[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Wed, 2005-09-28 at 02:26 +0200, Benito Carral wrote:

>    After   some   months   far  from  Buddha-L  due  to
> disagreements  with  his  moderator,  I have decided to
> come  back  and enjoy again your most valuable insights
> and  companionship.

Welcome back. Compared to the disagreements that some subscribers have
had with the moderator, yours were very mild. Still, they were enough to
keep you from polluting your mind with the contents of buddha-l for a
few months, and that is probably good for you.

This week I have been reading with my students one of the best
expositions on Buddhist theory and practice I have ever read anywhere,
namely, Bhikkhu Bodhi's The Way to the End of Suffering," which can be
found at   (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/misc/waytoend.html) .
Bhikkhu Bodhi makes the following interesting observation:

\begin{interesting observation}
The traditional exegesis of abstaining from idle chatter refers only to
avoiding engagement in such talk oneself. But today it might be of value
to give this factor a different slant, made imperative by certain
developments peculiar to our own time, unknown in the days of the Buddha
and the ancient commentators. This is avoiding exposure to the idle
chatter constantly bombarding us through the new media of communication
created by modern technology. An incredible array of devices --
television, radio, newspapers, pulp journals, the cinema -- turns out a
continuous stream of needless information and distracting entertainment
the net effect of which is to leave the mind passive, vacant, and
sterile. All these developments, naively accepted as "progress,"
threaten to blunt our aesthetic and spiritual sensitivities and deafen
us to the higher call of the contemplative life. Serious aspirants on
the path to liberation have to be extremely discerning in what they
allow themselves to be exposed to. They would greatly serve their
aspirations by including these sources of amusement and needless
information in the category of idle chatter (samphappalapa) and making
an effort to avoid them.
\end{interesting observation}

By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch Martin Scorsese's documentary
on Bob Dylan just after reading that. The documentary is filled with
numerous clips of an interview with a painfully inarticulate Bob Dylan,
along with numerous clips of Dylan whining the unintelligible gibberish
that he foisted off as lyrics back in the 1960s. The documentary filled
me with a kind of wonder, as I marvelled at the fact that people
actually used to enjoy listening to Bob Dylan. Hell, even I used to
enjoy it. But why? His material was so lacking in substance that it
can't even be called shallow, let alone profound. So why did so many of
us like it? Mass delusion? Quién sabe? (Sorry, but my keyboard does not
make those upside-down question marks that Spanish writers use to warn
the reader that a question is about to be posed.)

While reflecting on the question of what it was that a generation of
Americans saw in an incomprehensible poet who started his career by
telling everyone the lie that he grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, I also
began to reflect on the equally puzzling question of why I used to enjoy
writing on buddha-l, even though I really had nothing of consequence to
say. Things change. 

>   I  must  express  my  most sincere
> gratitude to Mitchell Ginsberg, who has been a trustful
> friend and supporter along the days.

Yes, he is a treasure. 

> It  will take me some time to read your past contributions, but I'm here again. :-)

Nothing has happened since you left. History came to an end, and nothing
came along to replace it. It will not take more than ten minutes to read
everything that has been written here since you last logged on. 

>    Best wishes from the North of Spain,

Greetings from the northern regions of what used to be Spanish territory
in the so-called New World. (In truth, this part of the world is just as
old as the other parts. It's just relatively new at being destroyed by
the cancer of European "civilization.")

With a passive, vacant and sterile mind, I remain, for the time being,
Richard

-- 
My Unitarian Jihad Name (http://tinyurl.com/6valr ) is:
The Logging Chain of Loving Kindness
You can get your own at http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html