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Gautama’s
pilgrimage
The
virtual transcendence mode
The Goal
“Now I went forth from the house life into homelessness
to seek what is good (Pali: kusala ‘wholesome’, ‘profitable’), seeking
the supreme state of sublime peace.” Note: When Gautama left
home he was about 30 years old. Up till then he had enjoyed the good, indeed
excellent life, i.e. the growth (or increase, as against decay) side of life.
It appears that by enjoying the excellent life (of infancy and adolescence),
indeed too much of it, he had ‘burnt out’, i.e. like the proverbial ‘rich
man’s’ son. In short, he had actually arrived (quite naturally) at decreasing
happiness returns, and which, as is the case with most humans at 30, signals
the start of a new life (i.e. the creation of new, i.e. personally
differentiated growth +
happiness phase, to wit, the adult phase of life). What is extraordinary is
that the Buddha develops a stunning amnesia for the growth and happiness
producing phase of life. He (just like the founders of the other main
religions, for instance Paul of Tarsus) appears to have been fixated on the
unpleasant affects of burn-out (to wit, on his inability to achieve
(permanent) completion (Pali: atta), and the joy that results
thereform). Consequently, his entire theory of reality, i.e. his dharma, is
devoted entirely to the decay side (hence incompleteness) of life and the
elimination of the negative pay-offs of decay (i.e. of incompleteness). Hence
the whole ‘truth’ he presents reveals itself (to the acute observer of a
whole life cycle) as less than a half-truth. Since the vast majority of
humans sooner or later experience burn-out (i.e. by the brutatilty of
everyday life, or by the criminal acts of others, or natural decay), his
message found a lot of listeners. It does appear that in the beginning his
message was designed to provide a rationale for drop-outs and his practice a
meanings of reaccessing joy by ‘beating the natural system of decay’. (see
the Control & Guide Site) The Start Having left
his palace, Gautama observes, for the 1st (hence shocking or
surprising) time, the downside (i.e. decay or disorganisation) process of
life – i.e. sickness, old age and death
– which causes him, and everyone else suffering (Pali: dukkha).
The Virtual GaolOutside the
palace (hence ecstatic, i.e. as in
changing places) he also observes, for the 1st time, a wanderer
apparently @ peace; that is to say, so distracted (or self-focussed) that he
remains detached from the downside affects of life. Note: the same wanderer (now a Buddhist) later appears to Ashoka (the
future emperor). This time he wanders about unconcerned at (i.e. blissfully
at peace despite) the awful carnage of the battlefield, and which convinces
(indeed converts) Ashoka to peace, albeit in the guise of Buddhism. Pilgrimage, Phase 1 (problem
solving 1)
Attempting
to understand the downside affects (of the decay phase) of life. End of Pilgrimage, Phase 1
Attaining
virtual Samma-sambodhi, i.e. complete knowledge (possibly primary knowledge,
possibly secondary or tertiary knowledge) of sameness (read: unchanging
absoluteness), hence of difference (read: changing relativity). He has
shifted (i.e. transcended from an actual astasy to a virtual enstasy. 1.
Phase 1 + 1 Enjoying the fruits of
virtual ecstasy, namely actual happiness, joy, bliss, resulting from freedom
(i.e. release (by virtue oh knowledge, a theory first developed in the early
Upanishads, later elaborate by Shankara) from bondage), i.e. moksha 2.
Phase 1 + 2 Experiencing (the
suffering of) the incompleteness of virtual ecstasy (and which drives towards
actualising the virtual). This is the start of
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