Philosophical musings
Oct. 29th, 2010 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixtahI 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.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-29 10:46 pm (UTC)My studies lead me to believe that "desire causes suffering" is a simplistic view of the first tenet of Buddhism. The way my teachers describe it, it's not desire per se that causes suffering but clinging to expectations that things should be or will always be the way you want. There's nothing wrong with desire or fulfillment.
"The world is illusion" is less a statement about physical reality and more about the fact that we experience the world entirely through our senses and minds, so everything we end up perceiving is filtered through our beliefs, experience, emotions, biology, etc. The result is that some of what a person perceives is the same as what other people perceive (because we share certain sense organs and biological tendencies) and some of what a person perceives is very different from what other people perceive, because of their different vantage point, different past experience, different biology, etc.
My understanding of the Buddhist tenet that NooAge translates into "we create our own reality" is: our state of mind influences our experience and we can change our state of mind (not instantaneously, not by simply "deciding," but through practice), hence, we can influence our experience.
I've experienced the above in my own studies and practice. But nirvana, I haven't experienced. Nirvana is not a goal for me. I keep practicing and studying because I've had benefits from doing so, and I figure I might as well continue. (I don't know if this take on the whole thing "counts" as Buddhist or not. I like to think it does.)
What I find fascinating about "nirvana" is all the different ways people talk and write about it and about the various states of mind they experience between here and there. In other words, their stories and illusions, just as you say.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-10 10:28 am (UTC)I've enjoyed moments of transcendence in my life, but I suspect that doesn't quite add up to the Buddhist conception of nirvana.
One thing I do appreciate about Buddhism is how much of the tenets of the 8-fold Path would improve society in general if more people adhered at least somewhat to their principles - the "right conduct" area in particular.