Tonite I watched an interview of housewife-turned-Buddhist-nun Pema Chodron with some friends. Chodron spoke about many common Buddhist concepts, with her own unique spin on the issues of pain and suffering and the goal to be 'fully awake.'
For me, the most provocative quotation from the program was this one:
"We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people's wrongness."
She spoke at length about how this addiction, or 'getting hooked' as she calls it, sets off a chain reaction of suffering. By removing ourselves from the addictive cycle we can have more peace and compassion.
I love that idea. I am certainly guilty of being addicted to other people's wrongness just as I am guilty of being addicted to my own rightness. I recognize that this is a very rigid way to live, but it is so human...sigh.
What I really want...to see the divine in each person I meet and not to feel anger and self-righteousness when someone believes differently than I do. So I will keep trying....
Note: the picture above is of some Buddhist carvings on the "Flying Mountain" at the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, China. The day I visited the temple nearly two years ago it was rainy and cold, the ground so slippery underfoot that it was difficult to walk around the temple and monastery. Yet there were still dozens of worshipers lighting huge bundles of incense outside of the temple and saying their prayers. I was impressed by the devotion of the adherents. That day I also felt very homesick for my family back in the states. At the foot of the Buddha I said prayers for their continued safety and felt great comfort.
3 comments:
Heh -- nice.
This post hit my eyes, mind and heart as the centerpiece of a rather amusing, randomly hit trilogy of blog posts I visited all in a row this morning. It is so perfect a trilogy that now I am done reading blogs for the day. :)
The one I visited before this was Goldfish's post on parallel universes, time travel and what ifs, and the one I visited after this was Shuna's post on learning to be a good teacher and manager of others, which includes her insistence that she does not regret things that have happened to her because they have made her who she is, and for which in the end she gets chewed out by a Japanese commenter for being arrogant and talking, writing and thinking too much. Heh.
Before I go offline for the day and get on with non-blogular pursuits, I did want everyone who'd made my perfect random triangle to have the opportunity to experience it, too, maybe see what I saw, probably see something different all your own.
Cheers!
"What I really want...to see the divine in each person I meet and not to feel anger and self-righteousness when someone believes differently than I do. So I will keep trying...."
i couldn't have said that better, jana. but it's such a slant approach to life. at least in most people's attitudes about how people interact--even good people who are compassionate and understanding. to see the divine in everyone, that is. i suppose i shouldn't care whether people understand that as a motivating belief. but it frustrates me anyway.
thanks for sharing that interview with us. it's given me a lot to think about.
sara: Thanks for sharing your trilogy. After reading these posts I felt a sense of completeness about them, too. It brought a kind of comfort to know that my thoughts & concerns resonate with others', too.
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