a final essay

leaving this terrible petri dish of a city they named after some fruity hispanic saint.this is a final essay, one of two. the second one is only half complete but it sucks. this one is bombtastic though. enjoy!

Professor Kim 12/5/10 Asian Philosophy Philosophical Application Paper

In this essay I defend the central feature of Buddhism in that enlightened living is attained by comprehension of emptiness and compassion. I have spent an entire semester studying Buddhism from both a scholarly lens and experiential lens however I am not a Buddhist. Like all religions, Buddhism tries to explain away the suffering of the world and arises out of a need for self-control. I subscribe to the central Buddhist ideas of emptiness and compassion, but see where they are not applicable. Using the insight of both Guy Newland and C. Goodman and their prescriptions for perception and compassion, the central features of Buddhism, emptiness and compassion, will be contextualized from a personal lens.

Emptiness is the axiom of Buddhism and stems from the Four Noble Truths. Number one of the Four Noble Truths is that all beings suffer. All humans suffer, and all animals suffer. Animals suffer more than humans because they are trapped in a separate realm, devoid of consciousness. Human beings alone have the ability to recognize the origin of suffering as an attachment to the self as well as all desires that the ego clings to. The third pillar of the four noble truths reveals that human beings have the ability to eliminate the sense of a deep self and all egotistical attachments. This elimination can be achieved throughout a lifelong devotion to the practical path, or the 8 Fold Path, that will also eliminate suffering. In elimination of suffering one cultivates enlightenment.

The thesis of emptiness contrasts the Western thesis of the self. Western thought strongly believes in the deep autonomous self. As we have all experienced, this only creates a vicious cycle of suffering. As the deep self is in control of his or her own desires, the self becomes consumed with attainment of the sequential desires. Happiness may be attained temporarily, but ultimately the self is the composer of his own perpetual suffering, as his desires never cease. As Guy Newland addresses, this may be contingent to the delusion that “we actually have a very solid kind of existence” Newland goes onto explain that if this were the fact of reality then “it would mean that we could never change.” (Newland, 7)

Individuals who have let go of their notion of deep self, having extinguished all fires of desire, are free from suffering. These individuals have also embraced their ever-changing nature. While these individuals do not neglect their needs they do not indulge in them either. They are organized and capable enough to provide their bare necessities while perusing a purposeful livelihood. These individuals who have attained such detachment from the notion of the self must still participate in the world of those who continually compose their own never-ending orchestra of suffering. Bodhisattvas, individuals who are liberated from suffering, are titled thus because they undertake their duties that include not only propagating the dharma of emptiness and enlightenment, but also being compassionate to all beings. All beings include friends, enemies, strangers, plants, and animals.

It is not only a pursuit of high morality that compromises a Bodhisattva to strive towards doling compassion to all. Within the thesis of emptiness is embedded the thesis of interdependence. When a human let’s go of his attachments to his deep autonomous self and the self’s desires, he begins to recognize the interdependency in all things that he perceives. This exercise is continual, and must be practiced until it is volatile and cannot be separated from this person’s perception. The perception of this person will evolve in such a way that there is no deep division between one perception and the whole. Without an essence of the self, there are no walls between one body and the environment and all things are contingent within one environment.

The Bodhisattva may walk into a salad bar and see all of the different vegetables, and he will understand that these half-alive vegetables are not separate from him; they too arose from the ground to be nurtured by time and sunlight. Also non-interdependent from the soon to be consumer of vegetables are the individuals who picked these vegetables, washed them, packaged them, delivered them, sliced them up and organized them into containers, not one of these processes existed independently of anything else. In Buddhism, everything is connected and everything is a part of the whole. However, without the aggregates of the whole, the whole cannot exist.

The issue of perspective complicates Buddhist theology. We must distinguish between conventional perspectives and the ultimate perspective. The ultimate perspective in Buddhism is always explained by emptiness and that after all of the different claims from various conventional perspectives, emptiness is behind them all. Furthermore, one must work with both perspectives, but reject delusional conventional perspective by way of the truths proposed by the ultimate perspective. For example, I may hold a vegetarian perspective and see eating meat as wrong and distasteful, however the ultimate perspective will claim that there is nothing to feed and thus no reason to differentiate in what (or whom) we choose to eat.

While another conventional perspective may view my vegetarian perspective as a delusional means to conforming to some social status, I assert that my claim for a vegetarian perspective stems from my comprehension of universal interdependency. One of the puzzles of Buddhism asks whether or not the awareness of interdependency causes compassion. In most cases, when combined with good morals, interdependency certainly brings forth compassion. When a person realizes that everything he or she does will have an effect on the universe, then he or she is inclined to behave with compassion towards all beings. Therefore, it may be said that I refrain from carnivorous activity because of my awareness for interdependency, as well as my compassion for all living beings.

I do however eat plants. A normal vegetarian perspective would view fruits, vegetables, and beans as the trinity of their diet. While I do subscribe to these regulations I discover it to be a challenge. It is difficult for me to go to a regular grocery store and see the graveyard of vegetables, strewn across a platform and bathed in artificial light and to drop a few into a plastic bag, pass it under a scanner, and feed the corporation dollar bills in return for my sustenance. I have no idea where these vegetables originated from, I do not know of the environment which they were bred in, nor do I know whose sweat and energy went into their cultivation and harvest.

