So many thoughts have piled up - time to clean house first. Spring cleaning. Note that some new and sunnier pictures have been set up. Chapter 7 of Basket of Reeds has been added - it's a hot one, I swear. I have also changed "books to come" into "essays." That's what it has become, and so it shall be named.
Rooson, with an "o:" at one point you postulated that it might be better to enjoy life until death rather than try to figure it out or get enlightenment or such. It makes me recall a Zen master's remark on The Way: "Better not to start; if started, better to finish." That's followed me for decades, but by the time I had read it at about age 20, it was already too late; I had begun.
So perhaps for some, it is best to remain happy and ignorant. It does remind me, though, of my last essay, "The Finger." One can either go gently down the stream or fight it going up, but sooner or later, you're going to be looking down at a body on the point of death, shocked and amazed. For me, I feel that I at least should make an attempt at being prepared for this. Many Tibetan Buddhist make a life of studying death, after all. On the other hand (I had better start counting hands), I am now reading a book by the famous author Peter Matthiessen titled, Nine-Headed Dragon River. In the first few chapters he talks about his first encounters with Japanese Zen masters (Zen is said to be a combination of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs and practices), made inevitable because of his wife's serious involvement with the practice (they would not want it to be called a religion, although it is). From the beginning, and in spite of himself, he was drawn in and for the next year or so began to join his wife in meditation and the Zen version of mass and sermons. It was after this first year that his wife, Deborah, began to complain of unusual pain while in the meditation posture. At one point, and I believe this was after a "mass," he saw her in a strange light: as both luminescently beautiful, and as...dying. He saw clearly that she was dying. He could not bring himself to tell her because it is was so clear, but sometime afterward she found that she had cancer.
Now, Deborah had followed the path of non-attachment, and listened well as she was told again and again that all was transient, that the normal view of life was ridiculously thin, that death awaited at every point, and that ultimately, death and life were one. In other words, she had thought about death a lot and had accepted the limited role that life plays for most of us. However, as the disease and its "cures" (the horrors of chemo and radiation) progressed, she became scared, irritable, irrational, desperately hopeful - in short, she became like most of us when confronted with imminent death. There were shining moments, but there was often the horror as well.
So: how well did her search help her in death? It seems, from Mattthiessen's description, not much. That is to say, she appears to have been in pretty much the same boat as everyone else. Then again, there are few atheists in fox holes. Most do become religious or at least spiritual under those circumstances. But did it do her any good to have been especially prepared?
I guess I have to say I like working towards a greater comprehension of being (could I say 'truth' or 'life?') Perhaps, most probably in fact, it will do little good for me when the doctor points to that dark blob on the MRI scan, or whatever they use. On the other hand (is that two or three now?) neither will anything else. Neither will my success at career or making money or being a good father. Nothing will matter in the blunt face of death. That is, of course, its beauty and its truth. But it can't hurt to turn it over, this thing of life and death; not any more than it is useless to win trophies at your sport or make a lot of dough or become a world famous author. So, row your boat or float or whatever. Don't make waves that will spill other's boats. Enjoy or not. Me, I'll continue trying to get to the bottom of it.
On a last note, they say that enlightenment, or accomplishment of that goal, brings to one a sort of immortality, and certainly drains away any fear of death or of dying. That might make it worth it, even beyond the grave. But saints and Buddhas are few.
On another Rooson: that is, John and Jesus being the only way and such (that is, He is not "one of the prophets" as I more or less put it, but the one and only Way and Savior). I do not have time to give it all it deserves, but I have thought about it a lot. Oddly, it does not really bother me. I assume a greater meaning was meant, as when Jesus told us to despise our families or pluck out an eye. We are talking forceful oratory here, obviously not literal truth. It is such that I see the "only one" revelation. The Buddhists would say that the Realized One is really all of us, all of all, really, and there are many references to this idea in the Bible: our neighbors as ourselves, the symbolism of the trilogy (separate but united), all His creation loved down to the tiny hair, and so on. Others have said that John added this as a stimulus for greater evangelization and a prod for more fervent belief. I really couldn't say. I am no Biblical scholar. What I believe what my beloved Traditionalists believe: that is, that all true (revealed) religions offer a path to God. Many of the Christian religions are such, of course (although the Traditionalists did not like the outcome of the Reformation); and some religions such as those based on Christ and Mohammed, do claim exclusivity. The Traditionalists say that this is because such a contingency was deemed necessary under the cultural and historical circumstances. Religions must work if they are to be true religions. And in the polyglot of Europe and the Mideast of their eras, a unifying message was necessary. Or so say the Traditionalists. To them, for those who KNOW, this contingency is unnecessary, but in any case not the essential part of the religion. Which is getting to God.
I had wanted to finish up also with the Girl with the Tattoo discussion, but time is limited. Perhaps we have done all we need with it. Soul devouring. God help us if this is our future. FK
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