Forgetfulness or awareness - Ricoeur or Buddha?
Let's take some help from the Philosopher Ricoeur and the author Auerbach to approach the question.
But first;
Religions learn that there are some state, probably in the future, that will be a salvation.
- or a hell.
Even Buddhist texts talks about it in the sense of karma and afterlife. Some modern Buddhists, as Thich Nhat Hanh means that hell is a state of mind, ebut with mindfulness and awareness of every step you can reach some kind of heaven.
In here and now you don't regret the past or worry about the future.
When I practice mindfulness its really like that... But my tinnitus gets more obvious and maybe hidden feelings will come to the surface. When I practice with my sangha its a bit easier.
Originally Buddha wanted us to see the terrible sides of life, like sickness, changes and other unsatisfactory things in life and of course old age and death.
Its better not to be reborn. Its better not to think so much... Its better not to collect things for yourselves, as a big house a car and a family - you will never be satisfied anyway and children will make you worry.
In a guided meditation at a retreat a nun wanted us to meditate about our own death; visualize yourself as a pale corpse, as eaten by worms and as skeleton falling apart. Death (and probably reincarnation) is inevitably, so lets face the facts.
But without the belief in reincarnation, that meditation can be too much.
Mindfulness without compassion is no religion. Compassion can make you more satisfied, at least if you have experienced that "all are one". When you help other you help yourself. But in the Buddhist context the best way to help is to teach and introduce mindful living.
(even if the Tibetan tradition have many meditations were you visualize that you release others suffering - similar to christian prayers) .
Of course, in popular Buddhism you also can sacrifice things for your own and your family's sake.
In Dharamsala in India a Tibetan monk once invited me to his small room. He had not many belongings. But I'm sure he knew I would be interested to see his room and talk a bit, even though his english was very poor.
I hope the good feeling of compassion was enough for him, because I gave nothing back.
He gave me a memory.
Anyone who gives without to want something in return gives you a memory.
When I for a while worked in a home for dying people in Kolkata, some asked why allow so many western people be here just for some weeks. Mother Theresa used to answer; let the come so the dying people can see that people can help without wishing something back.
And then we comes to Ricoeur ; in his last book (long and not so easy to read) he writes about "Memory, history, forgetfulness". I will give just a glimpse from the book,
In one part of it Ricoeur focuses on Heidegger and the awareness of death. To be Dasein for H means to be aware of death an more than so - to feel it into your bones. To be in time: To be in the history of men and in the future of death. That reminds of the Buddhist nun's meditation above
But in the end of the book Ricoeur speaks about a happy forgetfulness. He paraphrases Matthew's words in the NT about the sorrowless birds and lilies.
There may be a forgetfulness that is like the one in none-guided meditations. To not let the thinking process drown you. But after the mediation you can to be aware of time end death again, but without focus to it, that is seems that Heidegger wanted us to do.
Ricoeur lived his last years as a widower and maybe it was blessing for him to not remember too much.
He quotes Spinoza; There is nothing that the free man thinks less of, than of death and he is wise because he does not meditate about death but about life.
My mother was caught in dementia after my brother's and my father's death. I guess that was a blessing for her.
To have trust or hope is another dimension of time. To trust that life will guide you, so you don't have to strive too much. And longing can make things happen. The things we long to, may take shape, first in the mind, later physically.
Odysseus came home to his Penelope at last -after a long journey. In "Mimesis" Eric Auerbach compares Homeros style with the text in the old Testament and especially with Abraham's and God's settlement about Isaac.
The Odyssey is not meant to be a thriller, so Homeros sometimes stops the story and have long descriptions of the environment, the cloth and tools or the history of an event.
The detailed and often lovely telled descriptions means, says Auerbach, that for the ancient Greeks, the world was the most important, not the Heaven or paradise.
It was with Christianity, Judaism and Islam that the reward in paradise was becoming important.
When the author in the bible writes about the Abraham-story, he tells nothing about the cloth, the thoughts or the environment. The main thing is what we humans can learn from the story - Gods omnipotence but also mercy. Bow before God, and you will be lucky and maybe come to Paradise.
Nowadays salvation seems to lay in technology or high tech, including Internet. Maybe technology can make us live for ever.
Or we have stopped to be believe in salvation. And for sure not many want to live forever.
Maybe that's good - but if we also don't believe in the common world, with it's up and downs, we are in trouble.
