Tuesday, April 26, 2005
We're so damn fixated on the end that we forget to just look around.
I was talking to my girlfriend the other day. We were reading some article in the local paper that was discussing new spiritualist movements in the city. One was Buddhist and of course the Buddhists want to be enlightened.
The article referred to enlightenment as though it were a thing. Some sort of destination and you were either there or you weren't. As I read the article I could almost imagine the landscape of enlightenment, as though it were some sort of place in the clouds, but instead of everyone wearing white robes and having wings they wore yellow robes and had really long ear lobes.
I think it misses the point.
We're all about destinations in this society. We're all about getting a job and getting married and getting the kids grown and getting retired. Process is just a means to us, something to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. We can't even conceive that it could be the goal.
So given that, I guess its natural that we're all about getting enlightened.
I have a feeling that if the Buddha were alive today he'd shake his head and laugh, and then probably come up with a new word to describe his process.
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