 | | Marc Mullinax |
"So today, right now, what do you want?" ÇƒÏ Zen Master Seung Sahn
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MARS HILL ÇƒÓ Perhaps in this most economically frenzied (and perhaps frenetically Christian) phase of the year, it would be good to listen to our Buddhist neighbors.
The First of the Ten Commandments speaks about the importance of having no other gods besides Yahweh. And it is good to be reminded of this, for very Buddhist reasons. Buddhismës "First Commandment" gives a reason why there is so much suffering in the world, and to put a Western spin on this, it translates like this: "The reason you are unhappy is that you have made gods of everything."
And we want everything. I know I do. Hereës how it works for me. You? On any given day, I am exposed to/by a TV commercial, a colleague, or catalog, with the result that I begin a godless desire for something I donët have. Itës my new god.
Itës
usually material: a new car, stereo, clothes, vacation. I think, "How
wonderful my life would be if I could have THAT added to it!" And so I
plot, and conspire, and think and strategize how I can have that new
thing that should revolutionize my life. The sweet agony of expectation!
So I either go
out and purchase such on impulse, or worse, I slow-brew my desire by
delaying my purchase, all the while fantasizing my sorry life with this
new addition. The end result is usually the same: I get this new
godlike thing added to my godforsaken life.
The thrill lasts
exactly 60 seconds. All that wasted expectation! The wasted energy! The
sheer waste! The world has not been made any better by my lust.
And soon, I am
at it again. The mail brings news of a fresh update, the media streams
in a stunning addition, a friend wows me with a wildly innovative
style. Iëm at it again, a drooling puppet to my unbridled desire.
Will I ever get
to the point where I donët lust, desiring only this desire-less state
Buddhists call "Nirvana"? Never, as long as I neglect the First
Commandment.
It seems to me
that the commercialism of Christmas is intricately tied to not desiring
God as much as we do the lusts of our eyes and hearts. Solve that, and
then perhaps Christmas can re-enter the Christian calendar.
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Once upon a
time, goes the Buddhist story, a hermit was meditating by a river when
a young man on a pilgrimage interrupted him. "Master, I wish to become
your disciple," said the man, excitedly.
"Why?" replied the hermit.
The young man thought for a moment, and then brightened his face, exclaiming. "Because I want to find God!"
Without
hesitation, the master jumped up, grabbed our young pilgrim by the
scruff of his neck, dragged him into the river, and plunged his big
head under the water. After holding him under for a full minute, and
enduring the kicking and struggling of the pilgrim to free himself, the
master finally pulled him up out of the river, a truly baptized man. He
coughed up water and gasped to catch his breath.
When he eventually quieted down, the master spoke. "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were under water."
"Air!" answered the man.
"Very well," said the master. "Go home and come back to me when you want God as much as you just wanted air."
The applications
and cross-references between Buddhism and our neighboring faiths in our
region are, I hope, obvious. Today, right now, what do you want? Good
luck finding that one thing.
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Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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