What Do Hermits Say?
My passing interest in hermits led me to watch this documentary called
Amongst White Clouds. If you have 5 minutes watch from minute 20 to 25 http://video.google.com/ This hermit talks about reality and nature and though he does not use
the words of science like in the article below, I think the message is
the same. Let me know what you think.
Reality doesn't exist; at least not in the way that we usually think of it. Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira writes,
Reality doesn't exist; at least not in the way that we usually think of it. Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira writes,
“Our perception does not identify the outside world as it really is, but the way that we are allowed to recognize it, as a consequence of transformations performed by our senses. We experience electromagnetic waves, not as waves, but as images and colors. We experience vibrating objects, not as vibrations, but as sounds. We experience chemical compounds dissolved in air or water, not as chemicals, but as specific smells and tastes. Colors, sounds, smells and tastes are products of our minds, built from sensory experiences. They do not exist, as such, outside our brain. Actually, the universe is colorless, odorless, insipid and silent."Dr. Oliveira isn't a touchy-feely philosopher, a halfwit existentialist or the delusional leader of a religious cult. He's the Director of the Department of Neurosciences at an institute in Rio de Janeiro. According to Oliveira, each of us lives in a private world of our own perceptions. Speaking of this perceptual reality he writes,
"Although you and I share the same biological architecture and function, perhaps what I perceive as a distinct color and smell is not exactly equal to the color and smell you perceive. We may give the same name to similar perceptions, but we cannot know how they relate to the reality of the outside world. Perhaps we never will."
Comments
As far as our perception of reality goes I don’t doubt that we all see, smell, and feel things differently from one another. While we may identify it and describe it the same how do we really see it. I mean does a circle in my mind really look square to you and square in your mind look like a circle to me in mine yet we identify it the same. An extreme example I grant you but that is what the implication is below. How does my brain process information and then relate or transmit it to my inner person or soul? Certainly not the same as you or Keith or Jeff’s does to you. It’s all interesting stuff to speculate on, study, and explore.
I think the movie is attempting to show that the gentle nature of these hermits demonstrates they are succeeding in their quest to shed the normal human predisposition of doing stuff all the time for our definition of "Me". They are looking for an expanded sense of "Me" that is the Buddha mind. The Buddha mind can be defined and described in multitudes of ways and you can look it up and read about it. It could be called cosmos, universe, all that is, etc. All those labels, of course, cannot describe it but only talk around a concept too big for words.
Like the hermit said, why wait until you don't breath anymore to let go of the whole universe as we understand it. Let go now.
Some people call that death and in one way it is. Then there are the sayings like through death you are reborn. Is that what happens? By learning to let go of our clinging to the material world in every way - not just money, but the extreme letting go the hermits are exemplifying, do you then find a rebirth?
Once you lose the desire for enlightenment, then you have a chance to attain it. So, once you lose the desire for the lifestyle of an ascetic then you will have a better chance of attaining what they were seeking originally. Back to the city.
Like the Zen story...... before I had studied Zen, I saw the mountains were mountains and the rivers were rivers. Later, when I had personally seen a Zen teacher and had attained initiatory experience, I saw that the mountains are not mountains and the rivers are not rivers. But now that I had attained peace, I see the mountains simply as mountains, and see the rivers simply as rivers.
I tried living in the woods for a summer, my wife and I in Idaho. A tent next to a stream with no one around. After about 2 months of getting into a routine that I must admit included hiking marked trails and bushwacking it, and lots of fishing, we were actually satiated. We even thought about buying some "cheap" acreage, but thought once a cabin was built and the initial work done, what do you do after the 3rd month. Although I would go back and do it again every year I think we are more geared to be "temporary monks" calling our escapes from sensory reality, "vacations". Works for me anyway.
In many of the eastern cultures, becoming a monk was a temporary occupational existence, usually while still young and before 'entering the world". A brief exposure to an alternative extreme, a nonmaterial world and then a return providing a balance which in the mind lies somewhere between the "me" world and that of these hermit aescetics. I worked with a fellow from Burma who did just that living as a shaved head monk in the robes. Returning to Burma he committed himself to a 4 month stint at a request from his mother. He also returned to work content with his total existence.
There was a statement that one "cannot escape birth and death" in this world. From a Buddhist perspective it is believed that until we achieve enlightenment we must be reborn again and again, acquiring new knowledge during each lifetime until we achieve enlightenment. They speak of the 99,000 lifetimes for some. The ultimate goal is enlightenment and the escape from rebirth (phew! glad that is over.). So most of us cannot or do not want to live like a hermit, would like to experience life from a sensory perspective, and would hope for a rebirth because we have not attained enough knowledge to achieve enlightenment. And that is alright. I mean what's the hurry anyway. Perhaps some westerners are gaming the system and trying to take a shortcut, as usual, for that immediate-self-gratification thing we are used to having. In this cas in the achievement of enlightenment. Which would be counter to enlightenment if you think about it. Forcing enlightenment so to speak. There is also something about "the moment you think you have it, you have lost it" and when you don't think about it you may have it. Buddhism doesn't have a hell or purgatory so there is no penalty and nearly unlimited opportunities to get there. Just let it take its natural course and all will be well. I think.