Tag Archive for "buddhism"
I recently wrote that ideas can change us at the very core of who we are. I was on TED last night and I watched the below presentation by Dan Dennett which reinforced that idea within me. And yes, I see the irony there.
This is an amazing presentation, I hope to attend a TED conference one day in person. I may not agree with everything that is presented there, but I would love to have the chance to listen in person and participate in the conversations that must take place all over the conference.
This all made me wonder how ideas have changed me. As I sat last night thinking about this I came to the understanding that my mind is very malleable. The definition of malleable is that a substance can take on the shape of something else without cracking or becoming less that it was.
Over the years I have accepted many ideas and allowed them to change me. Roman Catholicism, the ethos of the United States Marine Corps, becoming a married man and then having a family, Tibetan Buddhism; all of these changed me in ways I do and do not know of.
Buddhism has shown me what compassion is; that it is something to strive for, something to attain and nourish. I thought I knew before, but I am sure now that I had only glimpsed at it from behind the walls I had built. The story of Angulimala shows me that any one can be redeemed and that I should condemn no one. That was hard for me to see at first, that we all contain the Buddha-nature, it might not have presented itself yet, but we have it nonetheless.
I know I rambled on in this post, sorry for that, but ideas change us.
I was in church Sunday morning with my family and something dawned on me: I am Angulimala.
Well, I don’t really think I am a reincarnation of Angulimala, but I have committed gross sins like Angulimala. In the Buddhist universe I have perhaps even committed the same sins as Angulimala. In that respect I have been every walk of life as well.
Monk, saint, yogi, thug, braggart, prince and pirate are all open as to occupations I might have had among the myriad past lives I could have lived. I could have been every religion and lived in every corner of the earth. For me, that is something to take solace in. Because I could have lived any of those lives, and hopefully learned along the way, it has prepared me for this current life and the difficulties that I face.
If I consider Angulimala for a moment, my emotions run the scale. I am shocked and outraged that he could have slain all of those unsuspecting people along the path. I am dismayed that he did so with zeal and a hunger for the final killing. I am horrified that he willingly took man, woman and child to add their fingers to the garland after he had killed them. But then, at the very end of that stage in his life he meets Lord Buddha on the same path, repents and then becomes a monk and starts a new journey.
So, in a very real way; I am Angulimala. I have begun a new journey in my life and I have met the Buddha along my path.
The Dharma is strange and amazing. It is foreign to my Western Judeo-Christian mind, yet it feels so right to me, so familiar. While reading and learning the ideas and theories behind Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism I have realized that we are the same people, we are all striving for happiness and its causes, we all seek the end to suffering and it cause and we all seek merit.
So I am Angulimala, and so are you.
I watched a very good presentation by Aubrey de Grey on TED. I am going to embedd the video below and then talk a little bit about these thoughts.
So this is amazing to think about, to say the least. If I could live to 150 years of age what would I do with this time? Learn languages, become a yogi, work towards Enlightenment and watch the Cubs win another series?
I first became familiar with Aubrey when I joined a site called BetterHumans and began to read his comments on the forums and his papers. He struck me as a pragmatic optimist. He could see that there is a chance we, as a race, could attain immortality, and he had the tools to do his part.
This all made me wonder why aren’t humans immortal already. I mean, you can look around at the world and realize that biodiversity is wonderful and obviously brilliant, so why not an organism that can live forever? Doesn’t that seem like the goal? I don’t think it is actually.
The goal of every organism I know of is simple: reproduce. Create offspring and ensure that your genus survives the drought, or the winter or the predator or whatever. So why would your individual genes try to create the super-being, one that would live forever if left alone.
I know that I don’t want to live forever, not in this world of suffering. But I would take an extra 60 years to get myself ready for the bardo if I don’t wake up first.
