[Buddha-l] new book + being in love

[jkirk]

A new book just arrived in my mail.
Following the practice of Irani friends of mine, who find good thoughts from
their poet Hafiz in this manner, I cracked open the book and looked to see
what it brought:
 
"The true and essential characteristic of transcendent knowledge thus
consists in a precise understanding of the conditioned world itself. In
Bhikkhu Bodhi's words: 'though the realization of the unconditioned requires
a turning away from the conditioned, it must be emphasized that this
realization is achieved precisely through understanding of the conditioned.'
Whereas Gorampa argues that a practitioner must break off all ties with the
conditioned world in order to attain unconditioned nirvana, Tsongkhapa
claims that the practitioner must view things as they are by means of direct
awareness. This idea is again nicely captured by Bhikkhu Bodhi: 'Nibbana
cannot be reached by backing off from a direct confrontation with samsara to
lose oneself in a blissful oblivion of the world.' Emphasizing the same
point, Nagarjuna also claims that 'samsara and nirvana are not distinct. The
understanding of samsara it itself posited as nirvana.'" p. 113, of _The Two
Truths Debate : Tsongkhapa and Gorampa on the Middle Way_. Wisdom Pubs,
2007.
 
The book is about two Tibetan  Buddhist views, but we find a reminder here
that Bhikkhu Bodhi, a Theravadan, seems to be close to Tsongkhapa on the
matter. 
 
So, Stefan, perhaps you could advise your "friend" to examine why he is
'backing off from a direct confrontation with samsara to lose oneself in a
blissful oblivion of the world.'  He might heed Wordsworth's awareness that
Nature [human and non-human--the conditioned] is not to be trifled with. 
In Indian literature, Nature is Prakriti--a powerful force, an ur-force, the
base of everything in the conditioned. In our violent industrialized urban
cells, we see her only by falling in love--to our detriment.
Do we not need to see more deeply?
 
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
 
Cheers, Joanna
 

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