[Buddha-l] On Dylan and Poetry

[Joy Vriens]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> I'm afraid I must disagree with this rather strenuously. As a reformed
> musician, I am well aware of the potential of music to provide a brief
> respite from the kilesas. It is very easy to "lose oneself" in music,
> and that sounds like a good thing, from a Buddhist point of view. But
> the loss tends to be quite temporary and thus is rather more like a
> distraction from the task of attaining kilesa-nirodha than a means of
> doing it.

If losing oneself temporarily is a good thing, I am not sure whether 
wanting to attain anything permanent, while considering any temporary 
good result as a distraction is a good thing. And what would be the 
difference between losing oneself temporarily in music and losing 
oneself temporarily in breathing or indulging in the sentimentality of 
the four brahmaviharas?

I personally don't think that losing oneself (whatever that means) is 
such a good thing at all and start finding the whole anatta approach and 
the importance it seem to have taken on a bit counterproductive. That 
doesn't mean that I am a pro-soul type. I simply think that the whole 
rejection of "self" thing is a wrong track, based on intolerance or non 
acceptance.

Kilesa management, yes, but kilesa-nirodha, 0% kilesa... It sounds like 
a programme the Bush administration could come up with. Kill anything, 
including music and poetry, with pre-emptive kilesa strikes before it 
can turn into a kilesa.    If you're not with us in the war against 
kilesas your against us etc... and misrepresenting the Buddha.

 > Still, I think it is worthy of serious reflection
> to ask oneself just how much poetry and music (or, for that matter,
> burning incense and chanting) do to bring one closer to nirvana.

What is nirvana and what does bring one closer to it? At the moment I am 
reading Emile Sénart's translation of the Bhagavad Giitaa, and I am 
quite pleased with its quite relaxed approach to destruction of desire, 
detachment, and disinterested (?) activity, which BTW has later been 
adopted by Mahamudra teachers like Lama Zhang etc. It also seems quite 
linked to Spontaneous Buddha activity IMO.

A thing I wanted to say about poetry, is that it is often based on some 
sort of automatism, a gate to the unconscience. By listening to it or 
reading it in a receptive mode, instead of confronting it directly with 
"reason" and logic, one can perhaps get in touch with one's own 
subconscious or simply enjoy a moment of pleasure. Anyway, developing 
receptivity and openness can't be a bad thing. The pleasure and 
contentment it can procure is certainly not kilesa-nirodha, but I 
personally wouldn't worry too much about that.

> I'd rather blame it on his penetrating insight. Although this would not
> come as particularly good news to a lot of American Buddhists, I have a
> feeling the lifestyle of an Amish or Mennonite or Hutterite anabaptist
> comes a lot closer to the lifestyle recommended by the Buddha than does
> the lifestyle followed by contemporary Buddhists (especially those of us
> who do such obviously anti-nirvanic things as using computers and
> subscribing to "Buddhist" e-mail discussion groups).

Absolutely, I am all for living in such a community. Who knows a nice 
piece of land?

Joy