Plato's Playground
the illusion that thinks it is DPR likes the part about sitting under a tree for 40 days. also the notion of clearing the mind of thought, tho i'm not sure who it is that clears and how it occurs without thinking about it. i do know some meditation techniques, mainly various breath disciplines. also hooking attention to as many sounds as one can distinguish, a useful technique in a city. i know very little about buddha beyond what you provide, so i look forward to your precis.
Well, being a mere professional trumpeter, I am humbled to learn just now that the plot of the Hesse book I read so many years ago--"Siddhartha"--was in fact about Sakyamuni! All this time, I had no idea I'd learned something about "The Buddha," which as an appropriate title apparently bears as much relation to the man as "Christ" does to Yehoshua ben Yosef ... what a pity the world takes great ideas and turns them into religions, bombs and wars.
I've heard teachers say things like,
"You can't teach anyone anything" and, "There are no good teachers, just good students." I see more and more through the years how true this really is.
I though of what I have come to call my "Jesus-Hitler" theory: Most people in the world are so insecure that, whether a "great man" comes along in the form of Jesus or Adolf H., millions and millions of people will follow. It all seems so pathetic--they learn the hate-mongering poison of a Hitler, or a Henry Ford, all too well--people still worship Adolf as an alchemical vehicle to help them to project their self-hatred onto others; but when it comes to spiritual seekers like Sakyamuni, many people get it wrong.
Perhaps this is nothing more than people's hunger for a "great leader," hence their willingness to follow a lost idiot like George W. Dickhead.
Clarification for those who do not know -- The protagonist of Hesse's novel is named Siddharta and lives in Sakyamuni's time, but is not himself Sakyamuni.
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