agreed with phlosphr
Buddhism isn’t nihilistic, but that’s a common misunderstanding. That perecption confuses the ego with the “self,” which are not synonomous in Buddhism.
When stripped to the core, its central concept is that as long as you have a distinct identity, you will be unsatisfied. You seek to erase yourself in life so you are worthy of disappearing as an individual and merging with some larger gestalt after death. It is close enough to nihilism to turn me away.
Jonathan
This is all inaccurate. It’s not about loss of identity, it’s about confusing identity with ego. It also has nothing to do with “merging” with anything. It’s about understanding that the ego is an illusion of self, not a loss of self. There’s no “merging,” and it happens during life, not after death.
I’ve heard “desire” expressed better as “attachments.”
It’s worth pointing out, too, that you’re discussing things from the point of view of Theravada or Mahayana Buddhism, and those two, close to each other though they are, are not the end-all of the Buddhism world. I think of Theravada as “pure” Buddhism, I admit. (But then I think of Orthodox Judaism as “pure” Judaism, a point of view not universally embraced either).
I am be mixing up my eastern philosophies a bit. I was reading into a lot of different world views at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to argue against the belief systems, just stating why I couldn’t follow it. I liked the idea of trying to find balance and not trying to divide everything into extremes. But ultimately, I like the “I” in my head. I do not think I am perfect, but don’t see the point of trying to erase part of who I am.
Jonathan
I have a desire to read posts whose proper syntax and punctuation prevents them from turning into incomprehensible word pasta. I do not see myself getting rid of this desire any time soon.
“Eh, you spits, I bow.”
thread title does not inspire
Diogenes the Cynic, this is a side of yourself that I don’t recall reading about before. You seemed to have stopped Zen meditation at what I would think would be an intriguing door. I wonder if it’s common for meditators to balk at opening the hand – and then to stop meditating without ever experiencing it.
All I had to do was close an eye. I was that eye. If I closed that eye, I would cease to be. But rather than feeling like I was facing death or anything negative, the thought of that just flooded me with feelings of contentment. I thought it was a choice I could come back to and maybe I will. But that has been many years.
I haven’t meditated on a regular basis in a long time.
I respect Siddartha Gautuma (or is that G… S…) for his search for the answers & his attempt to live by & share the message with others. I respectfully disagree with his conclusions.
I don’t believe the point is that you’re trying to erase a part of who you are, but rather realize that the “you” in your head and the “I” in my head and the “her” in her head are already one in a sense, and yet also separate in another sense… and the idea is to realize that without suffering because one day all of those “uses” will no longer be in the same forms that we like.
Of course, by following your free will to view the world another way you’re already doing that!