To find meaning and hope here where we are may be best we can get.
But first;
Religions learn that there are some state, probably in the future, that will be a salvation.
- or a hell.
Even Buddhist texts talks about it in the sense of karma and afterlife. Some modern Buddhists, as Thich Nhat Hanh means that hell is a state of mind, ebut with mindfulness and awareness of every step you can reach some kind of heaven.
In here and now you don't regret the past or worry about the future.
When I practice mindfulness its really like that... But my tinnitus gets more obvious and maybe hidden feelings will come to the surface. When I practice with my sangha its a bit easier.
Originally Buddha wanted us to see the terrible sides of life, like sickness, changes and other unsatisfactory things in life and of course old age and death.
Its better not to be reborn. Its better not to think so much... Its better not to collect things for yourselves, as a big house a car and a family - you will never be satisfied anyway and children will make you worry.
In a guided meditation at a retreat a nun wanted us to meditate about our own death; visualize yourself as a pale corpse, as eaten by worms and as skeleton falling apart. Death (and probably reincarnation) is inevitably, so lets face the facts.
But without the belief in reincarnation, that meditation can be too much.
Mindfulness without compassion is no religion. Compassion can make you more satisfied, at least if you have experienced that "all are one". When you help other you help yourself. But in the Buddhist context the best way to help is to teach and introduce mindful living.
(even if the Tibetan tradition have many meditations were you visualize that you release others suffering - similar to christian prayers) .
Of course, in popular Buddhism you also can sacrifice things for your own and your family's sake.
In Dharamsala in India a Tibetan monk once invited me to his small room. He had not many belongings. But I'm sure he knew I would be interested to see his room and talk a bit, even though his english was very poor.
I hope the good feeling of compassion was enough for him, because I gave nothing back.
He gave me a memory.
Anyone who gives without to want something in return gives you a memory.
When I for a while worked in a home for dying people in Kolkata, some asked why allow so many western people be here just for some weeks. Mother Theresa used to answer; let the come so the dying people can see that people can help without wishing something back.
And then we comes to Ricoeur ; in his last book (long and not so easy to read) he writes about "Memory, history, forgetfulness". I will give just a glimpse from the book,
In one part of it Ricoeur focuses on Heidegger and the awareness of death. To be Dasein for H means to be aware of death an more than so - to feel it into your bones. To be in time: To be in the history of men and in the future of death. That reminds of the Buddhist nun's meditation above
But in the end of the book Ricoeur speaks about a happy forgetfulness. He paraphrases Matthew's words in the NT about the sorrowless birds and lilies.
There may be a forgetfulness that is like the one in none-guided meditations. To not let the thinking process drown you. But after the mediation you can to be aware of time end death again, but without focus to it, that is seems that Heidegger wanted us to do.
Ricoeur lived his last years as a widower and maybe it was blessing for him to not remember too much.
He quotes Spinoza; There is nothing that the free man thinks less of, than of death and he is wise because he does not meditate about death but about life.
My mother was caught in dementia after my brother's and my father's death. I guess that was a blessing for her.
To have trust or hope is another dimension of time. To trust that life will guide you, so you don't have to strive too much. And longing can make things happen. The things we long to, may take shape, first in the mind, later physically.
Odysseus came home to his Penelope at last -after a long journey. In "Mimesis" Eric Auerbach compares Homeros style with the text in the old Testament and especially with Abraham's and God's settlement about Isaac.
The Odyssey is not meant to be a thriller, so Homeros sometimes stops the story and have long descriptions of the environment, the cloth and tools or the history of an event.
The detailed and often lovely telled descriptions means, says Auerbach, that for the ancient Greeks, the world was the most important, not the Heaven or paradise.
It was with Christianity, Judaism and Islam that the reward in paradise was becoming important.
When the author in the bible writes about the Abraham-story, he tells nothing about the cloth, the thoughts or the environment. The main thing is what we humans can learn from the story - Gods omnipotence but also mercy. Bow before God, and you will be lucky and maybe come to Paradise.
Nowadays salvation seems to lay in technology or high tech, including Internet. Maybe technology can make us live for ever.
Or we have stopped to be believe in salvation. And for sure not many want to live forever.
Maybe that's good - but if we also don't believe in the common world, with it's up and downs, we are in trouble.
To find meaning and hope here where we are may be best we can get.
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