The World Is in Reality a World of Bliss and Awakening

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This is from the current (Winter 2006) issue of Tricycle, Norman Fischer on The Lotus Sutra:

The Lotus teaches that [the Buddha] appears not from karma, as do all other beings, but due to the "One Great Causal Condition," which is the interdependent nature of existence/nonexistence, a field whose true shape and purpose is love. This is a deep and astounding teaching: that far from being a world of trouble and tears as it appears to be, this world of existence/nonexistence, seen in the light of suchness and lived according to upaya is in reality a world of bliss and awakening. But beings don't know this. They are awash in a sea of suffering. Reality's true trajectory is toward relieving this suffering through love.

It seems to me that somehow we all know that love is our real nature and our real goal; we all long to realize this goal, however confused and misguided our longing may be. Being human has embedded right in the middle of it some sense of longing and reaching out for something very, very large, not outside our lives, but as our lives.

Great quote. I think this resonates with me right now because some awareness of this truth is beginning to surface in me. Slowly, sometimes painfully, but I think I'm beginning to feel this in some way.

Tags: The Lotus Sutra, Buddhism, Norman Fischer, Tricycle, Revealing a World of Bliss