Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart. And thereโs such a feeling and experience of adventure. Itโs like a trumpet call to a great adventure. In all great adventures there comes a time when the little band of heroes feels totally outnumbered and bleak, like Frodo in Lord of the Rings or Pilgrim in Pilgrimโs Progress. You learn to say โIt looks bleak. Big deal, it looks bleak.โ
Joanna MacyIn the early Buddhist view, then, a persons identity resides not in an enduring self but in his actions (karma)- that is in the choices that shape these actions. Because the dispositions formed by previous choices can be modified in turn by present behaviour, this identity as choice-maker is fluid, its experience alterable. While it is affected by the past, it can also break free of the past.
Joanna MacyWe are making choices that will affect whether beings thousands of generations from now will be able to be born sound of mind and body.
Joanna Macy