Love, joy, understanding, enlightenment ... the words and longings roll off the mental tongue ... you know, the 'good' stuff and the cloying TED talks that seek to enshrine and assure some unchanging certainty.
Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too! What a piss-cutter.
I am as guilty as the next fellow and yet this morning I wonder how much I might have accomplished with all that endeared groveling to the unchanging if I had simply gotten with the program: Everything changes; relief is not the point. Just think -- "I coulda had a V-8."
I recall the very moment in college when, as someone newly-entranced by "philosophy," I ran into some philosopher who advocated for "change." I was in heaven: Here at last was THE Rosetta stone of answers in my unspoken search for The Answer to Everything. Everything I looked at or experienced was always in flux. Everything changed. How delightfully true was that???!!!!
But then -- oops! -- I was tumbled ass over appetite by the realization that if everything changed, that meant my then-relationship with my latest girlfriend was bound -- as I dearly did not want it to be -- to change as well. Well that would never do! I spent long hours trying to write in an exception for my girlfriend. I wanted the delight (change) AND I wanted my girlfriend (unchanging).
Oh well ... another in a long line of ooops-es in the hopper. But did I learn my lesson?
Forgetbaboutit!
Literally, forgetaboutit.
I haven't been here for a while, but someone killed my cat today, and I'm quite upset. One reason why I am upset is because I did not see it coming, we were talking about North Korea, Pacific, ASEAN, China, there were so many important things that could kill me, yet, what utterly did not make sense is why did my cat get killed?
ReplyDeleteThe answer is simple, the cat is a killer, it kills cockroaches, it kills lizards, it kills birds and rats, it kills for fun. Yet, while it kills for fun, my point here is that whether am I a forest monk or a top notch professor in divinity, ultimately what cannot be fully changed is the fact that cats are carnivorous. They kill and they get killed. It could be a dog, it could be any animal. It is all part of a food web, and because it is so normal, if it were just any animal such as a pigeon, a rat, or a cockroach or lizard, each time I see them dead by a roadside, it's not that I do not regard them as pets, it's the fact that from a spiritual point of view, my duty as a Buddhist is just to say "Om Mani Padme Hum" for the dead animal, and wish it heaven or better afterlife.
I do that all the time, if it were an elephant that dies or a lion that dies, I will do the same too. Om Mani Padme Hum. Even if it were Rohingyas drowning, I still will just say Om Mani Padme Hum.
So to my cat, again I would just say "Om Mani Padme Hum", it's that simple because this is my spiritual tradition, yet, why do I have a stupid dead cat telling me that "friend I am Muslim".
So what am I supposed to say if my cat identifies itself as Muslim when it is killed?
Funeral practices are meant to satisfy the beliefs of the survivors, not the cat.
ReplyDeleteNoted, will take heed.
ReplyDeleteLOL! It sure is easier for me to get my brain around a Muslim Cat than a “search” for the Unchanging Foundation of the Universe, Absolute Reality, etc.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the cat see: Islam & Cats
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_cats?wprov=sfti1
Evidently cats are revered in Islam beginning with the Prophet himself.
Regarding the purpose of funeral services, I agree with olcharlie, but the mourning friends and family often believe in honoring the deceased by doing what they believe the deceased would have wanted.
Regarding a search (or a denunciation of a search) for the “unchanging,” I tend to think that it is a form of a search for “Life’s Nature and It’s Meaning.” The form and stated goal of that search is always a function of the seeker’s personality (which by the way the nature of this function changes over the years.)
This also sometimes is a function of dealing with one’s mortality.
Of course, upbringing, culture, curiosity level, education, and other factors shape the nature of the function. One person might become a monk, another a scientist, and another an avowed atheist.
In my own case, the search for an unchanging reality has never been a priority, but a notion of getting a glimpse (and more) of eternal life has always been involved. I was brought up a Catholic but early on became disillusioned and was drawn towards Eastern Relgions.To this day I still am drawn to Vedanta, Buddhism, Yoga and meditation.
I must say that cynicism especially metaphysical cynicism can make me sad. Sad that I might be wrong and sad that the cynic might be wrong. I consider myself fortunate of becoming familar with ways to deal with the cynicism and the sadness.