an excerpt from ‘Ukiyo’ May 29, 2008
Posted by Geoffrey Wilson in : Book Excerpts, Challenge, Personal Freedom, Philosophy, Quote of the Week , trackbackThe First and Last Goodbye
Kolita tells his father that everyone must follow his own destiny in order to fulfil soul’s purpose. It is a prelude to his immanent departure and a gesture of respect. Deep down, Kolita is ready to go. He understands he cannot live without passion and expect to be at peace with his soul. There are too many questions unanswered and too many problems left unsolved.
‘Because my consciousness is beginning-less I know that I have taken countless rebirths in samsara,’ he says to the man who once was his idol and a Brahmin well versed in the classics.
‘I have already had countless bodies… if they were all gathered together, they would fill the entire world, and all the blood and other bodily fluids that have flowed through them would form an ocean! So great has been my suffering in all these previous lives that I have shed enough tears of sorrow to form yet another ocean!
‘In every single life without exception… I have experienced the sufferings of sickness, ageing, death… being separated from those I love… and being unable to fulfill my wishes. If I do not attain permanent liberation from suffering now, I shall have to experience these sufferings again and again in countless future lives.
‘From the very depths of our hearts… can we not at least try to abandon our attachment to worldly pleasures and attain permanent liberation from contaminated rebirths?’
Question:
What would you say to your son upon hearing that?
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