Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Experience and The Path
I think it interesting that buddhism takes a goal for itself other than the seeking of truth in this world. In most religions, there is an idea of revealed truth which the religion contains, a complete and concrete revealed truth.
But the buddha did not teach that, did he? A "noble silence" on the subject of the origins of the universe, the existence of god, even what humans should strive for. It is still the truth that humans have the capacity to strive for whatever they want, and if one strives to be free from samsara, then the eightfold path is the way.
But it is not sacred. Anyways, one of the major problems with buddhism and the west is that westerners look to buddhism like they look to other religions. The west still wants the truth, however uncomfortable it may be.
I don't know what I should be striving for. The Truth? I'm beginning to think that looking for truth is nothing more than mapping out the myriad chimeras of experience, which is fine in itself, but something that has no inherent end, nor any real purpose, other than to increase my control over those very same chimeras.
But is there some sort of higher awareness that might have a better thing for me? I'm not sure. I'm not sure if even buddhism has a final, solid end. It seems to me that buddhism is the art of living with samsara, in a way so that samsara doesn't affect us. But if that's all it is... doesn't that just seem so pathetic?
I can't stand it. Higher awareness gives one "superpowers" that awe's the masses. But those superpowers simply end back up in experience.
I guess what I really want to know is... Is experiencing the world enough? Is experience worthy of my time?
I don't know. But neither can I think of anything that would be.
But the buddha did not teach that, did he? A "noble silence" on the subject of the origins of the universe, the existence of god, even what humans should strive for. It is still the truth that humans have the capacity to strive for whatever they want, and if one strives to be free from samsara, then the eightfold path is the way.
But it is not sacred. Anyways, one of the major problems with buddhism and the west is that westerners look to buddhism like they look to other religions. The west still wants the truth, however uncomfortable it may be.
I don't know what I should be striving for. The Truth? I'm beginning to think that looking for truth is nothing more than mapping out the myriad chimeras of experience, which is fine in itself, but something that has no inherent end, nor any real purpose, other than to increase my control over those very same chimeras.
But is there some sort of higher awareness that might have a better thing for me? I'm not sure. I'm not sure if even buddhism has a final, solid end. It seems to me that buddhism is the art of living with samsara, in a way so that samsara doesn't affect us. But if that's all it is... doesn't that just seem so pathetic?
I can't stand it. Higher awareness gives one "superpowers" that awe's the masses. But those superpowers simply end back up in experience.
I guess what I really want to know is... Is experiencing the world enough? Is experience worthy of my time?
I don't know. But neither can I think of anything that would be.
0
Comments
This reminds me of an idea I got somewhere that, knowing the truth that exists within you enables you to see the truth in all other things since you arise from the same source. Its a nice idea anyway.
Everything that seems pathetic is pathetic, everything that doesnt, isnt.
Much like something I read a while back:
"All that interests is interesting!"
If I'm totally honest, it sounds from this end like you've thought yourself into a hole. I did this a little while back and feel your distress.
What I had to do was stop, realise that I was thinking things into the way I saw them and start watching thoughts "happening" again.
Take care of yourself and look forward to not needing to know the truth.
I seriously hope for all the best for you.
But I've given meditation and buddhism a lot of thought over the years, ever since I was sixteen. Probably didn't help as much as I thought it would. >.<
For Buddhism does seek the truth about the world, in this world.
Hi T.O.T.
What are you going to do then?
Namaste
Kris
Is there a final, solid end to Buddhism? I guess only the enlightened truly know the answer to that one. I ponder that question too, but if I decide ahead of time where I'm going to end up, then that IS where I will end up ... but I'll never know if I got there (to the Truth) because it was there to be found, or because I created it.
I don't see of the art of learning to live with samsara as being pathetic ... I have been fortunate to encounter many Eastern life-long Buddhist monks and they do not appear pathetic to me at all: I see a quiet dignity, an unruffledness, and a calm delight that fairly glows. You see the same qualities in films of the Dalai Lama interacting with people, his lack of self-preoccupation and how others respond to him ... always leaning towards him, laughing too when he giggles ... cool Barbara Walters couldn't resist asking if she could give him a kiss on his cheek. I do not know where these monks "are" but Buddhism appears to be the antidote to being pathetic.
FoibleFull,
It is my opinion that there is, indeed, an end to Buddhism: when we reach the 'shore' of the Dharma we can abandon the 'raft' of the Buddhisms.
"And the end of all our searching shall be to return to the place where we started and know it for the first time" --T.S. Eliot
More than any other belief or path i know of Buddhism says ''' heres a problem and here is a practical way to solve or eliminate it''...
Although I seek enlightenment, for me its not the focus - its almost like a pleasant by product of the methods and things Buddha taught...
what I need to know right here and now , is how not to want to kill the people that take forever at the counter in the morning when im rushing to buy a ticket for my train... or how to not want to do a million things a second, or to plan my life weeks in advance , or to be so strung out and hyper I cant sleep...
for me - Buddhism offers real and practical solutions to my silly problems, and also reminds me constantly, that these problems are not the sum total of my existance...
whether the Buddhist way is '' the truth'' - i dont know .. all I know is that right here and now it works for me .. and thats all i need....
I think in the west weve really lost a lot of our spirituality, and our sense of pace and harmony with nature and life in general... we rush around, get squashed into predetermined ideas of who or what we should be.. and somwhere in the middle of all that chaos we figure out we arent happy... and so we look for '' the truth'' to cure our unhappiness in the same way wed reach for a pill to cure a headache... thats why in the west you get so much fake hocus pokus new age guru types floating around in orange or purple robes offering us strung out westerners a cure all spiritual pill...
I think if people in the west just took time to breath, and to realise we are not this body and maybe tried to relearn the lessons we forgot from our ancestors.. and yes - just to experience the world - and our existance from second to second ... there wouldnt be the need for this incessant searching for '' the truth''
im no scholar but thats my two cents on the whole thing