{"id":3421,"date":"2020-01-06T05:04:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T05:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/01\/06\/we-feel-intensely-and-care-deeply-but-wisdom-counsels-detachment-and-withdrawal-mentally-if-not-physically-one-does-not-ha\/"},"modified":"2020-01-06T05:04:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T05:04:30","slug":"we-feel-intensely-and-care-deeply-but-wisdom-counsels-detachment-and-withdrawal-mentally-if-not-physically-one-does-not-ha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/01\/06\/we-feel-intensely-and-care-deeply-but-wisdom-counsels-detachment-and-withdrawal-mentally-if-not-physically-one-does-not-ha\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Note on Buddhism and Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

We feel intensely and care deeply. We are immersed in life and its passions and projects, its loves and its hates. But wisdom counsels detachment and withdrawal, mentally if not physically: one does not have to haul off to a monastery to cultivate detachment. Retreat into the serene and ataraxic can however be  protracted unto nirvanic oblivion, and it is in Buddhism. That might be taking it too far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Renunciation and world-flight in Christianity, by contrast, are for the sake of a higher life in which finite personhood is, in an Hegelian trope, aufgehoben<\/em>, simultaneously cancelled and preserved. "I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) Jesus did not preach extinction. He preached personal transformation. Buddhism is radical: the renunciation is total. This aligns it with metaphysical pessimism and indeed nihilism, whereas Christianity is full of hope and promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing is clear: to seek the final fulfillment of desire in this life is a mistake. But could desire itself be a mistake, as the Second Noble Truth has it?  If desire itself is a mistake, then life is a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

But you and I have been through that<\/span>
And this is not our fate;<\/span>
Let us not talk falsely now<\/span>
The hour is getting late.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Analysis here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We feel intensely and care deeply. We are immersed in life and its passions and projects, its loves and its hates. But wisdom counsels detachment and withdrawal, mentally if not physically: one does not have to haul off to a monastery to cultivate detachment. Retreat into the serene and ataraxic can however be  protracted unto … Continue reading “Another Note on Buddhism and Christianity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269,58,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-christian-doctrine","category-dylan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}