"Holding to nothing, clinging to nothing, the sage finds peace." (Buddhism, Sutta Nipata 4.1)
True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.
My thoughts:
While I prefer to make more out of less -- for example, running minimalist computer setups instead of trying to be "state of the art," buying my clothing used at thrift stores or inexpensively if new -- I consider myself more Epicurean than ascetic, and regard a certain amount of "clinging" as not just reasonable but necessary (property rights and a general "what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours" approach to life). I enjoy the good life. I have no ambition to own only a saffron robe and a begging bowl.
I also suspect that spiritual asceticism can, in many cases, entail its own kind of clinging. We've probably all known people with substance abuse problems who no longer use the substances involved, but who have substituted their "sobriety" for those substances as a subject of 24/7 obsession. They just found a different thing to cling to. It might be a better thing, but it's not the "absence of desire" that Buddhism, as I understand it, promotes.
No comments:
Post a Comment