Respect the Buddha

Whilst wondering what to write my next post about I was truly stumped this time. I contemplated devising another theory based on a food product that I like but felt that this may alienate those of you who have taken to reading this blog. I suppose there is the possibilty to come up with something along those lines in the future because just the other day I did begin to wonder if the quality of a good dunking biscuit could be linked in some ways to human qualities but I am not quite sure how that one is going to work out. What's more is that I thought about this time writing something a bit different rather than about cheese or trying to maim myself. So I was sitting reading my book (A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich) when I realised that I had the topic right in front of me. Now this book is one that was written about 60 years ago in German for children. It was supposed to be easy for them to read whilst also providing them with a brief yet interesting look at the history of the world. It has since been translated into many languages and has become a classic not just for children. Now it was when I was reading the chapter that was talking about the teachings of Buddha that I was inspired to write this post. I will urge you to read on because I believe that this is one of the most interesting things that you are likely to think about this side of tomorrow.

I am going to give you a little bit of background information about the Buddha which is something that I never really knew about before reading this book. The Buddha, or Gautama Buddha, was born into a weathly family where he was going to grow up to be a prince. He was kept in his palace by his father and was never exposed to any ill, disabled or old people. This meant that he was never exposed to the terrible world that lay outside of his life of luxury. But one day curiosity got the better of him and he went out in a carriage to see for himself what was apparently to bad for him to see. He was obviously shocked with what he saw when he came across illness and beggars in the street but he took it all in and realised what it all meant. To cut everything a bit shorter as this story has many intricate details in it that I personally enjoy reading about but you yourself might not be so much, he became a hermit and went to live in the hills where he would sit under a tree and contemplate life, trying to find the meaning of everything and a way to achieve happiness. I am now going to quote a passage from this amazing book for you:

"The idea that came to him, his great Enlightenment, the solution to human suffering was this: if we want to avoid suffering, we must start with ourselves, because all suffering comes from our own desires. Think of it like this. If you are sad because you can't have something you want - maybe a book or a toy - you can do one of two things: you can do your best to get it, or you can stop wanting it. Either way, if you succeed, you won't be sad any more. This is what the Buddha taught. If we can stop ourselves wanting all the beautiful and pleasant things in life, and can learn to control our greed for happyness, comfort, recognition and affection, we shan't feel sad any more when, as so often happens, we fail to get what we want. He who ceases to wish for anything ceases to feel sad. If the appetite goes, the pain goes with it"

I must point out that I am not a religious person in any way really but at the same time nor I am against any religions either. I would imagine that if someone reading this had strong beliefs about another religion then they would completely disagree with everything that I have said but personally I am willing to read about anything like this and approach it with an open, fair mind. What I have just quoted is a paragraph that I read 3 or 4 times when I first read this chapter. It makes so much sense that I couldn't stop myself from reading it. There are very few times when I will appreciate something so much that I will go back and read it over again but this paragraph (along with many others in this book I must add) really caught my imagination.

I am also beginning to appreciate just how hard such a thing is to achieve. For example I am sitting in front of a laptop that I wanted, taking for granted material items that fill my bed room (along with some rather unsavory dirty clothes that I can't bring myself to move). Our lives are filled with these things that are there to make us feel good about ourselves. Not for a second am I saying that we should give up all of this stuff because that would be going to the extremes of this concept but what I am saying is that we should appreciate everything that we have and not take things for granted.

I know that those of you who have read my previous posts will have expected me to written a few bad jokes in this post coupled with a whole load of self deprecating satire but I felt the need to step away from that for a change. I mean I could have written about how I always thought that the Buddha was a fat man on a seat (which was actaully the depiction of him by a small ornament in the RE class rooms at school) but I thought that if I was going to be making a serious point about what he believed then it was better not to mock his weight. All I ask of you is that you scroll back up to the passage from the book and read it again, maybe changing example of toys and books to alcohol and clothes or something more relevant like that. I'm sure that you'll agree with me that it is something worth thinking about once in a while when you are feeling angry about not being able to afford something or not getting what you wanted for dinner. Life goes on as they say and I am now beginning to realise that there is a way to help it on its way when things get a bit frustrating.

Thanks for reading again guys.

(Quote and information from A Little History of the World by E.H Gombrich - English Translation 2005 Published by Yale University Press)