Friday, August 27, 2004

Home at last

It has been a while. I've been back from the wilds of Colorado and buddhist boot camp for a little over two weeks now. Up until this afternoon, I'd entirely forgotten that this thing existed. I've forgotten what it was that jogged my memory, but there was more than a moment of hesitation as I pondered whether or not to reignite this curious passtime. Had I choosen not to, my studies would certainly have benefitted, however I enjoy this shared forum for banter, inane and profound, much too much to let it go at this point.
The nine weeks I spent at Shambhala Mountain Center were wonderful. It was hard at times. I missed Kitty a lot, and the schedule was much like being in school--but we didn't get any weekends. I met an ecletic group of interesting and intelligent people, and left with a handful of new friends. I don't think I'm going to try and give a blow by blow of the entire two months, but I'll start with a brief and general introduction.
The first month I spent in a program called "Sutrayana Seminary". During Sutrayana, students study the teachings of buddhism as conveyed by the hinayana and mahayana. These are the most widely accepted of the buddha's teachings and are common to most sects of buddhism (one couldn't call oneself 'buddhist' without a foundation in the hinayana). This was followed by a month of studying the Vajrayana, a path towards attaining enlightenment in this lifetime (or, quite simply, much more quickly) that one undertakes after preliminary (and foundational) preparation in the hinayana and mahayana. In a very loose sense, the three vehicles (towards attaining enlightenment (yana can be translated as 'vehicle')) can be summed up in these three phrases by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche:

Do no harm [hinayana]
Benefit others [mahayana]
Enjoy life [vajrayana]

And there you have it, the entire teachings of buddhism in seven words. It's really rather simple, and yet these simple phrases, when properly understood and wholeheartedly applied, can have very profound and far reaching ramifications. You might then wonder, why all this intensive study and elaborate ceremony? The most straigforward answer is that it is necessary because we just don't get it. Over and over, again and again, we make the mistake of believing in the solidity of both ourselves and the phenomenal world exterior to us (this seperation is itself rather questionable). This is not to espouse some sort of nihilistic nothingness. The phenomenal world is still very real and everpresent. You've probably heard of 'the middle way' before. The middle way is a mahayana idea that lies at the heart of a proper understanding of emptiness or shunyata. My favourite translation of shunyata (usually translated as 'emptiness') is 'empty of suchness'. It's the idea of suchness that is key for me. What buddhism is essentially saying, is that most of our relations with the phenomenal world are enclosed in concepts that we construct and believe to be real, self-existing, and independant, when in fact they are simply the result of many different factors coming together at once. This is also true of our idea of self, it too is a mental construct.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had last night with a friend of mine. We were talking about causation and he mentioned that David Hume said that causation was nothing more than conjunction. I'm not sure that I've fully thought this through, but I believe that that is fairly close to the buddhist understanding of interdependance in which nothing can be pointed to as a first cause.
I haven't explained this terribly well. I will write more later. I hope no one feels that I have ranted excessively or any such thing. I will try and write more again soon.

Love Evan