Posted by DonE on January 4, 2005, at 15:24:38
In reply to Re: Bodhisattva » DonE, posted by Bobby on January 4, 2005, at 12:50:16
> 1st Corinthians chapter 13
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> p.s. killer Steely Dan song--Bodhisattva
>As a simple matter of history, the person who wrote that letter to the Corinthians living with memories of his own violent past. His "love" might have been the ongoing expression of aggression he had previously directed at those he persecuted. Suffice it to say, I am but tinkling brass -- nothing more grand.
Toph, I don't know what I am trying to achieve. I became interested in that Bhodisattva concept when I realized I could enjoy intimate relationships, if only I turned my back on the suffering of others. The typical pattern I saw for intimate relationships involved personal efforts between two people to get along, occassionally, while they participate in sexual and economic partnerships. And I realized that the economic partnerships that build "healthy" relationships usually involved exploiting other economic classes and deliberately ignoring the suffering of others. And I realized that many in our time, especially those in non-Western nations, suffer because of desires our Western culture aggressively promotes.
Now I can't even convince myself I am doing anything about how others suffer, except that I minimize my participation in things that might cause that suffering. I am more willing to let well-off folks suffer by seeing me cold, hungry and disillusioned with their grand culture than I am to participate in causing the suffering of lower economic classes by taking advantage of their labor.
At most, I am a sentient witness to a beating heart inside a lump of mud that is animated by history written in my DNA. Perhaps if we lived in more culturally stable times I would feel comfortable having an intimate partner without feeling like my partnership was at the expense of others.
poster:DonE
thread:437492
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/relate/20041223/msgs/437708.html