Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

No desires

No duties

No needs

No feelings

    Post 22. March 10, 2018

    Musings on Meditation

   Buddha’s BothAnd Solution

   The BothAnd principle is equivalent to the Buddha's Middle Way of moderation between extremes of Indulgence (e.g. drugs) and Asceticism (e.g. suicide). In religion, it ranges from excess Concern for the afterlife (to the detriment of this life, as in terrorists) to the “what can god do for me” of pious self-interest in the here & now.

The highborn Buddha rejected his duties to state, family, & society, and turned to pure navel-gazing self-interest. In an existential funk, he pessimistically concluded that Life was more bad than good (suffering, striving), so the logical solution would be suicide. But, for those who lack the will to kill themselves, he discovered a less immediate & permanent fix for the fix we're in. That’s when he turn back to the world, as an evangelist for rigorous introspection. His middle path involves training your Type A personality to chill, and your sensitive Self to become numb, not caring about the cares of this world.

In effect, meditation is an act of will, where the conscious rational Superego (spiritual Self) learns to gain control over the executive Ego (social Self), and the subconscious emotional Id (physical Body). This less radical ticket to Nirvana is deemed preferable to drugs and suicide. Whereas opium addicts give-up what little Will they have, and suicides make a desperate hope-  less empty-tank sucking-up of Will, Buddhists continue to live their sad little lives, and merely retreat occasionally into an altered state of mind, somewhere between ordinary sleep and the euphoric soporific state of opium dreams.

The Buddha's middle path of serious introspection is indeed preferable to suicide and drug addiction. But it's not the only way to deal with the disappointments of daily life. Existentialists deal with their absurd world, by exerting their own will over fate, to take control of their own “authenticity”, or purity of character. Authenticity may be equivalent to the ancient Greek notion of Virtue, and the modern concept of “character development”. It’s a secular response to a spiritual crisis. More recently, another option emerged from the pseudo-scientific lineage of childish self-indulgence in me-focused psycho-analysis, under the name of Rational Emotive Therapy.

Deists are free to use whatever methods they like, to cope with the world’s soul-deadening disappointments. More extroverted types may find comfort in taking action, against all odds, to make the world a better place, through politics or humanitarian projects. In any case, the BothAnd principle advises us not to go to extremes, as in terrorism, since that only adds to the overall stresses and strains on humanity.

End of Post 22