[Buddha-l] Re: The arrow: its removal and examination

[David Kotschessa]

--- Katherine Masis <twin_oceans at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Comments on what David Kotschessa wrote:
> 
> (a) "Not only does Buddhism have a clearly defined
> goal, but it has already reached it!  As
> philosophies
> go, Buddhism is finished.  There isn’t anything left
> to figure out."
> 
> --That sounds pretty final to me, almost like a leap
> of faith.  You seem to presuppose finiteness in
> human
> systems—almost like presupposing the Greek concept
> of
> perfection (completeness).--

What you attribute to a extreme faith, I attribute to
extreme doubt.  I simply don't believe there is
anything new under the sun.  

> 
> (b) "The task we are given is to understand what has
> already been 'figured out' and to clarify and
> manifest
> it, and then, weirdly enough, to abandon it
> altogether."
> 
> --So then there is no room for creativity, surprise,
> wonder and the unexpected?--

I certainly wouldn't use those words to describe
anything at least in the early canon.  Most of what's
there is actually quite disappointing to the reader
who is looking for magic words or immediate spiritual
insight.  Three evil roots - dull, the five hindrances
- dull, the precepts - dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.  

The surprise and wonder comes when you try to actually
DO what's there.  But most people aren't content with
the practice, so they keep reading and looking for
something else.  (Guilty)

> (c) "No 'western' philosophy asks this of us.  They
> appear, from my perspective, to wander on relatively
> aimlessly, fascinating as they are, through
> territories which may or may not be of any value
> (relative to the goal of ending suffering)."
>  
> --Several western systems of philosophy do have the
> goal of making life happier or at least more
> bearable.
>  The stoics, epicureans and Aristotelians had that
> aim.  Several contemporary western philosophies have
> greatly influenced the way psychotherapy is
> practiced,
> for example, Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s
> phenomenology.  I’ve only mentioned a few, but the
> list is quite long.--  

It may appear I am being a little hard on Western
philosophy, but I did say the teachings "may or may
not be of any value."   
 
> (d) "My prediction is that philosophers will debate,
> until the sun fizzles out, on the nature of truth. 
> That is, unless they figure out that what they were
> really trying to do in the first place was end their
> suffering.   There will be a collective slap on the
> forehead when (if) they realize the time they could
> have saved, had they only oriented themselves to
> that
> end in the first place."
> 
> --Well, that’s quite a prediction.  There are many
> ways to alleviate suffering that work for different
> people.  There is no "one size fits all" approach. 
> Perhaps it’s a question of temperament.  What works
> for one may not work for another.  I saw a Buddhist
> typology with eleven categories in the Buddha-l
> archives a few days ago, but for now the simpler
> Hindu
> one will do.  For some folks, faith and devotion
> (bhakti) is fine; for others, action (karma) will
> do,
> yet for others knowledge (gñana) is the way.  And of
> course, there are the mixes.  What I like about
> these
> typologies is the deep respect they create: to
> celebrate what one’s temperament is and to be aware
> that the way out of suffering that one practices
> honors it.  If the way out of suffering is the Noble
> Eightfold Path, it would do us good to remember that
> the path is eightfold, not one-fold!  Different
> Buddhist sects emphasize different aspects of the
> Noble Eightfold Path, with the assumption that those
> emphasized aspects will naturally bring out the
> other
> ones.  
> 
> Anyway, for some people the unexamined life would be
> a
> life of suffering, so I don’t see any problem with
> letting folks so inclined indulge in examining it
> "until the sun fizzles out."--

I'm not of course, trying to tell people how they
should live, or that Buddhism is supreme, or that I
myself am any good at being a Buddhist.  With regard
to our topic, I am myself, an admittedly cumpulsive
arrow-gazer.  


-DaveK


> Katherine Masis
> San José, Costa Rica
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>        
>
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