SuperSatellite ||

First, I want to take a quick moment to direct you to this article at Yahoo discussing the rise of Buddhism in the US.  It’s the 4th largest religion in the country currently.  It’s a nice, long article that is really well written I think, and very much worth taking a few minutes to read.  This includes a brief mention of those who actually retain then "home" faith, while incorporating Buddhist principles.

I found this daily meditation from a couple days ago particularly interesting, after comments I made in one of my previous meditation blogs.  The timing was just very good I thought.  There, I discussed how one might be able to see some Truth at any given point in time, but that its true form and meaning can be somewhat distorted until we learn to see past some of the complications that occur due to dhukha.

Those two sentences lay out this concept better than I think I was able to do with a whole blog.  The term "clarity" very well represents, I think, the feeling and idea of what we pursue.  Clarity is a concept that I believe applies to more than just ideas, but rather it implies freedom within any kind of perception and interpretation.

So, the pursuit of freedom from dhukha outlines as part of it’s goal, the achieval clarity.  That opens us to the freedom to take in what is around us without taint, and without noise.  In interpersonal communications you learn the process of transmitters, receivers, channels, and noise.  Any time people work together, there will always be some degree of noise in the channels they use to communicate.  When we achieve clarity, however, we gain the ability to eliminate that noise, and perform pure communication (this assumes communication with a like person, otherwise the counterpoint would still create their own noise.  This would affect them, but not you).

Imagine a world like that.  One where point and counterpoint interact without complication.  Where they may interact without belief in hidden motives, in agendas, or with fear of being misunderstood.  These are the benefits having clarity of perception provides.  This is what makes it such a valuable tool, and worthwhile pursuit.  You might not make it now.  Those in the monastic followings spend years upon years over several different periods in their lives studying and meditating on this very thing.  But it can come to anyone with time.  And perhaps you don’t find it, but you can learn to turn down the noise some.  Clarity is not an all or nothing entity.  It’s something you can work on, improve, and hone.