Literary Thought Of The Week
My literary thought this week comes from the book “The Experience of Insight”. It is a really cool book of short 3 to 5 page summarizations of each day of a 30 day meditation retreat lead by Joseph Goldstein. The quote that I am posting is on the third to last page of the book and is giving advice on how to apply meditation or the dharma to the peoples’ lives as they head back into the “real” world.
“The third recollection is that of humility, or invisibility. There is no need to take your stance in the world as Mr. or Mrs. Spiritual, as someone special. As Chuang Tzu wrote:
The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Harms no other being
By his actions
Yet he does not know himself
To be “kind”, to be “gentle.”
The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Does not bother with his own interests
And does not despise
Other who do.
He does not struggle to make money
And does not make a virtue of poverty.
He goes his way
Without relying on others
And does not pride himself
On walking alone.
While he does not follow the crowd
He won’t complain of those who do.
Rank and reward
Make no appeal to him;
Disgrace and shame
Do not deter him.
He is not always looking
For right and wrong
Always deciding “Yes” or “No.”
The ancients said, therefore:
“The man of Tao
Remains unknown
Perfect virtue
Produces nothing
‘No-self’
Is ‘True-Self.’
And the greatest man
Is nobody.”
When I read that it really made a lot of sense to me. The part about money and going your own way made me take a good look at some of my own choices. So often struggle or adversity is glamorized to a point where it can become just as narcassistic as greed or vanity. After I read it I sat back and thought about the actual root of some of the values and opinions I hold. The verdict is still out on almost all of them.
The other thing it made me think about is how self gradifying religous or spirituality can be. It seems like if you are not careful religion (which seems inherintly good) can quickly turn into one big ego trip. Just you getting yourself off with what a great person you are. It seems that being a truly good person is when you stop looking at things in terms of “good” and “bad” and start seeing things as just what they are and are able to accept and be compassionate with the reality of life.
Tuesday, April 29 at 2:46 pm
This is the kind of spirituality I could probably get behind… well at least unitl I learn more about it and find out you have to A) brainwash your children to either live this way or fear something B) pay someone money to do it or C) believe in some sort of ghost or other mysticism.
Tuesday, April 29 at 4:11 pm
You should look into it Parker. I think you would appreciate the actual logic behind the practice. There is not dogma or faith involved. All it says is just pay attention to what is really happening. That is pretty much it. Try not to judge or categorize your awareness just stay in the present moment. All the reincarnation and nirvana can make you think that there is some grand mysticism at work, but when you really break it down those terms are just a form of explanation for a logical and scientific reality.
Reincarnation in my mind isn’t that “I” or “you” become a dog in your next life, but that “I” and “you” don’t exist to begin with. We are just a collection of energy and atoms that in reality will not die when this body dies. Those energies will continue on and be part of whole. It is only our egos that make us grasp to this concept of self.
Nirvana to me is simple a state of non attachment. As soon as you are able to realize the way life really is you are able to free yourself from the inherent suffering built into the concept of self.
I am certainly not a Buddhist scholar and in no way am I trying to convert anyone. It is just something that I find really intellectually fascination and in my opinion something that has functionally improved my life as a whole.
Thursday, May 1 at 12:46 pm
i have too many questions about it. what does dying have to do with anything? we lose atoms at all times and there are none of the same atoms on my body as there were when I was a kid. does that mean that i have already been reincarnated? and energy? what is this energy? I agree with a lot of the ideas, but it still mostly leads to mysticism for me.
Thursday, May 1 at 1:57 pm
The idea of energy and atoms is more my thought than actual buddhism, but what I was trying to say is that “you” don’t exist. That is an idea you created. There is no concrete you, your existence is constantly changing like everything else. It is accepting that fluidity of life that to me seems to be one of the fundamental points of buddhism.
What leads to mysticism…your false assumptions of buddhism. That certainly does seem to lead to mysticism I would agree. I am not trying to be rude, but I feel like from my experience the actual ideas are very different from the public perception. There are obviously people who use buddhism as a jump off point for the acult and mystic, and as always those people get the most mainstream coverage. I am not a scholar on Buddhism as I have admitted, but all of the teachers and books for that matter I have encountered have been very adament about avoiding anything that is not actually experienced. More than anything they treat the mystic as a perversion of reality. I would strongly recommend reading an actual piece of buddhist text or book about it to get a functional understanding of the idea and see if it makes sense.* It certainly might not be your thing, but I don’t think it’s shortcoming is in mystism.
I would recommend:
“A Path with Heart” by Jack Kornfield
or
“Buddhism Plain and Simple” by Steve Hagen (very good intro)
Thursday, May 1 at 5:27 pm
I’m with Cojo on this. I am no scholar either, nor do I claim to know much of anything. From my understanding, there is no me nor you, there is no right nor wrong, there is no past nor future. It’s simply life, in this moment, for what it is. I’ve been meaning to educate myself on this subject, but it’s hard to pick the right book to begin.
Thursday, May 1 at 6:52 pm
Sounds pretty cool. If I am actually going to read one of those books, which one should I go for first? Maybe I’ll just go take a look at them and grab whichever one has a cooler cover.
I haven’t completly wrapped my head around with what is inherently wrong about trying to define what is good, then achieving it, and then feeling good about yourself for doing it, but I guess thats why you read the book? I enjoy giving myself a pat on the back every once in a while, and I don’t know that any harm has ever come from it.
I like the idea of not being so judgemental of other people who I don’t think know what the shit is going on. I mean, I have a pretty big moral ego right now, but I think I was actually a pretty decent sized shitbag a few years ago, but I still think that guy was pretty cool.
Thursday, May 1 at 7:53 pm
To be clear, I am a big fan of Buddhism’s lack of the supernatural and the whole use of meditation as a way to get yourself thinking clearly. That is all fine and I am sure some people (possibly even myself if I would give it a chance) would benefit from it.
Obviously I need to look into it before I judge it, but it just seems so simple and obvious to me to say there is no “self” and that we would all be happier to lose some ego, so why bring Buddhism and Reincarnation and Nirvana into the picture in the first place?
Kevin read one of those books and let me know…
Thursday, May 1 at 8:41 pm
I would probably say “buddhism plain and simple”. It just gives you a brief overview and it is about 1/3 the size. I have a copy I will bring over to Seattle this weekend for you.
Parker I think it is just one of many paths to get to the same point.
Sunday, May 4 at 7:32 am
Just about everything I’ve read regarding Buddhism has coincided with my general thoughts and beliefs (peacefulness, losing your ego, inaction). It makes complete sense to me and inspires the thought that Buddhism could potentially improve my life. My real life experience with Buddhist temples, however, has been far from ideal. Basically it was just sitting uncomfortably with a large group of people trying my hardest not to cough or fart or make any audible noises with my eyes closed. Not to be completely negative, there were a couple moments where I felt the joy and tranquility of temporarily losing yourself and your thoughts and after meditation they gave me some delicious food and tea but the vast majority of my time was just awkward silence. About two months ago I went for a group meditation thing and at the end everyone (who live at the temple and were all wearing blue robe things) raised their prayer pillows up in the air in front of their faces. I figured I had better follow suit so I did the same with a pillow I found near the wall. With my eyes closed and my arms in the air I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around and was confronted by a stout bald woman who angrily informed me that I was holding her prayer pillow that she had put a significant amount time and a part of herself into. This was apparently a huge faux pas so I quickly exited the temple with my head hung in shame. I have not been back since. I’m thinking of looking for a Church of Scientology, they are a lot more welcoming there.
Also I think Parker might benefit from watching that Suggs video a few more times (specifically the portion designed for “the haters”).