Many of us embrace Western Buddhism as an effort to improve or understand ourself, or to understand or escape the illusion of self.
This is reasonable, of course. Buddhism centrally focuses on dukkha, the discomfort of experiencing the world from the vantage of ordinary mindedness.
But after that touchstone of dukkha, Buddhists diverge in their approaches. Variations in Buddhist instruction, our individual needs and assessments of ourself, cause us to veer apart from one another in what we try to do to reach the goal [or goalless goal] of no longer being whipped about by the vicissitudes of life and suffering sorrowful pangs for those hurt by us and the pain of hurt that we believe has been visited by others on us.
I enjoy very much the blogs Zen Under the Skin and Mystery of Existence, each of which is an expression from the tenacious, greatly intelligent effort of a blogger, walking the bodhisattva path, confronting dukkha, and coming to understand “how to be” and how to embrace the world. Still, these are very different blogs written by bloggers utilizing different methodologies.
Chalip of Zen Under the Skin wrote a post, recently, “A Solitary Work,” about breaking out of the cycle of judging others. In her conclusion, she endorsed these words of Shirdi Sai Baba, “Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve on the silence?”
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| Chalip's blog, Zen Under the Skin. |
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| Moe's blog, Mystery of Existence. |
I could relate to the dilemma that inspired her post: “How much venting does one need? How long can you continue to discuss something or someone until you have utterly exhausted the topic? At what point has enough been said? When do you know that you've crossed the line from constructive conversation to judgmental bashing?”
I can relate to the thrust of so very much of Chalip’s blog: the effort to do the right thing -- to find and stay on the bodhisattva path -- and use one’s time and give of one’s time wisely. A central value for us readers is to relate another blogger’s personal quest through our own life’s challenges and to test, through the lense of our own life, the application of another blogger’s ideas, wisdom, and borrowed wisdom from the greats.
All of this can be both difficult and enriching. But because we are forever doubtful, skeptical and timid we fear we are unprepared to make the great leap. We fear we are falling short of making a full commitment and that this is the cause of our continued suffering.
I think it is a very curious thing, relating to others and relating with society. It certainly seems hard (and quite wrong, often) to “eat all blame,” oneself, in dealing with others, as chalip has alluded to in several posts. Taking others’ blame doesn’t feel like it serves truth or justice, and only rarely might it seem to be helpful. Besides, it is contrary to the Golden Rule: I wouldn’t want others to take the rap for my tresspasses. But is thinking this way the epidome of ordinary mindedness? Must we give up anything and everything that smacks of being self protective?
Something well short of absolute passivity
may be called for. I think with people we can suppose are a little rugged, we can ourselves be rugged. Often you have to be a little course to get your point across. People you find to be highly sensitive, should be treated sensitively. But we should be aware that it can be a great disservice to treat anyone as if they are fragile glass.
A sense of what is true about the world comes from knowing others won’t approach you too delicately. Most people want to be in tune with the truth and that comes best from people who are established as straightforward expositors of the truth, as best they know it.
We think of the idea of “eating all blame” as meaning taking blame all upon oneself. But I wonder if that ancient idea might only mean ‘making blame disappear.’ Ancient people, unknowledgeable about anatomy, may not have had in mind the idea of, say, the molecules of an apple one eats become the cells in one's body. Certainly they knew that food gives one pleasure and energy and is related to bowel movements that occur later. But at its simplest, eating an apple makes it disappear. Could it be that “eating all blame” really only meant not discussing things in terms of blame -- a technique that Dr. Phil and other modern-day psychologists might heartily approve of?
Moe [or Per] of
Mystery of Existence is much the free spirit, unattached to any belief system. AND, I think it is true that he doesn’t think of himself, formally, as a bodhisattva or a Buddhist. He delves deeply, and frequently, into the psychological mystery of being human, with keen interest in the mystical and Cosmic Consciousness - thinking creatively, originally; unchained to dogma.
In
a post a couple months ago, Moe gave multiple answers to each of a core ten questions a writer at ChristianAnswers.net would want to ask Guatama Buddha. You can see in Moe’s answers a response that pulls away from the rigid worldview of the Christian questioner. MoE, it would seem, endeavors to widen the questioner’s sense of what is possible, and hope the questioner might, at least, come to appreciate the POV of someone schooled in the more open approach that comes from the East.
Here, one Q&A exchange:
Q: If your teaching, which came on the scene in the sixth century B.C., alone represents truth and liberation–what provision was there for the millions who lived previous to the advent of your enlightenment and teaching? Why do you suppose that you, of all humankind, were the one to come on this insight when you did?
A: I don’t see Buddhism as alone representing truth and liberation. On the contrary, people from a wide range of traditions and cultures have expressed similar insights as those expressed in Buddhism, including many Christian saints and mystics. If Buddhism points to anything that is real and available to be discovered, then it is available to anyone independent of tradition or culture. There is no need to adhere to Buddhism to notice these things, Buddhism is just one of many collections of pointers and practices that can help you notice it for yourself.
I embrace the approaches of both chalip and Moe and thank them for allowing me to ride along on their adventures in finding themselves and, by so doing, finding all of us.
Tags: buddhism, seeker, Zen Under the Skin, Mystery of Existence
