Glenn,
It might be "a sin to say", from one perspective, but ...some have even vowed
to go to hell, for the good it may do for OTHERS, there.
Of course, this -- or these -- is/are the Buddhist Hell(s), not the Christian
one. But the Buddhist hells don't sound very cushy and comfortable, either.
Knife-mountains, where everyone must climb these hills covered in razor-sharp
blades. Etc.
The one that most made me squirm, as an adolescent, was the made-up
"Buddhist-Hell-of-Perpetual-Dentistry". Ouch. Nightmare stuff. ;-[
We don't find this one in the Sutras, though, fortunately. ;-)
Some Buddhist bodhisattvas vow not only to put off their own final and complete
enlightenment, but to "do time" in hell to comfort others, where "time" means
Eternity. But what's eternity compared to just a couple of kalpas?
In my best moments, I too have vowed to go to hell, feeling that I've known
enough of pain and pleasure to be done with both of them, and just in order to
help and comfort others, and help them to practice.
Well, we'll see about the final (?) disposition of my spirit (?).
Yes, is there a spirit? And anything which survives this life?
Maybe "survives" is not the operative concept. Is there any residue? I think,
"Yes". It is the original stuff, of which we are only differentiated piles of.
Old Alan Watts had a beautiful phrase I loved. He spoke about the Absolute, or
about original nature. He called it, "The WHICH than which there is no
whicher." Puts a smile on my face to this day, 40 years after. But that's a
short time, in the scheme of things.
"The Ten Thousand Things return to the One; but what does the One return to?"
Why, to the Ten Thousand Things, I say. That's what's so friendly about It.
(but that's "my" answer to the koan; not yours) ;-)
--Joe
> "Glenn Rogers" <rgthiessen@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for this, Joe. I forget that it wasn't too long ago that I struggled
> between the poles of the revealed and mystical traditions.
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