[MD] Boromir's Journey

[Steven Peterson]

Hi All,

I set out in this thread to see if we could redescribe faith as being
opposed to dispair rather than disbelief. Matt pointed out that hope
as well as faith can be viewed as the opposite of dispair, so our
sense of well-being may be tied to two contradictory notions:

Hope: The notion that our personal investment in making the world a
better place is sustained by the belief that things actually can get
better.

Faith: The notion that the world as it is now is perfect and that
changing it would only ruin it.

How do we reconcile the drive to improve ourselves and our world with
a sense of the world as it is as already perfect? We are sustained in
our efforts by our hope that what we do matters--that we can improve
the world and ourselves. This hope sustains us even through hard times
because we believe things can get better and that our hard times are
only temporary. The wise among us have recognized that while we can't
stop the waves, there is an ocean of calm beneath the waves--the highs
and lows of life. They find bliss in identifying with this ocean of
calm rather than with the waves, the static patterns. This is what
Pirsig referred to as "180 Zen"--identifying with "Big Self" or
dynamic quality rather than "small self," the static patterns of
value. While this is a nice nourishing place to visit, it is nowhere
to stay for long. It is in fact nowhere. The wisest among us have not
only quit trying to stop the waves, they have also learned to surf.
Nirvana is samsara. "Big Self" is "small self." The static patterns
are Quality. The despair of "small self" is the absurdity of thirsty
water. The wise still invest whole-heartedly in the betterment of the
world, but all the anxiety is gone. What we do matters, but it is part
of the inexorable ongoing migration of static patterns toward dynamic
quality. Nothing we could ever do could stop this relentless process
of life, nor would we ever want it to stop. The world is unfolding
exactly as it should be, and we and all of our highs and lows are part
of this process. This is "the return" in the hero's journey. This is
competing the circle of "360 Zen." This is Buddhahood. This is faith,
and this faith is not a hostage to any belief.

This is why I am so unimpressed by the "I have something that you
don't have" claims to faith made by many of the "faithful" I
encounter. It seems to me that what they have is belief rather than
faith. If their beliefs help them achieve faith, then super, but those
claiming to have been "reborn a new being in Christ Jesus" so often
seem to be the same assholes they were before their "miraculous
transformative experience." They still have all the usual anxiety as
the rest of us non-Buddhas. According to the Gospels, we are supposed
to know they are Christians by their love, but more often than not, I
just don't see it. If those who have had the "miraculous
transformative experience" that such Christians claim to have had
really were more loving than their neighbors, their proselyting would
be more successful. Instead we are just asked to imagine how much
worse they would be without Jesus. Of all the failed prophecies of all
the religions, "they will know you by your love" may be the most
disappointing.

What do you think?

Best,
Steve


Pirsig to  McWatt, January 14th 1994
"The Sioux concept of self and higher self is one I hadn’t heard of. At
first sight it seems like a striking confirmation of the universality of
mystic understanding. In Zen Buddhism ‘Big-Self’ and ‘small-self’ are
fundamental teaching concepts. The small-self, the static patterns of ego,
is attracted by the ‘perfume’ of the ‘Big-Self’ which it senses is around
but cannot find or even identify. (There is a Hindu parable in which a small
fish says, ‘Mother, I have searched everywhere, but I cannot find this thing
they call water’). Through suppression of the small-self by meditation or
fasting or vision quests or other disciplines, the Big-Self can be revealed
in a moment sometimes called 180 degrees enlightenment. Then a long
discipline is undertaken by which the Big-Self takes over and dissolves the
small-self into a 360 degrees enlightenment or full Buddhahood."