Sunday, December 21, 2008
The Buddha, Geoff and Me.
The
Buddha, Geoff and Me by Edward Canfor-Dumas is a very creative and inspiring book. It discusses and applies Buddhist philosophy (without the religion aspect) from an everyday city dweller's perspective-just like almost everyone of us.
Just to use some ideas from the book. It says that life operates on the
Three Realms: the self, living beings, i.e. society, and the physical environment. If you want to be happy, you need to create good, positive relationships in all three. You need to be at one with yourself. And you need to have good relations with the living beings around you-
other people. And you've got to respect and protect your physical environment which supports your life in the end. Like you must be connected to your true self, what you really want and need to make you feel happy. You must also be connected to others in a creative way because a lot of unhappiness around are caused by people being isolated from each other, which historically is not a natural way for human beings to live-especially if physically they're very close to each other.
This is an
interesting quote about the
meaning of life from the book:
I doubt whether a doctor (he was a psychiatrist) can answer this question in general terms. For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: 'Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?' There is simply no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one's opponent. The same holds for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning to life. Everyone has his own specific mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfilment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.
As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognise that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life...
Basically, there is no meaning 'out there' waiting to be discovered,. It's here, in us and our circumstances, waiting to be realised.
The book also says that
in everyone's life, there's an anchor. Once the anchor is shaken or disappears, you would feel lost and that life is meaningless. The anchor can be based on a person i.e. lover, money, religion, appearance, materials or ego. These are mostly things that changes easily so basing on them would be dangerous. However, one should base his anchor on something more consistent.
The book also talked a lot about
karma. So much that it's hard to summarise here. It's really a book that let me gain some new understanding of life. Hope it does so for you too:)
Labels: Geoff and Me, karma, life anchor, meaning of life, The Buddha
★ xiaoyu; posted at 1:04 AM ★