the "complete human being"
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
Who, precisely, said it, I don't know, but I have always liked the encouragement, "The complete human being is a Buddha. The complete Buddha is a human being."
I guess I like it because it encourages a nothing-held-back effort in spiritual adventure. No pussy-footing, no praise, no blame, no texts or temples ... just a complete effort. In one sense, a complete action is sort of spooky like jumping off a cliff: Who's got your back?! Eeek! But, too, what could be more complete -- and hardly scary -- than a sneeze? Sneezing's easy as pie, right? And there's no way to add a snazzy belief system or soaring praise when you're in the middle of a sneeze.
Maybe Buddhism is easier than at first (or second or third or fouth ... ) imagined. Gather thought-word-and-deed into a single, ball and ... give it a whirl.
Just a little noodling from here. "Completeness" (no extras) seems pretty important.
Comments
"How wonderful! How wonderful, things exactly as they are!"
(TNH.)
The incomplete human being is a human Buddha too.
Which seemingly takes away completing. However the ensnared and enthralled Buddha is often focussed on trviality, dukkha, ignorance and not the innate perfection/completeness.
It is a bit like a forest. We have trees, saplings and nuts. The seeds are complete, trees in potential but perfect. The saplings are growing and their nature too is complete. We have fruiting and even falling without being heard trees. All complete, the whole woodland.
So there is renewel and a cycle of being.
http://rogernolan.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/nothing-to-do-nowhere-to-go-no-one-to_11.html
The complete human being is not a being.
Just being human.
For now.
Better than a human being, a human going, going, gone!
How about just being without being anything?
"Don't be an arahant, don't be a bodhisattva, don't be anything at all—if you are anything at all you will suffer.” —Ajahn Chah.
Labels are great as tools but we can only define what we do, not what we are.
I am typing but am not a typer.
Soon I will be sleeping but only for a while.
I am being human but will not always be.
We don't have to be anything to do the human.
Do do do... Do the human with me.
Just when you thought it was complete. Dukkha. Back to basics ...
Even though it belongs to Taoism:
When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.
http://personaltao.com/teachings/questions/what-is-yin-yang/
Ice-cream will always be beautiful to me.
Tao Tao had a coin?
In the Bhagavad Gita sold by some of our strangest claimants to Buddha Dharma (the Harried Chrishnas*), this idea is explored.
http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/summary-of-the-bhagavad-gita/
Basically commitment to action.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism
Today I'll be avoiding cliffs ...
amen!
@genkaku are you familiar with the idea of the Ubermensch?
Not a Nietzsche scholar myself but I like the word a lot.
@sova -- I don't know Nietzsche except superficially but suspect that the construct of an uebermensch has a lot to do with a fat (but oh so sublime) ego.... you know, the Ayn Rand kind of stuff. I don't see Buddhism as embracing that leaning ... if that was the direction of your question.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a book my father mentioned and recommended many times. I eventually read it after a grounding in a more sane Dharma reasoning. I think Nietzsche was advocating human will or understanding above something greater. Interestingly I feel Nietzsche reached for that Übermensch mind set but without the skilful means just went cuckoo (a technical term).
The 'completion'/understanding of nirvana/awakening can temporarily lead to zen psychosis, declaration of divinity and ranting on a cliched scale ...
However it also unfolds into a developing possibility of greater compassion, empathy, humility, spooky powers, calming, satisfaction and peace etc. A settling.
As @genkaku says there is no comparison between Ayn Rand, Nietzsche and other rampant egos [lobster finds rock to hide under] and genuine Buddhist insight ...