[Buddha-l] 9. Attadiipaa Sutta (Joy Vriens)

[Richard Hayes]

On May 9, 2010, at 4:20 AM, L.S. Cousins wrote:

> I suspect that interpretations of this passage have more to do with 
> Victorian ideas than with traditional Theravāda.

I think that is undoubtedly the case for many Americans, especially for those brought up with an Emersonian fondness for self-reliance and all the late 19th century allergies to organized religions. To stumble upon a text that could be interpreted as saying "Thou art an island unto thyself, and no one but thee can help thee out of the mess thou hast made of thy life," (as we used to speak when I was a child) was to find a treasure of unsurpassed value. It seemed to condone a highly individual spiritual practice conducted without reference to any congregation, community or sangha. No matter how much I may have learned about Buddhism since I first stumbled upon that text (and the Rhinoceros Horn), both of which I interpreted as invitations to be an island and to be my own refuge, I have never found anything as deeply satisfying as that call to self-reliance. That that interpretation may be a gratuitous anachronism is a minor exegetical detail of interest to pedants but of no use to deeply introverted practitioners in whom exposure to collective efforts at spirituality induce projective vomiting.

Richard