The thesis of interdependence could be utilized here to claim that it does not matter from where these vegetables originated from, because they have always existed and they are a mere part of the whole universe involved in a constant cycle of energy. However, it matters to me because I am compassionate about the food that I put into my body. I require that the food that nourishes me was also well nourished and cared for. Thus, I am perpetuating a series of compassionate actions from soil to bowels, to soil again.

Once again, the thesis of emptiness and the universal perspective could be presented to oppose this part of my conventional perspective parcel in that there is no body to feed and the act of eating is only an indulgence to sensational desires that should have been abandoned long ago. However, even the Buddha realized that we must walk the Middle Way and feed ourselves, however modestly and earnestly. Therefore, my compromise is to grow my own food.

I will sustain my physiological needs for nutrition by returning my energy to the food that I cultivate. Then, I will be eating again and again the energy that I have returned to the soil. When I eat the cucumber that flowered from the seed that I sowed and watered and weeded and harvested, I am actually eating my own expended energy. Some new energy is added thanks to the sunlight. After all, we are infinitely grateful for the sunlight.

Ultimately, we owe everything to the sun, from our existence, devoid of essence, but illuminated by the sunlight, to our perspective and the other four skandhas that we are made of. I will introduce the idea of the five skandhas here because it supports both the thesis of emptiness as well as the thesis of interdependency. Human beings are composed of a body, sensations, perception, volition, and consciousness.

According to Buddhism, our skandhas are in constant flux. The arrangement of my skandhas ten seconds ago, as I was highlighting all that I have typed so far to format my paper to be double spaced, and the arrangement of my skandhas now, as I take a break from typing to have a sip from my teacup, are different. While physically I may appear constant, I am changed. For one thing, my finger muscles have deteriorated. Every second that I spend looking at the harsh computer screen, my eyesight becomes more poor. Due to the moisture of the atmosphere that has seeped inside my dorm room, my hair, skin, and clothing are all deteriorating. However, because I am alive (as opposed to my clothing which is woven from dead and processed plant fibers) my body regenerates itself because of the interconnectivity of my cells. For example, new skin cells are produced, new blood cells, new proteins take shape all of the time. Also, I am changing as my body processes the sip of tea, changing further as it begins to break down the chemical compounds of the herbs in this tea, extracting nutriment from water, stimulating my kidneys which stimulate my bladder, which eventually will stimulate my hypothalamus to stand up and walk to the restroom. Our composition is never inert.

Furthermore, according to the Middle Way of Madhyamaka Buddhism there is no causal efficacy without intrinsic nature. Thus, the five skandhas have causal power, that is they can both transmit signal and response to stimulants, but they do not have a definitive internal core. They too are devoid of essence.

While they are devoid of essence, the five skandhas are not shielded from anything. In today’s world, we constantly expose our skandhas to a cornucopia of detriments such as radiation, noise pollution, carbon monoxide, and other toxins. This is why I resent living in San Francisco where my psyche is constantly bombarded with superfluous noise and odors, residual stress and energies, the exhaust of so many thousands of bodies constantly respiring in and out, and artificial light to present a few. There is no sanctuary from the excess of stimulants from the bustling city.

Fortunately, our sensual receptors are not so acute that we can sense every hiccup, honk, and car accident that occurs in one interconnected environment. Instead, they are muted to perceive only a fraction of sensory stimulants.

In opposition to my conventional perspective and dissatisfaction with living in San Francisco, one might claim that I am attached to a delusion about this place. Who can complain when the warm sun is shining brilliantly and the western breeze from the ocean sweeps away all harmful toxins? This is a beautiful place. Meanwhile, the Buddhist would tell me that the only way to relieve suffering is to analyze the structure of suffering. Is it conventional? If so, is it invalid, as in a hallucination or a dream, or is it valid, do you actually perceive detriment to your health by being alive in San Francisco? Ultimately, the ultimate perspective structures my delusion as invalid or valid, it doesn’t matter, because either way it is without intrinsic nature, thus empty.

In conclusion, analyzing the structure of our suffering can be achieved by way of meditation stabilization. Meditation has the power to heal because it forces individuals to slow down the reassembly of their skandhas and to focus on emptiness, which reveals the truth: the universe is devoid of essence.

YOU CANNOT WORK FOR MONEY.

YOU CANNOT WORK FOR MONEY. Work is the devotion of the body, devotion of the mind. YOU CANNOT DEVOTE neither mind nor body to MONEY. MONEY CANNOT BE WORSHIP’D. MONEY cannot show you love. cannot show you service. cannot show you grace. cannot show you compassion. cannot show you faith. cannot show you the self.

work is reserved for the devotion of the self to that which can be worship’d in return for grace and love. the love that is powerful. the love that is conscious.

money is impure. money is filth. are you going to eat money? are you going to drift to sleep with money? can money flip you inside out? can money elevate your soul? walk amongst the clouds…