[Buddha-l] Shamatha book--clarification

[Franz Metcalf]

Curt,

Aha! I have a more coherent interpretation to your send-off:

>> And now he's not merely facing the fact that what he reviled is, in 
>> fact, deep and vital; he's actually *using* it to critically better 
>> himself and the culture he sprung from.
>
> The phrase "I Love Big Brother" comes to mind.

You're saying that Batchelor's re-identification with what he reviled 
is much like Winston Smith's tragic fate. So it is not Batchelor who is 
Big Brother, but, hmmm let's call him John Bull or Uncle Sam or, well, 
Big Brother. Very well, but this still leaves a (longed-for) bullet in 
Batchelor's brain. Unless your own disgust with the various cultures of 
the West is so great that you see any educated reappropriation of their 
strengths as a metaphorical suicide, I don't see why you find Batchelor 
so doubleplusungood.

Mandatory Buddhist content: We are the dead.

Franz