From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Fri Jul 19 2002 - 18:31:29 MDT
Sehkenenra:
> >Like Anders I find the 'retreat' and 'suffering' aspects of
> Buddhism a bit
> >less than useful. Yes it's nice to hide in a cosy
> contemplative world. If
> >you recognise that all is suffering then you can manufacture
> 'feel good' in
> >some relative sense.
> >
> >Unfortunately such folks would last as long as the next
> extinction event.
> >You can be very sane and very happy and very doomed. Sorry - the last
> option
> >is not for this camper. The export of the 'calm' concept
> within active role
> >in the world seems a little more productive and participatory.
>
>
> In Buddhism, there are two sorts of awakened being (well,
> three if you count
> the Siddha, but those guys are in a class by themselves)- the
> Bodhisattva
> and the Arahat. The Arahat withdraws from the world and retreats into
> Nirvana- precisely the kind of retreat you are talking about,
> and exactly
> why I left the monastery. The Bodhisattva is what you are
> talking about-
> someone who "exports the 'calm' concept within an active role
> in the world".
> Mahayana (the "great vehicle" of Buddhism, which includes
> most strands of
> Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Ch'an and Zen) sees the
> Bodhisattva as the
> higher aspirant than the Arahat.
>
> (I think I've got this right anyway... it's been awhile since
> I studied
> Buddhism)
>
> -Nicq MacDonald
>
I know very very little, formally, of Buddhism. What I do know is that
Buddhism has been the only form of spirituality that has any meaning to me
(I first read of it in my teens). Samantha mentioned Bodhisattva too, so I
suppose I have been trying (and only recently getting anywhere) this
approach for a long while now, without any real label to it. Zen and the art
of being zen, I suppose you'd call it. (There's a omega-Godelian loop if
iver I saw one.!)
The Zen side of it is especially appealing, as it doesn't take itself too
seriously. The Koan non-sense stories provoke useful ways of looking at
things. Even the ones generated by computer! eg
http://www.aurdev.com/funzone/zen.html, which just then told me to respect
the space between my toes! :-) I love it!
Physiologically, the meditative side is the only thing that keeps my brain
from bursting! As time goes on and the experience piles up, and associations
from everywhere prod each other and dig out emotional content, there's
precious few non-chemical self moderation/mediation methods available. There
is also the pseudo-retreat we all have called a 'holiday', I suppose. There
are aspects of the the watered down Bodhisattva for the atheist/agnotic in
our western culture already, albeit hard to recognise and maybe
ineffectively implemented, if you look for it.
Colin Hales
*be like a damp stone*
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