[Buddha-l] The authentic Buddha

[curt]

I not only flirt with Relativism but I have a committed long-term 
relationship with her (I like to think of Relativism as a her - and 
because she is Relativism I can do that). There is a beautiful Chinese 
poem most widely known by its Japanese title, the "Sandokai" - in 
English usually rendered something like "The Harmony of Difference and 
Sameness". Shunryu Suzuki delivered a series of lectures on the poem 
that have been collected in a book: "Branching Streams Flow in the 
Darkness". One might say that this poem teaches that what we observe as 
"opposites" are not necessarily "in opposition" to each other. Or, as 
the poem states more elegantly: "Light and Dark oppose one another / 
like the front and back foot in walking." Although the Relative and the 
Absolute seem to "oppose" one another - maybe they are really working 
together (like "front and back foot in walking")?

But if you like movies you should check out "I Heart Huckabees". The 
movie even uses the word "existential" a lot (as in "existential 
detectives"). It is slyly antinomian in its conclusion - but I won't 
give it away. If someone tried to make a movie based on the Sandokai 
they would, if they were lucky, end up making a movie like "I Heart 
Huckabees". And it has Lily Tomlin in it!

And if you aren't already you should try to familiarize yourself with 
the Buddhist teaching usually referred to as "the two truths". An easy 
place to start for that is to google it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22two+truths%22+buddhism&btnG=Google+Search

- Curt

John Chamberlin wrote:

> I have a question for those of you on this list that have an ongoing 
> Buddhist Practice and have found refuge in that practice, and also at 
> least flirt with Relativism. I seem to have this persistent and often 
> frustrating belief that authenticity of a religious body of 
> knowledge/practice can only be “real” if it constitutes an absolute in 
> the world…a Meta Theory in Postmodernist language. Strange I know, but 
> nevertheless a source of great struggle for me, and although I persist 
> in my practice, and seem to seldom stray from the Eight-Fold Path, it 
> often feels as if I’m practicing an act of bad faith in the 19th 
> century Existentialist sense of the term. This bad faith coupled with 
> my long-standing attraction to all forms of Relativism in general, 
> results in producing a rather breezy religious refuge for me.  The 
> Question: How does one find authenticity in any system of 
> beliefs/practices if there are no absolutes?  
>
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