I kept a sutta I like from SN 2.6. It discusses how Kamada finds it hard to practice Dhamma and telling the Buddha it’s too hard.
[Kamada:]
So hard it is to do, Lord, It’s so very hard to do!
[Buddha:]
But still they do what’s hard to do, Who steady themselves with virtue. For one pursuing homelessness, Content arrives, and with it joy.
[Kamada:]
So hard it is to get, Lord, This content of which you speak!
[Buddha:]
But still they get what’s hard to get, Who delight in a tranquil mind. The mind of those, both day and night, Delights in its development.
[Kamada:]
So hard it is to tame, Lord, This mind of which you speak!
[Buddha:]
But still they tame what’s hard to tame, Who delight in senses at peace. Cutting through mortality’s net, The nobles, Kamada, proceed.
[Kamada:]
So hard it is to go, Lord, On this path that gets so rough!
[Buddha:]
Still nobles, Kamada, proceed On paths both rough and hard to take. Those who are less than noble fall On their heads when the path gets rough. But for nobles the path is smooth — For nobles smooth out what is rough!
[Kamada Sutta: Kamada's Lament]
My question is how or can you, I guess, use suttas for insight that isn’t strictly for calming the mind?
For example, I have three job interviews coming up, one sounds like a definite. Jobs aren’t really a Dhamma practice but I thought this sutta kind of addresses it.
Would it be inappropriate to see suttas that way assuming we don’t separate our spiritual lives with outside life?
It’s necessary to incorporate some external life into Buddhist practice as that is the raw material for strengthening it. But there needs to be time in quietude to process everything that’s happened. The practitioner should be able to interpret external events in terms of dhamma, which requires a good knowledge of it. They separate external life from practice as two realities.
This is the key line from the sutta, and one achieving that is able to remain detached from conventional reality:
The same replacement procedure is expressed here in greater detail:
" “Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, still — if he has not attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that[4] — he can be tempted by sensuality. But when he has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, and he has attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that, he cannot be tempted by sensuality.”—MN 14
Dhamma is not seperate from life. Life is Dhamma,Dhamma is life.
What is life? Seeing, Hearing, Tasting,Smelling ,Feeling ,Thinking .
This is exactly where you see the dhamma.
I feel this is a great topic, not easy. I cannot really ignore that i feel that everyday life has its own set of rules, her own wisdom, her own requirements too. Often one cannot really be that firm in ones principles because there are much more interests in everyday life than only truth.
I also feel that worldy wisdom suits everyday life best. This does not mean that i believe wordly wisdom is in the end productive and wholesome for someone or for the World, but if one leads a wordly life, aiming at wordly fame, succes, richness, pleasure, accumulating possessions internally and externally, than one will probably only become confuses trying to apply Dhamma because it are different directions.
