So a Buddhist monk goes up to a hot dog stand in Central Park. The stand owner asks, "What'll ya have." The monk answers, "Make me one with everything."
Despite being quite the rugged individualist, MFoD finds comfort in much of Indian and Buddhist philosophy. Knowing that the physical world, samsara, is an illusion at least allows one not to take it too seriously. Accepting the transience of pleasure and pain (the ending of pain is a pleasure) does wonders for one's outlook on life, especially as the talons of middle-age begin to grip more securely. And, the final end to countless rebirths, Nirvana, becoming one with everything, or, really, with nothing, at the very least piques one's interest.
The concept of nothing being real is one that Westerners have a difficult time grasping. In a nutshell, everything, the physical world, is not real. Therefore, the logical conclusion to come to is that nothing must be real. The realm where the physical world does not encroach is the only reality. Fairly boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Buddhism's response to the problem of achieving Nirvana is appealing, especially to an academic. One knows that one has achieved Nirvana through enlightenment, i. e., knowledge. It comes at a moment of pure clarity described by some of the individuals who have become Buddhas in their lifetimes. In order to reach that point, one must slough off all desire, even the desire for enlightenment. One must have both inner and outer peace. One reason the Buddha reached enlightenment under the ficus now known as the Bodhi tree is that this was a tree that tigers under which preferred to rest. The point must be that, if you can find inner peace in a place where a fearsome predator might take issue with your being there, you've really reached inner peace.
Being a New Yorker, MFoD subscribes, most of the time, to Fran Lebowitz' dictum, "There is no such thing as inner peace; there is only nervousness and death." However, the knowledge that at least some of the human population are, at this moment, working towards something greater than anything we know, is comforting. Yet, there is so much to Do: teaching, writing, shopping, traveling, dining with friends, complaining about mass transit; how can one give that up?
Perhaps I'm too much in league with Fran. Oh well, if not this lifetime, then the next.
Despite being quite the rugged individualist, MFoD finds comfort in much of Indian and Buddhist philosophy. Knowing that the physical world, samsara, is an illusion at least allows one not to take it too seriously. Accepting the transience of pleasure and pain (the ending of pain is a pleasure) does wonders for one's outlook on life, especially as the talons of middle-age begin to grip more securely. And, the final end to countless rebirths, Nirvana, becoming one with everything, or, really, with nothing, at the very least piques one's interest.
The concept of nothing being real is one that Westerners have a difficult time grasping. In a nutshell, everything, the physical world, is not real. Therefore, the logical conclusion to come to is that nothing must be real. The realm where the physical world does not encroach is the only reality. Fairly boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Buddhism's response to the problem of achieving Nirvana is appealing, especially to an academic. One knows that one has achieved Nirvana through enlightenment, i. e., knowledge. It comes at a moment of pure clarity described by some of the individuals who have become Buddhas in their lifetimes. In order to reach that point, one must slough off all desire, even the desire for enlightenment. One must have both inner and outer peace. One reason the Buddha reached enlightenment under the ficus now known as the Bodhi tree is that this was a tree that tigers under which preferred to rest. The point must be that, if you can find inner peace in a place where a fearsome predator might take issue with your being there, you've really reached inner peace.
Being a New Yorker, MFoD subscribes, most of the time, to Fran Lebowitz' dictum, "There is no such thing as inner peace; there is only nervousness and death." However, the knowledge that at least some of the human population are, at this moment, working towards something greater than anything we know, is comforting. Yet, there is so much to Do: teaching, writing, shopping, traveling, dining with friends, complaining about mass transit; how can one give that up?
Perhaps I'm too much in league with Fran. Oh well, if not this lifetime, then the next.
Image credit: Museum of the City of New York
2 comments:
MFoD must see two films, "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" and Werner Herzog's "The Wheel of Time." Both explore that moment (sadly dramatized in Western mythopoesis as a kind of monumental "failure") when a person stops desiring and becomes that "still point" at the center of everything.
As always, Vetivresse speaks as a venerable cultural icon. Thanks for the suggestions.
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