Listen / Read
“Real change comes from engaging with life as it is, not as we want it to be”. That’s probably the wisest statement I’ve heard so far in writing Afterthought. Buddhism may be known somewhat for its retreats and for ‘taking refuge’, and a postcard parody of religious truisms I once had sent me said under Buddhism, “If shit happens, it’s not really shit”. But despite this Buddhists aren’t known for their denial of the world around them or their desire to escape it. That sounds more like Christians.
“Give it to God”, a phrase I’ve often heard uttered by Christians, is quite telling of their approach to life’s problems, and life in general. There’s a certain reluctance to face up to reality and a willingness to escape into a fantasy world where everything is just rosy and a special friend showers them with love. A Christian wobbles from side to side on their feet, hands waving in the air, words of God’s greatness echoing around the church. The melodic recitation of a belief that must be ingested repetitively by the mind and symbolically on the tongue. There’s a trance-like quality to Christian worship that might be compared to the meditation important to many Buddhists.
But when a Buddhist meditates, repeating a mantra over and over, it’s to clear the mind, focus it, empty it of the confusion of human life. In their approach to God Christians consume and absorb Him, saturating themselves in a reassuring fatherly love that helps them relieve their pain rather than deal with it. The consumption of the blood and body of Christ shows further their need to fill themselves with a healing force, a magical remedy for life’s troubles. Escaping their suffering, they pass it on to God whose Son suffered for them. Give it to God, because that’ll make it all better.
“Personal troubles can be channeled without being resolved and the urge to transcend suffering can also be a desire to escape it that in fact stores up future difficulties.”
Yes. It makes a nice change to have some genuinely wise words on Thought for the Day.