WHY DO YOU NEED THE DHARMA AND MEDITATION?

The Truth is that you really don't need either the Dharma or Correct Meditation.

You don't need it to be Wealthy.

You don't need it to be Famous.

You don't need it for Love.

You don't need it for Happiness.

You don't need it to "do it your way."

Of course, 

                   You also don't need it to be Poor.

You don't need it to be Nobody of Importance.

You don't need it to be Unloved.

You don't need it for Suffering.

You don't need it to be "one of the sheep of the globalized minds."

You don't need it to be a Slave to the norms of Church or State.

I doubt that many of you qualify as being Wealthy, Famous,

with Love, with Happiness, or are able to "do it your way."

Yet it is strange that knowing that Wealth or Fame does not bring Love, Happiness nor even the freedom to "do it your way," most still admire those with political or royal acclaim, stars of theatre and music and sports figures that are in the news repeatedly.

It is strange that knowing that Death is the great leveller and that anything that you possess is only yours for a brief period you still crave and cling to what appears so valuable.

One thing appears true and that is that everyone wants to be happy although it is a sure formula for future suffering. Everyone wants to be Loved and to experience loving although that too is a sure formula for experiencing "being unloved" and Suffering.

Neither the Dharma nor Meditation will make you perpetually loved nor perpetually happy.

So what use is the Dharma and Meditation?

Understanding Dharma allows you to see how things really are and Meditation allows you to discard the pair "Happiness-Suffering" and the avoid the stained experiences of being "In Love and Unloved."

What you attain in their place is Well Being that is constant without a negative counterstate and True Affect which is without Suffering.

There are a few people who really want to know what is going on within this world and how to change it. But if any of those don't simply want to know the Truth, but wish the Superego greatness that can stain that knowledge, then they are in the "Suffering Unloved" bag once more.

In a nutshell, Understanding Dharma and meditating just makes you a healthy and balanced Human Being instead of the caricature of a human being that you are, a slave to a civilization that fourteen thousand years ago, more or less, took the wrong road.

Being Wealthy or Poor or Famous or Unimportant and Ordinary makes no difference at all as long as there is no Clinging or Craving. You become simply a natural human being.

Almost everyone loves that idea until they learn that they have to give up:

Happiness, Love and Doing it Their Way.

So they put their toes in the water and that is all, or they dive in and take what they want, molding it into their sorry lives.

What they never have the patience to learn through the Dharma study and Meditation is:

Constant Well Being makes Happiness pale into insignificance.

Affect is more Enduring and Noble than mundane Love.

Doing it all the Natural Way makes the human creature as One with the World.

I hope that these few words to the minimally wise will be sufficient.

                                                                                               Shan jian