Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live as another creature? Like what is the experience of a bird, of a lion, or of a tiny insect stuck in your kitchen sink? What would it be like to live their full life, with all their experiences, all their fears, all their positive
moments? If we exchange ourselves with them, perhaps we might see that what looks cute to us is really a realm of extreme anxiety that brushes with death on a constant basis. The bird is always looking over its shoulder for the cat that might eat it. The ant is working to keep its community going, carrying loads of supplies, and avoiding giant beings who just seem to appear out of nowhere and smashing droves of your friends and co-workers every day with each of their huge steps. Imagine losing uncountable numbers of your co-workers on a daily basis, and living in extreme fear that you could be the next to be crushed without warning as you come out of your home when the sun rises.
In this course, we will be exploring how Buddhism conceives of the world and all of its inhabitants, those beings we can see and those that we cannot. Our exploration of all the realms, all the experiences possible for all beings, brings us closer to understanding how each and everyone of them only wants to be safe and free from the perils of life.
It also doesn’t take much mental gymnastics to realize that even our fellow humans are experiencing great sufferings all the time, through sickness, war, economic depressions, heart-break and all other types of calamities and distresses, including death. Each and every one of us lives in similar fear of death and suffering, even if we pretend that it will never happen to us.
After going through many of the possibilities of existence in this course, we will then apply our understanding of the workings of karma to motivate us to move into this world with a heart of compassion and service. If we are able to truly understand the nature of the sufferings of all these beings, and the source of that suffering, we have a chance to not get stuck in these cycles of suffering endlessly, to transform that experience into a more positive, productive and loving life.
Finally, we will learn how to keep that motivation going within us, on a daily basis, with several meditations that create urgency and diminish lethargy when faced with the constant struggles of life. These meditations will help us to witness the reality that others face and will give us the tools to be ourselves a beacon of change and hope in the world.
