[Buddha-l] Mere mereness

[Joy Vriens]

Hi everybody, nice to see you back Richard,

"So what does "mere" mean? What did it mean to C.S. Lewis when he 
gave his impassioned defense of Christianity the title <cite>Mere 
Christianity</cite>? Lewis explains that his aim was to articulate 
the essence of Christianity. He knew---for he was a man of 
letters---that "mere" means "pure, complete, total." So he was 
trying to get at something like a pure Christianity, a set of 
beliefs and practices that were basic and primitive, perhaps the 
Christianity that existed before all the scholars and exegetes and 
hermeneuticists got their dirty hands on it.

Oddly enough, what Lewis was doing for Christianity comes close to 
what I have spent my life doing for Buddhism. I have wanted to get 
to mere Buddhism. How odd that in trying to get at that which was 
fully and completely Buddha-dharma, with no admixture of anything 
extraneous or unnecessary, I should come to be seen by some as 
trying to advocate doctrines that I have never found satisfactory 
or complete as they are---things like Marxism, for example." 

I think I intuitively understand what is meant by mere Christianity or mere Buddhism, but as a more mystically (and I don't mean that in any nasty way) enclined person for whom religion is more an interior thing, it is hard to see how there can be anything Christian or Buddhist left if everything extraneous or unnecessary has been "got rid of" or has simply ceased to be of any importance. Mere Christianity and mere Buddhism seem like contradictions in terms to me, a bit like the moon and the finger idea. If you have the mere, you have no more Buddhism or it has become extraneous or unnecessary, if you have Buddhism, you haven't gotten to the mere yet. So if someone offers you to pull his finger, do as you like but know you won't get the moon.   

The term "mere", "core", or "essential" implies a certain criticism or critical attitude towards that which isn't all that and that could therefore be considered as extraneous or unnecessary. And if one comes to think of it, that which is extraneous or unnecessary is often the method. And somehow to "get to the mere", one needs to get rid of the method (it is often advised to only do so at the very end, but the end of what?). And actually some clever Buddhists have come up with the idea that since we already have the mere, why don't we just relax and forget about running after it and fill the rest of our time by taking things easy and practising hobbies like Buddhism etc.  

Joy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20060829/111473bc/attachment.htm