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Philosophical musings
Oct. 29th, 2010 11:19 pmI have a colleague who is a Buddhist (she's Sri Lankan), and we were talking about it a bit on a work retreat. I could never be one myself, particularly due to the doctrine of desire causing suffering. So it does, but it also engenders a heck of a lot of fulfilment.
One interesting concept is that of the world being illusion - and for someone who has a fairly relativist POV much of the time, it makes sense. And the whole quantum thing of the observer influencing reality.
I don't know if it's a Buddhist tenet, but the New Age wank of us creating our own reality tees me off. If you proceed on that basis, you also have to acknowledge that others are doing so as well. And that the amount of power and resources some entities can bring to bear can totally or partially swamp the little bubbles we try and construct for ourselves.
This is not to sound fatalistic: depending on our circs and relative amount of privilege, of course we have more or less agency in our lives, at least in terms of the absolute boundaries of our experience. And to some degree, we can choose to interpret or perceive those circs and our experience in a swodge of different ways. Maybe some of those are more "real" than others, but like society, reality often just seems to be a bunch of commonly-agreed parameters we tend to operate from. And yes, I include physical sciences in that - what we choose to study and observe is selective.
But having said all that, whether it is all Maya, illusion, this is what we are operating with. Our ape brains require context and filtering, and this is how we do it. It's important to remember that the ways we contextualise are infinitely individual and variable, and that we should regard any kind of absolute with healthy scepticism.
But to say that "reality" may be experienced on reaching some kind of nirvana, and that we are poorer for not getting there? Eh, I like how we mostly manage to deal with our conflicting versions of reality (of course, when we don't, it's BAD), and actually make something out of what we have. What we make and the satisfaction and occasional transcendance we achieve may be relative, temporary and illusory, but I prefer that to any system that promises rewards to only a few, after the right plot tokens are gathered.
Life may be a stage, and we just players, but some of us are great actors, and some tell great stories, and some create amazing illusions. And that can be valued for itself, in lieu of awaiting some final "reality" that it most likely just as constructed as everything else.
One interesting concept is that of the world being illusion - and for someone who has a fairly relativist POV much of the time, it makes sense. And the whole quantum thing of the observer influencing reality.
I don't know if it's a Buddhist tenet, but the New Age wank of us creating our own reality tees me off. If you proceed on that basis, you also have to acknowledge that others are doing so as well. And that the amount of power and resources some entities can bring to bear can totally or partially swamp the little bubbles we try and construct for ourselves.
This is not to sound fatalistic: depending on our circs and relative amount of privilege, of course we have more or less agency in our lives, at least in terms of the absolute boundaries of our experience. And to some degree, we can choose to interpret or perceive those circs and our experience in a swodge of different ways. Maybe some of those are more "real" than others, but like society, reality often just seems to be a bunch of commonly-agreed parameters we tend to operate from. And yes, I include physical sciences in that - what we choose to study and observe is selective.
But having said all that, whether it is all Maya, illusion, this is what we are operating with. Our ape brains require context and filtering, and this is how we do it. It's important to remember that the ways we contextualise are infinitely individual and variable, and that we should regard any kind of absolute with healthy scepticism.
But to say that "reality" may be experienced on reaching some kind of nirvana, and that we are poorer for not getting there? Eh, I like how we mostly manage to deal with our conflicting versions of reality (of course, when we don't, it's BAD), and actually make something out of what we have. What we make and the satisfaction and occasional transcendance we achieve may be relative, temporary and illusory, but I prefer that to any system that promises rewards to only a few, after the right plot tokens are gathered.
Life may be a stage, and we just players, but some of us are great actors, and some tell great stories, and some create amazing illusions. And that can be valued for itself, in lieu of awaiting some final "reality" that it most likely just as constructed as everything else.