[Buddha-l] Batchelor

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Joanna,



and had this to say about pratityasamutpada, contingency, and
> samsara (excerpt):
> http://www.dharmalife.com/issue25/devil.html
>
> 'Some of the first material I wrote for the new book was a
> development of material that appeared years ago in a booklet
> called Flight, which was an afterthought to Alone with Others. I
> wanted to develop the idea that existential flight, which is the
> human tendency to flee the difficult reality of experience
> towards distraction or entertainment, is a natural response to
> contingency. This word 'contingency' is how I translate
> pratityasamutpada, or Dependent Arising, the Buddha's fundamental
> teaching on the nature of Reality.'
>
> There is something in SB' discourse and reasoning that displeases me and
that I can't put my finger on. I don't know what he exactly means by
Buddhist existentialism, but I don't like the existential approach of being
caught and stuck in an existence from which no escape is possible except
through death. First, I don't believe that is true.

Second, there are different degrees of adhering to what "really" happens
("reality", what really happens as it happens in regard to what when there
is no unconditioned reference point?). Even if existence is all there is,
why would one be obliged to adhere and would the refusal to adhere or simply
not adhering be considered as a flight? How much adherence is needed in
order to not be considered as some sort of a deserter and what is one
exactly supposed to be deserting from? Are we supposed to think every second
of our existence that we are stuck and conditioned and to keep our noses
right on the grindstone and would not doing this constitute a case of
"fleeing the difficult reality"? Ridiculous. And what "reality" is one
supposed to be fleeing from exactly? How do "difficult reality" and
distraction from "it" relate to each other in contingency?
It seems to me that although there is no Unconditioned for SB, there is
something very real and fix about this "reality", that people want to flee
and keep fleeing from. "Reality of experience". Experience is experience.
What does reality have to with it? What does reality have to with anything
at all in a contingent world? What is the link between reality and the
hypothetical adherence to it?

Joy