http://blog.bbbeard.com/2009/03/22/buddhism-101/ A Peculiar, Yet Refreshing, Blog Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:13:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://blog.bbbeard.com/2009/03/22/buddhism-101/#comment-162 bbbeard Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:14:15 +0000 http://blog.bbbeard.com/2009/03/22/buddhism-101/#comment-162 I'm not sure I see why "extinguishing", in the Buddhist sense, is necessarily on a collision course with existentialism, unless by the latter you mean to encompass the outrageously solipsistic wing of the Existential Party, and by the former you mean to include the annihilationists. It seems to me that Buddhism is profoundly concerned with the human condition, and only peripherally with society, so it would seem to be a natural match for the introspection of the existentialists. (In fact the Wikipedia article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism" rel="nofollow">Existentialism</a> specifically refers to Buddhism as an existentialist philosophy. FWIW.) I think that doctrinally, the "extinguishing" à la Nirvana is the replacement of passion with wisdom, the substitution of lovingkindness (mettā) for desire. You may have been told in Sunday School that Nirvana means, literally, "extinction", i.e. the complete annihilation of influence on the universe, but that's not really correct. = In email you asked about "Siddhartha", the Hesse novel. I read it as a teen (which, alas, means closer to Pearl Harbor than today) so I am a bit fuzzy on the details. I recall enjoying it immensely but I can't recall anything that specifically deviates from the usual hagiography of the Gautama. I've read a small number of these kinds of books, "The Awakened One" by Sherab Chodzin Kohn being the most recent. What you get out of this sort of thing depends on what you bring to it, I suppose, more than most books. If you're actually unfamiliar with the mythology of Buddhism, it would be good on general principles to learn something. Anyway, Hesse's book is a good read. = BBB I’m not sure I see why “extinguishing”, in the Buddhist sense, is necessarily on a collision course with existentialism, unless by the latter you mean to encompass the outrageously solipsistic wing of the Existential Party, and by the former you mean to include the annihilationists. It seems to me that Buddhism is profoundly concerned with the human condition, and only peripherally with society, so it would seem to be a natural match for the introspection of the existentialists. (In fact the Wikipedia article on Existentialism specifically refers to Buddhism as an existentialist philosophy. FWIW.) I think that doctrinally, the “extinguishing” à la Nirvana is the replacement of passion with wisdom, the substitution of lovingkindness (mettā) for desire. You may have been told in Sunday School that Nirvana means, literally, “extinction”, i.e. the complete annihilation of influence on the universe, but that’s not really correct.
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In email you asked about “Siddhartha”, the Hesse novel. I read it as a teen (which, alas, means closer to Pearl Harbor than today) so I am a bit fuzzy on the details. I recall enjoying it immensely but I can’t recall anything that specifically deviates from the usual hagiography of the Gautama. I’ve read a small number of these kinds of books, “The Awakened One” by Sherab Chodzin Kohn being the most recent. What you get out of this sort of thing depends on what you bring to it, I suppose, more than most books. If you’re actually unfamiliar with the mythology of Buddhism, it would be good on general principles to learn something. Anyway, Hesse’s book is a good read.
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