Post # 2 - Worldly Well Being- 

Are you visiting this Blog for the first time?

It would be good if you could check out  and read the 1^st Post before attempting to read this Post.

If you pause to watch people go by, they all seem to be in a hurry. As if they are trying to get somewhere quick?  Where are they going?

The answer from most of them is that they want to get ahead in life. They are looking for worldly well-being.  They are hard at it- in the way they know. 

Have you ever looked at yourself lately? You are doing the same thing aren’t you- the way you know best?

What are we looking for in worldly well-being?

You might say- happiness or at least some happiness, good health, some contentment and stress free living, having love and affection from family and friends, to be regarded well at work, have some money in the bank, some basic needs like the house you want, the car you like, the assets that give you the comforts in life etc. etc. One can stretch this list quite a bit.

In other words one is seeking to be generally successful and get ahead in life?

How are you getting about this?  Have you ever thought of getting about it in a focused and systematic way? Is a systematic and focused way at all possible?

Shall we get to the bottom of this and see how?

Let’s list this out again, what worldly well being for me is, and this time put them in a table in order to categorize them for better understanding.

1 What I want     happening within me	2 What I want happening from without and towards me or  from outside for me
	2a - Soft  stuff	2b - Hard stuff
Happiness Contentment          Stress free life Anxiety free life Fear free life Good health Etc. Etc.	Love and affection from family Regard and love from relatives Love and helpfulness from friends Well regarded at work by superiors Regard and friendship of peers Respect and helpfulness from subordinates Friendship of neighbours To be greeted by a stranger on the street (would make my day?) Etc.	Get the house I want Get some money in the bank Get my dream car Have the household stuff I need Have my investments in the right places Etc. Etc.

Can you list anymore? This list is difficult to complete. Human nature is that.  However much there is, it never really is enough?

What is your wish-list for Worldly Well Being?

If you cannot quite complete this list what can you do? The trick is to just get on track by getting about it in a focused and systematic way to achieve what you want and see how it develops. Then you take stock later on at a given date and see how it is going, while being in the process.

You compare results with those at a baseline date when you started.

The comfort level will be to find that you are on course; there are results, although you are not yet fully endowed to make you satisfied.

How to look at the world we live in

Before we attempt to explore a method - that is focused and systematic - for achieving worldly well being, let’s get our perceptions about the world we live in, fine-tuned for the process.

For this purpose it is good to look at what Buddha has taught his followers on this. Without going into too much text and the origins of his teachings, it may suffice for the present to look at only the essence of his teaching on this.

To view the world we live in, Buddha has explained that our understanding has to be under three separate areas of attention. These areas are respectively:
 - the observable physical world, including the cosmos around us,
- what seems to be happening in this world and why, and
 - how each one of us relate to the above two aspects.

Let’s us now review these three aspects individually and separately?

The physical world:

Buddha has explained that the cosmos (universe) and thereby the world we live in, has to be viewed under broadly two categories of phenomena. The two categories are described as infinite phenomena and finite phenomena. They are referred to as phenomena as each one differs from other in nature and do not fall into any observable category or group or fit into any pattern. One would see phenomena such as objects, substances, happenings, sounds, smells, light, colours, space, time etc. etc. in this world.

Out of these two broad categories , infinite phenomena referred to above include such things as space, time, mind, etc.  which are perpetual, have no limits and no beginning or end. 

The other category is finite phenomena or the conditioned formations. They have a beginning (birth), end (death) and subject to constant change in between.  This change or non-permanence is explained as the state of changes from those that prevailed at formation to those that are as at present.  These finite phenomena consist of the observable physical Universe. 

We must understand infinite phenomena and finite phenomena more fully and come to terms with them, in order that they will not create uncertainties and anxieties in our mind. Otherwise when confronted with infinite phenomena and finite phenomena in this world, they can result in uncertainty and stress, 

The finite phenomena or conditioned formations are of two further groups; viz. inanimate and animate.

The inanimate group consists of conditioned formations that comes into existence by the aggregation of four fundamental units of matter (basic elements). They are referred to in the Pali language as -patavi, apo, thejo, and vayo, and very loosely referred to as 'earth', 'water', 'fire' and 'air'. We must not however take the meanings literally but make an attempt to have a right understanding of the meaning as Buddha taught them. In an analytical review, one author refers to them as 'abstract earth', 'abstract water', 'abstract fire' and 'abstract air', qualifying the literary meaning of these fundamental units of matter, as actions or  forms of energy. That is how they are described in Abhidhamma, the teaching focused on the realities of phenomena.   These fundamental units of matter (elements) exist in the conditioned world in combination with each other due to causes and conditions, forming the finite substances. However if one considers a hypothetical situation where these elements were to exists by themselves before combining to form finite substances, these elements in their free form, although momentarily, will fall into the earlier mentioned category of infinite phenomena.

The animate group consists of a similar aggregation of the fundamental units of matter, as in the case of the inanimate group, but has in addition the infinite phenomena called vinnana or for our present purpose, a unit of mind.

By an understanding of the physical world around us in this way, and then about its nature and its behaviour which are based on causes and conditions, we would be able to cope better and be less stressed or anxious about what we experience around us.

See how one could intervene in coping with above in the next posting on –Mind Process as Explained in Buddha-Dhamma