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Date Posted: 00:43:12 05/12/03 Mon
Author: Hendrik - 23 Mar 2003
Subject: Re: Thich Nhat Hanh
In reply to: ketch - 23 Mar 2003 's message, "Re: Thich Nhat Hanh" on 00:42:40 05/12/03 Mon

The real question is whether the round of life and death is preferable to the eternal bliss of nirvana.

One does not exclude the other. Nirvana is simply a state of consciousness but those who have experienced it are still able to live and don't care. So the question of preferability does not arise.

That we do not perceive life as perfect may be a fault in our perception rather than speak against life itself. To strive for something apart from life will not be a solution to our problems with life; it is bound to enhance them. But a more positive and accepting attitude to life would be helpful in order to avoid psychological disbalance.

There is nothing wrong with a dung beetle living in dung. But there is something wrong with our perception if we assume that he is out of place in the dung.

As long as there is a distinction between nirvana and life there is something fundamentally wrong. If we felt a fundamental unity behind all manifestations of life there would be no need for deploring the fate of the ignorant beetle. We would simply identify with the beetle.

I wonder what this bliss-stuff is about in this context. Nirvana is the absence of any mental-sensory input - but not about bliss. Bliss is a positive experience, nirvana the absence of experience. Perhaps you are confusing something here.

Hendrik

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