Davis Moe
Dawn DiPrince
English 101
November 16, 2012
Journey With No Guidance
Every
life must come to an end. Whether it’s your dog to your mom or your great grand
parents that grasp to life with every moment reminiscing on their life they
lived to the fullest. But when that fateful moment comes when one must be cast
from this earth to the place they rightfully deserve to go. But when this time
arises what leaves us? Many say a being inside that is the reflection of our
good actions most commonly referred to as our soul leaves the evil that is our
body if you believe in the Christian, Muslim, Jewish or any of the beliefs that
involve the bible. But there is one religion that when faced with death does
not fear it, but yet embraces death as a gift so that one may be reborn again.
These people are Buddhists and in the article “Facing Death Without A Soul: A
Response To George Adams” by Jayrava Attwood, he proclaims that life is not
permanent and that when our bodies pass away, new life shall be born from the
Karma from your past.
I used the word
anatman, which in context means that no life is permanent. I used the word
Karma that in the Buddhist context means the good and bad deeds that you do
that in the end of your life journey determines the state of being that you
will come back in the next life as. Good karma is like helping the poor and
other deeds that give back to the world and show sympathy towards others that
aren’t as fortunate as you are. Bad Karma is doing deeds that reflect a
negative aspect that place you before others such as stealing, murder, and other
forms of deeds that are selfish and do not provide good outcomes in the future
of your life. I used the word Enlightenment and in context defined by the
dictionary is “The
attainment of spiritual knowledge or insight that frees a person from the cycle
of rebirth.”
In
Attwood’s criticism on George Adams work, he reveals to the audience that Adams
strictly contracted his ideas from a very strict form of Buddhism formally
called Golden Buddhism. To those not familiar with the different forms of
Buddhism, Golden Buddhism is the oldest form dating back to the original
teachings of Siddhartha Gautama except in this form, the followers take his
teachings seriously and proclaimed Siddhartha to be a god in a physical form
cast onto earth. Attwood immediately points out this problem in the beginning
of his writing by stating “George Adams's essay in this issue contrasts what he
calls "personal spirituality" with his understanding of Buddhism,
particularly his ideas about the difficult Buddhist notion of anatman? Adams's
main thrust is to problematize the idea of anātman as nihilistic in contrast to
his ideas about an eternal self.” In Attwood’s argument he proclaims that Siddhartha
Gautama was a God. On Siddhartha Gautama’s death bed, before passing on told
all of his followers that surrounded him that he had one more teaching to give
them. As he lay in his bed with one last breath told everyone “ Don’t think of
me as a god, remember me as the one who woke up.” With his dying words it
spread throughout the world and regardless of what Buddhist form you believed
in, that quote sung all through India.
When
Siddhartha Gautama died that is when all of his teachings made sense to his
followers. They realized much like Attwood did, that there is no permanent
life. When Siddhartha Gautama told his people to remember his as the one who
woke up, he wanted them to think back to his original teaching of what he
discovered in the beginning of his journey. He wanted the people to remember
the old man he saw, the sick man, the dead body and the calm smiling monk that
taught him that the world Is filled with sorrow and suffering. When going
through life everyone is afraid of the inevitable and in Siddhartha Gautama’s
teachings, he revealed through the people he saw that no matter what everyone
will get sick, get old, and eventually die but what he wanted his followers to
know is that to become enlightened you must experience all of these factors and
celebrate them and not be afraid. Attwood states in his article that no life is
permanent and if there is one unbiased statement that all forms of Buddhism can
agree with it is that no matter what all life must come to an end but when you
pass on you will be born again based on how well you lived your life also
referred to as Karma. In this rebirthing process what one hopes to achieve is
enlightenment at the end of their journey when they die.
In a teaching by Siddhartha Gautama, he states to his
followers “In other words
the very belief in a permanent self makes death seem unjust and makes
post-mortem survival of the self necessary." When faced with death, people
fear the inevitable. Saying death is not scary would be a lie but when faced
with the knowledge that after death you be reborn better and much like
Christianity having second chances, the biggest second chance you can have is a
new life. Life is the most precious and delicate force in nature because it can
be taken away at any moment. All we can do is brace ourselves for the
inevitable and face it with no regrets. Live life with good Karma and when you
are reborn, your great life will be rewarded with the gift of life in a better
state. Siddhartha Gautama always told his followers samsara, which meant
life goes on and on. Don’t fear death for life is samsara and depending on how you
live your life now your next life will be in a better state. Siddhartha Gautama
told his followers in a teaching, “Do
not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the
present moment” which leaves only one question that Siddhartha Gautama asked
all his followers, how have you lived your life?
WORK CITED
1) "Enlightenment." Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/enlightenment>.
2) Attwood, Jayarava. "Facing
Death Without A Soul: A Response to George Adams." Ebscohost.com,
Web.
No comments:
Post a Comment