Buddha’s although these things may help. On the deepest level,
teaching. The following is a brief excerpt from the book, problems such as war and starvation are not solved by
which is easily available from Shambhala Publications economics and politics alone. Their source is prejudice
(www.shambhala.com), and fear in the human heart— and their solution also
lies in the human heart. What the world needs most is
The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha people who are less bound by prejudice. It needs more
called right understanding. Right understanding has love, more generosity, more mercy, more openness. The
two parts. To start with, it asks a question of our hearts. root of human problems is not a lack of resources but
What do we really value, what do we really care about comes from the misunderstanding, fear, and separateness
in this life? Our lives are quite short. Our childhood that can be found in the hearts of people.
goes by very quickly, then adolescence and adult life go
by. We can be complacent and let our lives disappear Right understanding starts by acknowledging the
in a dream, or we can become aware. In the beginning suffering and difficulties in the world around us as well
of practice we must ask what is most important to us. as in our own lives. Then it asks us to touch what we
When we’re ready to die, what will we want to have really value inside, to find what we really care about,
done? What will we care about most? At the time of and to use that as the basis of our spiritual practice.
death, people who have tried to live consciously ask When we see that things are not quite right in the world
only one or two questions about their life: Did I learn and in ourselves, we also become aware of another
to live wisely? Did I love well? We can begin by asking possibility, of the potential for us to open to greater
them now. loving-kindness and a deep intuitive wisdom. From
our heart comes inspiration for the spiritual journey.
This is the beginning of right understanding: looking at For some of us this will come as a sense of the great
our lives, seeing that they are impermanent and fleeting, possibility of living in an awake and free way. Others