here are a few buddhist concepts that i had written down on a piece of scrap paper in my back pocket. i'm not sure if they belong on here, but then again who decides what belongs here? for some reason i have a difficult time throwing out this piece of scrap paper--for fear that these insightful words will be forever lost. so maybe if i write them on here they will continue to thrive and move me...

the four preliminaries

1) maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life

2) be aware of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone

3) recall that whatever you do, whether virtuous or not, has a result; what goes around come around.

4) contemplate that as long as you are too focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how you are good or bad, you will suffer.

my mind sorta gets wrapped in a paradox when i read these words over and over. i want to know them because i feel i need to know them. but do i feel like i need to know them because i want to be a better person? and if so, isn't that exactly what it's telling me not think about? so what's the solution then? to throw this piece of paper out and forget about this whole thing? where does that leave me?